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Things Falling Apart
In this collection of 21 short stories, J.W. Schnarr writes very much in the tradition of classic greats such as Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant, but with a completely modern, fresh voice. With Schnarr it's not so much about gore and splatter, as it is about sliding like a scalpel inside your head and lodging there. His characters are believable, ordinary people who are hurtled into horrific situations, sometimes of their own making whether through love or stupidity, sometimes not.
- GenresHorror
261 pages, ebook
First published April 12, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 2, 2012
As this is a collection of short stories with a multitude of characters, I found it quite hard to decide on a rating. I ended up rating it 3/5 because some stories were awesome, some were disturbing, and some were lame. These stories don’t abide by ordinary limits – this is the darkest side of humanity. If you like dark – and it’s even too dark for me in some of the short stories – than you’d like this. Otherwise, do not read. Don’t even peek.
Warning – These stories contain gore, zombies, child death, prison rape, racist remarks, obscene language and everything else most writers are too scared to pen.
I won’t go through all of the stories, but here are some that made an impact on me:
Survival of The Fattest – This is a story about an obese man who is desperate to lose weight, so he does something beyond stupid – it would make the Darwin files. The story isn’t necessarily gore but it has the same “eww” feeling that makes you want to shower away the disgusting images.
Black Water – This is a story about a woman trying to cope with a death of a child. Definitely sad.
Magpie – This is a story about a woman with weird pregnancy cravings. The ending was HORRIBLE. I don’t mean this as bad. I mean that it made me want to go wake my child from a nap and cuddle him close because this story gave me such bad mojo. This story hit my limit. There are certain things that I don’t like to read about or even think about. If you have children, I would skip this story.
Froggie – I thought was pretty stupid. Its a “What if?”. What if the video game Frogger was real? Not scary, creepy, or much of anything.
The War Within – A burn victim fights the demons within as the doctors struggle to save her body on the outside. I thought it was weird. Definitely science fiction instead of horror.
Warning – These stories contain gore, zombies, child death, prison rape, racist remarks, obscene language and everything else most writers are too scared to pen.
I won’t go through all of the stories, but here are some that made an impact on me:
Survival of The Fattest – This is a story about an obese man who is desperate to lose weight, so he does something beyond stupid – it would make the Darwin files. The story isn’t necessarily gore but it has the same “eww” feeling that makes you want to shower away the disgusting images.
Black Water – This is a story about a woman trying to cope with a death of a child. Definitely sad.
Magpie – This is a story about a woman with weird pregnancy cravings. The ending was HORRIBLE. I don’t mean this as bad. I mean that it made me want to go wake my child from a nap and cuddle him close because this story gave me such bad mojo. This story hit my limit. There are certain things that I don’t like to read about or even think about. If you have children, I would skip this story.
Froggie – I thought was pretty stupid. Its a “What if?”. What if the video game Frogger was real? Not scary, creepy, or much of anything.
The War Within – A burn victim fights the demons within as the doctors struggle to save her body on the outside. I thought it was weird. Definitely science fiction instead of horror.
July 21, 2012
Schnarr made me care. From the very beginning of this 20+ collection of short stories he made me care about the people in his tales and about what happened to them. He kept me engaged by building real characters I could believe in and then putting them through extraordinary situations.
I didn't always get a happy ending but nothing ever felt gratuitous or unjustified. When the protagonist doesn't get the girl, win the prize or finishes in death, pain or agony there was always a reason for it. That's not to say that each story ends on doom and gloom. There are storys that made me laugh out loud (Little Sisters Can't be Trusted), put me on the edge of my seat in suspense (Song of the dead) or had me whooping it up like the crowd at a first showing of a summer blockbuster (The Children of the Golden Day). There is a lot of variety in here and I felt that Schnarr delivered the story that needed to be told in the best way possible.
The authors background as a reporter comes through in his work with tight sentences and no wasted words. This really comes through in what I felt was the strongest story in the collection, Dorothy of Kansas. It's lean, packed with emotion and one of the best short stories of 2012.
