Regina Puckett's Short Tales of Horror

by Regina Puckett

Mine- A night of ghost hunting with a sexy coworker turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse with an evil spirit. Can anything save them when the spirit decides they belong to him? Crying through Plastic Eyes-A messy divorce, a room filled with creepy dolls, and a missing six-year-old all create the perfect storm for a young mother’s worse nightmare. Will Work for Food- You see them everywhere begging for money or food. When an older couple decides to lend a helping hand to a young man and his son, someone gets more than they bargain for. Pieces-A battered woman confesses to the mutilation and death of her husband, but did she really commit this heinous crime? Paying the Hitchhiker-You see a beautiful young woman on the side of the road with her thumb out, asking for a ride. Who should be the most afraid: the hitchhiker or the person picking her up? Inheritance-A confession from Accalia’s grandmother about a curse and an inheritance are just the prologue to seven days of suffering through a living hell.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

215 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2012

About the author

Regina Puckett is a 2014 Readers' Favorite Award winning author for her sweet romance, Concealed in My Heart. Her steampunk book, I Will Breathe, and her children's picture book, Borrowed Wings, both received the Children's Literary Classic Seal of Approval. "I Will Breathe" was selected as a Science Fiction Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards. I Will Breathe won a silver in the 2017 Literary Classics Award/Science fiction/dystopian (high school)

Her boxed set, A TOUCH OF PASSION, is the 2016 WINNER of The Romance Reviews Readers' Choice Awards.

Memories, won first place in the 1st WSBR International Poetry Contest, and her collection of poetry, Fireflies, won the 2013 Turning Pages Poetry Book of the Year.

Regina Puckett has been writing for over forty-eight years, and lives in Tennessee with her husband of over forty years. She has two grown daughters and four grandchildren.

She writes sweet romances, horror, inspirational, steampunk, picture books and poetry. There are always several projects in various stages of completion and characters and stories waiting in the wings for their chance to finally get out of her head and onto paper. The only way she knows to shut the voices up is to tell their stories and to let them live among the pages of her books.

She loves writing in many different genres because life is too short to be stuck in a rut.

Please come and visit me at facebook.com/regina.puckett1
http://reginapuckettsbooks.weebly.com...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
https://twitter.com/ReginaPucket

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

These six tales of terror all feature great suspense and encroaching creepiness, but they also showcase something missing from a lot of horror fiction - strong, capable women who perform admirably under strange and trying circumstances.

Hardcore horror fans may find some of the stories a bit predictable, but most of them took me by surprise. Basically, the author had me with the first story when she used the phrase "old abandoned mental hospital." The only words that freak me out more than those are "there's a spider on your head."

[Tasha Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read for horror lovers.

MINE - abandoned mental hospital & murders by the unseen kinda scary

CRYING THROUGH PLASTIC EYES - scary & ugly dolls, oh my - wow freaky scary

WILL WORK FOR FOOD - wow totally not expecting the turn this short story took.

PIECES - another wow, didn't see the end coming, horror for sure

PAYING THE HITCHHIKER - weird and freaky

INHERITANCE - interesting and a page turner

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I got through 3 of the stories. There were so many typos, and the stories were just meh so I stopped reading it. I felt like I was forcing myself to finish it and that's never a good sign when reading a book. I want to be excited and not want to stop reading. Highly disappointed.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book through Puckett's Amazon ebook giveaway. It has several short stories which are quick, but very enjoyable reads. Each one drew me with their ordinary plots only to shock me by the unusual twists at the end. Each one was different so that I was always caught off guard. Reading each story was delightful fun! If asked which one was my favorite, I wouldn't be able to pick just one. But, I particular enjoyed "Crying Through Plastic Eyes" and "Will Work for Food."

This book is a very well-written fun read for those who enjoy horror stories or stories with a surprising twist.

Thanks for this excellent giveaway gift! I will definitely be on the lookout for more of Puckett's work.

[Celia Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not generally a fan of horror stories and rarely read them but what I do like are stories that are well written, well constructed, make me want to turn the page and have an unexpected twist.

