Book Review for Don’t Look Away by William Dalphin

Don’t Look Away, by William Dalphin, is a horror anthology filled with twisted endings and grotesque plots that strips away the facade of the mundane. Don’t Look Away consists of 35 frightening tales, all of which are accompanied with creepy illustrations by Emily Holt. From suspenseful tales such as She Found Her Way Into My Home, to more mysterious gothic stories, like The Crawling House on Black Pond Road, many of the stories bring a macabre light to an otherwise boring reality. The illustrations add a layer of tension into each story; though some of the images are genuinely horrifying, others help build up the world presented in sac of the stories. While they can be repetitive at times, even predictable, Dalphin still manages to weave succinct, interesting stories that will capture and hold a reader’s attention, all the while gently nudging them into the next story. One story that stood out in this collection was Hunger. It was about a psychiatrist who encounters a grotesque patient, clutching a trash bag to her chest. When the doctor asked what was in the bag, the patient merely answered that they were leftovers. I’m currently a mental health advocate, so my heart [...]