Everyone has a 'what should I read next' moment. Short-story collections are a great way to find out if you like an author's voice and if you've never read JW Schnarr before I'd recommend making 'Things Falling Apart' the next item on your reading list. He'll make you care from the first story. Care enough to keep reading on.
Thanks for reading my review.
Stephen
I didn't always get a happy ending but nothing ever felt gratuitous or unjustified. When the protagonist doesn't get the girl, win the prize or finishes in death, pain or agony there was always a reason for it. That's not to say that each story ends on doom and gloom. There are storys that made me laugh out loud (Little Sisters Can't be Trusted), put me on the edge of my seat in suspense (Song of the dead) or had me whooping it up like the crowd at a first showing of a summer blockbuster (The Children of the Golden Day). There is a lot of variety in here and I felt that Schnarr delivered the story that needed to be told in the best way possible.
The authors background as a reporter comes through in his work with tight sentences and no wasted words. This really comes through in what I felt was the strongest story in the collection, Dorothy of Kansas. It's lean, packed with emotion and one of the best short stories of 2012.
Everyone has a 'what should I read next' moment. Short-story collections are a great way to find out if you like an author's voice and if you've never read JW Schnarr before I'd recommend making 'Things Falling Apart' the next item on your reading list. He'll make you care from the first story. Care enough to keep reading on.
Thanks for reading my review.
Stephen
July 26, 2012
I received this book for free through a First Reads Giveaway.
I really enjoyed these stories. The characters were well developed given the length of the stories, and generally very believable. I actually cared what happened to them.
My personal favourite story was Frogger. It was short, but very clever. It also spoke to me as someone who's spent their whole life with video games, although Frogger was never my game.
The stories rarely resort to gore for their horror. Not that I have anything against gore. But it's nice to see when stories get to you because they come from somewhere genuinely disturbing, rather than because something gross is being done to eyeballs. That said, Survival of the Fattest was really pretty disgusting.
I'd recommend Things Falling Apart to anyone who likes to be creeped out now and then, and who like their stories to focus on the characters, even when bigger events are going on around them.
I really enjoyed these stories. The characters were well developed given the length of the stories, and generally very believable. I actually cared what happened to them.
My personal favourite story was Frogger. It was short, but very clever. It also spoke to me as someone who's spent their whole life with video games, although Frogger was never my game.
The stories rarely resort to gore for their horror. Not that I have anything against gore. But it's nice to see when stories get to you because they come from somewhere genuinely disturbing, rather than because something gross is being done to eyeballs. That said, Survival of the Fattest was really pretty disgusting.
I'd recommend Things Falling Apart to anyone who likes to be creeped out now and then, and who like their stories to focus on the characters, even when bigger events are going on around them.
October 3, 2012
2.5/5 Stars
Received via Good Reads First Reads giveaway.
This is a very, very dark set of stories, some good, others not so good, some were very difficult to get through (and not because of the content, but rather the writing).
There were a few stories that should have ended way before they did, and others that seriously suffered from a lack of plot development - but first and foremost I think the stories could have done with stronger editing. There were stories with promise that lead nowhere, and some that were rambling and unfocused that should have been tightened a lot more.
The writing was more often than not stilted and wooden, not allowing me to delve into the actual story. There was too much thrown in out of the blue that was meant to add to the story, but instead seemed like an explanation thought of at the last moment in order to give reason to what was going on. The logic of the worlds didn't necessarily flow, and it was asking too much of the reader to suspend disbelief that much.
Honestly, most of the stories I've already forgotten. There are a few that stick out in my mind, either because they either fell on the good/not good end of the spectrum.
First we'll start with the stories I liked:
Dredging Up The Dead - interesting idea, but cut way too short. This story suffered from what a few others in the collection did; it felt like the author was told they were too long and cut out big swaths of story, sacrificing plot for length.
Survival of the Fattest - this story is truly horrifying, and the one that stuck the most in my mind. It made my stomach turn and was just the right length. Probably the best in the whole collection in my mind.
Magpie - I liked the idea, but wish there was more actual story, rather than just smashing to THE ENDING.
