More Words About Books

October 11, 2021

Short Story Review – The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft

This is the equivalent of phoning it in from me, and I am sorry. The point of daily reviews was to push myself to read more and different authors, but life happens. I didn’t get a chance to properly read and review a new story today. So let’s go back and take a look at an old story that I...

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October 10, 2021

Short Story Review – Caw by WC Dunlap

Caw by WC Dunlap is a post apocalyptic horror story that doesn’t center around zombies, a nuclear war, or a pandemic. I would have loved it for that alone, but it’s also just really well written. Like many post apocalyptic stories it is really about human nature in the absence of societal institutions. It has a lot to say about...

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October 9, 2021

Short Story Review – A Square Canvas by Anthony M. Rud

I’ve spent a lot of time this month reading newer short horror fiction. Much of it from authors at the start of their careers. For today’s story I decided to take a look back at an older story. From an author that never had much of a career. A few months ago I was at a thrift store where I...

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October 8, 2021

Short Story Review – Fiat Fiat Fiat by Eliot Fintushel

Fiat Fiat Fiat by Eliot Fintushel is the final story in the October issue of Dark Magazine. Unfortunately, they did not save the best for last. I’m not sure how familiar anyone is with the NoSleep subreddit. Essentially it is a subreddit for short horror fictional stories that everyone plays along with. It is against subreddit rules to point out...

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October 7, 2021

Short Story Review – The Hide’s Effect by Frances Ogamba

Frances Ogamba gives us a classic “be careful what you wish for story.” It’s a bit formulaic, but with an interesting new element. The object that serves as a conduit for the wishing is human skin sold by a street vendor. Everything about this situation is “hella sus” as I assume the kids say. The human hides look real. There...

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October 6, 2021

Short Story Review – There’s Nothing Left Without the Smoke by Osahon Ize-Iyama

A man wakes up amidst a pile of bodies in a forest. He’s filled with an irresistible desire to burn things. Not the trees, but everything around the trees, and burn he does. Some time passes. The man hasn’t been able to sleep since that night. He craves the smoke. He thinks only of fire. As the story go on...

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October 5, 2021

Short Story Review – Hundreds of Little Absences by Aimee Ogden

I love cheesey horror movies. My wife and I went to see Insidious 2 on our first date. Neither of us had seen Insidious 1. Sometimes I get so into the fun of watching and reading silly horror that I forget just how powerful horror can be when it’s done seriously and done well. Hundreds of Little Absences by Aimee...

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October 4, 2021

Short Story Review – Fading Memories by Michael Bracken

[Content Warning: This one is pretty much erotica] On Twitter I announced that I had a personal goal of reading one short horror story for every day in October. Part of the reason I wanted to set that goal is that I really like fiction magazines. I don’t feel like the short fiction market gets a lot of attention from...

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October 3, 2021

Short Story Review – Double Dare by Serena Jayne

Double Dare by Serena Jayne is a modern twist on a classic horror formula. A person desecrates a grave, corpse, or some other artifact of a dead person that is part of their proper funeral rites. The person is then punished for this transgression, usually with some supernatural curse. In this story a therapist, who is in desperate need of...

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October 2, 2021

Short Story Review – Darkness in August by Bentley Little

[Content Warning: Rape] There’s a kind of subgenre that crops up from time to time in short form horror fiction. I don’t know if it has a proper name, but I’m going to call it “Literary Fan Fiction.” I’m sure it happens in other genre fiction as well, but in horror there are a lot of stories in which a...

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