Ordinary Souls is a horror short story collection, supposedly about normal people in abnormal situations but this doesn't really ring true. However, it's a neat collection regardless and I found the majority of the stories interesting. There's quite a large range so I'm going to go over some of the standout ones now.
The Mirror-A woman buys an antique mirror with a dark twist. I liked this story and it was pretty solid but there was a massive plot hole/confusion that I couldn't overlook. So initially the mirror is said to show the future. Later on, it's revealed that it actually shows your deepest fear and the narrator fears the future which is why she sees that. But then at the end, it is showing the future again for different characters? It really bothered me.
The Ghosts of Memory-A group of students go investigate an abandoned house and creepy stuff happens. This was a really solid story, fantastically paced and intriguing. The narrator was a little dense but this was definitely one of my favourites of the collection.
Journal Entry from the End of the Universe-A woman who becomes immortal writes diary entries. A pretty great take on the concept of immortality but I feel like the ending lacked a little detail. I wanted to know more about the future than was discussed, and I think that would have helped this story be even more original in concept.
The Author, the Lonely Walker, and the Class-This is basically three stories in one: a short story, sections from the POV of the author and then sections focused on a classroom discussing the short story in an academic setting. There was a really interesting concept at play her but sadly I didn't find the short story discussed all that compelling. It was a good idea though!
Maria-A couple are looking at a plain painting which appears black to one of them and white to the other. Then it ends. I was so into this story but it is waaaay too short. I don't even know what was meant to be going on and it fell so flat because of that. It's such a shame because it had a great concept. And why was it called Maria? It makes no sense.
There are 16 stories in total so this is by no means a comprehensive list but these are the ones I felt like I had something to say about them. All in all, it's a fair collection but there were sadly a lot of stories which didn't gel with me. Three are related to other works by the author so I felt like I would be missing stuff if I tried to read them. There is also a fair amount of sci fi or other things which don't quite fit the horror genre so just be aware of that as well.
Overall Rating:
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