Zraitor
A man with an illness in his stomach that no doctor can cure seeks out expensive alternative treatment.
Another short story that feels longer than it is, this one is just a bunch of doctor visits with the main character's inner dialogue. It reaches interesting a few times, but never good.
This can in no way be considered horror, Derrick spends most of the book happy and thinking things might just get better. I know the end is terrible, but it is more like a bad punchline to even worse joke.
I was left feeling bored, and frustrated, and with lots of questions. Not in the good weird story way, more in the that was so dumb and makes no sense if you think about it for a second kind of way.
A girl coming of age finds refuge from ALL EVIL MEN with feral cats, but when she loses the one she brings into her home she becomes darker and darker.
Some serious men-hating in this one told me it was just the main character's POV at first, but that got harder and harder to believe as it went on. All the characters besides Mia are just there to be there, and have no real personality and only do things to advance what little plot there is.
But mostly, it was just boring. Every time it got remotely interesting, it'd just drag out the point and beat it to death. Boys like boobs... men are bad... got it, move on to some story already... By the time it gets to the obvious end, I wasn't scared or saddened, or anything other than relieved it was finally over.
On the run from both the police and an abusive lover, a woman checks into a motel where things aren't quite right.
The writing is great in this one, Eve's thoughts on her situation, her bad relationship, and the mystery around her are all interesting and thought out.
Everything's described well, the motel and its surrounding are fleshed out, and feel real. Its emptiness, animal wood carvings, and the fog about give it that creepy horror setting. Oh, and of course, a woman's voice screaming in the night...
There are two stories here, with her hiding out in the motel, and what happened before she arrived there. The pace quickens in the end with the jumping back and forth between stories and gives a bit of welcome suspense with not her knowing what is real, and the truth being revealed to her.
If you've read/watched enough horror, you'll know whats going on immediately, but it's unlikely you'll care cause it's done so well.
A sleepover grows “deadly” as the children imagine crazier and crazier things.
Starts out strong with the dialogue between the two boys at the start, and there is a bit of suspense with the spider being real or not .. but when the girls come into the room the story just gets outta control and hard to follow. I stopped bothering to try and make sense of things and just powered on to finish the story.
The Harry Potter references were just awful for me, as someone who isn't into that. A few would be fine, but just over and over... ugh. One line made me cringe and groan out loud... “Ian shrugged Ianly.” Come on...
I still have no idea what happened, if any of it was real, or their imagination, and I just didn't like it enough to ponder anymore about it.
Jumping back from 1982 and 2016 on Halloween night, we see a prank gone wrong and its effects on a town and the girls that took part.
Nothing is very well described here, and the characters all feel like they exist and think and do the things they do just to make up the plot and do not resemble real characters themselves.
I'm being somewhat lenient on it cause it is a short story, and I definitely liked the general idea of it. But it is pretty barebones, and some of the reviews say they didn't see the ending coming, which I find very hard to believe.
For being free (amazon prime members) and short, it is okay for a quick read.
A, B, A, C, A, B, B
Most of these stories hit you hard and fast with the gore, which goes great with the gaming theme. There are a lot of authors here so you should find something to like, while any collection is usually a “mixed bag”, I found them all to be good, if not great.
Up, Down, Left, Right, A + Start:
This collection has fifteen stories so we'd be here all day if I talked about them all and in detail but to do a few quick,
Centralia - Creepy location makes the story, and anyone who plays a mobile game isn't a real gamer and has it coming (kidding!)
Dr. Coagulant's Splatter Lab - Fun, action-heavy story. Chain-Saw is awesome. If you played Splatterhouse you know this captures it well.
I'm A Good Person, I Mean Well, and I Deserve Better-Sure you have your gore, character insights, and imaginative video game monsters come to life, but mostly you'll laugh at the bathroom bits.
Reset - This one gets a mention for some of the most wonderfully described gore/violence I've read. Really dark and well-done story.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
So, if you're a gamer or horror fan, this will be a great time for you. Lots of variety, interesting scenarios, and a cool cover.
The third collection by J. R. Hamantaschen. If you've read the others you know what to expect more of, if not start at the first, or quickly turn the other way and think happy thoughts.
He continues his great character work, always wanting to know what makes people tick, how they think, everything. You get to know them, and enjoy them, then remember, oh yes, something terrible is sure to happen to them, or by them.
The stories have a fair bit of variety, ghosts, psychic powers, various mental issues, hints of Lovecraftian monsters lurking in the background, and something that will make you fear public restrooms if you didn't already! Throughout it, all is a dark humor and fun imagination.
