The Book of the Dead (Part 1) edited by Jonathan Strahan Book Review

 The Book of the Dead

 (Part 1)

Edited By Jonathan Strahan 

Published Year: 2026

Page Count: 475 pages 

Medium Used: Oneplus Nord Ce6, Moon Reader 

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Suspense, Anthology, Short Stories, Collections, Various Authors, 2026-read.

I really like .. no, am drawn like an addict to .. dark fiction. There can't be anything more violent or dark than stories covering death. Not one or two but all of them. Death, murder, slaughter in one way or the other. My mindspace of paradise! 

Passengers By Indrapramit Das 

Rating : 5/5

This is the story of a young boy who loves a girl dearly enough that he covers up a murder she commits. He doesn't know what prompted her to do it. He doesn't know the details of the grisly murder. But still, he helps her rid the evidence - tear up her bloodstained tshirt and toss it outside, throw away her Swiss knife with which she has poked a hole in the victim's neck, clean up the toilet in the train, covered in the victim's blood. Then they sleep in the same bunker on the moving train, next to the corpse of the murdered man, dreaming the same dream of an eternal alliance while the world around them rots. They part ways after this with her changing schools and years later he sees her profile on her social media account. Though he doesn't make connection with her, it is evident he still loves her and thinks of her often. Then there is this beautiful dream of his with him and her amidst the starry sky. It is this non ending quality to his affection/love that resonated with me deeply. How letting go of something he so wants for himself struck a chord. Read this for its beautiful prose and compelling rendition. There is some suspense too - obviously if the duo will get caught or what happens next! 

Memeto Sangro by Paolo Bacigalupi

Rating : 4.5/5

 Nothing could change a sinner than knowing and first hand experiencing the consequences of their sins. Here a boy is born to a whore and is later sold into whoring by his guardian. He murders his client on one ocassion by castrating him and later stabbing multiple times. This is his entry into the world of crime. On one such contract to murder someone who is a 'demon' like, he gets pulled into the Scuro's realm (underworld) along with his victim. There he sees what happens to the dead. It rattles him. It shakes him enough that when he is pushed back into life, he is a transformed man. I liked the vision of the underworld. It is very novel. It is not filled with souls roasting perpetually or punishments delivered in different ways .. this vision of hell is different and shuddering. It would give some sense to any one who might see it to transform their ways and become a sattvik(saint like) person. 

Blind Monkey by Daryl Gregory 

Rating : 3/5 

A company sponsored by a rich man is researching on a device that would provide vision to blind folks through a device implanted into their heads. The research subjects initially are monkeys and later a retina damaged blind woman Carol. The optic nerves of these monkeys are surgically cut, they are acclimatized to the surroundings and blood drawing procedures, implanted with the chip that would convert video from cameras to dots, edges, shapes through edge detection, depth perception, color contrasting etc. For a time, the technology didn't work. It made the animals aggressive, sick post surgery that meant they should be put to death by the animal handling techie. I didn't understand how this translated into a working device that could be implanted onto a woman. How did the transition occur? And then the woman attacks this techie because she has received a software that is learnt from previous animals. So how does his last act of making them attack him work out of the situation? It is scary in a way because the CEO is planning to take it to next level without really understanding the ins and outs of this device and what the animals are learning from it. Has wearing the device made the woman crazy about all people who wear glasses in shape of hexagons?? Its crazy what it doesn't answer and leave to imagination! 

A Murder House by Andy Duncan 

Rating 3/5

A man, must have gone mad, shoots his wife and all six children on a Christmas day in his house. He later shoots himself in the head behind the house, in the wooded area. There are really small children among them which is truly tragic. Some even speculate that he is the father to a baby growing in his eldest daughter's womb, although there is no proof of it. The house becomes named 'the murder house' and is put on the market as a tourist attraction by the murderer's cousin,to make some profit. People come, see,speculate, gossip, get squeamish and leave. Was the man possessed by an evil force to make him this heartless and soulless? Was it his soul that walked through his murders while he was walking circles around the tree in his backyard? A very short story but details a very sordid affair. 

