One Buck Horror: Volume One

One Buck Horror #1

by Christopher Hawkins (Editor), Ada Hoffmann, Mark Onspaugh

Experience this critically-acclaimed anthology series from the very beginning! One Buck Volume One presents five chilling tales from five of today's most up-and-coming horror authors in a bite-sized format that's perfect for reading on the go. Here's what you'll find in this "Jenny's House" is a great place to play, but an unexpected playmate makes for a dark session of show-and-tell.Three kids seek to steal from a traveling carnival and get more than they bargained for in "A Lullaby for Caliban"In "The Last Nephew", Nephew yearns to be free of Uncle's depredations, but when Uncle leaves his pocket watch behind one night, it gives him the key to his escape.Crossing "The Cornfield" is harrowing on the best of winter nights, but this night, Jack turns to see eyes in the darkness, and knows that something is following him...In "The Ginger Men", mother is baking a special ingredient into a treat for father, an ingredient that gives her pie dough a life of its own. Featuring stories by Ada Hoffmann, Julie Jansen, Mark Onspaugh, Mike Trier, and Elizabeth Twist.Be sure to check out the other volumes in this ongoing anthology series, and watch for new volumes coming soon!

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Ebooks

36 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2011

About the author

Born and raised near the shores of Lake Michigan, Christopher Hawkins has been writing and telling stories for as long as he can remember. A dyed-in-the-wool geek, he is an avid collector of books, roleplaying games and curiosities. When he's not writing, he spends his time exploring old cemeteries, lurking in museums, and searching for a decent cup of tea.

Christopher is an award-winning author and the former editor of the One Buck Horror anthology series. His works of short fiction have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Cosmic Horror Monthly, Fusion Fragment, Underland Arcana and The Big Book of New Short Horror. He is a member of the Chicago Writers Association and the Chicagoland chapter of the Horror Writers Association.

An expatriate Hoosier, Christopher currently lives in a suburb of Chicago with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pssst...guess what? I know where you can score five whores horrors for only a Buck.

Legally.

That is what I call stretching your entertainment dollar. This bargain bonanza is one that should appeal to most fright aficionados.

Now don’t get all thrown by my 2 star rating and think that I'm fixing to unleash a dissatisfied dressing down on this book. First, it's really 2.5 stars. Second, I am most pleased to have picked up this collection and have no regrets.

The bad moon shall not rise.

This is one of the real charms of the ebook evolution. 5 promising new authors getting their work out there in a format (and at a price) that makes real sense for the reader. Even better, I actually liked a majority of the stories and thought that one, ”The Last Nephew”, was something special. Of course, as the rating would indicate, there were a couple of misses. However even these "less than the rest" efforts had good intentions and never caused me to feel spurned as a reader.

THE STORIES:

Jenny's House: by Ada Hoffman

A rather inauspicious start to the collection. This very short story involves a "show and tell" presentation by a small boy about a play date gone very wrong. Even though I didn’t care for the story, there were flashes of real talent. I enjoyed the author’s voice and how the naive, innocent boy details events that the reader knows to be far more horrific that the child’s perception allows him to see.

Unfortunately, I thought the horror element was handled poorly. The “scare” is given no context and the build up to the climax was flaccid. It made the end fall flat despite being competently delivered. 1.5 stars.

A Lullaby for Caliban: by Mark Onspaugh

Who doesn't love Carnie stories where idiot locals (who obviously have never read any of these carnie horror tales) go out to cause mischief and run afoul of the denizens of freakville...with serious consequences ensuing. I liked the set up and the style employed by the author. He would give the reader fragmentary, paexplanation aspects of the horror elements and this made the story feel more authentic...like real life. The ending was nice, if a bit telegraphed, and I thought the story was effective. A good solid piece. 3.0 stars.

The Last Nephew: by Elizabeth Twist

My favorite of the bunch. This one had a great creep factor created through a wonderful use of “less is more” explanations and vague hints of despicable evils perpetrated. These horrors are mostly just but that alluded to and the reader is left to ponder on the details.

‘So many,’ I said. Fifty-five was the real number. The first nephew had kept track of every one of the boys that passed through Uncle’s bed.

The ending fits perfectly with the rest of the story. Haunting, unexpectedly polished and very well told. This one got under my skin. 4.0 stars.

