by L. Vera
I was very skeptical at first. It’s five short stories for 99 cents. I held my breathe and dove in. I found myself swimming in a very organized book, I can’t believe the amount of kindle books, with bad table of contents and misspellings. The editing is great, professional grade. The book is written for the general public, so I never needed to look any word up. (I always like to at least learn one new word a story.)
The first lap I did was with Ada Hoffman’s “Jenny’s House”. It’s written a bit broken, which is not a flaw, it’s to emphasize the innocents of the main character, a young boy. He recalls finding slime, which he brings to class for show and tell. If the kids weren’t amazed by “show” portion the “tell” part is beyond belief. The story is simple and clean. Nothing frightening but it also influenced me to write a similar piece. By far the best piece in the book.
The next story is “A Lullaby for Caliban” which felt like a story out of the old Goosebump books I used to read a lot as a child. “The Cornfield” was another one that I would group with more of a children’s tale. They were both delightful, but lacked any real fear.
“The Last Nephew” had me swallow some water. We find a little boy who was kidnapped and serving his “Uncle” as a little helper. As soon as his “Uncle” finds out that the boy what’s to know help in more ways, it’s too late. It’s a taboo subject that gave the collection that adult twist the others didn’t have. It’s tasteful and read very well.
The last story was a nice ending. “The Ginger Men” had me full interested. I reached the surface for more air and when I came down found a story about a vengeful mother using magically cookie dough to punish her husband. Did he deserve it? I don’t think so, no one deserves that.
Overall, this is a great buy and I will definitely pick up the others in the future. Don’t expect over the tops scares or even a small bucket full of gore. I personally think the stories are meant for a younger crowd, with the exception of “The Last Nephew” but every single story was told from a child’s perspective. This really seems like speculative fiction than horror, but is still worth the read. So I say you should swim in this pool, no pee; mostly just loving monsters and carnival freaks.
Find it on Amazon.
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