Review: Shockingly Good
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2013
Of course everybody who reads my reviews knows I am a big horror fan! The crazier and the bloodier, the better.I am usually extremely picky about horror movies, short stories, and novels, and I tend to either really love them, or really not love them. I don't know how to describe this other then it is a hit or miss with books like this with me. If there is 1 thing out of place, or something that seems to much like another movie or book, or short story, it tends to go downhill from there. I am just super critical of everything horror, fantasy, and I do love science fiction or anything in similar genres.Souls of Darkness was certainly a huge, HIT! I was actually not expecting to really, really, really like the stories as much as I did. I have to admit, short horror stories sometimes end way to fast and leave all of the good stuff out. This was not the case here by any means. Which makes this all the more splendid, since this is a collaboration of short stories, 3 authors, 15 stories, published by Fishcake Publications.(Btw, I love Clive Barker, however, I never cared much for his short stories, SHHHH) I just thought I would throw this in here, lol, I have a Pinhead tattoo on my back, and have been a long, long time fan.But, his short stories, bleh. I think my point is that I am highly critical, and sometimes I think, who am I? But, then I remember, I , well, we, are the readers and the people who do matter. So, I am not trying to sound like I am better then any of these authors, I am just the goofy 38 year old, who loves Halloween and horror for almost all my life.Ok, so back to the book, here we really have, original stories by 3 very talented authors.I was impressed and would love to read more by them!Here is the introduction, taken from, Souls of Darkness, :This illustrated book shows exactly what can happen when you take three very different horror, fantasy and sci-fi writers, dismember their work, and then fiendishly stitch it back together in the form of an anthology of their compiled short stories. A contorted mixture of sinister sci-fi horror, ghostly goings on and true-life terror, carefully combined within the cover of this book.That was plenty for me to get all giddy and jump right in! The next cool thing about this book, are the illustrations! Martin Rothery and Warren Lee, Extraordinary work!You get to read stories by, Kenneth Frank, Damon Rathe and Louise Hunt.The first story, River of Dreams, by Louise Hunt, is enough to make you shiver, and an excellent choice for the first few pages. She has a neat, straight to the point way about her writing, and is cleverly descriptive. Decent shock value in her stories too.Damon Rathe paints quite a few vivid pictures of some insanely twisted events in, Community Spirits. I like stories that make me think they would make a great movie someday, especially science fiction!To Play the Game, by Kenneth Frank, is a brilliant short story, one that makes you think, and embraces a deep, dark, twisted side of reality and is truly sinister. I can honestly say I enjoyed every short story in this book, particularly the stories by, Kenneth Frank, I would love to see this book in print, and I will be buying this one.I love being able to read online, but I love real hard copies even better, and this is one that I would buy and put on one of my bookshelves.I have very many favorites in this book, I have to say, To Play the Game, Geoff, Lady Luck and Bramble Cottage are my very favorite stories!** I received a copy of this book in return for my honest review **