Hunter's Moon: Visceral Tales of Terror

by R. Scott McCoy

“One of the best of the next generation of writers.” —Weston Ochse, award winning author and legendary badass

In Hunter’s Moon: Visceral Tales of Terror R. Scott McCoy delivers nineteen nightmare inducing stories. The anthology includes tales collected for the first time into a single volume with many never before released works. This is a collection no horror fan should miss.

From the powerfully affecting wartime tales “Frostbite” and “A Dish Best Served Cold” to the noir flavored “Bitch Queen” and darkly humorous yet disturbing “Jihad” and many more, McCoy displays his mastery of the short story as he pulls readers deep into the horrifying worlds of hunters and the hunted, predators and prey.

Genres: Horror

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Christina (Ensconced in Lit) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from librarything member giveaways in exchange for an honest review.

Hunter's Moon: Visceral Tales of Terror is a collection of several short stories by R. Scott McCoy. Don't let the title fool you-- it's not all gore, although the first story has plenty of it. There are different types of stories, and it is a varied collection, which is a strength. But as usual, some are stronger than others.

My first thought is that the one page stories are unnecessary-- they are by far the weakest of the bunch and McCoy has enough meat in the rest of his stories to not need these.

The last half of his book is much stronger than the first. I really enjoyed Garbage Man, which is a foray into bullying and what if we could mold our dreams to fit a better reality than the one we live in? What a nasty twist at the end, loved it. Murder She Did was another delightful story-- interesting premise with the serial killers that weren't serial killers and another nice twist. Play Time dabbles in the question, what if you have a highly intelligent child who is also evil? And the final, A Dish Best Served Cold, is very satisfying.

What is interesting to me, is that these are some of the least gory of the stories-- but have psychological fright imbued in them. This is where McCoy excels.

I feel that if McCoy takes these strong stories as a starting point and adds to them-- he will get a great collection. This is a good start. I'm interested to see what else he has up his sleeve.

[Join the Penguin Resistance!]

A collection of 19 tales, some of which are very terrifying, indeed, while some are more subtle, these are all short pieces-so the reader can take one at a time, or read the entire set in one sitting, as did I. Evidence of a creative and vivid imagination, some of these stories are definitely not to be read alone at night. My personal favorites were “The Regular” (even though in my mind the title did not accord with the content) and the concluder, “Dish Better Served Cold”-one supernaturally terrifying, the other terrifying in terms of man’s inhumanity to man, a subject we all know too well.

[Carol Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of gruesome stories. Some are better than others but most are above standard. Recommended for King fans.