Dorothy Of Kansas - This one is the end of Oz, and while I generally don't like stories based on works of others, this one worked up until Scarecrow and Tin Man made it to Kansas - the rest of it seemed rather extraneous, and didn't add to the story. The mood and setting of Tin Man and Scarecrow before they hit Kansas was atmospheric and wonderful, however.
The Terrible Things We Dream In Sleep - a great idea, not sure it was executed completely, but still a good idea. This was one that could have been expanded upon but were cut short.
Song Of The Dead - Another great idea that seemed to suffer from lack of execution. The idea that a grandson is taking care of his aging grandfather suffering from dementia of some sort during the zombie apocalypse is such a unique idea, but it was completely dropped for the quick wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am ending. Really unfortunate, because if that relationship had been explored it probably would have been an amazing story.
The ones I really didn't enjoy:
Sunlight and Shadows - just absolutely dragged on and on, I felt like it'd never end. There were silly explanations for what was happening, and the characters were wooden and unbelievable.
The Tongue Child - completely did not fit at all in with the other stories in this collection. Completely out of the blue, and I found a rather ridiculous premise. I'm not even sure what the point was at all.
The Children of the Golden Day - another one that could have been a good story except for the rambling plot, wooden dialogue, and asking the reader to suspend too much disbelief. If we're to believe a whole town is wiped off the face of the Earth, don't set it in the modern day. And don't give me explanations on children having fluid DNA. It was just too far-fetched that nobody noticed this town got demolished two weeks ago and nobody notices. The main character's progression didn't ring true to me either, and came off as unbelievable.
As I said, the rest of the stories I've already mostly forgotten. I wanted to like these stories more, I really did, and I think with a bit more hard editing some of them could have really been spectacular.
Received via Good Reads First Reads giveaway.
This is a very, very dark set of stories, some good, others not so good, some were very difficult to get through (and not because of the content, but rather the writing).
There were a few stories that should have ended way before they did, and others that seriously suffered from a lack of plot development - but first and foremost I think the stories could have done with stronger editing. There were stories with promise that lead nowhere, and some that were rambling and unfocused that should have been tightened a lot more.
The writing was more often than not stilted and wooden, not allowing me to delve into the actual story. There was too much thrown in out of the blue that was meant to add to the story, but instead seemed like an explanation thought of at the last moment in order to give reason to what was going on. The logic of the worlds didn't necessarily flow, and it was asking too much of the reader to suspend disbelief that much.
Honestly, most of the stories I've already forgotten. There are a few that stick out in my mind, either because they either fell on the good/not good end of the spectrum.
First we'll start with the stories I liked:
Dredging Up The Dead - interesting idea, but cut way too short. This story suffered from what a few others in the collection did; it felt like the author was told they were too long and cut out big swaths of story, sacrificing plot for length.
Survival of the Fattest - this story is truly horrifying, and the one that stuck the most in my mind. It made my stomach turn and was just the right length. Probably the best in the whole collection in my mind.
Magpie - I liked the idea, but wish there was more actual story, rather than just smashing to THE ENDING.
Dorothy Of Kansas - This one is the end of Oz, and while I generally don't like stories based on works of others, this one worked up until Scarecrow and Tin Man made it to Kansas - the rest of it seemed rather extraneous, and didn't add to the story. The mood and setting of Tin Man and Scarecrow before they hit Kansas was atmospheric and wonderful, however.
The Terrible Things We Dream In Sleep - a great idea, not sure it was executed completely, but still a good idea. This was one that could have been expanded upon but were cut short.
Song Of The Dead - Another great idea that seemed to suffer from lack of execution. The idea that a grandson is taking care of his aging grandfather suffering from dementia of some sort during the zombie apocalypse is such a unique idea, but it was completely dropped for the quick wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am ending. Really unfortunate, because if that relationship had been explored it probably would have been an amazing story.
The ones I really didn't enjoy:
Sunlight and Shadows - just absolutely dragged on and on, I felt like it'd never end. There were silly explanations for what was happening, and the characters were wooden and unbelievable.
The Tongue Child - completely did not fit at all in with the other stories in this collection. Completely out of the blue, and I found a rather ridiculous premise. I'm not even sure what the point was at all.
