Book Review – All Who Wander Are Lost by Gemma Amor

“In this brand new collection of destination based tales of terror, Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award nominated author Gemma Amor takes us on a series of adventures through the weird and the wonderful, the strange and the unexplainable, across the remotest, wildest parts of this world, and through lands yet to be discovered.”

All Who Wander Are Lost is our first collection of stories from Gemma in years (previously, These Wounds We Make, 2020); naturally, I was excited to receive an ARC for review seeing as Cruel Works of Nature (2018) is one of my all-time favorite story collections in horror. Each of the stories contained within offer the reader foreign locations–including Antarctica, Egypt, Mongolia, and others–as the settings for Gemma’s unfolding terror.

My favorites entries includes: “The Reunion” is dramatic and features several shocking moments that would feel at home in a soap opera (which I really enjoyed); “Fields of Ice” has a horrific dystopian backstory I would like to explore further, and of course I want the continued story (seeing as this one has a TBC ending); “The Final Wish Foundation” has a great premise for a novella or novel, in which members of a secret group kill one another to get the death they so desire; “The Ancient Ramm Inn” takes place on Halloween and is thoroughly creepy and memorable; and “Less Exalted Tales” drops us in a very creepy mansion owned by a very unsettling woman and her daughter, both of which enjoy violent escapades.

Gemma Amor is always a guaranteed good read. All Who Wander Are Lost features some truly fantastic sequences that I will return to in the years to follow. If you like your horror dripping in dramatic realism, give this one a shot, especially if you’re someone often struck by wanderlust.