Regina’s Short Tales of Horror have all those elements and certainly do not disappoint. In fact they are a devilish delight and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. If I had to choose a favourite it would be “Crying through plastic eyes.” What is it about dolls and clowns that make them so freaky?

I like the fact that Regina writes in many different genres and will definitely be reading more of her work.

[Brenda Seaberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was interesting because in each of the stories I thought I had it all figured out, and that she was revisiting old plots. However she had some really nice twists in them instead. I will definitely read more by this author!

[Book lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

A good compilation of interesting, often unpredictable horror stories. I enjoyed it and hope other horror fans will give it a try.

[Michael McLellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cool little horror collection. I liked some better than others, but overall a worthwhile read.

[Muriel Carlisle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, Quick, & Scary

I enjoyed all 6 of the tales and was actually surprised to find all but one of the endings to not be what I had thought they would be.

[David Donachie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of horror

First the good: the short horror tales in this book are reasonably well written, and have enough visceral thrills to satisfy a fan of gore, as well as a good number of twists and turns (one story even has two). The female main characters face terrifying events without being bimbos, no sexism here.

As for the less good, many of the stories are gory, and although most of the violence and sexual abuse isn’t gratuitous, it is there in quantity. As for the heroines, most come to bad ends. These are not stories with uplifting endings, and the author really seems to hate the police, who are more violent than the monsters and always punish the wrong person.

I found some of the plots easy to predict, and some of the endings unsatisfying, because the stories were all about the setup and not the payoff, but that could just be me.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short Tales of Horror

Regina Puckett's small horror stories are traditional for the most part, ghosts, werewolves, serial murders and the like, but the author's humor and her understanding of ordinary human beings reactions when faced with the impossible place them a cut above many modern tales of grue. I enjoyed them.

[Tammy N Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page turning obsession...

Being an avid reader for over 50 years, I thought I knew every type of plot line that was out there...I was so wrong! Regina kept me interested to the last word of every story. In fact, I want more, much more!

[Anomaly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since this is a compilation, I'll give a review of each story. Overall, however, I'd rate this book 3 stars for the ones I liked, but knock it down to two stars for the annoyances I found in the writing style.

Everything is excessively wordy, occasionally to the detriment of sentence meaning and story flow. At times, it reads like someone who's trying too hard to obey the exact laws of grammar taught in elementary school without accommodating for what sounds right or the exceptions to grammatical rules. Other times, completely incorrect phrases or words are used.

To provide some examples, directly excerpted from the first and second stories:
*** Since she had no idea in which direction James had wandered, she made the decision to stay where she was at and wait for him to come back and find her.
*** before all of her forced bravo evaporated. (note: the word the author likely means is bravado, not forced bravo)
*** She flayed out both arms (note: that would hurt very much unless the word intended is splayed)
*** Looking away from the box into which she had been trying to cut
*** glared in the direction into which Krissy had disappeared
*** Sassy and the doll on which he was lying across

These such errors are frequent and fairly consistent, to the point it would be fun to play Clunky Wording Bingo while reading. I tried so hard to overlook it, but often times these things would pull me out of the stories.

As for the stories, I'll cover them in order.

The first story, Mine, was incredibly boring. I found myself skimming through a majority of the intro and felt the writing style created no suspense. We're told, not shown, how panicked the main character is. As a result, nothing she experiences feels frightening or urgent. Dead body? Ho hum. Creepy things? Yawn. More time was put into describing and naming prices of her clothes than was put into making the readers feel suspense or fright. But hey, I'm sure it was incredibly vital to describe the material and colors of the main character's underwear when she's exposed for two seconds and tell us how expensive her shoes were. Honestly, the most I felt was annoyance at the incompetent police work at the end. Nothing scary in this snooze fest.

The next story, Crying Through Plastic Eyes, starts out weakly with the 'into which she had been trying to cut' line used as an example above. It, too, suffers from the emotions being told yet not shown, but the character is more easily relatable by nature of not being as annoying as Alle from Mine. Aside from an incredibly gross moment where a six-year-old kissing her mother is described as "an added full-mouth, sloppy kiss that only a kid could get away with and have the receiver savor every second of it," it's alright. Not great by any means, but not boring like the previous story.

