Review: Psyhcological Horror Half Hour Read, What Would You Do in Tom Shoes?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 4, 2014
This is a nice little short story.  Not scary in a creature/entity out there waiting to kill you way, but scary as in, what would you yourself do in this situation?  Crawlspace has unemployed deadbeat husband and father Tom, reluctantly after a year or so of nagging from a wife he no longer feels anything for, agreeing to lay limestone underneath his house, as somehow doing this stops moisture coming in.  It wasn't long ago that this sort of physical labour thing was beneath Tom, who was a corporate big wig, but someone framed him and he's been unemployed since.  Unemployment seemingly due to his own attitude, Tom would rather spend his days under a hot shower or sleeping in his bed in the isolated farm house he bought in better times, than getting a new job.  So Tom isn't exactly a man you feel too sorry for when the small door he squeezed through to get under his house suddenly closes trapping him under the house.  But how did it close?  That is the question Tom faces.  As well as what are some of these objects he's stumbling upon?I found this to be a nice want to keep turning the pages read. His situation of being trapped there relied upon a lot of variables that could have gone any way occurring like they did, I mean maybe he didn't go under the house, maybe he took his phone or other objects with him. The ending I wasn't 100% fussed on, the author in a spiel after the short story ends mentions and alternative former ending.  I would have liked for that to have been included, I mean there's a lot of space used afterwards to promote other author's books, so the original ending would have been great to read.  The short story though will take up about half an hour or so of your time.  I'll definitely check out some of the other stuff out there by this author as I quite enjoyed this tale, although I did wonder why Tom was never smart enough to figure out he could just dig his way out through soft muddy soil.  I could see not wanting to wreck the foundations of your house at first in his financial situation if you thought you'd get out pretty soon anyway but eventually you'd think he'd start digging.  Still some people aren't the brightest and this is a work of fiction after all.