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Creatures and Crypts
Creatures of the living and the dead gather in a volume of over 70,000 words to stalk their prey…humans. 20 stories set the scene for a cast ranging from the Grim Reaper, shambling zombies and restless spirits, to unimaginable monsters that only inhabit the shapeless darkness and the author’s imagination. Join them as they wreak havoc on their unsuspecting victims and celebrate with a victory dance on hollowed bones! New and previous published material can be found in Creatures and Crypts, including the second place winner of the New Bedlam short story contest—Unknowable. Table of Contents Scritch, Scritch Special Delivery Drifter Lord Humphrey's Daughter Man's First Child The Tie That Binds The Disembodied In the Shadow of the Lilies Between Mother and Daughter 3:15 Warning Signs A Rage of Angels Dead Man Watching Delirium A Woman Scorned The Reaper's Game It's the Zombie Apocalypse and all I Got was this Lousy T-shirt The Green Scarf A Voice in the Night Unknowable Author Bio Bibliography
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
184 pages, Paperback
First published December 28, 2011
3 people are currently reading
428 people want to read
About the author
John Grover
134 books159 followersJohn Grover is a Horror, Fantasy and Sci-fi Author residing in Massachusetts. He grew up watching creature double features with his brother on Saturday afternoons. This fueled his love of monsters, ghosts, and the supernatural. Some of his favorite TV shows and influences are The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, X-Files, Night Gallery, Monsters, Star Trek, and much more.
John is the author of several collections, including his recently released Best of Collection, Twenty Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy as well as various chapbooks, anthologies, and more. Please visit his website www.shadowtales.com for more information.
John is the author of several collections, including his recently released Best of Collection, Twenty Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy as well as various chapbooks, anthologies, and more. Please visit his website www.shadowtales.com for more information.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 8, 2012
I've just read The Reaper's Game, a short story from this collection.
Taken from the author’s Creatures and Crypts collection, The Reaper’s Game by John Grover is a satisfyingly gruesome and scary tale of man vs. Death.
A murderer who considers himself the perfect killing machine, better even than death, is challenged by the ultimate foe in this tale. A mad battle ensues with computer graphic precision and scares through every doorway, but this enemy’s playing on his own turf, and how can death be vanquished?
The story builds to a satisfying (though grisly) denouement that might leave you wondering, just who is on whose side. A classic horror story, macabre, intriguing, and skillfully imaginative, the Reaper’s Game is an enjoyable introduction to this prolific writer’s short story collections.
Disclosure: I was lucky enough to find a free ecopy of this story
Taken from the author’s Creatures and Crypts collection, The Reaper’s Game by John Grover is a satisfyingly gruesome and scary tale of man vs. Death.
A murderer who considers himself the perfect killing machine, better even than death, is challenged by the ultimate foe in this tale. A mad battle ensues with computer graphic precision and scares through every doorway, but this enemy’s playing on his own turf, and how can death be vanquished?
The story builds to a satisfying (though grisly) denouement that might leave you wondering, just who is on whose side. A classic horror story, macabre, intriguing, and skillfully imaginative, the Reaper’s Game is an enjoyable introduction to this prolific writer’s short story collections.
Disclosure: I was lucky enough to find a free ecopy of this story
May 21, 2013
John Grover’s Creatures and Crypts is a book to sink your teeth into on a dark night. There are twenty stories featured here and they run the horror gamut. Zombies, ghouls, nightmarish unnamed things, sinister plants harkening back to Hawthorne, restless spirits, and even the Grim Reaper himself!
This is my first taste of Grover and I like what he serves up. His writing is eloquent, subtle, and disturbing. Rather than gross the reader out with guts and gore, he chooses to crawl under the skin in the sort of horror I truly appreciate. In “Lord Humphrey’s Daughter” for example, we have a much-loved daughter capable of great evils. She does not use her powers for deliberate harm. Or does she? “Scritch, Scritch” is enough to keep one from ever sleeping again. I am now quite sure there is a thing in my wall too. Grover makes you believe. He makes you think. “Man’s First Child” is a challenging tale of choices, souls, and dark possibilities. The ambiguous ending left me pondering very sinister possibilities for humanity. “Mother and Daughter” is an exploration of familial ties of the bizarre and supernatural kind. There are few monsters Grover does not feature here and a few you might he had not!
People die here. There is enough murder and mayhem to satisfy any horror fan. But Grover makes you fear the night. He makes you fear the shadows in the corners. His is the sort of horror that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. With twenty stories, there are bound to be those that miss the mark. I had my favorites and the not-so-favorite, but Grover’s style is such that a reader will walk away satisfied. Perhaps terrified might be the better word here. Open the crypt and do step inside for this one.
Originally published at Horror Novel Reviews
This is my first taste of Grover and I like what he serves up. His writing is eloquent, subtle, and disturbing. Rather than gross the reader out with guts and gore, he chooses to crawl under the skin in the sort of horror I truly appreciate. In “Lord Humphrey’s Daughter” for example, we have a much-loved daughter capable of great evils. She does not use her powers for deliberate harm. Or does she? “Scritch, Scritch” is enough to keep one from ever sleeping again. I am now quite sure there is a thing in my wall too. Grover makes you believe. He makes you think. “Man’s First Child” is a challenging tale of choices, souls, and dark possibilities. The ambiguous ending left me pondering very sinister possibilities for humanity. “Mother and Daughter” is an exploration of familial ties of the bizarre and supernatural kind. There are few monsters Grover does not feature here and a few you might he had not!
People die here. There is enough murder and mayhem to satisfy any horror fan. But Grover makes you fear the night. He makes you fear the shadows in the corners. His is the sort of horror that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. With twenty stories, there are bound to be those that miss the mark. I had my favorites and the not-so-favorite, but Grover’s style is such that a reader will walk away satisfied. Perhaps terrified might be the better word here. Open the crypt and do step inside for this one.
Originally published at Horror Novel Reviews
April 11, 2014
I received Creatures & Crypts as a goodread giveaway. John Grover' collection of 20 stories was worth the read. It was disturbing enough for me to not be able to sleep and therefore read more of the book! I'd like to thank John Grover for signing the book! I love that personal touch.
March 24, 2014
I won a signed copy through a giveaway.
I'm cautious of horror anthologies, always disappointed with how they're written or lack of stories that'll grab you. The first and last stories are sublime, I was anxious to see what was going to happen, and in between it kept me coming back for more.
I'm cautious of horror anthologies, always disappointed with how they're written or lack of stories that'll grab you. The first and last stories are sublime, I was anxious to see what was going to happen, and in between it kept me coming back for more.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews