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TWISTED ENDINGS: 5 Disturbing Stories
Twisted Endings is a mind-blowing collection of horror and suspense stories with unexpected endings.
One man’s patience will be tested on an excruciatingly hot day at an amusement park. One vigilante will be the judge and jury of life and death over criminals. One group of men will find the best way to fight neighborhood crime. One troubled boy will decide how to beat the school bullies. One innocent woman will find a way to deal with the men who dishonorned her.
The characters in these five stories aren't prepared for what happens next. You won't be either! Just remember - bad things happen to good people. Really bad things.
One man’s patience will be tested on an excruciatingly hot day at an amusement park. One vigilante will be the judge and jury of life and death over criminals. One group of men will find the best way to fight neighborhood crime. One troubled boy will decide how to beat the school bullies. One innocent woman will find a way to deal with the men who dishonorned her.
The characters in these five stories aren't prepared for what happens next. You won't be either! Just remember - bad things happen to good people. Really bad things.
62 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 11, 2014
24 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Timothy D. McLendon
15 books9 followersI don't believe in monsters, but I sleep with the sheets over my head. I hate getting wet, but I stay in the shower until the hot water runs out. I never go over the speed limit, but I like to race cars. I'm a good listener, but I talk a lot in my sleep. I'm not a bad person, but I write to free my demons.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 25, 2015
You know how the saying goes: if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say it. I’m assuming the rule doesn’t apply to reviews, right? Still, I’ll try to keep it short. If I were the writer, I wouldn’t want to hear someone drone on and on about how much they hated my book.
So I’ll try to be gentle. This collection isn’t my cup of tea. These stories are a little mediocre and predictable. There. That doesn’t sound so bad (believe me, I’m controlling myself).
Okay, on the good side, all five stories have fast-moving plots, a bit of a twisty ending, and decent language. There are, however, several clichés that were like fingernails on a chalkboard. One is “My life flashed before my eyes.” Really, please don’t use that phrase. Really.
First impressions are everything. The beginning of a book usually puts me in a good mood or at least makes me want to read on. Sometimes I realize right away that the book is just too boring or confusing or violent for me to continue. On rare occasions, the first 10 pages make me furious. That’s what happened here. I toyed with dropping the book like a hot potato, but I kept thinking, no, you must give it a chance. Surely it will get better. As I read on, I only got madder--the first story seemed like nothing but a rage against fat women.
It’s about a guy who’s in an amusement park with his daughter; the woman working a ride reminds him of his ex-wife. It’s a very short story, yet in just a few pages the words “fat” and “waddle” appear often, and the hatred with which he talks about his ex-wife is disturbing. It was offensive, and I was shocked: NOBODY in this overly PC world would dare to create a character with this much prejudice. But there it was, page after page of fat woman disgust. I wasn’t sure if it was hatred of women or hatred of fat people, or both, but it doesn’t really matter. The writer would probably say that it was the character who had this disgust of fat women, but I don’t buy it. I tried to simmer down and see it through; when I got to the ending, I was impressed—it was twisty and cool. But then I thought about it and realized, no, the whole premise of the story was unbelievable.
So I went, steaming, into story number 2, worried that the theme of ragging on fat people or women would prevail, but luckily it did not. Story 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all very different—and mediocre at best. I will always wonder how I would have felt if the writer had reordered the stories so that the wretched first story was placed, say, in position 4 or 5.
This book hasn’t been widely reviewed, but one or more reviewers compared his stories to those of O’Henry. Pa-lees! What a joke. These reviews must be from family and friends.
I mostly read contemporary fiction and a little bit of crime drama. I don’t really know what genre this collection falls under. It’s not a typical book I would read. It was free on Kindle and looked interesting, so I gave it a shot. Sorry to say it was a waste of my time. At least it was short, so the pain didn’t last long.
I feel bad that I’ve given the book such a negative review, but I must be honest. I was mildly (and I do mean mildly) interested in seeing the five stories through, so I almost gave this collection a 2, but just couldn't do it. I hated that first story so much, the entire book left a bad taste in my mouth.
So I’ll try to be gentle. This collection isn’t my cup of tea. These stories are a little mediocre and predictable. There. That doesn’t sound so bad (believe me, I’m controlling myself).
Okay, on the good side, all five stories have fast-moving plots, a bit of a twisty ending, and decent language. There are, however, several clichés that were like fingernails on a chalkboard. One is “My life flashed before my eyes.” Really, please don’t use that phrase. Really.
