Title: While I Was Gone: Short Horror Stories

Author: Andrew Cull

Release date: May 27th, 2025

Over the last number of years, I’ve read a bunch of Cull’s work, between his phenomenal novel ‘Remains,’ his bleak novella ‘The Cockroach King,’ and his myriad short story collections and have really come to love the way he crafts a story. I said at one point in a past review that everything he creates feels cinematic, as though we’re reading this directly through the lens that he’s writing it through.

When this collection was announced, I was so elated to see. Andrew had a very public battle with cancer, sharing with us his ups and downs, and when this was announced, it felt like a cathartic moment – for Andrew and his fans. A giant middle finger to the illness. A statement of intent – ‘F&ck you, I’m back!’

On my end, I jotted this one down on my list of ‘books to buy’ and unfortunately, life snuck up on me and it wasn’t until recently when I was looking at that list that I realized I’d neither purchased it yet, nor read/reviewed it. I rectified that immediately, snagging the Kindle edition and diving in.

Cull has a writing style that is both layered and straight forward and that, combined with his cinematic approach to telling the story, meant I zipped through this in no time at all.

What I liked: Within this collection, Cull bounces from strength to strength, always showcasing the character in a way we know them almost instantly, while also bringing the world around them alive, in a way only Cull can. It’s as though he’s reading these stories to you, stopping every so often to whisper, ‘see that over there?’ or ‘look at the way the leaves ripple in the wind.’ His stories are immersive and each story in this batch of stories jumped from the page, transporting me from place to place.

The standout stories for me were;

‘Carly’s Wish.’ The first story in the collection is also a very dark tale. A man’s daughter disappeared a decade ago, and though he’s professed to dedicating his life to finding her, he also seems content to reap the benefits from multiple bestselling books on the disappearance and a movie adaptation. Then he gets a call one day from an unknown number. They saw something that day and want to meet. It’s heart wrenching and brutal.

‘The Grave Listeners.’ This was one of the shortest stories in the collection, but packed one of the biggest wallops. A ground of friends hear a story about people being buried alive, scratches coming from within their caskets. So, they form a grave listening gang. At first it seems fun. Until one of their moms dies. This felt like a classic Tales From the Crypt story.

‘The Bone Man of Sanatorium Lake.’ In this one, we’re introduced to a park ranger who is retiring and finally able to share some of the creepy and horrifying tales of what took place at Sanatorium Lake. So freaky but also so much fun.

‘Julia.’ I was convinced this was going to be my favorite story in the collection, but one other one surpassed that. This one follows a desperate man, searching for his wife and daughter. Their yacht capsizes and he can’t pull them free, watching as they sink to the depths. But then a sound is recorded. And when he listens it seems to be his wife calling for him to come rescue them. This takes a wonderfully macabre Lovecraftian turn and Cull delivers an emotional wallop wrapped in a man’s descent into madness.

‘The Gorey Man.’ This was my favorite of the collection and when I tried to figure out why I loved it just that hair’s width more than ‘Julia’ I knew it was because this one was set in the remote woods and featured a creature with horns. I know, I’m predictable! In a remote village, a young boy is sacrificed every year to The King of the Harvest, a hoofed/horned abomination that resides in the depths of the forest near them, to ensure the crops will be plentiful. Constance is sure that her son will be chosen, and when he’s not, she takes matters into her own hands, hiking with her boy into the depths of the woods to seek the King and make things right. One of the creepiest folklore stories I’ve ever read and the descriptions within this that Cull brutalizes our eyeballs with were exceptional. Outstanding.

What I didn’t like: As always in collections, the reader will have different reactions to each story and in this case, I wasn’t a huge fan of the story ‘The Scream.’ It was good, but compared to the rest, it didn’t hit the high notes like the others. As well, there was one other story – Halloween based – that felt a tad rushed.

Why you should buy this: Cull has a way of packing a novels worth of plot and emotions into a short story and this collection showcases that in spades. Each story feels fresh and different than all the others, but connected in a way that you wouldn’t be surprised to find a few of the characters hanging out with each other.

I often cite Kealan Patrick Burke and Calvin Demmer as the two masters of short fiction working today that you absolutely must read, but this collection proves to me that Andrew Cull makes it a trio and I can’t wait to see what he gives us next.

At the very least, you need to read this for ‘Julia’ and ‘The Gorey Man.’ Those two stories are short story masterpieces.