Girard’s First Communions is a catholic collection of dark and troubling short stories. They run a wide gamut of settings, historical, present day and imagined futures. All contain something that hooks them into the category of horror. Girard varies his writing style to suit the milieu of each piece but never fails to present an excellent result.

Just don’t make the mistake of buying this for someone celebrating the Roman Catholic rite of passage because you won’t find much dressed in white and thinking beatific thoughts drifting through these pages; I have to confess that I still haven’t quite figured out how the title fits either for the anthology as a whole or for the titular story that concludes it. I’m not sure that I will be returning to these pages very often – although I’m tempted to re-read some of the stories after browsing the author’s notes at the end – but, if you relish troubling tales, then this will be a mouthwatering feast.