Dark Spores: Stories We Tell After Midnight Volume 4
About
"The Mushroom Child" follows a woman off the path, into the woods, and into trouble.
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Back of book blurb:
Enter the dark, mycelia-laden world of mushroom horror:
- A food blogger hunts for a killer recipe.
- Ceaseless rain drives a lonely man into his fungus-covered town.
- A grieving son purchases a kit to regrow his dead mother.
This anthology explores the mysterious world of fungi, spores…and things that dwell in the dim forest under the rotting leaves. Here you’ll find 31 stories and 5 poems of quiet, cosmic, and body horror—plus subtle humor. Works examine themes of loneliness, desire, consumption, and connection with what lurks in the shadows.
Edited by Carol Gyzander and Rachel A. Brune, Dark Spores is the fourth volume in the Stories We Tell After Midnight horror series. Devour these stories—before they devour you!
Featuring works by Meghan Arcuri, Rachel A. Brune, Samantha Bryant, R. E. Carr, James Chambers, Rick Claypool, Randee Dawn, Teel James Glenn, Maxwell Ian Gold, Timothy Granville, Rob Grimoire, Carol Gyzander, John Hartness, Pedro Iniguez, Jo Kaplan, Nicholas Kaufmann, Ariana Khaim, Gwendolyn Kiste, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Jamie Lackey, Gordon Linzner, M. Lopes da Silva, Lee Murray, Victoria Nations, Candace Nola, Gregory Norris, Tonia Ransom, Daniel Roop, Jef Rouner, Rebecca Rowland, Sumiko Saulson, Shannon Scott, Angela Yuriko Smith, Sara Tantlinger, Elizabeth Twist, and L. Marie Wood.
With a special foreword by Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters: A Novel.
Cover: Lynne Hansen, LynneHansenArt.com
Trailer
Praise for this book
Dark Spores Vol. 4 is the kind of book you open “just to sample” and suddenly it’s 2 a.m., your room is too quiet, and you’re side-eyeing the shadows. Each story feels like a whispered secret passed around a fire after midnight unnerving, strange, and impossible to forget.
The fungal horror theme is used brilliantly here. This isn’t just body horror (though yes, there’s plenty of deliciously unsettling imagery) it’s atmospheric dread, existential rot, slow-burn unease, and that creeping realization that something ancient is watching… and growing.
What really impressed me was the range. Some stories are sharp and brutal, others lyrical and haunting, but every single one understands the assignment:
🍄 decay
🍄 transformation
🍄 the horror of nature reclaiming what we thought we owned
The editors deserve serious credit for curating a collection that feels cohesive without being repetitive. This volume proves that fungal horror isn’t a gimmick it’s fertile ground for genuinely chilling storytelling.
If you love:
• horror that lingers instead of jump-scares
• anthologies with real atmosphere
• nature horror, cosmic dread, or “something is wrong with this place” vibes…this belongs on your shelf immediately.
Read it after midnight. Trust me. Just maybe don’t eat mushrooms for a while.