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Coppice & Brake is a dark fiction anthology filled with grief, loneliness, vengeance, and dread. It features dark fairy tales and works of gruesome body horror alongside ruminations on the cruelty of patriarchy and capitalism. It examines fate and family and shows us what it’s like to live as an outcast. Above all else, it focuses on the terror of the periphery, shining a light on people who live in the shadows and bringing into focus the things that we usually only see out of the corners of our...
Favourites include The Rat Room, White Tail Lies and All the Dead Girls, Singing.
Even as much as anthologies of short fiction by different authors tend to be mixed bags, I find that horror fiction or dark fiction collections overwhelmingly dissappoint. Despite being a big horror fan, I count myself lucky if I can enjoy as much as a third of the offerings with most collected horror volumes. Coppice & Brake shattered my expectations. It wouldn't be fair to review my own story, but considering everything else in the anthology? Holy Hecate. Jinkies. This is the Good Shit (TM). I...
One of my short stories is included in the dark fiction anthology Coppice & Brake, but my review here is about the other stories and one of the most exciting and enjoyable reading experiences I’ve had this year. I’m enthusiastic because in a year of great anthologies, Coppice & Brake from Crone Girls Press and Editor Rachel A. Brune is an absolute favorite. I love every single story, which I cannot say about most anthologies.“Dog’s Blood Trail” by Gabrielle Bleu and “Swing a Dead Cat” by Shannon...
Considering I wrote one of the 23 stories featured in this anthology, I really wanted to like it when I finally got the chance to see what kind of fiction I was being featured among. But even with high hopes, I was still really blown away by this anthology. Normally with an anthology, I'll count myself as satisfied if half of the stories seem okay to me - Coppice & Brake, however, only had two out of 23 stories not quite click for me. Any one of the remaining stories could be one of my favourite...
Full disclaimer, as one of the contributing authors I am biased in my review. However, I will attempt to rate it objectively and I exclude my own story from any of the praise I’m about to deliver. Billed as a collection of dark fantasy stories from the borderland of horror and nightmares, Coppice & Brake packs a strong assortment of fiction, where the horror hits the same way as an old Grimm Fairy Tale would: it’s not the main point, but it’s there. Rachel Brune has done a wonderful job in assem...
This anthology of the Weird wanders dark corridors including fantasy and bizarro/slipstream. “A Woman Unbecoming” by CM Harris is a fun revenge story that focuses on the wretchedness of MAMILs (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra.) I rather enjoyed how the final line tied it all up in a bow. “Like a Cat” by Brian K. Lowe is a fascinating view on corporal punishment. “All the Dead Girls Singing” is such a goth love story. “White Tail Lies” by Friedrich Sarah E. Thompson is probably the best of the bunch wit...
When I pick up anthologies, I usually have a good sense of the type of stories I’ll encounter, but that was not the case with Coppice & Brake, much to my absolute delight. These tales are almost beyond imagination, directly tapping into that place where nightmares are born. From grizzly body horror to dark science fiction, this collection runs the full gamut of superb speculative fiction.The very first story, “Dog’s Blood Trail” by Gabrielle Bleu, was a fantastic step into what Coppice & Brake h...
