Horrors! 365 Scary Stories – A Full Year of Horror
03/11/2017 – 03/17/2017
The horror short-short isn’t easy to master, but more than 100 of the genre’s critically acclaimed authors & hottest up-&-comers have taken a stab at it in Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, an anthology that contains a short tale for every day of the year. Steve Rasnic Tem, Wm F. Nolan, Tom Piccirilli, Yvonne Navarro, Peter Atkins, Brian Hodge, Martin Mundt & 166 others give you short, sharp shocks.
If you missed the first post you can find it here.
Well, we’re really getting into it now, aren’t we? I can feel you holding my hand but not quite so tight, if you please. Wait. That’s not your hand?
Death Certificate – Scott A. Cupp
Synopsis:
Tom receives an official Death Certificate for his birthday. He passes it off as a gag gift but his wife takes it very seriously. As well they should have.
Review:
A very good story. A little bit of Twilight Zone and a bit of Ambrose Bierce’s The Damned Thing.
Death Clown – Wayne Allen Sallee
Synopsis:
Death comes along for the ride on Jimbo’s last birthday engagement. But Jimbo has been dealing in death for quite some time now.
Review:
It was well-written and I can’t fault the author just because I didn’t find the story appealing. I’ll just say that some people might like and others not so much. It also reminded me a bit of Stephen King’s ‘Morning Deliveries’ from Skeleton Crew.
Death for Death – Kevin Andrew Murphy & Lillian Csernica
Synopsis:
A sorcerer, Doctor Carlon attempts to enact an ancient power. Life for life. Death for death. And behind it all, Vengeance.
Review:
A very good dark fantasy story. It sounds as though the sorcerer is claiming to right a wrong it also seems as though there may be political motivations behind his “helpfulness”.
The Death of Love – Adam-Troy Castro
Synopsis:
A wave sweeps the nation, taking away love and hatred in one swift blow. Some of the effects are horrific, some are actually beneficial (sort of). It also reveals to one couple how barren their lives were before the apocalypse of love and hate.
Review:
This was a great story and a perfect example of good flash fiction. The first part gives you the necessary details and some specific examples of how that would affect the world. It’s very realistic and quite horrifying. The second part is no less horrifying but on a more microscopic level.
December – Steve Rasnic Tem
Synopsis:
During a particularly extreme December ‘Those Who Were in Charge’ find frozen bodies littering the streets. Unreported, disturbing bodies. As the bleakness wears off there are more murders bu no bodies.
Review:
I’m not too sure what I think about this one. I liked it all the way up to the end but then the last couple of sentences threw it off. It left a lot of questions at the last second. Sometimes I don’t mind that but this was one of those times that it just left me confused and a little irritated. If anyone else reads it and gets it, please let me know. I’d be curious to know what other people think about it.
Demon Bender – Tina L. Jens
Synopsis:
A demon goes on a blood bender and takes a dog for a joyride around the house.
Review:
Pretty amusing but I really don’t think the very last line was necessary.
Demon Tears (Adapted from a Japanese Myth) – Gordon Linzner
Synopsis:
A monk meets a weeping oni on the road the monk tries to help. The oni tells of his life and why he is weeping. From the oni’s tale the monk decides it would be judicious to remove himself from the area.
Review:
Slightly horrifying but with a bit touch of humour at the end. I liked it quite a lot and now I’m curious to read the original. I want to know if it’s just been translated or if anything has been changed.
Favorite of the Week:
I think I’m going to have to go with Death Certificate by Scott A. Cupp. It was a good story with a nice twist at the end. A little ambiguous of an ending but in a good way. I also really liked Demon Tears by Gordon Linzner as well.
Join me again next week for more stories, hopefully with no clowns. That’s two weeks in a row with clowns. I smell a clownspiracy.
I like the sound of most of these. Death Certificate and The Death Of Love really intrigue me.