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Book Review: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel by Taylor Grant

The Dark at the End of the Tunnel by Taylor Grant

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2015

ISBN: 9780994679338

Available: Kindle ebook, trade paperback

I enjoy a good novel, but sometimes a solid collection of short stories is just as good, if not better. The Darkness at the End of the Tunnel by Taylor Grant contains ten short stories, each with unique storytelling elements.

There are a number of standout stories. “The Vood” is about a creature who hides and devours from the shadows. Grady lost his mother to this creature, and he has feared it since childhood. Growing up with it has caused problems for him, but a lifetime of preventing it from devouring him hasn’t protected Grady from himself. “Show and Tell” is the story of a sixth grader who is called into the guidance councilor’s office after his teacher finds disturbing artwork in his desk. The tale he tells of the pictures is equally disturbing…and deadly. In “Whispers in the Trees, Screams in the Dark,” Blake resents his father and his new wife moving them to a new city, where he has a hard time making new friends. He meets two boys who want to show him something remarkable in the woods; a woman with beauty surpassing that of anyone they have seen. But her beauty comes at a price. In “The Intruders”, Mason makes a discovery during his research for his true crime book after speaking with several serial killers. All of them have one thing in common: they hear voices. Now Mason can hear them, too. The last story in the collection, “The Dark at the End of the Tunnel,” concerns a man coming out of a decade in stasis to discover he has no memories. As they gradually come back, he’s haunted by disturbing hallucinations. Desperate for answers, he reaches out to his broker, Mr. Wheeler, and his doctor, Dr. Smythe.

Grant is a screenwriter and filmmaker, but Dark at the End of the Tunnel is his first short story collections, and it is fantastic. The characters are memorable, the gore is fantastic, and Grant’s storytelling skills are polished. There are certainly stories that have their share of monsters, but it’s the stories that make you take a look at the darker side of humanity that make it truly worth it to pick up this book. You won’t be disappointed. Highly recommended

Contains: body horror, gore, sexuality

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 25, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: The Night’s Neon Fangs by David W. Barbee

The Night’s Neon Fangs by David W. Barbee

Eraserhead Press, 2015

Available: New Paperback

ISBN: 9781621051756

 

The Night’s Neon Fangs is a collection of four novellas of horror/weird fiction. Barbee writes beautifully, telling emotional stories and drawing sympathy for the protagonist from readers. The titular novella is about Buster Wade, an electric werewolf who works as a bodyguard and general muscle for a company that cleans up after mummy storms in the future. A giant and dangerous cloud of mummies began in the wake of a disastrous gathering of international gods, and roams the country dumping thousands of pounds of mummies onto the public below. I loved this story for the simple fact that it has mummies, something that you don’t typically see too much of in horror fiction.

Noah’s Arkopolis is about a weird amalgam of a city, built up over time, after God left Noah and the animals adrift with no land in sight. Mating over the generations created many new species of animal/human hybrids. The city is now in danger of being destroyed by whales, so Noah’s ghost enlists the help of Gren, an average citizen of Arkopolis to save the city. This is one of the most imaginative stories I’ve ever read and I loved it. Gren is a sympathetic character, while I wanted to strangle Noah’s ghost at times.

That Ultimo Sumbitch is a surreal, steampunk, sort of story. Ultimo, a mechanized soldier who thinks he is human, is roaming what is left of the Australian outback, in the wake of an alien invasion of Earth. This story just about brought tears to my eyes. Although the main character isn’t even human, the story is gritty and emotionally charged.

Finally, Batcop Out of Hell tells the story of McNulty, a batcop in Guano City who is murdered along with his wife and daughter. He ends up in Hell, but is given a choice by a batdemon. McNulty takes the deal, and is sent back to seek revenge and save his family from Limbo with a skin of special Hellfire. In the process, McNulty discovers things about his former co-workers and himself. This is another story that had me practically in tears, with sympathy for McNulty and the horrible position he has been put in through no fault of his own.

The stories are dark, gritty, and emotionally driven. Barbee is a fantastic writer and I look forward to reading much more by him in the near future. Recommended.

Contains: graphic violence and adult language

Reviewed by: Colleen Wanglund

Posted on June 24, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: The Binding by Nicholas Wolff

The Binding by Nicholas Wolff

Gallery Books, June 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1501102714

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

A dark and foreboding atmosphere is established on the very first page of Nicholas Wolff’s The Binding, and the story, which for a short time, seems like it will be relatively straightforward, quickly makes a turn into even darker and more disturbing territory.

Northam, Massachusetts has serious problems. The recent, bizarre, and gory murder of college student Margaret Post is in the news, an unsolved crime that unsettles and disturbs John Bailey, the policeman who arrived at the scene. Dr. Nat Turner is the psychiatrist on night shift at the community clinic when the distressed and haunted-looking father of teenage Becca Prescott arrives, and asks for help for his daughter: she no longer recognizes him, and insists that she is dead. Divorce lawyer Chuck Godwin is certain he is being stalked by an apparition. First grader Charlie Bailey, examining the family photos hanging in the hallway, senses that the stories he’s been told about them are incomplete, and that something there is seriously wrong. Suicides are up, and bodies are missing. Is it all chance, or is something more going on?

There’s a common trope running underneath the plot of The Binding, but the action takes some surprising directions before that trope  is revealed. Unfortunately, much of the reveal takes place during an awkward interruption of the story with a long, detailed, but not very helpful chunk of exposition from someone who is not a direct witness to the events described. This breaks the pacing and suspense just as we’re building to the climax of the story. The conclusion to the story is another awkward piece of exposition by a person not acquainted with the events of the story, undermining the sense of foreboding established at the beginning of the book and leaving the reader feeling as if the story is incomplete. Some relationships also seem unbelievable, particularly the one between Nat and Becca. Despite the extended expository sequences and improbable relationships, however, The Binding is still an atmospheric, compelling, tangle of a story that will stick with you after you are done. Recommended.

Contains: cannibalism, torture, mutilation, gruesome scenes, suicide, murder, implied necrophilia, corpse stealing

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on June 12, 2016 by , Reply
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