Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories

A collection of weird, dark stories and millennial anxieties.In this new collection, Patrick Barb explores themes of family found and lost, media consumption and the dangers of runaway nostalgia, the supernatural in our lives, and the impact of violence in both the long- and short-term.A young couple is reunited with their lost son whose favorite fuzzy bear suit connects him to the ghost of a vengeful mama bear while he's alone in the forest.A jaded screenwriter can’t escape the haunted screenplay that’s ruined his career.A man returns to his small hometown, where the people are gone and the trees have taken over.A Slasher and Final Girl brother-sister duo match wits and blades against a sentient, dimension-hopping apocalypse at a never-ending summer camp.From rural backwoods to Park Slope brownstones, Barb's characters face impossible, awful situations, testing their inner strength and understanding of reality. Covering quiet horror, weird fiction, supernatural horror, slasher horror, topical dark fiction, and more, these stories spotlight supposedly familiar terrors and fears in new and unexpected ways.

Laird Barron, author of

"Wry, edgy, and satisfyingly dark.

Ai Jiang, Nebula and Locus Award finalist and author of Linghun"Barb brings a hefty dose of the weird and uncanny to this collection of 18 intricate horror shorts...The eponymous entry is a standout: a paranormal investigator discovers that a house is haunted not with the ghosts of the past but with the spirits of its future inhabitants

“Pre-Approved for Haunting and Other Stories is filled with the unique, inventive, and unexpected, along with clever reveals. Patrick Barb is a natural at maneuvering between different voices and creating slow burn dread. A careful guide for readers down the tunnel of weird and strange, Barb’s stories guarantee you will not come out of the other side unchanged.”

The Rust Maidens and

"Patrick Barb is a name that is currently lighting up the horror genre. His new book,

About the Author

Patrick Barb is an author of weird, dark, and horrifying tales. His short fiction has appeared in a number of recognized horror and speculative fiction magazines and anthologies. His debut dark urban fantasy novella, Gargantuana's Ghost, was a part of Grey Matter Press’s Emergent Expressions line. Patrick is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and a Full Member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Originally from the Southern United States, he’s currently living in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, two sons, and a large dog who thinks she’s actually a lapdog.

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