First impressions are everything. The beginning of a book usually puts me in a good mood or at least makes me want to read on. Sometimes I realize right away that the book is just too boring or confusing or violent for me to continue. On rare occasions, the first 10 pages make me furious. That’s what happened here. I toyed with dropping the book like a hot potato, but I kept thinking, no, you must give it a chance. Surely it will get better. As I read on, I only got madder--the first story seemed like nothing but a rage against fat women.
It’s about a guy who’s in an amusement park with his daughter; the woman working a ride reminds him of his ex-wife. It’s a very short story, yet in just a few pages the words “fat” and “waddle” appear often, and the hatred with which he talks about his ex-wife is disturbing. It was offensive, and I was shocked: NOBODY in this overly PC world would dare to create a character with this much prejudice. But there it was, page after page of fat woman disgust. I wasn’t sure if it was hatred of women or hatred of fat people, or both, but it doesn’t really matter. The writer would probably say that it was the character who had this disgust of fat women, but I don’t buy it. I tried to simmer down and see it through; when I got to the ending, I was impressed—it was twisty and cool. But then I thought about it and realized, no, the whole premise of the story was unbelievable.
So I went, steaming, into story number 2, worried that the theme of ragging on fat people or women would prevail, but luckily it did not. Story 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all very different—and mediocre at best. I will always wonder how I would have felt if the writer had reordered the stories so that the wretched first story was placed, say, in position 4 or 5.
This book hasn’t been widely reviewed, but one or more reviewers compared his stories to those of O’Henry. Pa-lees! What a joke. These reviews must be from family and friends.
I mostly read contemporary fiction and a little bit of crime drama. I don’t really know what genre this collection falls under. It’s not a typical book I would read. It was free on Kindle and looked interesting, so I gave it a shot. Sorry to say it was a waste of my time. At least it was short, so the pain didn’t last long.
I feel bad that I’ve given the book such a negative review, but I must be honest. I was mildly (and I do mean mildly) interested in seeing the five stories through, so I almost gave this collection a 2, but just couldn't do it. I hated that first story so much, the entire book left a bad taste in my mouth.
May 23, 2014
Originally reviewed on LauraofLurking
I received a free copy of this book in return for an unbiased review
Strong language: None
Drugs: None
Violence: Some, Semi-graphic
Sexual content: None
The teacup lady 4/5
This story started with an interesting and sweet point of view of a dad trying to make his daughter happy, while simultaneously suffering from the heat. I found it a bit heavy in metaphors in places, but something I felt was balanced by the latter part. It had a good, and I felt unpredictable, ending.
Bitter Water 3/5
A man gets an offer to move to a new town with a job, home etc included. After a gift basket arrives he goes to the shop it came from, meeting a creepy old man who owns it. This man tells a story, believability of the telling aside, I felt it meandered and was predictable.
Neighbourhood Watch 4/5
Fast paced pithy dialogue, but in the opening scene I felt there weren't enough tags to say who was saying what, meaning I got confused about one character's opinion. A good story, I particularly liked the twist.
The Amazing Flea Circus 3.5/5
This was fairly mundane and predictable for the large part. A family go to a flea circus and the least willing participant in the room is picked as an assistant. There were a few small surprises, but overall you could see where it was coming from quite early.
I did particularly like the writing style of this story though, particularly the line:
The thing looked like it was from the 1800s and still had the original dust.
The Rock Toss 5/5
First page: a lovely refreshing family scene – this will never end well!
And I was right. It ended so very very bad, for the characters anyway. For little old me, the reader it was a smooth treat.
Overall this was a great little anthology. Some of the twists were obvious from the start, but in most cases this didn't reduce the enjoyment. The writing was crisp, if occasionally sacrificing emotion or depth to keep the stories short.
I look forward to reading the sequel.
I received a free copy of this book in return for an unbiased review
Strong language: None
Drugs: None
Violence: Some, Semi-graphic
Sexual content: None
The teacup lady 4/5
This story started with an interesting and sweet point of view of a dad trying to make his daughter happy, while simultaneously suffering from the heat. I found it a bit heavy in metaphors in places, but something I felt was balanced by the latter part. It had a good, and I felt unpredictable, ending.
Bitter Water 3/5
A man gets an offer to move to a new town with a job, home etc included. After a gift basket arrives he goes to the shop it came from, meeting a creepy old man who owns it. This man tells a story, believability of the telling aside, I felt it meandered and was predictable.
Neighbourhood Watch 4/5
Fast paced pithy dialogue, but in the opening scene I felt there weren't enough tags to say who was saying what, meaning I got confused about one character's opinion. A good story, I particularly liked the twist.
