Book Review: NIGHTSCRIPT VOL. 1

by | Jun 28, 2026 | Book Reviews, Reviews, The Horror Review News | 0 comments

Nightscript, Vol. 1
C.M. Muller, ed.
Independently published (September 3, 2015)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy

Between these pages you will find twenty tales all connected by one common thread – a strong and powerful emotion evoked through storytelling. The literary bar is set high in this collection and the stories are hauntingly, achingly beautiful. They will make your  heart yearn for more. By the end of the book, I had barely caught my breath and couldn’t believe there weren’t any more stories left to read! It was cruel there were only twenty to pick from, but I’m happy the series has been a success and I can go and pick up a bunch more of these collections to study the craft of how to write a stellar short story.

It was difficult picking out only a few stories to discuss because all of them are a gut punch to the heart, but I managed to do it after much deliberation and knocked it down to my top three. This was so hard. *chuckles* The Sound That the World Makes by David Surface resonates with me at a cellular level. It’s haunting my soul, even as I’m typing this review. A family drives to an eerie separatist church in the middle of nowhere where the monks appear to take very good of their elderly brethren, until they roll out the eldest of the eldest who have spiderwebs covering their mouths. And then all the monks start this horrible screaming, which is “the sound that the world made and always made” and the family flees on foot from the church, terrified after their nontraditional Christmas celebration. I can hear  the screaming in my ears and picture the spider webs across the monks’ mouths; the imagery is so vivid. It was such a good story. I inhaled this spooky tale! I’m always up for a fresh new holiday vibe and this one works overtime.

Animalhouse by Clint Smith is a werewolf story I couldn’t put down. It started out in the traditional manner with the main character being attacked by a known vampire. The poor guy just wants revenge for his dog, Gamble, who gets attacked by someone near a playground in a house and the story just spirals from there. I like that it’s a fresh take on how he learns he’s a werewolf too and how he’s dead set on revenge for his beloved pet because believe me, I would be hellbent on killing someone that hurt my furbaby too. Unfortunately, spoiler warning, the dog doesn’t make it.

I saved my very favorite, Tooth, Tongue, and Claw by Damien Angelica Waters for last. It begins with the tale as old as time where a beauty is sent to live with a beast. The beauty is stubborn and will not accept her fate as the beast’s consort, even though it’s for the peace and safety of her town. She tries everything she can do to escape. She finally, after trying other solutions, bludgeons the poor beast to death, who has been nothing but gentle and patient with her, proving she is the real monster. The last line of the story is: The people want a monster. She’ll give them one. Once upon a time there was a girl… I adored how Walters flipped this fairytale on its head. It’s even more macabre and unforgettable now than in the original tellings.

There are lots more stories for you to choose from to raise the hackles on your head and keep you reading throughout the night with your light on until it’s time to get up and join the civilized people to go to work, but I’ll leave you with these three. C.M. Muller is a master at assembling a literary landscape of fear. I was along for the ride 100%. I checked on Amazon and right now there are eight volumes I found to get my grubby little paws on. And you bet I will be because learning how to tell a story from a master storyteller is the best way to become a better writer.

About Nora B. Peevy

Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human’s body. Please send help or tuna. She toils away for JournalStone and Trepidatio Publishing as a submissions reader, is a co-editor for Alien Sun Press, the newest reviewer for Hellnotes, and has been published by Eighth Tower Press, Weird Fiction Quarterly, and other places. Usually, you can find her on Facebook asking for help escaping from her human body or to get tuna. Tuna is nice. Cats like tuna.

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