The Cornfield: by Mark Trier

I liked this but was also a little disappointed with how it played out. It turned out to be a fun story, but started out with the potential to be a real injection of scary. The author does a great job of setting the stage and building a sense of tension.

A young boy walking home at night through a spooky cornfield.

However, once the “horror” actually begins, it felt sloppy and jarring. The tension vanished and the narrative seemed to switch awkwardly. The story recovers a bit at the climax and I thought the end reveal was nice. I think if the story went through a few more iterations and the transition from build up to horror to ending was refined, this could become something really good. As it is...2.5 to 3.0 stars.

The Ginger Men: by Julie Jansen

For me, this story was a mess. Some nice imagination the story has some interesting ingredients. Unfortunately, they are mixed together haphazardly and nothing bakes properly. This was my least favorite. 1.0 star.

CONCLUSION:

Despite the uneven nature of the collection, what a terrific idea for an anthology series. The stories are all very short and I read all 5 in about an hour. Add to that the meagre cost of $1 and you have a non-time consuming, non-budget breaking means of sampling promising new authors honing their craft.

I thought it was a real treat and that the benefits far outweighed the cost. I will be picking up volume 2 immediately.

Overall...2.5 stars, but still one that I can say I recommend.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lottery ticket. A vending machine sugar boost. Some parking time. There aren't many satisying things you can buy with a buck these days. But here's one: the first volume of On Buck Horror, an ebook horror anthology with some solid independent short fiction. It's available now from major online e-book retailers, such as Amazon.com and
BarnesAndNoble.com and at less than 3000 words, each story gives you a quick fix.

I enjoyed all five of the quality short stories, but I have to say that The Cornfield, by Mike Trier stood out for me for a couple of reasons. I related to this kid's fear in the field, the arc of the story was suprisingly satisfying in such a short frame, and his use of language and style was clearly the best ("...Rorschach test of black blots").

Congrats to One Buck Horror and looking forward to the next volume!

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice idea. A collection of horror stories by new writers that cost one dollar for your kindle. All the tales are good if not mind-bending. They seem to be focused around children as the main connector but I suspect that was more coincidental than anything. This is a nice way to explore new writers and get an entertaining read.

Favorite story? "A Lullaby for Caliban".

And what so you drink while reading One Buck Horror? Why Two Buck Chuck of course.

[Not Now...Mommy's Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five short stories that seem to center around children.

"The Last Nephew" was my favorite although the ending came much too quickly for me.

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

only read the cornfield. review to come soon

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

While horror isn't my first choice, it does hold a special place. Horror has such a broad brush too. My preference is the kind that crawls along my skin. Not in the `toss around blood and guts and teenagers doing the horizontal bop in the woods' kind. Surprise me. Show me that level of revenge and comeuppance that makes me cheer, not the crap ending of thinking one person gets away only for them to become food for the creepies. I'm looking at you, Decent, Part 2.

Alright, enough rambling. On with the ins and outs of one Buck Horror's first issue by story.


Jenny's House

The voice of this is of a young child and the overall tone is well done. It's a story of a friend going to his friend's Jenny's house for the equivalent of a play date. All is not well, however, in GI Joe Land because something festers in the basement and it doesn't like noise. Clue the curious kid who descends the basement steps and sends his brave GI Joe into the goo. Cue awakening goo and a panicked Jenny.

A Lullaby for Caliban

Enter a creepy carnival and an initiation to a local soda jerk club (minus the dancing) and you've got the next offering. What I loved about this one was the imagery and setting of tone. It made you feel like you were beside the MC sneaking through a carnie after dark.

The Last Nephew

Ah this one is my favorite of the bunch. It's a story of a boy living with a man his calls Uncle yet they are not of blood relations. Told in the first person, we see through the eyes of the MC well. Through veiled actions, we see the blossoming of deceit to save the other nephews before him. All to the tick tock of a watch.

The Cornfield

I'm going to be blunt here. This story is the ugly duckling of the group. The picked last at gym class dodge ball target. I really want to find a glimmer of hope in this one but for me, it fell flat. This is a story about walking through a snow-covered cornfield near creepy woods (though the distance isn't quite clear) and seeing glowing lights (and the words `lights' is used liberally) that grow in size. Enter the freaked out MC.

The Ginger Men

I guess you could call this one my second favorite as far as how well-written it is. It had a pod people feel to it but with a nice flaky crust. I wasn't sure of the age of the MC, other than they were young, but that didn't take away from the piece. A special green wiggly substance is used to make obedient spouses and what not with a little added revenge in ways. The calm cool demeanor of those allegedly not affected by the goo or the servants to the master is downright creepy.

