I finished 5 books in September.
Fearful Symmetries ed. by Ellen Datlow was a pretty solid anthology of un-themed horror stories. Favorites were 'The Atlas of Hell' by Nathan Ballingrud, 'Suffer Little Children' by Robert Shearman & "Shay Corsham Worsted' by Garth Nix. 4 / 5
Scavenger Summer by Steve Savile starts off with a teenage boy finding the corpse of his mother washed up on the beach. Soon after the story takes a decidedly left turn from where I was expecting it go, and heads into Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory. At novella length (100 pages), Scavenger Summer was a quick read that I enjoyed overall. 3.5 / 5
A Little Magenta Book of Malevolence by Sarah Pinborough was a short collection that was a combination of fiction & non-fiction pieces. I thought the fiction pieces were all vey good, and for the most part, found the non-fiction pieces to be interesting. 4 / 5
Devil's Creek by Tod Keisling starts off in 1983 with an uprising in a small religious cult that leaves the cult leader & the other cult members dead (except for the 6 children of the cult leader who were rescued before they could be sacrificed) and the church burned to the ground. The story jumps ahead 30 years. The cult is basically a local boogeyman story and the location of the burned church an area used by partying teenagers. Upon the death of his grandmother, one of the six survivors returns, and finds strange occurrences in town that indicate a possible return of the thought dead cult leader. In story structure, Devil's Creek kind of reminded me of It, though not nearly has intricately plotted. Story-wise, it most reminded me of Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry; a long, multi-character story about undead horrors returning to a small town for vengeance. Devi's Creek has a lot to offer; there are horrors galore from the start to the finish & for the most part, the main characters are well fleshed out. I guess my biggest issue was with the pacing. This a long story, and when I finished I couldn't shake the feeling that the same story could have told in 100 fewer pages. Also, a cookie cutter / by the numbers ending didn't help. Overall I enjoyed Devil's Creek and would give Keisling's next book a shot. Good, but not great. 3.5 / 5
Clickers Forever ed. by Brian Keene was a tribute anthology to the late J. F. Gonzalez. The content was a mixture of original fiction and non-fiction / personal remembrances. Most of the stories took place in the Clickers mythos, though several were set in other stories by Gonzalez. For the most part the fiction was enjoyable but not memorable, with more than a few clunkers. Standouts were 'Vanilla Sunshine' by Jonathan Janz & 'Deep into that Dark One Peering' by Stephen Kozeniewski. Similarly, the non-fiction varied from very interesting (Jonathan Maberry's historical overview of horror fiction) to unreadable (the personal ramblings of Wayne Allen Sallee). Fans of Gonzalez should enjoy this anthology; horror fans in-general, probably not as much. 3 / 5
B
Fearful Symmetries ed. by Ellen Datlow was a pretty solid anthology of un-themed horror stories. Favorites were 'The Atlas of Hell' by Nathan Ballingrud, 'Suffer Little Children' by Robert Shearman & "Shay Corsham Worsted' by Garth Nix. 4 / 5
Scavenger Summer by Steve Savile starts off with a teenage boy finding the corpse of his mother washed up on the beach. Soon after the story takes a decidedly left turn from where I was expecting it go, and heads into Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory. At novella length (100 pages), Scavenger Summer was a quick read that I enjoyed overall. 3.5 / 5
A Little Magenta Book of Malevolence by Sarah Pinborough was a short collection that was a combination of fiction & non-fiction pieces. I thought the fiction pieces were all vey good, and for the most part, found the non-fiction pieces to be interesting. 4 / 5
Devil's Creek by Tod Keisling starts off in 1983 with an uprising in a small religious cult that leaves the cult leader & the other cult members dead (except for the 6 children of the cult leader who were rescued before they could be sacrificed) and the church burned to the ground. The story jumps ahead 30 years. The cult is basically a local boogeyman story and the location of the burned church an area used by partying teenagers. Upon the death of his grandmother, one of the six survivors returns, and finds strange occurrences in town that indicate a possible return of the thought dead cult leader. In story structure, Devil's Creek kind of reminded me of It, though not nearly has intricately plotted. Story-wise, it most reminded me of Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry; a long, multi-character story about undead horrors returning to a small town for vengeance. Devi's Creek has a lot to offer; there are horrors galore from the start to the finish & for the most part, the main characters are well fleshed out. I guess my biggest issue was with the pacing. This a long story, and when I finished I couldn't shake the feeling that the same story could have told in 100 fewer pages. Also, a cookie cutter / by the numbers ending didn't help. Overall I enjoyed Devil's Creek and would give Keisling's next book a shot. Good, but not great. 3.5 / 5
Clickers Forever ed. by Brian Keene was a tribute anthology to the late J. F. Gonzalez. The content was a mixture of original fiction and non-fiction / personal remembrances. Most of the stories took place in the Clickers mythos, though several were set in other stories by Gonzalez. For the most part the fiction was enjoyable but not memorable, with more than a few clunkers. Standouts were 'Vanilla Sunshine' by Jonathan Janz & 'Deep into that Dark One Peering' by Stephen Kozeniewski. Similarly, the non-fiction varied from very interesting (Jonathan Maberry's historical overview of horror fiction) to unreadable (the personal ramblings of Wayne Allen Sallee). Fans of Gonzalez should enjoy this anthology; horror fans in-general, probably not as much. 3 / 5
B
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