{"id":9215,"date":"2022-06-25T20:20:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T00:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9215"},"modified":"2022-06-25T20:29:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T00:29:07","slug":"book-review-toadstones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-toadstones\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Toadstones by Eric Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Toadstones <\/i><\/span>by Eric Williams<\/span><\/p>\n

Malarkey Books, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781088017302<\/span><\/p>\n

Available: paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.org <\/a><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you thought you’d read all the possible plotlines available for short stories, think again. \u00a0Eric Williams’s <\/span>Toadstones <\/i><\/span>obliterates that notion.\u00a0 The book relies wholly on originality and a deft touch with the writing, no gore or sex needed.\u00a0 For horror fans, this is a can’t miss.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It’s only the beginning of the book that runs flat; of the first three stories, two are easily forgettable. \u00a0After that, in terms of imagination, all the stories are loaded with enough horsepower to redline a Peterbilt freight truck. \u00a0You can catch traces of the author’s influences (a touch of “The Mummy” and\u00a0 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” here, a trace of Lovecraft there) but he’s managed to create something entirely new with them. \u00a0The closest to a theme for this book would be ‘ordinary dudes running into REALLY weird things.’ \u00a0Some examples:<\/span><\/p>\n

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1. \u00a0A man on a nature hike in Utah happens upon one of the Greek gods, and shares beer and conversation with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. \u00a0A showing of a crime noir film turns all too real for some of the theatre viewers.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. \u00a0A corrupt cop robs corpses of their limbs to sell for voodoo charms.<\/span><\/p>\n

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If that isn’t enough, there are also two bus-obsessed students tracking a phantom bus on an abandoned route, an oil rig crew drilling a seemingly pointless hole for an eccentric billionaire\u2026 the list goes on. \u00a0All these stories are very creative, and highly entertaining. \u00a0A special mention is needed for “Doomstown”, the best story in the book. \u00a0It involves two crazy grad students on a quest to locate one of the mock-up towns left over from the days when the military tested high powered bang-bangs in the Nevada desert. \u00a0This story has the highest scare factor of all of them: it’s off the charts. \u00a0If you thought mannequins were even remotely creepy, read this story. \u00a0You’ll never walk past a department store window again.\u00a0 “Doomtown'” should win every award available for best horror short story this year, it’s that good. <\/span><\/p>\n

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All the stories are well written; they flow fast and smooth like the Jack Daniels at a Kennedy family party on Cape Cod. \u00a0There’s a nice touch of humor thrown in on occasion, and the characters are well sketched and feel authentic; there are no cardboard cutouts anywhere. \u00a0The author does have a mild touch of Dickens-ism (aka using too many overblown words) on occasion, but that’s easily overlooked, as it only shows up a few times.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The bottom line? \u00a0Just read it. \u00a0One of the best of 2022 so far. Highly recommended.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Toadstones by Eric Williams Malarkey Books, 2022 ISBN: 9781088017302 Available: paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.org )   If you thought you’d read all the possible plotlines available for short stories, think again. \u00a0Eric Williams’s Toadstones obliterates that notion.\u00a0 The book relies wholly on originality and a deft touch with the writing, no gore or sex<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5168,645,83,495,5167],"class_list":["post-9215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eric-williams","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-fiction","tag-short-story-collections","tag-toadstones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9219,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215\/revisions\/9219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}