Having always been fascinated by the night and darkness The Outcast Hours was a no-brainer. We are all so used to reading books in which events take place in the light of day, but, here, each story takes place under the cover of darkness; it really is quite refreshing and makes this collection rather introspective in nature. There is a diverse range of contributors from all around the world, and some of the writers included are China Mieville, Will Hill and Francis Hardinge, but as with all anth...

I adored the first anthology by the editor duo so much that I did not hesitate for a single second before requesting this one and immediately starting to read it. Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin do have a great way of building anthologies and even though I did not love this one as much, I will still be on the lookout for more work by these two.These stories all take place at night, in the liminal spaces that entails, and span a wide array of genres. For me, the first half of the anthology was by

A collection of shorts collected by the editors of the magnificent The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories (possibly my favourite antho ever and you should go get it right now) based around the concept of night people or people doing stuff at night. This is a pretty loose concept and the anthology is varied accordingly. I felt it suffered from that--some stories seemed completely unrelated except for a few things happening at night. It had some brilliant pieces--Sami Shah's fantastic tale of a d...

This review was originally posted on Books of My HeartReview copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.2.5 Stars The Outcast Hours is not my typical read.  First, it falls on the darker side of things and then, it is an anthology.  I generally don’t read a lot of those since usually they have a short story by one or two authors I know and the rest aren't as important to me.  But I thought I’d give this a try, based of the darker si...

(Rounded up from an actual 3.5/5 rating)Night time is a peculiar thing. To some, it is a harbinger of fear and danger, waiting to prey upon our weaknesses and fallibilities. To others, it provides respite and freedom from the everyday grind, an opportunity to release one’s inner self. For me, it is both friend and foe, harbouring threats and opportunities in equal measure, but does so with the open arms solitude and independence. The idea of ‘night’ is the focal concept of The Outcast Hours, the...

What an interesting anthology!  I'm always here for short stories, especially when I can't devote myself to an entire book or section of a book before bed.  This was was eerie, freaky, and strange.  Which basically means it's right up my alley.  Perhaps my favorite story was the first--"This Book Will Find You".  Oh, man!  That one really set the precedent for the rest of the tales, and what a good precedent it was.  The amount of genres this book encompasses, sexualities, races, ways of life. 

Some good, some... less good. Ranging from one star, to five. Three seems about right.

This novel contains stories that take place at night. As such I assumed most of the stories would be horror based as when I think of nighttime stories I think of things that go bump in the night. However that wasn't the case as most of the stories seemed just to feature average citizens during the night doing normal activities. My favorite stories was Blind Eye by Frances Hardinge with This Book Will Find You by Sam Beckbessinger, Lauran Beukes and Dave Halverson, Ambulance Service by Sami Shah

I'm grateful to the publisher for a free advance e-copy of Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin's new anthology themed around night and the dark, via NetGalley, so that I could take part in the book's blogtour. When I heard this anthology was coming out, I knew I would have to read it!Why did I want to read these stories? Not only do the editors have a seriously impressive track record - and look at the authors' names! - but the theme, night, is something that's always intrigued me and fired my imagin...

Actual rating: 3.5 /5I have a love/hate relationship with anthologies. I always read one. Sometimes it takes me two days to finish it, sometimes a few months. I enjoyed Murad & Shurin's Djinn Falls in Love Anthology, so once I learned about Outcast Hours I knew I had to read it. Thanks to NetGalley I could do it few months before official publication date (February 2019).The anthology focuses on things that happen at night. Most assembled stories treat the topic seriously touching darker sides o...

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing for providing me with an advanced reader copy of The Outcast Hours in exchange for an honest review DNF @ P159 - Major, major content warnings for a lot of the stories in this anthology. More information to follow shortly but please be aware that there is a lot of violent content in this book as I would hate for anyone to go in, like myself, completely unaware and struggle with the material. Some of the content notices include suicide, spiked alcoholic drinks,

This is actually 3,5 stars, but let's just round it up to 4, because when this anthology is good, it's GOOD.A common problem with anthologies, this also was uneven, and the sheer number of stories (24, I think) didn't help. I ended up having to consult the table of contents to remember the stories, apart from my two absolute favourites, "Ambulance Service" and "Above the Light". Especially the latter, it was absolutely brilliant.**Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this

As I was reading The Outcast Hours, I remembered why I don't like anthologies. The short stories are too short, and everything seems disjointed. The premise of night people and creepy shadows is intriguing, but this one is not for me.

Most anthologies are mixed bags, however this one was a particularly good mixed bag. The theme of the book was NIGHT. So most of the stories either take place at night or have night as a theme. So great. There are a mixture of genres but with a theme like "night", the best stories were thrillers.The goal of the editors was to have diverse writers with diverse characters, and I think they really achieved this. There were LGBT characters, there were biracial characters, there were stories from non...

Full review is here, on my blog!~Oh anthologies. They are often hit or miss with me, sometimes I love all the stories and sometimes only some. But anthologies are wonderful reads for in-between other books.This anthology has the theme of the night. Or, perhaps people who are generally at their best at night. I can certainly relate with that! I am one hundred and fifty thousand percent at my best at nighttime. So, of course, I couldn’t resist this one.I’ll admit that I picked it up mostly for Chi...

A collection of stories which take place at night. That's pretty much it; yes, they do tend towards the genre rather than just being plotless epiphanies after sunset, but there's even room for one or two of the latter. The writers are an impressive selection, though – Lavie Tidhar, Marina Warner, Lauren Beukes, M Suddain and many more. Plus, scattered between the stories proper, little page-long pieces by China Mieville, which have some of the same feeling of overheard nocturnal strangeness as C...

Thank you to the publisher for providing me this book to review via Netgalley. All opinions are my own. This is a short story collection and like most short story collections there's a few stories that I enjoyed more than others. The Outcast Hours is focussed around the night and most of the stories are haunting which I quite enjoyed. The stories are also reflective of real life which I thought was amazing and there were a few stories that almost seemed too real. I loved that the stories take pl...

I seriously wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did, because short story collections aren't usually my cup of tea, but this one certainly surprised me. There wasn't a story which I didn't at least like/was intrigued by, and that honestly speaks volumes.Some of the stories we're longer than others, but I'd say that all of them were on the longer side of short stories, which really helps you to get into the story. I felt creeped out and honestly in awe sometimes, reading about people someti...

A variety of authors assemble to create a fine anthology of bold, incentive stories that show the brand of stellar creativity this genre has to offer. Highly recommended reading for fans of sci-fi old and new.

The Outcast Hours is the latest anthology by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, following The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories from last year. I love stories set at night; a lack of action forces the characters to face their inner troubles, in turn making the story more introspective. That combined with me thoroughly enjoying Djinn a few months ago made this an instant request.Anthologies, by design, have some similar theme or genre and The Outcast Hours is no different. As can be deduced from...