I am bewildered. There is a lot to like here on a conceptual level. Following a cursed town through its founding to its destruction, love that. Wonderful. Lots of the stories have potential too. But it remains just that, potential. A fair few of these stories end right before they get interesting. They are constructed of preamble with a revelation at the end (generally a spooky one, which I enjoyed) but shouldn't we be demanding more from short story collections.

There is also not a thread of a throughline between any of the stories which obviously no one is obligated to do but seems so so crazy to me when you've deliberately constructed this setting where that would be an ample thing to implement. It would help make the town seem more lived in.

Barrowbeck the setting is not utilized at all. I got no sense of the town itself and not because I wasn't trying (I was clamoring for it) but because its not there. For a book about a town there is no interest in that town.

Baffling stuff really. Read this is if you like the spook but aren't expecting anything more than that. If you came for the concept sold to you on the blurb, don't bother, this book isn't that