Additionally, the police in this story are once again stupid, incompetent, cold-hearted, and infuriating. At one point, they murder a woman's dog for attacking the officer who was unjustly manhandling her and causing her distress. Yuck. This author needs to find a new trope or perhaps let go of their hatred for cops.

That said, I quite liked the story's general premise and it actually managed to creep me out. Dolls have always been an easy way to spook me, so I can't say with certainty if the horror factor was better. I will say, however, that it felt like reading the synopsis of a horror anthology episode. I like that, and the ending of the story really got to me. I just wish the dialogue hadn't felt so stiff and unnatural and the writing style had been more engaging.

Next up in the collection is Will Work For Food. I'm not sure how I feel about this one or the characters in it, but the penniless man (he's not homeless, just in financial ruin) rubbed me the wrong way. Were it not for seeing one of the main characters agree that he's being a horrible father for forcing his starving son to do yardwork in the summer heat before having anything to eat or drink, I may have rage quit on this story. I wish I had quit, frankly. The ending is just... not good, to put it politely. Maybe this one would have worked as something on television, but even then it would have only been the shock value which salvaged it. Whereas I was just bored by Mine, I actively disliked Will Work For Food. It left too much unexplained about several characters, including the most fascinating part about the physical condition of the penniless man's wife.

After that is Pieces, which unsurprisingly opens with callously incompetent police work. A cop tells a woman in the hospital who's having memory issues, "your husband was brutally murdered," without even so much as an attempt to comfort her or soften the blow emotionally. Then, a page later, he goes even further with, “You don’t remember your husband being chopped into tiny pieces? I think that would be something that would be hard to forget.”

It only gets worse with more cruelty and badgering, including forcing the woman to look at photos of her dismembered husband while taunting her for potentially being abused and killing him in retaliation. I'm not sure what this author's problem with cops is, but it's extremely grating to see every last officer in every story be a total jerk. I trudged through Pieces, but for zero payoff. There's a confession, a memory, and some psychobabble which is simply lacklustre the way it's presented. Pieces is another I wish I had given up when I got annoyed at the writing instead of wasting my time.

Had this story started differently with compassionate cops who were reluctant to show Kelli the crime scene photos, this could have had amazing potential. Imagine a story where the confused wife of a murder victim suddenly remembers the horrors of what happened when her memory is jogged by photos of her dismembered, abusive husband. Imagine if she felt horror instead of indifference and broke down over it. Imagine if the police felt a conflict of work ethic vs. emotions after Kelli explained all the tortures she'd endured which led to her husband's murder. Then, imagine if it's revealed that she's gone insane and is seeing people who aren't really there and it drives her to kill herself.

Sadly, that isn't the story we're given. We do, however, get a hospital in which upper story windows have screens and openable panes. All the better for people to suicide jump out of, you see. Oh, and at the very end? The cops who were harassing Kelli reflect back on how all the evidence points toward it being impossible for her to have killed her husband. So why, then, did he torture her with photos of the corpse's pieces and insist she did it? We'll never know. There's a twist at the end of this one, but it's about the third time everything we're led to believe is revealed as a lie so it's just annoying.

Paying the Hitchhiker is next, and I'll admit that by the time I reached it I was feeling exhausted of stories which don't live up to the promise of horror. Unlike the others, this story's sexual in nature... but in a weirdly half-censored way. We get graphic details of a woman's thong wedgie, face licking with promises of impending 'games' of a nonconsensual nature, and euphemisms such as "coupling like dogs" but later get an outright implication that the main character's father molested her. It feels like the author is too shy to be gritty but also wants to go dark, and the contrast in elements feels like someone threw a rape threat scene into a Disney movie. It's weird... but ultimately leads to a decent payoff as, once the sex-in-background is over, things stop being awkward and the action (of a non-smutty nature) gets fascinating.

I can say that the twists and turns in Paying the Hitchhiker actually led to a thrilling adventure like watching an entertaining b-movie horror play out on the pages. I never saw the ending or the initial twist coming, and I found the story to actually be compelling. The very end made me laugh, but in a good way.

