Spirit Level

Spirit Level: Strange Tools and Story

A haunting collaboration between renowned editor & photographer Ellen Datlow, award-winning horror writer Kaaron Warren, and book artist Monica Carroll, Spirit Level transforms ordinary antique tools into vessels of dread.

This book, based on a limited edition artist's book, presents ten mysterious objects, from a 1930s German camera timer to corroded iron pliers, photographed by Datlow and re-imagined through Carroll's artistic interpretation. Warren crafts chilling micro-fiction for each tool, revealing dark histories of family curses, repeated deaths, and sinister purposes. A grandfather's measuring device that counts final breaths. A button hook that holds memories of a buried woman. Teeth set in silver, waiting for the perfect mouth.

Born from a social media experiment where Warren wrote stories for tools she'd never seen and wasn't allowed to research, this collection exemplifies horror at its most inventive. Each pairing of image and text creates an unsettling archaeology of the everyday, proving that the most innocuous objects can harbour the deepest terrors.

Perfect for horror fiction fans who understand that every antique has a story and some stories should have stayed buried.