All in all, this first edition was well done. It offers something a little different than the norm and is in a genre that is a crowd pleaser. Scary is good and I'm hoping to see more from One Buck Horror.

[Kelly Thurman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hands down, no contest, don't even bother debating—horror is my favorite genre. Yeah, I obviously read lots of other genres, too, but horror's my first boyfriend. (Hey. Just because I'm a cranky spinster doesn't mean I've never dated. And while you're at it, pull up your damn pants—kids these days!)

So, let's get to One Buck Horror: Volume One, which promises to be well worth ninety-nine cents (unlike the last five or six Stephen King books I tried to read—DNF, all of them).

First up is "Jenny's House" by Ada Hoffman. After a few paragraphs, I knew where this was going—and I was right. The story didn't inspire even the slightest feeling of dread, or terror, or even discomfort. However, Hoffman did a great job with the child's narrative voice, which made this short story worth the read.

Mark Onspaugh does an excellent job of storytelling in "A Lullaby for Caliban." If you enjoy horror stories set at freak shows, this is a great example of the theme. And, yes, this is my favorite story in the book. Onspaugh nailed the sense of dread that makes a horror story, by definition, horror.

"The Last Nephew" by Elizabeth Twist (awesome author name, by the way) is so-so. To be fair to Twist, I like my "child molester gets what he deserves" stories to be a little, well, gory. That's simply a matter of personal taste, though, and is not a judgment on how Twist deals with the idea.

Mike Trier's "The Cornfield" was skipped after two page turns because I just couldn't get into the story. Anthologies long and short run that risk because different writers are doing their own things, so I'm neither surprised nor disappointed.

Finally, we have Julie Jansen's "The Ginger Men," which is really good…until the end. It's sort of a "WTF?" ending because I have no idea why it happened; the kid should be free and clear, but he isn't, which makes little sense to me. Of course, I'm not the smartest or most-educated reader out there, so it's possible that I completely missed the point of those last few paragraphs.

Overall, "One Buck Horror: Volume One" is worth ninety-nine cents. If you enjoy horror shorts, you'll probably like at least one of these stories. Considering the dwindling number of magazines that run even one short story per issue, a buck for one or even two good stories is a pretty-good deal these days.

[Chad Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the price, you can't go wrong with this collection. Overall, however, I was expecting more from this collection based on what I've heard about the One Buck Horror volumes, and I found the collection as a whole to be slightly above average although still entertaining. In general, the endings were the most disappointing parts of the stories for me, which are discussed individually below.

JENNY'S HOUSE: I loved the childlike voice of the narrator in this story, but I think the ending was too abrupt and the last paragraph unnecessary and did the story more harm than good.

A LULLABY FOR CALIBAN: This was one of my favorite stories from the collection. It had a Lovecraft feel to it and was well-written. The ending was a nice twist, and although I loved the ending (and don't want to give it away), I found myself saying that it wasn't possible.

THE LAST NEPHEW: Another one of my favorites and another well-written story. But the ending was anticlimactic although it did leave much to the reader's imagination. I guess I just wanted more from this story.

THE CORNFIELD: This is the most fast-paced of the stories and the author's use of language and description were excellent. But for me, the ending was too predictable, which caused my opinion of it to lessen.

THE GINGER MEN: This was an original and interesting little story. But by the end, I had more questions than answers about the premise behind the plot, and wanting to know why it's called THE GINGER MEN when one of the "ginger men" in the story is a woman. But it's still a good and interesting story despite these little pet peeves of mine.

I am looking forward, however, to checking out the other volumes in the ONE BUCK HORROR series.

[Jaime Horio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five stories in this collection each had an ending that left me knowing that something just wasn’t right in the world of the story, and I was wanting to know what would follow. This wasn’t a hollow feeling, as if the story felt incomplete. At the end of the tale, I felt satisfied. It felt like “The Twilight Zone” , at the end of an episode, I knew that something wasn’t right, but I felt thoroughly entertained by the episode.

The various stories in this volume hit several story areas. You get your monsters (‘Jenny’s House’; ‘The Cornfield’), your paranormal (‘The Last Nephew’), your oddities of the world (‘A Lullaby for Caliban’) and your just plain strange and creepy (‘The Ginger Men’).