With the previous story making me hopeful that things were picking up - albeit just in time for the final story - I went into Inheritance eagerly. I'm glad I gave it a chance, because it was very intriguing, but once again it left me feeling underwhelmed by the ending. I also found myself frustrated once more by horrified emotions being told rather than shown; all through the torturous experiences of Accalia, it felt more like reading a textbook than being given a peek into the mind of a very troubled and hopeless person. I did manage to enjoy it for what it was, but much like Crying Through Plastic Eyes I think this one appealed more for being a plotline I like in general than a well-written story.

Overall, I'm not very impressed and think perhaps this author's writing style just isn't for me. However, I did enjoy two and a half of the stories, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

[Grampy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a gifted copy of this book from the author, through the "Read2Review" program, with the promise that I would post an honest review within 3 weeks.

“Regina Puckett’s Short Tales of Horror” by Regina Puckett, of course, is a book you can take at face value. It was written by Regina Puckett, it contains some short stories she wrote, and those short stories are very definitely “horror” stories. They are quite good horror stories. There are six horror stories in this collection, and not one is misnamed; all are riddled with horror.

The six tales, in order of appearance are: “Mine”, “Crying Through Plastic Eyes”, “Will Work for Food”, “Pieces”, “Paying the Hitchhiker”, and “Inheritance”. I would describe the first two stories as being double horror stories, because they both start with one kind of horror, and yet end with a surprising twist to an entirely different type of horror, leaving the victims AND the reader feeling totally wrung out.

“Will Work for Food”, while certainly a noble, proud, and reasonable offer to earn a meal, rather than just ask for a hand-out, may not have been such a great idea in the end. In fact, it was a horrendous idea.

“Pieces” begins with a battered woman waking in a hospital bed, not remembering how or why she was there. Her daughter is sitting by her bedside, waiting for her to wake. So is a homicide detective. The detective finds it convenient that she can’t remember anything, but her daughter is there to encourage her to answer his questions and help anyway she can. But in the end, the family stays together, and everything works out fine. Well, almost everything.

The next story, “Paying the Hitchhiker” is quite a departure from the routine don’t-pick-up-a-hitchhiker-or-else story. It is still not a good idea, but none of the participants in this ride expected things to turn out quite like they did. How could they? No one ever anticipates the Boogie-Man jumping out at them.

Finally, we come to “Inheritance”, where a lovely, thoughtful young lady goes to visit the grandmother who raised her, just to spend some time with her and help out for a week. Her cell phone doesn’t get service at granny’s place, and granny just never saw fit to have a landline installed. The young lady is going to turn 21 in a couple days, at which time her grandmother intends to tell her about her inheritance, which is something she knew nothing about. But granny forgot that things don’t always turn out the way you plan them. In spite of believing she had covered every contingency, she didn’t consider the Grim Reaper; his plans tend to supersede everybody else’s plans. This is another “double horror” story… or is it a triple? I’ve lost count!

My summary: “Regina Puckett’s Short Tales of Horror” is a great, sometimes terrifying, collection of real original horror stories that no true fan of horror should overlook. Several have that one element that makes any horror story supremely horrifying; they could actually happen. And nothing is more horrifying than reality. I rate this book 5 Strait Jackets.

[Vnunez-Ms_luv2read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good stories

Very good read. Very interesting and all the stories were good. I recommend this book if you like short horror stories.

[Nancy Silk · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Great Horror Stories"

I've read many stories by Regina Puckett. She's one of the most creative authors writing in many genres. I especially like her horror stories. There are six stories here, and I've read every single one of them. "Mine" is about ghost hunting. "Crying Through Plastic Eyes" is about a messy divorce. "Will Work For Food" is about beggars looking for food. "Pieces" is about a woman's confession. "Paying The Hitchhiker" is when a woman standing on the side of the road needing a ride. And the last, "Inheritance" is about a curse and confession. All these shocking stories will put shivers up and down your spine. Regina is a wizard, knowing how to spook her readers! Love these stories.