I want to be able to talk more about the stories themselves, but it is rather difficult as they are more about the character's thoughts, and observations then mere plot. For example, Rococo Veins and Lurid Stains is about Kristen, a young woman who wants to kill herself, finds her suicidal thoughts attract ghosts who want to trade her life for their own, so they may come back. That is the plot, sure, but it's not really that simple. Summaries won't do most of the stories justice, it's more about getting inside the character's heads, experiencing it for yourself, seeing how you relate to what is going on and thinking about the implications of everything. That being said though, plenty of it is dark and violent, so don't relate too much!
He says in his introduction “For fans of mine, I view this collection as a fitting endpoint and an encapsulation of the themes and motifs I've explored in my short fiction (particularly with the last story in this collection: hopefully that's enough of an impetus to get you to read the whole book!)” I really couldn't put it better. No really, he's very wordy, did I forget to mention that? But don't worry, your kindle doesn't judge you when you look up definitions.
He is right when he mocks “hyperbolic introductions”, this won't blow your mind or cure cancer, but it's just well written, and worth your time.
In the Secret of the Sahara, scientists and military from several countries investigate part of the seafloor that has suddenly parted. I'm sure you know what is down there, but it is still great fun. Luckily for them, one awesome cat happens to be part of the ship that takes them to the opening. Directly quoting here, “But this was no gentle pussy. My Lady Bast had been transformed into a warrior-goddess and she was not so quick to resume her domestic mien.”
The Turret is about Parker Lorentzen, sent to Old Severnford to see about the problems of a system there. His boss says if a problem can't be fixed by him, it can't be fixed... Strange dream visits to a turret that resemble a glowing face, weird townsfolk,... uncomfortable distant cousin kissing... Pretty imaginative story.
Unfortunately, it drags in the middle, with The Devil's Hop Yard and the Documents In The Case of Elizabeth Akeley. I had to stop and start three or four times to get through each of these, they are slow, and I found them confusing. They were not completely terrible, however.
The next story Brackish Waters is almost the same, but I found it won me over in the end due to the transformation being so pleasantly described by the character, despite how awful one would think it would be.
The writing is great throughout, even in the stories that didn't click with me, and in addition to these you get a look at Dunwich after the events of 1928, a couple caught in a storm, a “giant spider” lurking about, cults, a Sherlock Holmes story, and a story set in the future, where Yuggoth has been found and is near .. Worth the read.
A good weird collection, but not very well named... Only a few of the stories are about world-ending scenarios. The description tries to skirt this by saying “Every hour is someone's private armageddon.”, but that doesn't work for me. We all have our things that we nitpick, and there's one of mine.
Every story is very well written, but when I say weird... I really mean it. Sometimes it was hard to decipher what is going on. The author is great at creating bizarre settings. As usual in weird stories, not knowing what is really going on leads to a great amount of lingering creepiness but also frustration and annoyance since you never get to truly know.
A lot of the stories have repeating themes. Being a killer running in the family genes and factory workers or just the common working man are the main ones. Oh, and the color blue. Usually, when a color is mentioned it is blue. Blue blue blue blue blue. There was still a wide variety of stories with these things in mind.
So, even though most of the stories aren't about doomsdays, and the characters often act wildly over the top and don't always seem realistic, and the weirdness is hard to make sense of sometimes this was a good read. The imagination and great writing make up for it.
It starts off really strong with The Deadman's Gift, which is a great story and incredibly sad. It's also a complete punch to the gut at the end but eh.
Unfortunately, after that, I wasn't too into this collection. Too many of them are morality tales that I just didn't agree with or what read like power fantasies where a guy had some special ability and was so awesome and different and that usually impresses some woman that was almost always described the same with a ‘coke bottle body'. There are also all these weird Gurus in the tales and I just didn't understand what that was all about.
There was also a lot of being chased through the forest by creatures where you can only see the hands. Several stories had groups of people telling fantasy tales to each other which were mostly OK.
Now don't get me wrong I enjoyed the writing and I still liked most of the character work outside what I already mentioned. I just didn't find this as fun and interesting as the other things I have read from the author. (The Devil's Game and Twisted Fantasies.)
A little too repetitive and didn't click with me but I'm sure there are others who would like it more than me.
Really quickly told side stories from the Fallen tales the author has written.
The artwork was nice and I loved the silly dark humor advertisements that randomly popped up.
