✍ The Blacksmith: Tales From The Graveyard [1] - Susan Shultz

Genre: Horror
d Published 10 December 2014 by Full Fathom Five
Number of pages: 57

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★  I really liked it

"My name is Ainsley. I live among the dead.

Meet Ainsley. Ainsley lives alone, and she likes it that way. Ainsley has some secrets. Dark secrets.

Sometimes, Ainsley feels like the Blacksmith is the only one who will ever understand her. The Blacksmith resides in the graveyard in her garden. You see, Ainsley’s heart was broken long ago, and now it’s dead. As dead as the Blacksmith’s. They belong together.
Then there’s Sam: sweet, loving Sam. Ainsley was abandoned by anyone she ever loved, but Sam has always been there. If her heart weren’t already dead, Ainsley might even say she loved him.

Not even Sam knows the depth’s of Ainsley’s darkness…and lately, she’s come very, very close to revealing it to him.


But the Blacksmith says no. And what the Blacksmith says, goes."

The Blacksmith is the first novelette in the Tales From the Graveyard series.

The story is very gothic, captivating and beautifully written. It reminded me immediately of Poe and it read like poetry.

Some of the content is disturbing and very dark, but never overly gory, and somehow you can't help but like and sympathise with the main character, Ainsley.

I cannot wait to discover what Susan Shultz has in store for us in the next instalment.

To be read in one sitting - allow a couple of hours. Give it a try even if you are not an horror fan - it might surprise you.

[ARC received via Netgalley]