In Which A Short Story Chills Me to the Bone

A reader, Krysty, shares her thoughts on “The Ghosts of Sinagtala”, one of the stories in Unseen Moon:

If you really think about it, there’s nothing entirely new in Ghosts of Sinagtala. It progresses like any other horror story; you might even think it a paean to horror movies given the presence of notable genre tropes.

So why would ice fill my insides right after reading the story?

Perhaps it’s true. It’s not just the story. It’s the words. In that regard, there’s no question that Eliza Victoria is a master. So good, in fact, that at some point after reading the story – with the chill still making its way through my veins – I started wondering if the story itself was haunted.

Krysty's avatarI'm Not Really Here

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Unseen Moon

Eliza Victoria

Unseen Moon is a collection of five short stories. My favorite is “December”, because it's creepy yet heartbreaking at the same time. Kind of sweet, in a way. It's a beautifully rotten story. (Does that make sense? Because I can't find a better way to describe it.) The following, however, is a review of a different story from the collection: “Ghosts of Sinagtala”.

I was on a bus, stuck in traffic because someone decided it was a good idea to jump in front of a train. I was already late for work. Didn't really care.

10 in the morning, on a bus with no air conditioning, my face practically scrunched up against a policeman's gun. He was standing beside my seat, gun in the holster next to my head.

Shiny.

I ignored him, ignored the people crowding the bus. Kept on reading.

I'm not sure…

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Teaser Tuesdays: “Unseen Moon”

And here’s a teaser from Meann!

almeldiel's avatarThe Girl Who Read and Other Stories

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

✻ ✻ ✻

I’m reading 4 books right now, it’s crazy.

Here’s what my dance card looks like: “The Mango Bride”, which is for a review assignment for GMA News Online; “Dying of the Light” for our book club; “Icon of the Indecisive” for Mina V. Esguerra’s secret project; and this book…

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one more page reviews ‘unseen moon’

Tina of One More Page has posted her review of Unseen Moon.

Her favorite is “The Ghosts of Sinagtala”.

The Ghosts of Sinagtala (4/5) – This is a story of Ben and Emma, who inherited a mansion from their grandparents that had a dark history. Oh what a creepy, creepy story. Tricia was tweeting about this when she read it first, so I knew well enough to read this in broad daylight. And even then, I still got terribly creeped out. This is my favorite in the book, and I really liked the connection between the mansion’s past to Ben and Emma. This is the story that successfully made me not want to go out of my room at night to get a glass of water because I was afraid to find a little girl crying in the darkness. O_o

She gave her thoughts per story, and rated the collection three stars out of five. Thanks Tina!

Overall, Unseen Moon is another good collection of Eliza’s stories. It’s not as scary as I expected (except for The Ghosts of Sinagtala – remembering several scenes still gives me the creeps), but it was really quite dark. This collection is a little bit more similar to Lower Myths than A Bottle of Storm Clouds, sans the paranormal aspect. If you want to get to know Eliza’s works but you’re not a huge fan of anything that is out of the normal world, then Unseen Moon might be the right Eliza book for you. If you’ve read Eliza’s other works and you want more, then you won’t want to miss this one. :)

Read more here.

pre-order the print copy of ‘unseen moon’ (until may 10 only)

Unseen Moon

Unseen Moon by Eliza Victoria
6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
220 pages
Paperback
Fiction / Horror / Suspense / Crime
Cover art and design by Biboy Royong

Ghosts in a mansion. A home invasion. A group of friends haunted by a murder. An unlikely friendship, a dead body in an abandoned house. A girl falling to her death, and another falling into the viewless darkness.

Unseen Moon collects five suspenseful stories by award-winning author Eliza Victoria.

Story excerpts, ebook link, and pre-order form after the cut.

Continue reading pre-order the print copy of ‘unseen moon’ (until may 10 only)