Horrors! 365 Scary Stories – A Full Year of Horror
04/08/2017 – 04/14/2017
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.
Step into my parlor my dear and have some tea. It’s not poisoned. I promise.
Engorged Pereute – Lois H. Green
Synopsis:
A poor little bullied moth waits patiently to get even.
Review:
A good story and I feel bad for the poor little moth. I think they’re just as pretty as butterflies. A little more annoying at night though.
Erosion Road – Gary A. Braunbeck
Synopsis:
Emerson walks down a quite literal highway to hell. Road signs point out attractions along the way, such as Necrophiliac Defiling Grave – 100 Feet Ahead.
Review:
Great story. It’s freaky and interesting but Mr. Braunbeck’s work usually is.
The Evil Dark – Gary Jonas
Synopsis:
A little boy afraid of the evil in the dark sleeps with the lights on. But what happens when a thunderstorm knocks the power out?
Review:
A good story with a small twist at the end. It encapsulates the terror kids feel when they’re scared of the dark.
Extract – Brian Hodge
Synopsis:
A Tooth Demon visits a boy nightly. If he can only learn the Tooth Demon’s name perhaps he’ll leave him alone.
Review:
Yikes! This story made my teeth want to crawl up into my gums. Teeth are always a tender point with most people and the thought of getting a tooth wrenched out for a buck under your pillow is not pleasant at all.
Eyes Like Diamonds in a Subway Tunnel – Edward Gaillard
Synopsis:
A man with a woman in the trunk anticipates the pleasure of adding her to his collection. Then things get weird.
Review:
I seriously am very confused about this extremely brief story. I have no idea what the title means, nor if they’re actually butterfly and spider people or if it’s just metaphor.
Fall of Man – Graham P. Collins
Synopsis:
A man in a dream falls and falls through space and time. Straight into his own future.
Review:
That would be horrible. To fall from your youth right into old age. Although, it somewhat feels like that’s what happens anyways. One day you’re sixteen, you blink and you’re thirty, you fall and you’re seventy.
Fashion Victim – Martin Mundt
Synopsis:
A clothing boutique only serves a very specific clientele. It’s clothing is to die for.
Review:
I loved this story! It was darkly humorous. It will make you panic a bit the next time you’re caught in a tight shirt or zip your jeans a little carelessly.
Favorite of the Week:
It would have to be a tie between Erosion Road by Gary A. Braunbeck and Fashion Victim by Martin Mundt. Erosion Road is dark and bleak, which makes Fashion Victim stand out that much the more. I like both ends of the spectrum. Erosion Road is a bit casual in it’s telling that almost sublimates the horror of it, but not quite. Fashion Victim is a cute, funny, tongue in cheek horror that made me giggle. And fear my hoodie.
Join me again next week and we’ll see where the dark and twisted path of stories takes us.