The Amazing Flea Circus 3.5/5
This was fairly mundane and predictable for the large part. A family go to a flea circus and the least willing participant in the room is picked as an assistant. There were a few small surprises, but overall you could see where it was coming from quite early.
I did particularly like the writing style of this story though, particularly the line:
The thing looked like it was from the 1800s and still had the original dust.
The Rock Toss 5/5
First page: a lovely refreshing family scene – this will never end well!
And I was right. It ended so very very bad, for the characters anyway. For little old me, the reader it was a smooth treat.
Overall this was a great little anthology. Some of the twists were obvious from the start, but in most cases this didn't reduce the enjoyment. The writing was crisp, if occasionally sacrificing emotion or depth to keep the stories short.
I look forward to reading the sequel.
December 25, 2015
Disappointing short story horror collection Twisted Endings, supposedly 5 disturbing tales however, as I can only connect with one “disturbing” tale I feel this short kindle read is only worthy of one star! The opening The Teacup Lady is original, sharp and most important contains an unexpected and very neat little conclusion. As for the remaining 5 tales the final story The Rock Toss is worthy of mention. This appeared to be, on the surface, an unusual little story but unfortunately it was very easy to understand the direction the author was proceeding and therefore the conclusion was sadly predictable.
It must be said that I am not the greatest fan of short stories as within any such groupings there are very few that can sustain my interest throughout and I usually find that only one or two have any real reader or literary value. Having said that in 2011 I read with delight a very intelligent and colourful collection called “Entwined Tales from the City by A J Armitt which were brilliant and highly original in their delivery…here is my review from that time..........
“What can I say for a mere 0.86p you can acquire a truly original horror short story collection. What makes this book so different is the fact that all these stories are joined together in a very clever way. The writing is very taut, bright, fresh and new, and I loved every word. So often in the past I have been disappointed when reading horror books, but AJ Armitt is a breath of fresh air and I urge you to downlod...you will not be disappointed :)) refers to….Entwined-Tales from the City-13 Dark & Twisted Tales, reviewed on August 7th 2011.”
It must be said that I am not the greatest fan of short stories as within any such groupings there are very few that can sustain my interest throughout and I usually find that only one or two have any real reader or literary value. Having said that in 2011 I read with delight a very intelligent and colourful collection called “Entwined Tales from the City by A J Armitt which were brilliant and highly original in their delivery…here is my review from that time..........
“What can I say for a mere 0.86p you can acquire a truly original horror short story collection. What makes this book so different is the fact that all these stories are joined together in a very clever way. The writing is very taut, bright, fresh and new, and I loved every word. So often in the past I have been disappointed when reading horror books, but AJ Armitt is a breath of fresh air and I urge you to downlod...you will not be disappointed :)) refers to….Entwined-Tales from the City-13 Dark & Twisted Tales, reviewed on August 7th 2011.”
February 22, 2016
Good Stuff
These stories were a little different than what I usually read but Disturbing is the right definition. This one I read for free and it was better than some of the books I've paid for. Don't you hate when you go by someone else's review and the book ends up not what you expected? Well I know a good Horror and Thriller when I read one and I am usually very honest with my reviews. This was not disappointing just to short.
kozetteksmith
These stories were a little different than what I usually read but Disturbing is the right definition. This one I read for free and it was better than some of the books I've paid for. Don't you hate when you go by someone else's review and the book ends up not what you expected? Well I know a good Horror and Thriller when I read one and I am usually very honest with my reviews. This was not disappointing just to short.
kozetteksmith
March 17, 2015
I loved all the stories, disturbing indeed. I really nice quick read.
October 14, 2014
Most of the stories were pretty good, nice quick reads. I really enjoyed this collection.
May 1, 2018
Twisted endings
A book full of some shocking and truly twisted takes that you have to Read to understand. I Loved It!!
A book full of some shocking and truly twisted takes that you have to Read to understand. I Loved It!!
August 9, 2019
Pretty good
Liked the book a lot. Want to continue with the series. A little predictable but I still enjoyed reading this book.
Liked the book a lot. Want to continue with the series. A little predictable but I still enjoyed reading this book.
May 19, 2016
I really didn't think these stories were disturbing, and I certainly wasn't surprised by any of the endings. I pretty much figured out what was going to happen, and I was talking to the characters, "Look out.", "Don't be so stupid." "You asked for this".
At least it was short.
At least it was short.
Want to read
July 23, 2016Free 07-06-14 (Short Stories)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BVFX53W?i...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BVFX53W?i...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews