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 obvious nonsense.

This story would make a better than average NoSleep post, but even in that context this stretches the limits of my ability to suspend disbelief. A boy kills his family to gain demonic powers, and his friend uses tips from the Malleus Maleficarum to fight off the literal superman-powered-monster-child.

The author also jumps from the past, to the farther past, to the present day, back to the past. All while musing that he might have misremembered things. This story seems really out of place next to the others in this issue. It really does read like a creepy pasta or reddit post that was edited for spelling and grammar.