Horrors! A Full Year of Horror #30

Horrors! 365 Scary Stories – A Full Year of Horror

07/29/2017 – 08/04/2017

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.

Night Train – Bob Morrish

Synopsis:
Willie has been riding the rails for a very long time. Dodging yard bosses, grabbing work when he can. Tonight he might finally be a legitimate passenger. For a very long time.

Review:
The story was pretty nice, actually. You really felt sympathetic for Willie and I was a little pleased that his story ended well.

Nightmares – Linda J. Dunn

Synopsis:
Jenny keeps having dreams of her ex-husband. An abusive alcoholic. Jenny also dreams of being still married to him. Today she’ll find out which is a dream. And which is the real nightmare.

Review:
An excellent story that managed to pack two twists into a two-page story. And they’re good twists.

Nikola, Moonstruck – Lisa Morton

Synopsis:
With the murders that keep happening, Nikola is convinced that there’s a werewolf to blame. His neighbors laugh at him, telling him that it’s the twentieth century and wolfmen don’t exist. They’re right. There isn’t a wolfman.

Review:
A fun little werewolf story, even if it is a little obvious from the start just who the werewolf really is.

No Pain – Lyn Nichols

Synopsis:
There’s a new drug that Lonny is dying to try. The dealer promises ‘No pain’. But what happens when you feel no pain…at all.

Review:
A bit creepier than I had anticipated. Usually it’s the drug itself that is the horror, not it’s side effects. And bugs should never go into people. Ever.

No Strings Attached – David Niall Wilson

Synopsis:
All the children want to see Miss Lily’s marionettes. If she’s sometimes cruel to the dwarf who takes the tickets that’s his business. But things behind the stage curtain are not always what they seem. Sometimes you can’t always see the strings.

Review:
Oh my god what a creepy story. Marionettes are always a little freaky but this story actually prickled my scalp a bit.

Novice – A.M. Dellamonica

Synopsis:
Requiem Chaos is a bar where the dead and undead, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and zombies can relax and have a drink. And on Halloween there’s always the possibility of a newcomer.

Review:
Great story! I would love to see this as an actual book. But the short story works well, too. It packs a bit more of a punch and gives it more of an eerie feel to it.

The Number You Have Reached – Brian McNaughton

Synopsis:
A man keeps getting wrong numbers all morning. Finally, he rips his answering machine out of the wall and threatens the life of his phone. His phone decides to get even.

Review:
I’m honestly not sure about this story. I liked it at first, the guy’s answers to the wrong numbers were very entertaining. But the end…I’m really not sure if he died, got trapped by his phone or is going crazy.

Favorite of the Week:
Most certainly and most positively No Strings Attached by David Niall Wilson. It actually gave me the creeps. For a more fun selection though, it would have to be Novice by A.M. Dellamonica. I’m tempted to look up this writer and see if they expanded on this idea at all or faded into Writer Oblivion. I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for joining us and come back next week for a round of spooky tales to keep you up at night!