Anoka

A Collection of Indigenous Horror

By: Shane Hawk

Narrated by: Kyle Bullock

Welcome to Anoka, Minnesota, a small city just outside of the Twin Cities dubbed “The Halloween Capital of the World” since 1937. Here before you lie several tales involving bone collectors, pagan witches, werewolves, skeletal bison, and cloned children. It is up to you to decipher between fact and fiction as the author has woven historical facts into his narratives.

With his debut horror collection, Cheyenne & Arapaho author Shane Hawk explores themes of family, grief, loneliness, and identity through the lens of indigenous life.

©2020 Shane Hawk (P)2020 Shane Hawk

For Lovers of Dark Stories!

Shane Hawk does a masterful job of weaving folklore with real-life issues. From alcoholism and depression to body dysmorphia and anxiety, Hawk brings to life dark tales of magical realism by using his life’s secrets and experiences. This book is a quick read and you won’t want to put it down. Definitely a must-have if you enjoy dark stories.

Good

I feel like the narrator took a while to hit his stride but his evil laugh is amazing.

Creepy and thought provoking

First time reading Shane’s work, though I’m not sure if this is his first published work. I found the collection to be very strong as a whole.

Standouts to me were Soilborne, which really set the tone with its sinister vibe in a few short minutes; and Imitate, a fairly straight forward slice of dread that plays out like a great episode of The Outer Limits.

Orange was an interesting combo of angry prose and stream-of-consciousness. I really enjoyed the wild left hook from Transfigured, and its final moment that had me questioning if it was a giant call-back.

The narration by Kyle Bullock was terrific, but there were a few audio quirks and clips that shook me out of it. Probably more a fault of equipment than narrator.

Overall, a memorable collection. Worth the price of admission (I suggest buying it outright and saving tokens for longer works), and I look forward to seeing what Shane does next.

Orange

My favorite story in the book was Orange. I never saw the ending coming! I so rarely get moments like that.

Great, versatile, hard hitting debut!

So good! Imitate, and especially Dead America will make you wince and cringe and get the willies all over. That’s what makes a great horror read!

Shocking and Disturbing

Anoka is a small town in Minnesota also known as "the Halloween capital of the world." Werewolves, sinister children and pagan witches are just a few of the strange and abhorrent entities that prey on the town's most vulnerable residents. This debut novella includes six short stories and notes by Indigenous author, Shane Hawk.⁣
⁣
𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘬𝘢 is a collection of shocking and disturbing short stories by an emerging author. Shane Hawk crafted the perfect blend of Indigenous folklore and supernatural horror for this delightfully terrifying collection. I'm going to be keeping an eye on Hawk as he delivers more, fresh literary frights to unsuspecting reader's. His style is subtle and gripping with a pace that steeps suspense like that of a seasoned horror veteran.⁣

𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘬𝘢 by Shane Hawk⁣
⭐⭐⭐⭐

A Native King!

Not bad for a debut! The reader was adequate. The recording quality could have been MUCH better, Kyle Bullock’s affect was too samey thru out. This short book would ha benefited from more of a variety of readers, as most anthologies do, unless the single reader of the collected tales has exceptional breadth of tone- or has a single tone that can carry all the stories. As for the stories themselves? The stamp of Stephen King is evident, but not in a bad or slavish way. More like an influence-Shane alludes to the real life horror of missing native women & girls, he doesn’t go near that disturbing, difficult material. I suspect there is a terrifying story that Shane has inside him to write. Anoka is a great concept- all tales revolving around a single small Minnesota town. I’d like to revisit some other neighborhoods. In time.

Eye Opening Stories of Human Horror

This is an eye opening collection of short stories that within the supernatural elements tell a true horror situation. That being the constant fear, indignity and persistent reminder of truth not realized . I came away from this with a greater appreciation and respect for Indigenous reality.

Intriguing Subgenre of Horror

Anoka contains four short stories and two flash fiction pieces loosely centered around the real-world city of Anoka Minnesota, the self-proclaimed “Halloween Capital of the World.” Like the author, I have family connections to Minnesota. My maternal grandparents lived in the Twin Cities and I spent my summers in the wilds of northern Minnesota, so I connected to the setting of Anoka right away. I appreciated the insight into the author’s thought process in choosing Anoka, as well as his thoughts on writing indigenous horror.

Review:
This is my first experience with indigenous horror. The narration by Kyle Bullock is fantastic and the production values are top-notch. The stories of Anoka share similar themes: loss, addiction, alienation, and the particular pain only those close to us can cause.

“Imitate” and “Transfigured” were my personal favorites of the collection. Imitate has everything I love; a slow-building tension, weird intrusions into everyday life, a troubled protagonist trying to grapple with dark forces they can barely comprehend. The emotional core of Imitate was powerful and it lingered in my mind for the rest of the day after reading it.

I appreciated the plot seed and structure of Transfigured. The author manages to give the audience something many of us want (a good werewolf story) with a new and interesting slant. Like Imitate, this piece showcases Hawk’s ability to slowly ramp up the dark oddities, tensions, and violence until it explodes on the page.

You will love this audiobook if you love indigenous horror, horror with well-grounded characters, and horror that hits you like an emotional gut punch.

Fantastic Indigenous Horror Stories

This was a fantastic collection of own voices indigenous horror stories written by an Native American author. These stories offered insight into the experience of being an indigenous person in the United States while exploring major themes of identity and family. 

Yet, I want to clear that this collection was definitely a horror collection. These stories were consistently dark with some gruesome and terrifying imagery included throughout the collection. Horror fans will not be disappointed. 

As I say with every collection I read, I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. Here are my thoughts on my favourites:

Soilborne - This story was quite ambiguous with an ending I ended up rereading several times. I ended up really loved this one after reading the author's notes at the end and understanding the full idea behind this one.

Imitate - This was my favourite of the stories. I loved reading from the father's perspective, which felt incredibly honest and relatable as a fellow parent. There were some fantastic scenes involving the son which I thought were wonderfully unsettling. 

Transfigured - Set on Halloween, this was a wonderful queer take on werewolf & wendigo mythology that discussed traditional hunting practices. It was a fresh take on the classic monster story 

I really appreciated the inclusion of the author's notes at the end which provided the inspiration behind each of the stories. Knowing the background made me appreciate each story even more. (I wish all authors were required to provide these!)

I had the opportunity to review the audiobook version which was a very enjoyable experience. Short stories don't always lend themselves well to the audio format, but these ones were easy to follow. Overall, I thought the narrator gave a strong performance. His inflection fit the tone of most of the stories quite well. If possible, I do also recommend checking out the ebook edition in order to see the illustrations included in the collection. 

I would absolutely recommend this collection to any horror readers looking for a diverse set of stories. Shane Hawks is definitely an author to watch. I would recommend his work to anyone who is a fan of Stephen Graham Jones' work.

Disclaimer I received a digital copy of this book from the author for review.