“It’s just more satisfying to think that he died out of a deep, soul-wrenching despair rather than garden-variety cowardice.”
Type 5 Armageddon Hellspawn, batter up! Gory, violent, and entertaining, Lucy Snyder hits a home run!
Shudder. Maybe because I have been binge watching Criminal Minds, but that felt real in an unsightly way.
Only Bruises Are Permanent by Scott Edelman ★★★★☆
Oh my, that was disturbing. It reminded me of Crash (1996), about finding out about yourself in socially unacceptable ways. She enjoys seeing herself damaged, of the world viewing her as a victim. It’s powerful, a twisted secret, a dark desire.
Matryoshka by Joanna Parypinski ★★★★☆
Ooh, that was delightfully creepy. The selfish depressed daughter destroying her mother was not original but that twist ending was worth the investment. Doesn’t everyone expect a monster in the attic?
Paper Doll Hyperplane by R.B. Payne ★★★★☆
“He is a powerless god, living forever, but hardly alive.”
A mad scientist turned serial killer gets a nasty karmic surprise.
The Making of Asylum Ophelia by Mercedes M. Yardley ★★★★☆
A life of enforcement fairytales, solitude, and madness verses a life of Walmart - “Ophelia. Help.”
Frankenstein’s Daughter by Theodora Goss ★★★★☆
She looked at me with astonishment, then burst out laughing. “You take care of me? You cannot even take care of yourself.”
She looked at me with astonishment, then burst out laughing. “You take care of me? You cannot even take care of yourself.”
Told mostly by an old friend of Victor Frankenstein, this nonetheless has a feel of The Athena Club about it.
“Nothing scares the world more than a little backwater country with a weapon.”
The narrator goes his whole life carrying his father’s nightmare. He aggrandizes the Kursattar robot, personally and academically, actually seeing it should have been cathartic - but it wasn’t. That was disappointing to him and the reader.
Spectral Evidence by Victor LaValle ★★★½☆☆
A psychic is haunted by her dead daughter’s lonely voice.
A psychic is haunted by her dead daughter’s lonely voice.
Butcher’s Blend by Brian Hodge ★★★☆☆
With an awkward combination of blunt appeal and gory allusion Hodge champions individuality over despotic conformity.
You Are My Neighbor by Max Booth III ★★★☆☆
Demon mummy! I wish there had been more parental explanation/ justification but it was spooky if sad.
Imperfect Clay by Lisa Morton ★★★☆☆
College level Hogwart’s magic conjures a gorgeous Golem - she is still not happy. Magic and men can’t make you happy. You make you happy. Thank you self-help books.
College level Hogwart’s magic conjures a gorgeous Golem - she is still not happy. Magic and men can’t make you happy. You make you happy. Thank you self-help books.
No Eradicated in You by Bracken MacLeod ★★★☆☆
A troubled teenager conjures a demon to takeover the role of her mother. I don’t think this will work out for anyone.
A troubled teenager conjures a demon to takeover the role of her mother. I don’t think this will work out for anyone.
Resurrection Points by Usman T. Malik ★★★☆☆
“There are no sides. Only live and hate.”
In a city being torn apart by religious hatred a boy discovers he can create zombies. Not sure where this was going, it ended without a cause.
Umbra Sum by Kristi DeMeester ★★★☆☆
I’m not sure if they were all ghosts or if none of them were ghosts. How remarkably strange!
Ode to Joad the Toad by Laird Barron DNF
I see what Lovecraftian fun they were trying here, and I commend Lovecraftian fun, but they lost the plot early on. Or I did. Or there was none.
A Heart Arrhythmia Creeping into a Dark Room by Michael Wehunt DNF
I was ok an ok meta story about a writer scaring himself that descended into stream-of-consciousness nonsense.
Sounds Caught in Cobwebs by M.E. Bronstein DNF
Lost interest in whatever this was.
Brains by Ramsey Campbell Skip
I lost interest immediately.
I lost interest immediately.
I read 15/19 stories that averaged 3.56 which I will round down to 3 due to the four DNFs.
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