• Author: Jay Alexander
• Publisher: independently published
• Publishing year: 2022
• Number of pages: 43
• my rating: 5/5

Blurb: (according to Amazon)

Called out to the unexplored Sorrow Helm forests in the early 1970s, elderly cartographer Wilbur Roman soon finds that the woods are near-impossible to map; and that he’s very, very far from alone out here.

Trails of bones and antlers, mysterious robed figures, and strangely-behaving creatures all lead him to the same devastating conclusion: there’s something terrible out here, and it wants him…

In ELKEN, the folk horror world of Jay Alexander’s STARVING GROUNDS (coming June 2022) is explored for the first time with horrifying consequences.

My thoughts:

This was a fun little story, Dark, vicious, vile, intense, twisted, disturbing but most of all pretty damn good! I know that Jay Alexander has published collections of indie horror stories (blood rites horror) but I don’t think I have read anything written by him, before this story!

Folk horror is always pretty damn dark and Jay succeeded in scaring his readers, just by setting a mood and by placing the chess pieces on the board at just the right time and then striking us with a finale that leaves us flabbergasted, openmouthed and wishing for more!

I am definitely looking forward to his collection, released in June, where this story will be part of: Starving Grounds, Tales of Folk Horror! Something to look forward to!

If you’re a fan of Midsommar, The Ritual or Hereditary… this is your kind of story!