Review: Predictable 10/15 minute read, Would Have Liked Either or Better Both the Gross or Terror Factor to Have Been Higher
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2012
Vermin is a basic horror tale, revolving around an old abandoned mansion whose new owners have hired a couple of exterminators to make it pest free before restoration work can commence.  It'll take you between 10 to 15 minutes to read, there's plenty of these free/cheap .99c downloads (as this was one of at the time of this review) that aren't worth your time. Vermin is worth that quarter of an hour or so remainder of your lunch break after eating or to pass the time on your commute to work.  The short story is professionally written, it doesn't have grammatical errors, spelling mistakes or the need for an editor that a lot of these unknown author free/cheap Kindle downloads, so there's no reason down the track this won't appear as is, in a various author traditional book short story collection.  However I thought it lacked the very things early reviewers had raved about, being the high gross and scare factor.  I expected both those things to at least appear at the end but by the final page they never did.  Most of the tale is like your typical bad infestation story or documentary cable TV show.  Maybe if Vermin was slightly longer the author could have gone into a bit more detail with each unwanted tenant experience.  I also found the story to be fairly predictable, that predictability probably wouldn't have been that big a downside if we could have really enjoyed the journey through gross or terrifying experiences along the way.  But being that you're waiting for the payoff, the predictable final events leave a feeling of somewhat disappointment.