The Children of the Golden Day - another one that could have been a good story except for the rambling plot, wooden dialogue, and asking the reader to suspend too much disbelief. If we're to believe a whole town is wiped off the face of the Earth, don't set it in the modern day. And don't give me explanations on children having fluid DNA. It was just too far-fetched that nobody noticed this town got demolished two weeks ago and nobody notices. The main character's progression didn't ring true to me either, and came off as unbelievable.
As I said, the rest of the stories I've already mostly forgotten. I wanted to like these stories more, I really did, and I think with a bit more hard editing some of them could have really been spectacular.
July 31, 2012
I received this book through a First Reads giveaway.
I like Lovecraft and I really enjoy plots with ghosts and paranormal activity and there was some of that in this book. Because my husband is apocalypse obsessed I also tolerate those and I appreciate an innovative zombie tale. So, there was lots to choose from to like about this book of short stories.
I liked some of the stories individually. I felt that the compilation shared what I see to be an issue with the horror and thriller genre as a whole. That is that I do not feel the zombie, paranormal, supernatural, apocalypse and psychological thriller topics belong together. I do not feel like putting these topics together achieves what a short story compilation ought to do which is enhance and compliment the individual works.
The author's depiction of personal inner turmoil was consistently compelling. In some cases I felt like a really enticing concept was presented and I wanted some more significant plot development. I tend to lean towards suggestive and creepy psychological thrillers and I found that some of the stories overstepped my comfort zone and were too gory and explicit.
Overall, I thought that these short stories were an interesting and worthwhile read and I have the feeling that someone with even more compatible taste would enjoy them even more.
I like Lovecraft and I really enjoy plots with ghosts and paranormal activity and there was some of that in this book. Because my husband is apocalypse obsessed I also tolerate those and I appreciate an innovative zombie tale. So, there was lots to choose from to like about this book of short stories.
I liked some of the stories individually. I felt that the compilation shared what I see to be an issue with the horror and thriller genre as a whole. That is that I do not feel the zombie, paranormal, supernatural, apocalypse and psychological thriller topics belong together. I do not feel like putting these topics together achieves what a short story compilation ought to do which is enhance and compliment the individual works.
The author's depiction of personal inner turmoil was consistently compelling. In some cases I felt like a really enticing concept was presented and I wanted some more significant plot development. I tend to lean towards suggestive and creepy psychological thrillers and I found that some of the stories overstepped my comfort zone and were too gory and explicit.
Overall, I thought that these short stories were an interesting and worthwhile read and I have the feeling that someone with even more compatible taste would enjoy them even more.
April 20, 2015
I'll admit, I'm not a short story fan. I like the entrenched dregs of storytelling but these short stories gave me more than I expected.
There were fascinating and imaginative stories like “Dredging Up the Dead”, “Song of the Dead”, “Anna's Jar of Hurts”, “The Terrible Things We Dream In Sleep” & “Dorothy of Kansas”
Gross-out stories like “Survival of the Fattest.”
Funny ones like “Little Sisters Can't Be Trusted.”
And stories that I loved so much I wanted more like, “The Tongue Child” and “Children of the Golden Day.” The last one is a novella which I hope to get my hands on soon.
The stories sneak up on you and you don't realize it until the last second. That is a great horror story to me. Each one had me rooting for the heroine, even if they were a bit off. Being an emotional reader, this went over very well. Somehow, JW found that line and not only crossed it, he danced on it making me uncertain which way it would go.
There were fascinating and imaginative stories like “Dredging Up the Dead”, “Song of the Dead”, “Anna's Jar of Hurts”, “The Terrible Things We Dream In Sleep” & “Dorothy of Kansas”
Gross-out stories like “Survival of the Fattest.”
Funny ones like “Little Sisters Can't Be Trusted.”
And stories that I loved so much I wanted more like, “The Tongue Child” and “Children of the Golden Day.” The last one is a novella which I hope to get my hands on soon.
The stories sneak up on you and you don't realize it until the last second. That is a great horror story to me. Each one had me rooting for the heroine, even if they were a bit off. Being an emotional reader, this went over very well. Somehow, JW found that line and not only crossed it, he danced on it making me uncertain which way it would go.
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