Those We Left Behind: And Other Sacrifices

“In Applegate’s stunning debut, family horrors get a fresh coat of the blackest, bleakest paint, but a deep compassion shines through the darkness. These stories will make your heart race and ache in equal measure.”

— Eric Raglin, author of Nightmare Yearnings

A bedtime story has unspeakable consequences. A walk in the woods introduces a father to his daughter’s horrifying new friends. A bit of trash in the shower drain leads to a surreal fight for survival. In this collection that ranges from magical fantasy to blood-spattered horror, Brandon Applegate guides you on a journey through the darkest, most tragic corners of his imagination. From the surface of Mars to the supposed safety of a child’s bedroom, his stories will remind you that “it’s not a sacrifice if it doesn’t hurt.”

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“Those We Left Behind offers eerie tension and creepy visuals that make the reader look out the window, into the woods, and even down the drain with a little more caution. Each story hooks into the heart, dragging the reader, bloodied and broken, through fantastical darkness. And when you think you’ve had enough, Applegate peels open your eyes to face the darkness in your soul.”

— Red Lagoe, author of Lucid Screams and Dismal Dreams

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“Those We Left Behind is a heaping dish of diverse horror stories with a side of human tenderloin served rare. Applegate delivers the goods and then some.”

— Joshua Marsella, author of Scratches and Hunger For Death

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“Brandon Applegate knows what drives horror. In Those We Left Behind and Other Sacrifices, Applegate expertly mines the terrors found in love’s fears and failures, but he also finds the fragile magic that binds us together despite the darkness. The gory, the gross, the gripping, the ghostly, the grand – Applegate unearths the beating, haunted heart of the genre again and again.”

— Gordon B. White, author of Rookfield