Swallow the Evil

by L. Joseph Shosty

A stranger watches a deadly scene unfold on a community theatre stage…

A series of interconnected events converge to expose the dark underbelly of a small Texas town…

A father and son who travel the Southwest playing a perverse game are confronted with the ghosts of stolen innocence…

The nine tales within deal with a bevy of subjects, from the sometimes destructive relationship between parent and child, to the double-edged nature of religion, to spirits who return to bedevil the living. Swallow the Evil is a journey into the strange chambers of the heart, where Man desperately searches for his place in the universe, and where Death is always a character, lurking upstage, waiting for its moment.

Genres: Horror

65 pages, ebook

First published July 21, 2014

About the author

L. Joseph Shosty has twenty-plus years in publishing, doing everything from writing in a host of genres to stints as a literary critic and a freelance editor. He is the creator of several series, including The Hardwood Case Files (hardboiled mystery), The Adventures of Achilles & Swiss (science fiction), Boomtown Novellas (novella-length genre stories), and The Books of Magus (short story collections). He lives in Texas with his family and is a member of International Thriller Writers.

Don't forget to drop by his website, www.shostywrites.com, to sign up for his VIP list and receive premium content.

Reviews

[P.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swallow the Evil is a collection of short dark stories. Some are more effective than others, but each has some kind of twist that elevates it above the usual scary story.

Some stories are less effective, like The Man Who Fell, which feels like a novel told in fast forward. But those are more than made up for by the standouts: the opener, Deep Dark, which brings to mind Richard Bachman; Worms, which is about, well, worms; and That Time of the Month, with a delightfully graphic left turn that comes out of nowhere.

All the stories are well written, and themes of twisted religion, karma, and unique supernatural creatures lend some cohesion to the collection. Horror fans will find a lot to like here.

[Michael Hebler · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most collective short stories, some tales are enjoyed more than others by the reader thus creating a dilemma of what kind of marks the book should receive on a whole. While some stories in this anthology, such as "That Time of Month" and "The Words We Speak Have Power," are worthy of four to five stars, others like "The Grackle's Plan" and "The Man Who Fell," the latter of which, could not be finished because of convoluted characters, would receive one to two.

Shosty does create some incredible and, often times, beautiful narrative that contains a rhythmic flow; however, many of the characters are underdeveloped even for short stories, and sometimes, as is the case for "The Man Who Fell," there were too many characters that interfered with the plot. But if oppressive religious horror, unique mystical creatures, glorified revenge, and dark fantasy is the tea you drink, then take a big gulp of "Swallow the Evil."