It bounced around a few sets of main characters and was mainly just an introduction to their stories. The plots were the usual stuff of morals gone wrong in the apocalyptic setting but we'll see where it all goes.
The author's minimalist writing style worked well for this format and it was worth the quick read.
Ignore those forced and unnecessary blurbs invoking the names of popular horror writers on the store page; this one is good enough to stand on its own.
Noelle Blackwood is offered a lot of money to ghostwrite for another popular author. The job involves her checking into a creepy hotel though and her room is some weird forest theme and includes a sex swing. Err.
The story must include the devil for a reason you probably already know, and while researching a new and exciting way to portray him she muses about all sorts of meta thoughts about struggling authors and religion in general. She also has many brainstorming sessions with herself that include the author she is ghostwriting for actually being there and talking to her, which is really odd and over the top.
In between flirting with the bellhop, throwing ice buckets at drones that spy on the hotel and other strange happenings around the area she is staying in she manages to get a first draft done. Then just when this is getting too meta and cutesy and I was wondering what the point was, the story kicks it up and includes some insane and vivid imagery that makes this fun and wild. The reveal of what is going on is awesome too but you'll have to see for yourself. Check it out.
An interesting concept - An event happens all over the world that causes people to develop magical abilities. These range from completely useless to insanely powerful and are varied.
Lorna Donovan the main character can read minds, but not control that in the beginning. Her abilities become much more powerful in her battle against Doctor Raoul von Rached who has similar powers. Both are rather prideful and stubborn individuals and you get a what happens when an immovable object meets an irresistible force thing going on in their back and forth encounters.
Rached runs a facility that kidnaps these people, named the Cursed for his usually unethical experiments. He uses his psychic powers in some truly awful ways to get what he wants.
The story has many characters and all are well done and developed. The bulk of it follows Lorna and Rached's point of views. Otherwise, it is just jam-packed with constant action and filling out the lore of what is going on that seems rich and has a lot to it.
It definitely felt a little too long and has way too many experiment on patient scenes when I felt the point was established and I was hoping the story would progress. I'm not docking any points because I know it is a long series and it needs to set things up and I tend to get impatient about these things.
Lots of action, great characters, interesting lore... a promising start to series.
A good collection of horror shorts with variety and little repeating themes. At the end of each story, the author has a little explanation for them.
Beginning with “Addict”, I was worried that I picked a bad collection. It's told from a second-person point of view, which I'm always a little iffy about. I'm fine with it for really short stories but here it's a bit too long and too specific. I didn't feel it worked and it was hard to get through it. I did however like the plot, even if it was a bit confusing. A sex addict finally seeks help, and after watching a self-help program he begins to see illusions of women trying to get him to relapse. Of course with the author's explanation afterward, I understood, he wanted “You” to stand for all addicts, but it doesn't make the story any easier to read in my opinion.
“I'm Going To Be The Next James Bond” has a group of kids going into an abandoned building thought to be haunted. They of course run into trouble, and the ghosts were well done and creepy and I liked how non PC the dialogue was. The story gets the name because the main character loves action movies, going so far as wanting to become the next James Bond...
“In The Lady Ogre's Den” is about an autistic boy in a hospital who is tortured by a nurse and sees a black death wolf. You're never left to understand what is actually real, but you will feel for the boy. It's a really good and sad story. My favorite of the collection.
“The Quiet Game”, the story that the collection gets its name from, is the longest and it's really good. At St. Dunstan's School for Girls one day everyone wakes up and realizes they can't hear anything at all. While trying to figure out what is going on, a person named RGF hijacks the PowerPoint presentation and says they are all playing his game, the Quiet Game. It's a good back and forth mystery, and deals with the corruption of religious officials.
Ending with “Samson Weiss's Curse” we have a ghost revenge story that I wasn't really able to get into. A senator on the campaign trail suffers from escalating harassment and weird things until well... It's OK but the storyline has been done to death. The senator was a good character at least.
All in all, it's a worthwhile read and a good debut for the author.
An extremely inconsistent horror collection with a hellish theme...
This one has just such insane highs - Face of An Angel, a husband and wife getaway on vacation while they slowly realize something is wrong with their daughter... The reader always knows, but the slow reveals are just so well done. It's extremely well written and the characters are great.
And the lows - Depraved Collective, it starts out well enough, but the main character dies quickly and goes to hell, and then has a weird sex scene with a nine-foot-tall Satan and yeah I'm done with that. It's just awkward and frustrating. It reads more like some erotic fantasy thing and I can't imagine anyone picked up a horror collection wanting that... But to each their own, of course.
