Home » Posts tagged "Jeff Strand"

Book Review: Blood Bank: A Charitable Anthology edited by Jo Kaplan

Blood Bank: A Charitable Anthology, by various authors

Blood Bound Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781940250533

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

Blood Bank is a charitable anthology, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the children’s literacy organization Read Better Be Better, and Hagar’s House, a sanctuary for women, children, and gender-nonconforming folks. The collection of fourteen short horror stories are not connected by a particular theme. Authors include well-respected names such as Neil Gaiman, Kristopher Triana, Jeff Strand, and others.

 

With one or two exceptions, the writing is good, and the ideas are new enough for interest, or toss a spin over ideas seen previously.  Story grades average out to a solid B+, with four A’s in the mix. Here are the highlights:

 

“Clown Doll” is a simple story about a haunted Halloween decoration, but the author has real skill in writing words to crawl your skin. It is genuinely fear-inducing.

 

“We Can Get It For You Wholesale” has the best display of writing skill in the book (it is by Neil Gaiman), and this is one time the writing skill matches the story.  A bizarre look at how to hire a hitman to get rid of a cheating wife.

 

Jeff Strand’s “First Date”, almost all dialogue, is a wonderful and darkly amusing look at a first date between a nice young lady and a guy who claims in his online dating profile to be a serial killer.  Extremely snappy dialogue, lots of attitude, and making the characters NOT seem crazy makes it a winner.  The ending line of the story is hilarious, a perfect ending to a warped story.

 

“Pictures of a Princess”: Ever run into someone who is still obsessed with a Disney character they loved as a kid? (say, Cinderella or the like?)  Wonder what happens when they meet the actress playing the role in real life, and the person just isn’t the same as the image they had in their head?  The story will answer that question, in an ugly fashion.

 

“Every Breath is a Choice” by Max Booth III is an excellent revenge story with an ironic twist to it  So, your wife got raped and your only child killed by some random lowlife.  Your life is shattered, and the killer is enjoying his three square meals a day at the Crossbar Hotel, where you can’t get at him.  How do you get payback?  You just have to get REALLY creative! 

 

Bottom line: this is a fun way to violate your brain for a few nights in bite-sized chunks while also benefiting some worthy causes. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on October 6, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Attack From the ’80s edited by Eugene Johnson

cover art for Attack from the '80s edited by Eugene Johnson

Attack From the ’80s edited by Eugene Johnson

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2021

ISBN-13: 978-1735664446

Available: Hardcover  ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

 

Eugene Johnson brings together 22 incredible short stories and poems as a fitting tribute to the horror of the 1980s. There is something for everyone in this collection. “Top Guns of the Frontier” by Weston Ochse, a strong open to this anthology, tells the story of friends coming face to face with an ancient evil. In “Snapshot” by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale, Gracie and Trevor, the famous Snapshot Burglars, rob the wrong house. Jess Landry’s “Catastrophe Queens” takes place on the movie set of an ’80s SS werewolf horror film. Pink fake blood starts to take over people…and anything it touches. In “Your Picture Here” by John Skipp, a couple decides to take in a double feature of horror movies only to discover one of the films is closer to the truth. Lee Murray’s “Permanent Damage” invites us to a bridal party at a salon that turns into a bloodbath. “Munchies” by Lucy A. Snyder is a great story about a group of drag queens and the terror that was Nancy Reagan who has come to deliver a check to the local high school’s antidrug drive.

 

No ’80s horror anthology would be complete without the topic of D&D. In “Demonic Denizens” by Cullen Bunn, friends at summer camp discover a new game to play after the counselors forbid them to play any more of that “satanic” Dungeons & Dragons. “Ghetto Blaster”, by Jeff Strand, presents Clyde, who is cursed to carry a rather heavy ghetto blaster until he learns his lesson about loud music in public spaces. Everyone, check your candy before reading “Stranger Danger” by Grady Hendrix. A group of boys, hell-bent on taking revenge on the Judge, discover an army of Yoda-costumed children who have their own havoc to create, with apples containing razor blades the treat of the night. In Lisa Morton’s “The Garden of Dr. Moreau”, a biology experiment on corn plants is a success, but it could be at a deadly cost for life on Earth.

 

Other authors in the anthology include Ben Monroe, Linda Addison, Thomas F. Monteleone, Tim Waggoner, Stephen Graham Jones, Vince A. Liaguno, Rena Mason, Cindy O’Quinn, F. Paul Wilson, Christina Sng, Mort Castle, and Stephanie M. Wytovich. Pick this up if you need a good dose of 80s horror reading. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on November 28, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Fright Train edited by The Switch House Gang

cover art for Fright Train edited by The Switch House Gang

Fright Train edited by The Switch House Gang

Twisted Publishing, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949140279

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

Thirteen new stories, plus two classic tales ( “The Signalman” by Charles Dickens and “The Lost Special” by Arthur Conan Doyle) have been assembled in this anthology devoted to the theme of trains as the setting of horrific events. Some stories take place during a train journey, whereas in other tales trains have an important role, but the actual horror develops elsewhere.

Among the various original contributions I will mention the ones that I consider  the more accomplished.

In the extremely enjoyable  “The Habit of Long Years” by Charles R Rutledge, a couple of vampires, a police inspector and a professor of anthropology meet on a train on Halloween night. Mayhem follows. The story seems to be the first in a series, so let’s hope further episodes will soon be available.

“Pépère’s Halloween Train”,  by Tony Tremblay is a nice cautionary tale, proving that going to Hell is quite easy for anyone, and the unusual and disturbing “Country of the Snake”, by Stephen Mark Rainey, features a man trapped in a place called Eden, dominated by a devilish entity who hired him as a personal bodyguard.

Amanda DeWees provides the gentle “A Traveler Between Eternities”, where a worried pregnant woman with an abusive husband finds solace thanks to a  mysterious, sweet little girl.

My favorite tale is Jeff Strand’s “Devil- Powered Death Train of Doom”, an extraordinary mix of horror, surrealism, and black humor ,where a toy train assembled by a little boy becomes a terrible weapon able to attack and destroy the inhabitants of a small town.

Other contributors are Bracken MacLeod, Mercedes M. Yardley, Lee Murray, Elizabeth Massie, Scott T Goudsward, James A Moore, Errick A Nunnally, Christopher Golden.

Whether you like trains or prefer other means of transportation, you’ll find here plenty of reasons for avoiding trains in the future.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

Posted on October 14, 2021 by , Reply
123 » Last