Symphony for Walpurgis by Rami Ungar
May 1, 2025
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Rami Ungar is the author of Rose, a novel about a woman who turns into a plant, and the collection Hannah & Other Stories, which includes the tale of a carnivorous horse. He is the Ohio chapter coordinator for the Horror Writers Association. His newest collection of novelletes is Symphony forrWalpurgis.
Novellettes are a strange beast. Many publishers and readers find them difficult because they’re such an in-between style of writing. They’re too short to build real suspense, some readers will tell you. Others will insist that they’re too long, and that they’re just short stories that need more editing. However, as the novelette is Ungar’s chosen form, he’s done his best to prove naysayers wrong, and what a job he has done!
These stories are dark and violent. Rami Ungar has this uncanny ability to take tropes, clear known tropes, and make them more unsettling. The opening tale, “Blood and Paper Skin,” is a serial killer tale, until it isn’t. The graphic descriptions of body parts and the psychological torture of victims trying to escape are real, vibrant, and palpable. Readers will be able to empathize with the victims and their plights, until Ungar decides to make everything so much worse, and we find out why people are being killed. The haunting ending, with its unsettling final images, will linger with readers well beyond the average serial killer tale.
Ungar, famous for carnivorous horses, gives us more of his trademark horror monsters. There are everything from creepy spiders to dragon bats in these tales. Ungar’s imagination for cryptids and the implied horror within nature’s creative palates continues to shine through in these tales, and stories like “Mother of Spiders” and “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand-in-Hand,” so readers who were fans of Ungar’s previous monsters will not be left wanting.
Ungar is a well-known author, HWA representative, and local haunt at conventions across the Great Lakes. Readers familiar with his previous work already know they have to purchase this collection to see what nightmares he’s cooked up this time. Readers unfamiliar with Ungar’s work, however, will want to wander through this collection and enjoy the horrors he’s wrought. Do not be afraid of the novelettes, as Ungar is able to find balance with them. Be afraid of the stories they contain, for Ungar’s writing keeps getting stronger, and this newest collection is sure to terrify all but the most resolute of horror readers.
