Horrors! 365 Scary Stories – A Full Year of Horror
02/18/2017 – 02/24/2017
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.
Each day I’ll be reading one story per day with a weekly wrap-up on Fridays. If you missed the first post you can find it here.
The first one up is one of my favorites so let’s get started!
Christmas with the Count – Ian McDowell
(I’m going to caution you that I do spoil the ending a little bit. I couldn’t help myself.)
Synopsis:
After Anne Rice’s success with ‘The Interview with the Vampire’, the most famous of all vampires gives his own interview. The cost for the interview, however, is the interviewer’s own induction into the vampire club. They talk a bit about Stoker, Oscar Wilde and what the movies got right and wrong. At the end they go out to snack upon some carloers because, after all, “They are celebrating his birth”.
Review:
I loved, loved, loved this story. The twist at the end made me gape at it, then giggle.
Circles of Purgatory – Sandra Hutchinson
Synopsis:
A man sitting alone by the telephone, waiting for the call that comes every night. She calls every night, the night of her suicide. He finishes the cycle by making his nightly call.
Review:
It’s very well-written and very sad. Very good story.
Claws – John B. Rosenman
Synopsis:
After impulsively murdering his boss, Jacobs receives a swift lesson in karma and reincarnation.
Review:
I don’t think reincarnation would work quite that fast but it was an entertaining read nonetheless.
Cold Comfort – Lillian Csernica
Synopsis:
A recently separated man finds a mirror on the beach. While reminiscing on fairy tales and magic mirrors, the owner of the mirror comes to claim it. And only one type of woman would leave a smoky mirror on a beach.
Review:
An interesting story and I liked the fairy tale element to it. I think the curse was a little unfair. Technically she’s the one who broke the damn thing.
Cold Moon – Judy L. Tucker
Synopsis:
A girl goes out for her vision quest with her Native American friend, Bear Claw. However, the woods at night can be a dangerous place.
Review:
Just ok. The plot was a little iffy but I do love a good were-bear story.
The Collector – Linda J. Dunn
Synopsis:
Karen is tired of living in a hoarder’s nightmare. She tries to leave her husband, Bob. But once a collector, always a collector.
Review:
Not too bad but it was pretty easy to see where it was going.
Collector of Rugs – Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Synopsis:
A man who collects only the rarest of rugs is teased because there is one rug he cannot possess. He makes the mistake of desiring this rarest of rugs at the cost of all of his prized rugs. Be careful what you wish for.
Review:
Very good story with a nice twist ending. I saw part of it coming but not the rest.
Favorite of the Week:
Most definitely the Christmas with the Count. I loved the story and I loved the ending. Especially because it actually makes a bit of sense when you think about it.
That’s all for this week’s does of horror! I hope you’ll join me again next week for another weekly round of horror plus February’s tally for the repeat writers.
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