Two Eyes Open

Two Eyes Open is a horror collection of sixteen stories featuring mostly psychological horror, only a few have supernatural elements. Here the people are secretly bad or becoming so getting revenge on others. Most of them I did like, but their short length hurt them a lot in my eyes. They all start out great, but then have to end suddenly and ruins the tension that was built up leaving me to think .. OK .. next story then .. Surely this is a problem in most short stories but it really stood out here to me. I'll talk about the ones I liked best.

Rage - A woman begins to see a ghost, and as her mental problems dealing with this escalate she discovers the real problem in this house... It's very well written with great inner dialogue. The subject matter was dealt with intelligently and was never insulting to anyone like most stories like this would have done.

Ursula – A man finds the missing love of his life in a mental institution and tries to see her. After being refused he takes matters into his own hands, breaking into it. Like Rage the mental issues are handled well and with more great inner dialogue in a story that keeps you guessing till the end.

The First Snowfall – A couple who every year try to find a house that only appears on the first snowfall of every year, finally do so. It supposedly holds some great treasure within. Bridgette is very manipulative and controlling towards Joshua but the power within the house causes some changes in this dynamic...Just really well written, and the supernatural story elements were great.

Show Cooking – Cannibal Edition – Prepare yourselves for some gore. Lots of it. After offering to help an old lady struggling with her groceries home, a young man finds she has a man tied up in her home. Brandishing a knife, she tells him to watch her cut him up and prepare him as a meal or she'll do the same to him. Wonderful descriptions of gore if you like that kind of thing. (I do.)

The Boats – Graciela, a Mexican-American girl is bounced around families and homes after her parents die. After finally finding a stable home she becomes friends with a girl, who treats her well despite how others don't. Offering to get Graciela a job as a maid, she instead betrays her and sends her to her father to be pimped out sparking a great and brutal revenge tale.

Mostly a well-written collection, some stories ended a bit abruptly in my opinion though. A few touched on some social issues, which while didn't bother me I felt they fell a bit flat. Worth reading overall.