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A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters by Eric J. Guignard

Cover art for A Graveside Gallery by Eric J. Guignard

A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters by Eric J. Guignard

Cemetery Dance, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949491616

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

For those who love short stories of the darker kind, Eric J. Guignard should be a household name. Not only has he written some of the finest, and most varied, stories in the past decade, but he also is at the helm for the popular Horror Library and the Exploring Dark Short Fiction series, working diligently to promote the best of modern horror writers. His skill in creating atmosphere and quirky characters is in the top tier of horror writers working today, but his stories are not bound by genre. A Graveside Gallery epitomizes that scope and demonstrates the breadth of Guignard’s talent.

 

These stories are a rollercoaster ride of tone, voice, and overall storytelling, many with notes of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, not to mention the “you are there” feeling of Joe R. Lansdale.

 

The highlights for this reviewer, which changed upon a second read-through:

 

“Penny’s Diner” is a gut punch that sets the stage for the rest of the collection. It is reminiscent of Richard Matheson’s work, and winds up quietly before a sucker punch takes the breath out of the reader. The less known about this tale, the better.

 

“If I Drive Before I Wake” is much too timely. I’m sure there’s a certain tech mogul who won’t much appreciate this tale of automated vehicles and their dangers, but it’s more than a cautionary tale. It’s chilling in its near-future worldview, with a nerve-wracking conclusion.

 

“Bummin’ to the Beat of The Road” suggests Black Mirror, and is a mind f*ck in its imagery. Readers’ teeth will never feel the same in this sensory-driven horror.

 

“Perchance to Dream in Voices of a Fiend: A Fanciful Epilogue to Frankenstein.” Wow. An homage to the great Mary Shelley and her creation. The author finely captures her voice while retaining his own in an epilogue to the famous novel.

 

The others are well worth the read, although mileage obviously will vary. There’s one story within that will remain unnamed, that lingered through the evening and caused a nightmare. For those of us who live and breathe horror, reading and creating it, that’s a pretty tough task to achieve! 

 

Read a few, let them digest, and read some more. Each is its own complete universe of story and emotion, and to delve deeper into the individual tales would disturb the potent magic.

 

Guignard is a powerful force in writing. It’s about time more people know. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on September 8, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: FRIGHT! Stories of Murder, Monsters, and Mayhem by Matt Martinek

cover art for FRIGHT! by Matt Martinek

Fright! by Matt Martinek

Self published, 2023

ISBN: 9798864210465

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

This little183 page volume has 19 short stories that vary in quality.  Most are decent: there are a few clunkers mixed in, and a few real hum-dingers as well.  If you like your horror fiction short, this may be worth looking at.

 

All the stories are written in the first person.  If there is a theme, it’s “very bad people doing random bad things”.  There’s not much in the way of monsters or supernatural material, although  “Blood of My Blood”, a nice little werewolf story, is an exception.  The best stories are undoubtedly “Diary of the Red Spike”,  “WarWolf”, and “The Butterfly of Prometheus”.  “Diary of the Red Spike” gets props for being a serial killer story with some real ingenuity in the murder methods.  “WarWolf” is a clever tale of the government creating war machines, and “Butterfly”…well, just say it’s a crazy take on how art is extremely subjective to the viewer.  One person sees it and throws up in disgust, another sees it and falls in love.  These three alone can pretty much justify purchase of the book.

 

The rest of the stories, minus the few bombs, hit in the nice middle of the road area.  They are good…not great, but not bad either.  There are grave robbers, a strange “nice guy around town” character, sex dolls that get emotionally attached, it’s an odd mix.  Nothing is new enough to be earth-shattering, but it is creative enough to be entertaining.  These stories do not have happy endings: this is not Disney-style writing.  Be prepared for the bad guys to win.

 

One thing that might have helped boost the book up a level would have been mixing up the narration perspective. Writing in first person or present tense is all the rage right now, but first person can be pretty limiting.  It does allow for more internal material for the protagonist, but it also limits the ability to narrate and describe, since everything is from the main character’s point of view.  “WarWolf” is one story that feels like it would have benefited from third person narration. Getting some parts from the wolf point of view could have turned a very good story into a real smasher.

 

Bottom line?  It’s an interesting collection, and at the price, it could be a reasonable pickup for short story fans.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on January 20, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Influence by Lucy Leitner

Influence by Lucy Leitner

Blood Bound Books, 2023

ISBN: 9781940250571

Availabilite: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

Influence is a 120 page book containing six of the author’s short stories, some were published previously in other analogies.  The stories are all good to excellent, and Leitner makes good use of her scathing wit to destroy many of the habits of millenialls and Gen Z that people find annoying.  People that enjoy stories about self-obsessed people getting their comeuppance will love this book, as will most horror/suspense fans.

 

There’s a nice bit of variety in Leitner’s style.  One story is written wholly as a series of Instagram posts, another is the script of a podcast.  The longest story, “Karen”,  is also the best.  Karen exemplifies all the bad traits of the younger generation that people love to hate: social media obsession, complete self absorption, superiority complex, etc.  She also loves to run over obese people with her car, since (according to Karen) they are pathetic excuses of humanity.  Her life changes when everyone around her is able to know what Karen really thinks about them, but would never say out loud.  Naturally, the results aren’t pretty, but they are bloody, and readers will be cheering as Karen’s life becomes a living hell.

 

The other stories are also good fun, with the same traits that make “Karen” so enjoyable.  “Get Me Out Of This Shimmering Oasis”, is an Instagram-styled story,   Using ridiculous health trends as a jumping-off point, it succeeds in creating an intriguing tale of taking self-obsession too far, and also points out the silliness of people blaming health woes on obscure ailments that don’t exist.  “Xorcize.me” has a wellness twist to it also, but in this, all problems are due to obscure demons.  Those demons, of course, can be evicted from a person through a home exorcism kit, available for purchase online. This story wins the award for ‘most entertaining dialogue’ due to the snappy patter and sarcasm of the podcast host in the story.  “The Shoe Box Challenge” is a nutty tale twined around the outrageous things people will do for their 15 seconds of YouTube fame. The other two tales are somewhat more straightforward, but no less entertaining.

 

Bottom line: if you like Lucy Leitner’s style before (one of her books, Bad Vibrations, was previously reviewed on this site) then this will certainly tide you over until she gets another full length one completed.  The book would have been worth it for “Karen” alone, so getting the other stories is a nice bonus.  The author has a knack for stories that mix originality with the ability to poke fun at modern conventions: this book should help to expand her fanbase.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on November 13, 2023 by , Reply
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