Walk the Earth by Jeffrey Ford

Rating : 5/5 

Wow, very beautiful. Love knows no barriers - including death - and can exist forever. I am usually of the opinion that love fades with time and hardships. But this story is constructed on the belief that it doesn't evaporate with time. A man dies and goes to heaven where he is welcomed by his - now talking - pet dog. Because heaven and hell are both overcrowded, they get to wear their human bodies and relive on earth temporarily. But on the condition that they don't meet any of their loved ones or acquaintances from their past life. But the first thing the man and his dog do is set out on a journey to visit the man's true love, his wife of some forty years. They are helped by an angel which shields them from God in exposing this endeavour. What do they see when they visit this wife? Has she moved on and allied with another man? God does find out of this little excursion of the humans and punishes them by condemning them to a house won purgatory. Who comes in search of them centuries later ? Who else but the person sent there by the angel. Its so endearing and heart warming. Even if it contains death of loved ones and heaven/hell backdrop. 

Time is a liquid by Kelly Robson 

Rating : 3/5

An alien travels thousands of light years to become a tourist/visiter to earth. His chaperone is Elaine who is a human. The alien, Frank, wants to visit all the major death sites so he can wallow in the loose soil/mud there. He claims to be able to see and talk to ghosts in the mud. He claims, time, according to his people, is not linear - whatever the hell he means by it. That time is liquid. On both these counts, Elaine distrusts him. He also can't believe when she says she can't talk to/see ghosts and can't predict time. On this note, the story ends. I credit the story for giving a new perspective. The alien is a fish symbiote and holds really strange versions of reality. I am also dubious, reading this, that the alien can sense all that it said it could. It would certainly make them God like beings, right? I feel humans are also capable of more than just what our physical senses show. We should work towards awakening extra senses of perception through spiritual practices to see the world and creation in a different light, like the alien Frank.  

The Dead-End Party by Cadwell Turnbull 

Rating : 4/5

Some interesting discussions among the dead people, who think they are residing in a purgatory like setting, waiting for something - anything - to happen. They discuss about dead aliens in the universe to come find them in this dimension, inhabited by the dead people. If the aliens would come and when they might. If God is interested or even remotely concerned about these souls and what he might be planning for them. An interesting perspective and made me think if this is possible. I always assumed that post death, a soul hops into next birth and that's that. But what if there is a dimension it goes to .. to spend a long long time .. doing nothing, only enjoying, partying ?? I don't want that. I don't like it. But it is sure a different way of imagining the after life. 

Angel of the Waters by Elizabeth Bear 

Rating : 4/5

A woman who was wealthy, successful and a lesbian in life, wakes in a statue after death. She befriends a vampire man who cannot escape his deathless life and tells her tales going centuries back. Together, they watch a dying city New York. Due to floods from the Atlantic, the city and its people are dying in droves. Unable to help them or do anything, the statue watches. The vampire attempts a suicide but can he really die? No, right. This speaks of an endlessness death has where the spirit cannot find an ending, a final release. Liked it. Anything a person can accomplish, it is only while they are alive and not after! People come, people die, cities are built, cities fall - but an eternal spirit just watches it all without complaint and with loads of memory! 

Life Goes on by K.J. Parker 

Rating : 5/5 

Surprisingly good. A town is cursed. People there usually commit murders with impunity, most of them rise back from dead for an ever after zombie existence. A man has escaped from this all too common fate when he leaves the town for a job at the age of sixteen. Years later, he comes back with an errand in the employ of a woman who wants to research what it means to come back alive after death. This man is also a cynic of the Christian religion and its teachings. He warns her of interfering in matters of supernatural, to back off from ever stepping in the town. But like driven by fate, they go there and the man kills a walker (walking dead). I thought the curse is solid on the inhabitants of the town. Now what happens to the man after his death? What about the woman who is not a native of the town. Perhaps she will stay down, she has to, right? I liked how the narrator's take on the religious dogma reflect my own. Like him, I can't imagine an eternity locked in my body even if it is in heaven!