C. J. Daley

Decided to give this one a go to get in another short read for the month, and it was already on my TBR. A tiny review for a tiny read.

This is a 26 page short story, and somehow it packed in a solid and unique plot! Although this isn’t for children, it did have kind of Goosebumps vibes to it! That could be because of its bite-sized format though, making it feel like a TV episode.

Jace is taking over and cleaning up his father’s farm after his passing. He wants to get his affairs in order and perhaps give the country life a try. The solitude is working for him, but one night when he finds a runaway in his barn, he ends up feeling like he’s living someone else’s horror story.

I absolutely love when authors drop their story’s name in the writing. I personally think I’ve done this for everything I’ve ever written. Sometimes it’s even where I pull the names from. It feels like a little wink from the author whenever I read them.

Well written and concise, this short packed a punch with its unique plot and fleshed out atmosphere. Honestly until the author mentioned phones and laptops, I wasn’t even sure what the time period was. It really lended itself to the atmosphere building.

Grabbed this one to get in another short read before month’s end! A short review for a short read.

This is a weird little tale about a village near the marsh that has a string of children disappearing. Although often left alone, these disappearances have drawn attention to the old witch in the marsh. Through a growing need, an obsession, a love, the spirit of the marsh takes its first steps to be near the old witch. Together they seek to uncover the horrors haunting these young children.

This novelette is like a visual smorgasbord, with rich descriptions and heavily described characters and set pieces. One that stuck out to me the most was the witches favorite mug, something so simple, yet so effective. The marsh spirit, through drawing in beings of the marsh, alive, dead, even rotten, has become something both monstrous and horrifying, but regardless how you feel, it’s so easy to picture.

I will gladly read more from this author and even this one again!

Continuing with audio for these, as R.C. Bray is fantastic for these.

Book three takes off right where two ended, with more and more of X’s hellish background revealed as he survived on post apocalyptic earth for years. Now I had meant to go back and read the new ‘prequel’ novella that features X on the surface, but I haven’t gotten to it yet, so this background was nice to have sprinkled in.

Michael ‘Tin’ Everhart and his crew are still aboard Deliverance in their whiplash-quick race to meet up with X. Captain Jordan, in his ever-growing paranoia and recklessness, pushing the lower deckers even further towards rebellion—all in the name of ensuring humanity survives. When every single character and situation is at the boiling point, something (more like everything) is bound to pop off!

These are just outrageously fast paced scifi/horror thrillers. Nonstop action, suspense, and violence. And I for one, can’t get enough of them. I’ve been spacing out when I move through them, having read book one in 2022, but I might honestly have to aggressively accelerate that…even at the detriment of my audible credits. The author still manages to show readers even more devastation, with new mutated trees, writhing limbs, animals, hand-sized cockroaches, and even cannibal survivors. In this post apocalyptic nuclear hellscape both and flora and fauna are out to get the hell divers.

I received this novella to judge as an SFINCS finalist. Opinion is my own, and does not represent that made by the team. I did also happen to purchase this in paperback, as I prefer to read physical, and I liked the cover a lot.

To me, this hit very similarly to Ryan Cahill’s The Fall. From the jump there is tension, action, emotion. The author sets up a battle that is already not going well, therefore the reader knows the stakes are high, and that there’s bound to be a near bottomless fall. There are multiple POVs and the author manages to make the reader care individually for all of them in the very short time you spend with each.

The Essence and the Deceiver are locked in an endless battle. Their chosen avatars destined to duke it out for eternity. This selection, and the transference of powers felt very similar to Marvel’s Moon Knight to me. They are imbued with power, can speak to their masters, become ageless, and live to serve. Too bad they also happen to be brothers.

In just 100 pages, the author makes you care for the characters, the world, the crumbling city, and feel each loss as they pile high. It’s well written, fast paced, and certainly an enticing sampler of what’s to come in the series itself. I’m intrigued by his different demonic creatures, as well as the different fighters the king has at his beck and call. Particularly the battle sisters and Smoke Riders.

Please check this one out!

Read this one as a finalist in SFINCS, opinion is my own and doesn’t reflect that of the team!

This is a slow burn, small town horror. Iris, who already escaped her dysfunctional family once, has been brought back to town by the death of her nephew. This novella spends a lot of time building into that dysfunction. Her mother’s attitude, her father’s over-accepting responses, and her sister’s seeming lack of grief. For me it didn’t exactly reach a level of atmospheric creepiness, but the author does keep it interesting enough to keep it slow.

At just about the 60% mark the novella starts to take off. The mystery that has been building is finally answered, and to be honest, it felt a lot more “left field” than I was expecting. This is definitely more horror than mystery, and while it worked for me, I guess I was just surprised.

This novella also features an old ex with LGBtQ rep, and I thought it was used well that them meeting back up was one of the reveals for the mystery early on. The photo being forgotten in the library one of the only clues throughout the story.

I enjoyed the explanation and ending, as well as the fact that the small town horror might have been spreading its monstrous fingers out to the surrounding areas.

I got this one from NetGalley and was so excited as I was a big fan of Dead Silence. I unfortunately started reading it at a rough time for me, so it took me so long to get through that I actually switched to the audio. Zura Johnson did a good job, and there were several accents, which always impresses me.

This novel mixes a lot of what you’ve already seen out of other sci-fi horrors. Not that I’m in any way the expert, having only seen/watched some of them (Event Horizon, Alien, Life+). Not necessarily that something needs to be original for me to enjoy it, however, if I’m being honest, there was unfortunately nothing exciting about this. This one followed along the same path as Dead Silence, where there is an incredible amount of set up, but it did not work on me twice. Where the first hit me at the right time, and the long opening added to the cabin-fever feel of the narration, this one didn’t work.

