In this debut collection, Joseph Anthony Montecillo compiles fourteen horrific tales from over a decade of writing. In the titular story, “In the Blood,” a mother struggles to ensure that her sons don’t inherit their late father’s violent tendencies. In “Pressure and Release,” a bus driver gives in to his most self-destructive impulses while caught in an EDSA traffic jam. A child’s curiosity about his brother’s internal workings goes to the extreme in “New Toy.” And in “The Forgotten Bones,” a man living in the slums of a cemetery finds himself trapped in a labyrinth of tombs. In the Blood and Other Stories’ mix of horror, psychological thrills, dark fantasy, and sci-fi is sure to terrify and delight in equal measure.