High fences guard Pardon County from the forest, but the evil that twists around the people can't be boarded up. It slides down the chimney, waits patiently in the garden, enjoys a game at the carnival, and walks right up to the front door. These short dark tales of terror and wonder explore the horrifying descent of ordinary life into new nightmarish reality in Pardon, Mississippi.
Katie Woods Rogers enjoys writing spooky stories and non-spooky poetry. She also writes humorous articles driven by the desire to make her sister, Betsy, shoot Coca-Cola out of her nose, as there is no greater triumph in life, really. Her other interests involve spending time playing non-aggressive board games and laughing at inside jokes with her family, doing roughly the same with her friends only with different inside jokes, being in the company of dogs, and reading all kinds of things. She is from Mississippi, and before she could consider moving, the roots were so tightly wrapped around her feet, they had sucked off both shoes and one sock. On sight, she decided to marry Dreamy Richard. Fortunately, he finds her eccentricities charming and doesn't mind being the focus of a vast amount of poetry, which is good because who knows who else is writing about him? When she's not involved with any of the above things, she's probably unconscious.
I give this book a three point five rating. Although it gets this rating because it is a satisfying book, two stories get five stars.
This would be: The Stove and: The Whistling Man
The Stove is about: Buying a house that has an antique stove inside. The many people who have lived in the house have all tried to get rid of the stove, but they all met their demise, instead.
The Whistling Man is about: A teenaged boy and girl are in love with each other. They liked to spend their time together. One day while visiting her grandmother, the boy, who lives next door—his name is Ford, wants to tell her a secret—her name is Anna, and she has her own secret to tell.
Anna’s secret is nothing compared to what Ford has to say. She tells Ford that Grandma’s house is haunted. That’s good to know, but Ford tells her that he has a monster living in his yard.
But is that true? Anna wants to know. Am I sure? Ford thinks about it. The answer lies in the book. It only cost .99 cents on Amazon.
Wow! What an intense ride this was! Each time that I started a story, I could not be pulled away until I finished it. If you are looking for "blood and gore," this book isn't for you. Instead, these stories work the way I would imagine Hitchcock's might if he had been a writer instead of a film director. They work on a very psychological and heartfelt level. This writer was very good at causing me to feel angst and dread as I imagined and anticipated all kinds of outcomes. Furthermore, the stories were all connected to one another. Not only did they share the same theme of horror and take place in the same county, but they shared references to some of the same fictional characters and history. Still, each story was unique so that each read was fresh and frightened me in its own way. Overall, the writer is quite skilled at using words artfully to create images and feelings that stayed with me. Her narration worked as if she were naturally born to tell stories. I enjoyed the entire experience.
These are a collection of short stories that you must read in order as they all cross over into one.
The stories are: 🖤 The Stove 🖤 Straw 🖤 Mollycoddles (Safe as Houses) 🖤 Peter and the Wolves 🖤 Smoky Joe 🖤 Long Spoons 🖤 The Whistling Man 🖤 He's Up at the Door and He's Ringing the Bell
Damn the first one had me reeling! The second one made me so mad at the father 👀 but it was such a great story.
Overall they were some great stories, the characters were great and I really liked them all.
My constructive criticism would be to work on transitioning topics/subjects within each chapter. It seemed like there was a lot of lead on’s, and not very good transitioning from one subject matter to another. It was just kind of a jumbled mess. If there were better transitioning’s as well as more indentations or breaks to separate topics/timeframes, I would’ve been more apt to give 5 stars.