The main character has a haunted, hidden past. And although it is continuously mentioned as a major secret, when it is eventually revealed, it does virtually nothing to the plot or climax. While it was supposed to show the lead overcoming expectations, it just read as flat to me. The stakes feel too low with them being on another planet—one which does not have a breathable atmosphere.

There is one point where I felt the novel was shifting toward a big change. They wanted to leave but were stuck in the station during a snow storm. It was still quite late for a climax to start, but I thought it might have been shifting towards a more classic, claustrophobic-isolation horror (just in space). Instead it just kind of continued off the rails. Really wanted to love this one, but it fumbled most of the landing for me. 2.5/5*

I received this to review for the Indie Ink Awards and decided to get the audiobook on audible as I’ve been behind and having trouble focusing on reading. Scott Fleming did a fantastic job that I really enjoyed.

Every review I’ve ever seen for this book has talked about how unique it is. So let’s get the obvious out of the way. This is one of the most unique novels and genre blends I’ve ever read. It mixes science fiction aspects with a fantasy world, dialogue that feels more modern, and horror elements too.

The characters use gas masks while outside of the major cities to save themselves from becoming gaunt. Aka breathing in ghost-like vapor and having their bodies taken over. Think kind of zombies, or evil entities a la the Shinigami in Never Die. The masks felt very scifi, while the nature of their need was wholly fantasy. Just one of the great blendings.

The main character Petre, has a mental processing disorder, which leads him to need to get these implant injections. This kind of disability rep was something I’ve never read before, and the ‘cure’ (however temporary) was just another thing that felt so incredibly sci-fi in this fantasy world. He’s also a great example of bisexual rep as well, having desires for both men and women in a way that feels genuine.

Another aspect of this novel that really knocked it out of the park was the way the author wrote the main characters. Not only are they siblings, they are quadruplets, so not everything is always good, but the bond is still unbreakable. Even if they wish it were. So when their father, the King, dies, naturally they can’t keep it together and behave amicably. The way in which the author writes their scenes together is so good, so believable, it’s almost as if the reader is experiencing the family arguments from the inside. As one of them. Or maybe it’s just because I am one of four kids myself.

While I really enjoyed this, I was a bit surprised how the story didn’t really progress. That’s not the say that steps weren’t taken, or that there isn’t action, the plot itself just didn’t reach any kind of resolution. It almost kind of ends on the climax. Which instead of ruining it, definitely made me feel like I needed more immediately. I guess I just didn’t realize it wasn’t a standalone!

Read this one as a finalist in SFINCS, however I already owned the kindle version! Read it in a single sitting while having some trouble focusing, so this was a real good one.

While this one was rather short, I was surprised how long into the story it felt when it finally took a turn into the sci-fi direction. Beforehand I wasn’t sure if the story was just going to remain about a dysfunctional relationship or not. While it still is, the twist definitely elevated it to another level for me.

Joy lives her life anticipating her husbands every desire. And it comes naturally. Breakfast and coffee, quiet mornings, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, and gardening. All for the man she loved. But there’s something big that Joy doesn’t know.

As the story unfolds, Joy looks to capture a new sense of self. What makes her happy? How does she create that sense of self? And do the things that always made her feel whole actually do anything for her now? The author writes in such a way that every reader will be faced with asking themselves the same questions that Joy is faced with. And what makes any of us happy?

Now, I’ve said it before, and I’ll most definitely say it again, Sarah Chorn is the Queen of writing emotion. Every word she creates, every sentence, character, scene, is absolutely crushing. Not just beautiful prose, but truly deep and thoughtful writing.

These are short stories told as if transcribed from answering machines and voicemails. Some are micro fiction, and some run a bit longer at several pages each.

Personally, with what I got going on right now, 4. 3:15 A.M., Tuesday, August 20, 2019 was one of my favorites. Featuring a message left by an ex about letting go.

I found the format in which this was done to be incredibly unique, unlike anything I’ve read before. With so much of it together, the transcribing kind of read like a play written out, especially the few bits where more than one person would speak. It wasn’t really the kind of thing I would have gone out of my way for usually, and I’ve probably only read like five plays in my entire life too, but I found that I really enjoyed this.

The author mixes comedy, drama, dysfunction, emotion, loss, and some beats from the time in which each were written. He does so in a way that still reads like things you would hear in actual messages, they were all believable. The funny ones especially, are ones I would love to actually hear on my phone for real.

Check this out for something different and quick! Personally a 5/5*

Gave this a go on audible, and the narration by Tom Jordan was pretty solid.

I could tell within the first few chapters of this one that the writing felt a notch up. It read professional, with a clear voice, and wicked fast direction. The POVs and twirling timeframes keep you on the edge of your seat, and I was hooked to it in a way that I haven’t felt lately. While I’ve finished some other reads in between/since, I think this one started pulling me up out of the kind of slump I was forming. The Goosebumps-esque (but adult) cliffhanger chapter endings certainly helped.

A successful podcaster is looking into a mysterious past with sparse notes found in his uncle’s journal. Strangely, the story unravels itself, and other than him being a clever character and the vessel for some of the backstory, he wasn’t really a necessary character. But on the few occasions the story slows down, he gets the ball moving again, so it works out fine.

A story of mistrust, mistreatment, jealousy, and deceit, Head Like a Hole, is a powerhouse of revenge and regret. Not without its supernatural elements, the novel morphs more than once on what the reader can expect. Kind of like mixing the murder mystery side of a slasher with something tainted like the Ring or the Grudge. The novel has more than its far share of characters, but there are a few that have pretty flat desires/actions. The author does a pretty solid job of reigning it in to close it all up though. And I will definitely check out more by the author.