[Olga Miret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regina Puckett’s Short Tales of Horror
Short but full of shocks, atmosphere and real horror
I can start by saying I loved this book. I love horror movies and I love to read horror novels and stories, so this one was right up my alley. The stories are different enough to suit most tastes, from monsters, to ghosts, from slashers to dolls (clowns even, horror of horror!). After reading `Mine' that I found scary and unsettling, I knew I was in for a good ride. I know from Ms. Puckett (I follow her on Twitter and she's a great follow) that she has now written and published the continuation, `Ours' and I'm looking forward to it. As I've said the stories are varied but I noticed that many have female protagonists (might be perpetrators and/or victims) and men tend to suffer sometimes the female rage, sometimes pay the price for not taking women's concerns seriously. Some of the stories are pure horror in the best tradition (like `Mine' or `Inheritance'), but others like `Pieces' are horrific and tragic whilst touching on really serious issues (domestic violence). And what about `Will Work for Food' and its dark (humorous?) comment on the crisis? I won't talk about the stories in detail as I don't want to spoil the surprises but can thoroughly recommend the book to everybody who likes horror and does not scare easy (unless you like to be scared, of course!). I have read one of the author's romances and also really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to her new works. And the ones I haven't read yet.

[Ionia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting the same thing I always expect from a horror novel or short story collection. I was well prepared to laugh and not feel even the slightest bit terrified. I was wrong. Okay, so I have always a had a little negative emotion toward rooms full of creepy glassy eyed dolls anyway, so maybe I was predisposed to be horrified, but the rest of the stories were equally as frightening. Try as you might, you just don't see these endings coming, and when they do, they send shivers up your spine. Don't read this book alone in the dark like I did...you might not recover;) If you are looking for a book that can scare you half to death but will still leave you with a smile on your face, this will do the trick! I will certainly choose other titles from this author.

[Trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read.

This was a very good book. I had a hard time putting it down and flew through it quickly. I will look for other books by this author.

[Julie Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of delightfully chilling tales in which I didn't know how they would end - great - and hooked me from the beginning.

I liked the writing style, the characters and the plots. I had read one of the stories before - Will Work For Food - a wonderfully unexpected tale - from which I knew I'd want to read more by this author.

I do prefer her horror stories to the romance, but that is only personal preference, nothing to do with the talent of this author.

Stories worth reading, especially if you like horror.

Recommended.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness "Short tales of Horror" scared the $h!t out of me! The story "Crying through plastic eyes" was a real creeper for me. I dropped my extra pillow in the floor after reading last night and was almost afraid to reach down in the dark to get it! haha! I am a big horror fan and have read all of Stephen King, Koontz, and VC Andrews . I have to say, Regina Puckett is an AWESOME story teller! Better than some of the "big dogs"! Thanks for a good clean scare!

[Cataline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Six short tales of horror to fill that tiny space of time you have to indulge yourself. Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised by different variations and inventive developments that occurred. I'm definitely partial to one of the stories as I was able to enjoy a laugh while still trying to figure out the twist. This compilation of horror stories is by far some of the best I've read from Regina.

[Berrynana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this book on amazon for free and after reading the description, I thought I'd give it a try. Boy, was I surprised! Regina Puckett is a great horror writer and I can't wait to get my hands on her other novels! If you truly enjoy gruesome, goose-bump inducing horror stories, give this a try. You definitely will not be disappointed!

[Teryla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some hits and some misses for me, I felt like each story was cut short as soon as the main character was properly introduced. Very good for spooky story time though. I'll definitely be rereading this on Halloween.

[Cathy Naber · Rating 1 out of 5]

The stories were too predictable. The endings seemed really anticlimactic. As for the portion of the book that was highlighted, I didn't highlight it. My cat did. He stepped on the tablet while it was laying on the bed. Apparently he was more impressed with the book than I was.

[Issa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book of chilling tales.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for really scary, this isn't it. I did like the stories but I could guess how half of them were going to end.

[Joey Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book! If you like to be scared, read it. Very creepy! Can't wait to read more by this author!

[Kevin Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stories

I wasn't expecting much from this book but I liked all of the stories. Well written. Def worth .99 .

[Patricia Kaniasty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not impressed. Nothing scary about any of these stories.