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Short Fiction Review: “Mutter” by Jess Landry

“Mutter” by Jess Landry (in Fantastic Tales of Terror: History’s Dark Secrets edited by Eugene Johnson)

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1644679685

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

“Mutter” is the hands-down favorite of most reviewers in this star-filled anthology. They are dead on with this opinion, as the story is written with a fine style that draws attention to it from the first paragraph. In this Crystal Lake collection, authors retold major events in history, usually with a supernatural element, or at least a strong sense of horror. Many evoke the best of The Twilight Zone series, with takes on societal and historical notions that should be dealt with, yet are often swept under the rug. Landry does something special with her pair of characters, who board the Hindenburg, and ultimately have a role in how the zeppelin crashes on that fateful day. The characters make the horrific gears go, and her execution here is perfect. Hopefully, readers will be seeing a lot more of Landry’s work in the near future.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

 

Editor’s note: “Mutter” is a nominee on the final ballot of the 2018 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in Short Fiction. Typically Monster Librarian does not review anything shorter than novella-length, but we are making an exception for the Stoker Awards.

 

Posted on May 4, 2019 by , Reply

Short Fiction Review: “The Devil’s Throat” by Rena Mason

“The Devil’s Throat” by Rena Mason (in Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terrors edited by Lee Murray)

Adrenaline Press, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-940095-94-3

Availability: paperback, ebook

 

‘The Devil’s Throat” plunges the reader into an undersea volcano called the Devil’s Throat.  A team of scientists working from a floating research station near the volcano loses contact with one of their members while diving in the Throat.  They struggle to find out what happened to the missing scientist, and have to contend with the military showing up and trying to take over the rescue operation, for reasons of their own.

The best part of the story is the setting and the monsters.  For undersea monsters, authors have used sharks, snakes, and jellyfish, but…sea cucumbers?  That has to be a first, using those harmless looking things as creatures that are attracted to blood and attack humans.  The setting is also very good.  The Throat isn’t just a cylinder, it’s honeycombed with passages in its walls that provide additional chambers and dive holes for the characters to venture into.   While the scientists and military people are facing off within the volcano walls, the cucumbers are also an element that both sides must contend with.  The idea may sound silly, but the author takes it seriously and makes it entertaining, and it all caps off with two of the most perfectly written sentences to end a story.

The story is well-written in third person, and delivers good entertainment within its nineteen pages.  It’s a story that may well leave the reader clamoring for more, as there are plenty of plot devices in the narrative that could have been developed further.  Little detail is given involving the military experiments at the bottom of the Throat, or the genetic modifications done to the sea cucumbers.  This is worth the read, and would probably make an excellent basis for a much longer story or full length novel, as the material quality is good enough to provide the basis for one.  Recommended.

 

Editor’s note: “The Devil’s Throat” is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Short Fiction. Monster Librarian does not typically review individual short stories, and this is an exception made specifically because of its inclusion on the Stoker Awards final ballot. 

 

Contains: mild violence

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on April 28, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Halloween Carnival: Volume 3 edited by Brian James Freeman

Halloween Carnival: Volume 3 edited by Brian James Freeman

Random House Publishing Group – Hydra, 2017

ISBN-13: 9780399182051

Available: Kindle ebook

Halloween Carnival: Volume 3 is another installment to Freeman’s anthology collection  with five more tales of horror associated with my favorite holiday.

In Kelley Armstrong’s “The Lost Way,” we enter the town of Franklin, where children have a habit of losing their way every Halloween. Dale is determined to find out why his schoolmates keep disappearing. This Halloween, he follows his stepbrother into the forest, where he is forbidden to venture, and finds the reason. The problem is, he finds out the truth much later than he anticipates, and certainly not how he remembers it.

Kate Maruyama’s “La Calavera” focuses on Trish, who is mourning and struggling with the untimely death of her best friend and roommate, Jasmine. They always did everything together: the Día de los Muertos Festival at the Hollywood Cemetery used to be one of their shared rituals. Things changed when Hector came along. The time has come that Trish make her pilgrimage with an unexpected guest, to let her go, and to pay penance.

“The Devil’s Due”, by Michael McBride, takes place in the idyllic town of Pine Springs, Colorado, a thriving small community that has been prosperous for generations. All of this good fortune has not come without a cost, however: the townspeople have practiced special traditions, and, for these, the town goes on. When Thom refuses to take part, the townspeople become angry and demand the ritual continue.

Anne discusses the disturbing events of a picnic she enjoyed with her spouse, Evan, in Taylor Grant’s “A Thousand Rooms of Darkness.” Anne has been diagnosed with samhainophobia, a fear of Halloween, and phasmophobia, a fear of ghosts. She finally builds up the courage to tell Evan after experiencing an episode during a picnic, after she talks with the therapist she’s been avoiding for months. In the weeks leading to Halloween, when things for Anne get particularly bad, she receives a phone call that her therapist has died. Her paranoia increases as she worries about harm coming to Evan. Then there is the matter of the demon she hears as it gets closer to Samhain.

In “The Last Night of October”, by Greg Chapman, we meet Gerald, wheelchair bound and suffering from emphysema. Every Halloween, Gerald  waits for the boy in the Frankenstein monster’s mask to come knocking at his front door. This year, it is different. There is his nurse, Kelli, who waits with him, and hears Gerald’s tale of woe. Will they both be able to face the child and remain sane…or alive?

Something unique about this particular anthology is the theme of lies: lies people tell themselves to avoid the truth, lies about relationships, lies that a community propagates to its own end, lies about fear and sanity, and lies people tell so they can sleep at night. While there isn’t anything too graphic in this volume, I would recommend it for adults and teenagers who can handle their horror. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on April 14, 2018 by , Reply
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