Do Not Open: Fifteen Tales of Horror

by Michael Gore

Michael Gore, the author of Tales From a Mortician and Skeletons in The Attic is back with fifteen new creepy stories that will make look over your shoulder and leave a light on as you read.

A mysterious box warns, Do Not Open, but Tia needs to know what her late father was hiding… When a new phone arrives on the farm, Josie answers it only to hear voices from beyond…. It might not be just talent that made rocker Everette McDaniel a legend… Are Madge’s triplets trying to kill her, or is she just losing it… Can a VCR from a mysterious salesman rewind time… Marcus reads between the lines of his favorite author’s work to find a message that could change the world… When Candice doesn’t get enough “Likes” on her posts, she makes a pact with an ominous force to get the attention she needs… A haunted stretch of train tracks reveals an ancient old curse… A photo of a dead child haunts a father… and more are within the pages of the Do Not Open.

169 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2023

Reviews

[L. Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually had the honor of sharing a TOC with Gore back in 2018 with Dark Ink’s Halloween-themed anthology, Ghosts, Goblins, Murder, & Madness. But I really started to take notice of his imaginative storytelling with the release of The View Master, a thoroughly creepy collaborative effort with Ghosts’ editor, author Rebecca Rowland.

DO NOT OPEN is an expansion of the dark universe inside Gore’s mind as his stories address family, sanity, work, love, social media, abuse, and twists them into something ugly and unnerving.

It’s a very well chosen collection of horror fiction, so the task of carving out a list of highlights is certainly not an easy one! That said, if memory serves, I had the most fun with: ‘Do Not Open’, ‘Thank You For Answering’, ‘Omni-Vision’, ‘Likes’, ‘Skim’, ‘The Tracks’ and ‘The Child’s Photo’.

Gore’s stories are the perfect scare before bedtime.

Well worth a read!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do Not Open is a sampling platter of Michael Gore’s multifaceted storytelling skills. Personal favorites of mine include “Strings,” a piece slyly reminiscent of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Eighteen Letters,” a tale that skirts the bizarro genre, “Swan Song,” a dark romance about two sociopaths who find each other until one turns on the other, “Likes,” a sharp social commentary on people who measure the worth of their family’s lives by their Facebook content popularity, and “Skim,” the author’s foray into creepy cosmic horror.
Gore’s first collection, Tales from a Mortician, was a gore fest; his second, Skeletons in the Attic, was his literary horror line-up. Do Not Open is experimental, a voyeuristic peek at Gore stretching the muscles of his imagination. Fans of Michael Aloisi, and Michael Gore, are in for a treat.

[RatedHforHorror · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one has a great collection of 15 short stories. From VCR's to someone that has had it with their boss and from a pool boy to a random disturbing photo. I loved all of them. Michael Gore has two more short horror stories books that I can not wait to read.