Most of the rest just wildly throw out ideas and don't really hit the mark with writing that didn't always work and just generally reading more like fanfiction of better horror stories, or weird fantasy stories that didn't feel like actual horror. There's one other one I really liked, Icarus Ascending, and a few other OK ones but it's a big collection and I didn't find most of it to be very good. I also found plenty of typos, grammar issues, and missing punctuation. Only my stupid stubbornness saw me through this one.
If you have Kindle Unlimited then maybe borrow it to check out Face Like An Angel and Icarus Ascending, both good stories deserving of being in a better collection. Otherwise, stay out of this hell.
A collection of short stories about love, relationships, and romance that are all dark, uncomfortable, and/or violent.
Most of the stories seemed more concerned with catching the mood and emotions of the characters than having much plot, but since they are very well written I still enjoyed them. The Scent does this the best, the main character is just longing to know what happened to the woman he was once with, and what would have become of them if they had stayed together.
Several of the others feature darker characters, whether it is hidden or not. Infidelity, violent acts, manipulation... The author's love of dark and twisted characters is all here, with a bit more subtlety to it.
The story Decision deals with some language that made me feel pretty uncomfortable, as one character's racism was on full display. It's a good tale of forbidden love although it pretty much goes how anyone reading it will think it goes.
The stories sometimes end abruptly so that may annoy some. Also, they aren't big on plot but focus instead on the character's thoughts and desires. But I feel they accomplish what the author set out to do.
->I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.
A man runs an experiment at his supposedly haunted house with three college students who believe they are there for some ghost finding. He actually just wants to manipulate them and prove that God and the supernatural of any kind aren't real.
All three students have to write a journal entry after each night giving us several perspectives to see through. This is what makes the book great as I was dying to know what the craziness looked like to each person every time. It really had me hooked and kept me reading through.
As the game goes on he becomes increasingly unhinged as he tries to railroad the experiment to the results he wants and crazy things are going on all around that he may or may not be in control of. I was constantly asking myself whether or not this actually was just psychological horror and this man's sick game, or perhaps something more is going on?
This wondering also makes it so fun. I was all over the place with different theories and I was just begging to myself the outcome be one that was satisfying. Thankfully it was and all things wrap up to an unsettling conclusion.
The author's usual themes are there: religion, serial killers, and just a love of psychological horror. This presents them in a new intelligent way but still with the same gore and nightmarish scenes. There are also some cameos from his previous work, Red Town Lost being the main one.
With grounded characters but over-the-top horror, this was an amazing read. What could have just been a gimmick, the changing perspectives give this story a constantly fresh feeling. Check it out.
A short story but it manages to build tension and suspense quite well. You get a little character development in there too.
The horror bits get a little predictable and I didn't care for the witch and __ stuff as a personal taste thing. (So disregard if you are into that, I just usually find it annoying.) The psychological aspects made up for it though in my opinion.
It is not overly gory but there are certainly disturbing images in it. (Animal violence!) Otherwise, it's just well written throughout and worth the read.
While this is filled with great writing I didn't find it enjoyable to read at all. The story was far too abstract and moves about with little sense from scene to scene and each chapter only served to confuse me more. This kind of writing would have been okay for a little of a story but not the whole thing.
There was a lot of descriptive writing and metaphors and it seemed to be about a person's journey of self-discovery. But during talk about possession, fighting various strange creatures, all while reminiscing about relationships with family it lost me fairly quickly.
While far from terrible and interesting at times this simply wasn't for me and I had to force myself through starting at about halfway. The writing style made it feel about ten times longer than it was to me which didn't help things.
Throw in every private eye trope and the author's usual writing and you get this one. It's not the most exciting but it was well written and kept me reading.
A lot of it was clearly recycled into the Derek Adams stories as I remember reading entire passages that were in those in this as well. Those have the advantage of having all sorts of supernatural and other weirdness in them here though, the mystery in this is centered around golf. And like the main character, golf never interested me.
The character work is good and John Royle is a great main character. Of course, that's because he is just the same as Derek Adams and even has similar friends and a pub he goes to. The town itself was brought to life and made out almost to be a character as usual in a setting from the author.
So as we go along with the twist and turns and endless crazy characters, most with over the top Scottish accents, we stop an end I didn't entirely agree with or see the point of. But it was a fun ride getting there. This was worth the read as I enjoy the author's writing and ability to make things just fun.