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Giggles
It was supposed to be a simple robbery. But when things go horribly wrong and a bank teller winds up dead, Chad and Ray need to keep themselves hidden from the law. They find a house where conveniently the family is absent. It should've been the perfect place for them to stay out of danger.
But there's a greater danger lurking inside. A child's sock monkey waits in the shadows and has terrible, awful plans for the pair.
From the author of LESSONS AND OTHER MORBID DRABBLES comes a tale of pure terror and mind games.
Mr. Giggles is ready to play...
===================================================
Early praise for GIGGLES
"Giggles is a huge bowl of WTF-flavored Cheerios; shocking, disturbing, and gruesomely delicious." - Edward Lorn
"Michael Crane is brilliant, and Mr. Giggles is homicidal... or is it the other way around?" - Sean Sweeney
But there's a greater danger lurking inside. A child's sock monkey waits in the shadows and has terrible, awful plans for the pair.
From the author of LESSONS AND OTHER MORBID DRABBLES comes a tale of pure terror and mind games.
Mr. Giggles is ready to play...
===================================================
Early praise for GIGGLES
"Giggles is a huge bowl of WTF-flavored Cheerios; shocking, disturbing, and gruesomely delicious." - Edward Lorn
"Michael Crane is brilliant, and Mr. Giggles is homicidal... or is it the other way around?" - Sean Sweeney
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 28, 2013
About the author
Michael Crane
63 books22 followersMichael Crane is an indie author and scribbler of inane babble that can sometimes end up as stories. He went to Columbia College Chicago where he earned a BA in Fiction Writing and drank way too many Red Bulls. He is the author of IN DECLINE and LESSONS AND OTHER MORBID DRABBLES, and he also might've written two books while he was in high school, but they are absolutely dreadful and he cautions people to stay far, far away from them. He lives in Illinois and is always trying to work on something new, unless he's battling stupid writer's block.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 11, 2020
Curiouser and curiouser. A stupid sock monkey. Two bumbling bad guys. Huh.
Was the house evil working through a horrid bottleneck monkey? Or was it Carl all along? Or was it Ray? Where is Rod Serling when you need a cryptic answer? I think Mikey did it in the kitchen with a plunger!
Maybe not. It's a quandry wrapped in a puzzle, hidden in a riddle. Whatever, it was good clean horror story in the style of Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock. Entertaining, without being covered in cheap and tawdry explanations. Good story.
Was the house evil working through a horrid bottleneck monkey? Or was it Carl all along? Or was it Ray? Where is Rod Serling when you need a cryptic answer? I think Mikey did it in the kitchen with a plunger!
Maybe not. It's a quandry wrapped in a puzzle, hidden in a riddle. Whatever, it was good clean horror story in the style of Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock. Entertaining, without being covered in cheap and tawdry explanations. Good story.
August 11, 2016
I’ve read a few of Michael Crane’s short stories and really have enjoyed them, most notably Lessons (and Other Morbid Drabbles) which I reviewed last year and gave 5/5. So perhaps I came with too high of expectations when I decided to read Giggles for this week’s Killing My Kindle.
Giggles is a sock monkey, a demented sock monkey, and that part does come through in Giggles (the story) rather well. He’s a bit goofy and he uses stereotypical horror movie scenes and then openly mocks them, twisting things back to his version of reality as he sees fit. Giggles (the sock monkey) likes to torture, to play, and have fun…in his own way. All of that worked pretty well.
Where Giggles (the story) runs into problems is the other two characters, Ray and Chad. The story is told mostly from their perspective, taking turns from their POV every couple chapters. I never found any reason to feel any sort of emotion toward either of them. Neither of the two are engaging, both seem pretty cookie-cutter (Ray is the bad guy outer shell but a bit scared on the inside, Chad is the wimpy one that kind of wants to do good but can’t figure out how), and overall they both fell flat for me.
The humor (outside of the sock puppet’s) didn’t work for me here. Crane can deliver good comedic bursts and fun twisted stories when they are short and sweet (or sick and demented, to each their own), but in this longer format it felt stretched too thin. The story broke the fourth wall quite a few times and that didn’t help matters either. Maybe this was supposed to feel like a cheesy horror film (like the story mentions multiple times), and if so it works somewhat well, but I don’t think that was the aim.
Overall it was alright. I didn’t hate it, there were moments where I laughed a bit, and the gore was certainly there even if I was picturing tomato paste more often than blood (cheesy factor again). I wanted to like it, and I think Crane’s short stories are well worth checking out, but this one I can’t recommend.
Giggles is a sock monkey, a demented sock monkey, and that part does come through in Giggles (the story) rather well. He’s a bit goofy and he uses stereotypical horror movie scenes and then openly mocks them, twisting things back to his version of reality as he sees fit. Giggles (the sock monkey) likes to torture, to play, and have fun…in his own way. All of that worked pretty well.
Where Giggles (the story) runs into problems is the other two characters, Ray and Chad. The story is told mostly from their perspective, taking turns from their POV every couple chapters. I never found any reason to feel any sort of emotion toward either of them. Neither of the two are engaging, both seem pretty cookie-cutter (Ray is the bad guy outer shell but a bit scared on the inside, Chad is the wimpy one that kind of wants to do good but can’t figure out how), and overall they both fell flat for me.
The humor (outside of the sock puppet’s) didn’t work for me here. Crane can deliver good comedic bursts and fun twisted stories when they are short and sweet (or sick and demented, to each their own), but in this longer format it felt stretched too thin. The story broke the fourth wall quite a few times and that didn’t help matters either. Maybe this was supposed to feel like a cheesy horror film (like the story mentions multiple times), and if so it works somewhat well, but I don’t think that was the aim.
Overall it was alright. I didn’t hate it, there were moments where I laughed a bit, and the gore was certainly there even if I was picturing tomato paste more often than blood (cheesy factor again). I wanted to like it, and I think Crane’s short stories are well worth checking out, but this one I can’t recommend.
December 30, 2013
I thought this was a great story... very demented. I did feel that the Monkey's voice (his verbiage and his tone) should have been a little creepier... more like Gollum (the thing that kept saying "my precious" from Lord of the Rings). I was looking for a hysterically creepier tone for the monkey, but in the end the whole story worked for me. I really enjoyed it. "Giggles" kept me turning the page. I'll be sure to pick up another story by Mr. Crane.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews