Old Gods by AV Wilkes

Book Review

Lauren McMenemy

Critically-acclaimed horror author Ally Wilkes releases her second micro-collection of previously published short stories—and with Old Gods, she’s showing there’s more in her cargo than historic polar exploration. First published places like Nightmare Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly and Cloisterfox, along with Wilkes’ entries from FOUND: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories (2022) and Flame Tree’s Darkness Beckons (2023), these old gods span the breadth of time and place while keeping the ancient ones in check (just).

Rest assured, Wilkes fans, there is still some iceberg action: the collection’s opener, Where Things Fall From The Sky, has Wilkes in familiar territory, stalking a Victorian whaling ship where the crew starts to disappear one by one after a mysterious object is dredged from the deep. Later in the collection, The Berg brings Antarctic memories into the trenches of World War One as our soldier protagonist struggles to keep the past in the past while the world is collapsing around him. 

Yet elsewhere, she keeps warm and more present-day. A court case shows a social worker trying to save a teen she believes to be at-risk, detailing the conditions at home and some rather distracted parenting that has an unimaginable end goal. An immigrant worker at a crumbling seaside hotel has suspicions about the creepy owners she’s hand-picked to serve daily—and it’s not just because of their interesting views on race. And a woman suffering Seasonal Affective Disorder heads into the woods for some tree bathing, only to be caught up in an old ceremony she’s destined to complete.

With Old Gods, we’re treated to folk horror, vampires, witchcraft, psychological trauma, and even mysterious objects from outer space. Each tale showcases Wilkes’ literary style and passions for the darker side while being distinctive in itself; if you’ve wondered what her work is like but not yet been brave enough for her weighty tomes from Titan, it’s a great entry point. Each individual story is bitesized enough to be an appetiser, but I gobbled the collection in under an afternoon over a cup of tea while on holiday. It’s tiny, but it sure packs a punch.