Author: Victoria Williamson
Title: Eerie Exhibits
Publisher: Silver Thistle Press
Publication Date: March 6, 2025
Genre: Short Supernatural tales
Disclaimer- I was given a copy by the author and The Write Reads. In return I leave an honest review, in no way influenced by the idea of Butterflies that scream. Yeah, that’s not creepy at all.
Purchase Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223285412-eerie-exhibits—five-macabre-museum-tales
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/726acd31-6da8-449d-9f89-97b79db1f222
Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/1zD6rAT (UK) https://a.co/d/i8bjaBI (USA) https://a.co/d/cBSc7vE (Canada)
Synopsis
Five unnerving tales of the weird and uncanny from award-winning author Victoria Williamson.
A room full of screaming butterflies.
An unsettling smile on the face of a carved sarcophagus.
A painting that draws its viewer into the disturbing past.
A stuffed bear that growls in the dead of night.
And a shell that whispers more sinister sounds than the sigh of the sea…
Dare you cross the threshold of the old Museum and view its eerie exhibits?
Review
The local museum, a treasure trove of free entertainment for five kids during the long summer holidays, offered my mum a break and, us children, a captivating playground of musty taxidermy, Egyptian mummies, and prehistoric fossils. Even now, the scent of dusty relics and floor cleaner has the ability to transport me back to those youthful visits where every corner was an opportunity to jump-scare your siblings.
Yet, Victoria Williamson’s Eerie Exhibits has cast a long shadow over those innocent museum visits. After reading her chilling collection, I doubt I’ll ever look at a sarcophagus – or even a butterfly – in quite the same way again. Williamson has crafted five extraordinary stories that plunge readers into the shadowy, gothic world of a dilapidated museum, transforming its exhibits into the source of genuinely creepy supernatural tales. In some ways, these feel like modern-day fables, guaranteed to leave you looking over your shoulder.
- The Screaming Room
- The Grinning Man
- Et In Arcadia Ego
- The Shape of the Beast
- The Whispering Shell
In the Screaming Room, we find that there is a sinister, almost religious connection between purgatory and lepidoptery which will have you giving butterflies the side-eye for the foreseeable future. The Grinning man is a cautionary tale about being an inattentive parent with essences of an Aesop fable… without the animals.
The final three tales involve the staff of the museum.
Et in Arcadia Ego tells of Dave the security guard who gets up close and personal with a painting that unearths his darkest secret. The Shape of the Beast has cleaner Thelma show her claws to those who bypassed her through her life and The Whispering Shell has part of the heritage team, Julie, exploring the water cycle in closer detail than she thought possible.
While I enjoyed all five stories I think the ones that stuck with me the longest were the Screaming Room and Et in Arcadia Ego. The Screaming room built the story up slowly, even though it was barely 48 pages, and coaxed you in through hints and flashes, rather than giving you the plot neatly wrapped. It made me think hard about what the author was trying to convey and has stayed with me.
In 1990 The Witches was released, with Angelica Houston playing the Grand High Witch. It was absolutely terrifying (seriously, this is why millennials are so hard to shock) but it wasn’t the freaky melting face of the witches that scared the daylights out of me.
It was the tale of Erica, the little girl who was kidnapped by witches and trapped in a painting, changing position and growing older until one day she just disappears. Et in Arcadia Ego gives those vibes, except perhaps Dave’s situation is more deserved than poor Erica’s.
I think that this book would be fantastic tool for book clubs and reading groups, especially over Halloween, there is just so much scope for discussion and interpretations that I genuinely think they could run it over multiple sessions. I intend to purchase copies for my library and suggest it to our own groups.
I’d like to thank Victoria Williamson and the Write Reads, not only for the opportunity to read and review the book, but also for the gift bag.
I would also like to thank them for the reintroduction of my Erica’s painting nightmares. Thanks for that. It’s fine, sleep is overrated.
About the Author
Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author from Glasgow, Scotland, who has worked as an educator in a number of different countries, including as an English teacher in China, a secondary school science teacher in Cameroon, a teacher trainer in Malawi, and an additional support needs teacher in the UK. Her many visits to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum from a young age inspired this set of short stories for adults based on the real and imaginary exhibits that captured her interest over the years, and led to her current studies of history and archaeology.
Victoria works part time writing books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels for children and adults, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops. When not writing or talking about books, she’s often to be found up to her knees in mud on an archaeological dig or tangled up in a ball of wool playing with a crochet hook.
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