Anoka

A Collection of Indigenous Horror

By: Shane Hawk

Narrated by: Kyle Bullock

Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

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.

A fantastic debut!!

Anoka is a collection of stories that feature a near perfect blending of horror and social commentary. Hawk doesn’t write like a debut author. His beautiful writing style and descriptive language don’t let a single word to go waste. The stories are suspenseful and some leave you guessing until the last sentence. They are unique and the topics vary in theme making it a fun read. I enjoyed the audiobook so much I purchased a paperback copy for my shelf halfway through. Hawk is a writer you’re going to want to keep an eye on. I see him becoming a big name in the horror community and I look forward to seeing what his future has in store.

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.

Amazing debut collection!

All killer, no filler -- this short little volume packs a punch. I kept trying to delay listening to more because I didn't want it to end. Check it out if you like old-school horrors done with a modern approach and seen through a very unique lens. Looking forward to reading/listening to more from this author in the future.

The production quality is also great, and the strong narration lends the stories an even more authentic feel.

Good

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

Anoka

I enjoyed this book.The stories were very interesting,fun,scarey but all enjoyable. Kyle Bullock was a fine narraotr.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

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!

Impressive indigenous horror debut!

An impressive and creepy debut from author Shane Hawk. 'Anoka's' stories vary in quality and effectiveness, but even the one or two that interested me the least were fun little capsules of dread. The longer stories, "Wounded" and "Dead America" are the standouts and anchors of the collection, both of which balance indigenous American themes with more universal brands of fear in surprising and effective ways. I look forward to Hawk's next effort!

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⁣
⭐⭐⭐⭐

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. 

Real deep

I received this audiobook from Shane Hawk direct when he placed an offer for people to hear his first release for free on twitter, I mostly listen when walking or when I'm working at my pc so this collection of short stories meant I could easily jump in and out when I knew I only had short bursts where I could listen. The stories themselves are so in depth and accurate to people and their struggles and emotions, this was really felt as each character was built and introduced to the listener, and really set in stone come the end with the brief explanation of the deeper meaning behind each story at the end of the audiobook (as stated at the beginning there are spoilers, so I left this until the end so not to cross stories and ruin any twists) Can't wait to hear and see more from this author.

Short listen that packs a punch!!

Loved this audiobook so much,it’s a quick listen that really packs a punch!! Cannot wait to listen to more from the author!
The narrator was excellent also ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️