This first volume was great, and I look forward to the future volume. At only a dollar per issue, there is no reason for anyone not to be checking this out!

[A.J. Armitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I quite liked this small collection of horror stories, so much so that despite the lateness of the hour, I digested them in a single sitting.
Most of the stories were quite original but lacked variety in that they all seemed to be written from the POV of young boys; not a problem in itself, but I would have prefered a little more diversity.
As the stories are quite short, I won't go into any detail about the stories themselves (I wouldn't want to spoil other readers enjoyment/surprise), but I liked all the stories for different reasons, especially 'Jenny's house' for the voice of the protaganist, 'A Lullaby for Caliban' for its overall wierdness and 'The Last Nephew' for its misdirection and eventual twist.

A very good collection that I will certainly revisit and well worth the 86p price tag.

[Christopher Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granted, I'm biased, being one of the editors of this collection, but each of the five stories is a highly entertaining read. "Jenny's House" is a great little monster story, made all the more creepy by the innocence of the child narrating the tale. "A Lullaby for Caliban" confirms what most of us know instinctively: it's bad to steal from a carnival freakshow. "The Last Nephew" is an atmospheric story of ghosts and revenge set against a steampunk backdrop. "The Cornfield" is all about straight-up scares, and "The Ginger Men" will never let you look at baked goods the same way again.

If you're a fan of Stephen King, The Twilight Zone, or just a lover of scary stories, I'd recommend One Buck Horror: Volume One as a great summertime read.

[James Wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to be honest that I don't read much horror, aside from the occasional Stephen King novel, but One Buck Horror: Volume One was recommended by a friend so I gave it a try. Although I appreciated the fact that all the stories follow the same theme: children facing scary situations and managing to overcome them, I think the work as a whole fell flat. Frankly, it was missing the horror. I wasn't scared or freaked out and I certainly didn't have any nightmares. The writing was tight and fast paced, but I want characters that I can care about and genuinely want to know what happens next. Most of the stories needed more character development so we could root for the main characters.

[Kenneth Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up a copy of this not too long ago via an Amazon gift card. Somehow I ended up with a 2nd copy on my Kindle software when the issue was given away for a free promotion. I wouldn’t think that possible, but regardless, I finally got around to reading the inaugural issue. I’m giving this 4 stars although I likely think it would end up just under that rating if they allowed partial stars. Overall the stories were an okay mix. “The Last Nephew” was a real standout story for me. Reading this issue was enough to convince me that I need to keep reading subsequent issues, so I’ve added all of them to my TBR list. I suggest you do the same.

[James Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like what these folks are doing. For $1.00 you get five short horror stories. FIVE STORIES FOR A BUCK! Now honesty says I must reveal 2 things.

1) The stories are really short. 3,000 words approx.

2) I have a story that will appear in a soon future issue of One Buck Horror. Probably around Halloween. (I do NOT have a story in this issue and I will NOT be reviewing the issue my story will appear in.)

That being said, this is a nifty product. You get fresh fiction, new authors, a snazzy cover, and a great price. Go buy your copy today, it's only a BUCK ya cheap bastard.

[D. J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was my first foray into the series and I wasn't disappointed at all. Two of the stories in particular were excellent and made the collection a very worthwhile buy just for the privilege of reading them -- "A Lullaby for Caliban" by Mark Onspaugh, and "The Last Nephew" by Elizabeth Twist. Any fan of Lovecraftian horror will surely enjoy these two stories at the very least. For just a dollar, this collection is firmly anchored in the "must-buy" category and highly recommended.

I look forward to purchasing and reading more collections in this series in the near future.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I'm not a great lover of horror, I "liked" this book. Not enough to merit 4 stars, however. Some of the stories definitely sent that "horror shiver" up my spine, although others were confusing and left me unsatisfied. I can't remember how I obtained this collection, but if you like horror, you really can't go wrong for $1 to give these stories a shot.

[A.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great new horror 'zine that offers pro payment to writers, but only charges readers a buck! The stories were excellent.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best horror anthology I've read. The writing is excellent and the stories are creepy without lots of gore. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could. I can't wait to read the next volume.

[Kelly Beckett · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok, just ok.

[Jeffrey Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the short stories in the book were okay. Most of them had a twist of classic Gothic to them.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda like the goosebumps series.
Jenny's House & A Lullaby for Caliban were my favorites