No One Is Safe!

by Philip Fracassi

No One Is Safe! presents fourteen stories of macabre, pulpy terror; a book filled with futuristic noir mysteries, science fiction thrillers, alien invasions, and old-school horror tales that will keep you up late into the night. You’ll discover haunted dream journals and evil houses, birthday wishes gone wrong, a neighborhood cat that cures any disease, a flesh-eating beach, and mysterious skeletons on a hidden moon base. You’ll meet wise-cracking detectives, suburban vampires, murdered movie stars, and monsters of the deep.

And remember—don’t get too attached to the characters you’ll meet because there’s no holding back in this book. Anything can happen, and no one is safe.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections, Science Fiction

Audible Audio

Published September 23, 2024

About the author

PHILIP FRACASSI is the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award-nominated author of the novels A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley, The Third Rule of Time Travel, and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre. He is also the author of the story collections Behold the Void, Beneath a Pale Sky, and No One is Safe!

His stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Black Static, Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Interzone, and Southwest Review.

Philip lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Copps Literary Services, Circle M + P, and WME. You can find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky, or visit pfracassi.com.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you can probably guess from the delightfully campy cover, these stories rock a strong B-movie vibe, and are honestly more fun than horrifying. Fracassi has written screenplays, and there's a definite cinematic feel to his work. This is an enjoyable collection with not a dud in the bunch.

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of short stories by Philip Fracassi!

This collection is filled with old-school horror, crime noirs, and twisty tales right out of an episode of The Twilight Zone or The X Files.
I loved the mixture of it all!

Favorites: (5 stars)

• Row
• The Last Haunted House Story
• Aquarium Diver
• Marmalade

Really good: (4 stars)

• The Wish
• The Rejects
• My Father’s Ashes
• Over 1,000,000 Copies in Print
• Autumn Sugar

Average: (raging around 2 to 3.5 stars)

I wanted more from the ending or the plot. Some were just average and that’s okay.
It’s hard to knock it out of the park for each original reader out there and these stories might work for you!

• Murder by Proxy
• Serial Numbers
• Overnight
• The Guardian
• The View

Definitely give this book and author a chance, especially if you enjoy horror. I’ve been impressed so far with everything that I’ve read by Fracassi!

[Rebecca Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Another excellent collection of stories from Philip Fracassi! I had read and enjoyedThe Rejects on Kindle last year, but the other thirteen stories were new to me. A great variety of pulpy horror stories, I think that any horror fan can find something to enjoy in this collection, there wasn't a bad story among them! My favourites were Marmalade, The Guardian and Row. Fracassi is quickly becoming a favourite author for me and I look forward to reading whatever he writes next!

[David Swisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am officially convinced, Philip Fracassi cannot write a bad story. This collection is simply brilliant. Every story is excellent. Not even a moment of weakness between these pages.

Bringing it back to the real old school roots, mixing in that delicious pulp with dashes of noir, creature feature, weird, and a little science fiction, "No One is Safe!" simply does it. Easy contender for best collection I've read in the last decade.

[Matt M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this collection! I love a good short story and these scratched an itch I’ve had ever since I read Stephen King’s collections Night Shift and Skeleton Crew years ago. Pulpy, well-written horror and genre stories with great, creepy endings. This has all of that in spades. Horror pervades these stories but there are so many interesting genre mashups happening here. Sci-fi, noir, crime, old-school horror. Monsters both human and actual. Fun takes on classic horror tropes. This was my first experience reading Fracassi’s short fiction and it won’t be my last. Stand out stories (for me) include The Wish, The Last Haunted House Story, My Father’s Ashes, Aquarium Diver, Over 1,000,000 Copies in Print, Autumn Sugar, and Row. I could seriously list all of them. Read this collection, because no one is safe!

Thank you to the author for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[thevampireslibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's no secret I'm a huge Philip Fracassi fan and I was super excited to read this, I mean, that cover is not playing around,  this collection further solidifies my theory that Fracassi is an alien sent down to infiltrate the literary world with greatness, I don't believe he could write a bad story if he tried, usually with short story collections some hit more than others but I throughly enjoyed every single one here, theres such a range of genres it's truly impressive one brain can conjure up such diversity (that sounded less weird in my head) what I'm trying to say is I love Philip Fracassi, thankyou.

[Blair Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

No One is Safe! contains 14 short stories. It's a wide variety, but only a few were memorable (The Wish, The Last Haunted House Story, Autumn Sugar). The rest were forgettable, mundane, and predictable.

[Emma Rieley-Scrivens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fracassi can do no wrong!! Thoroughly enjoyed this great collection of stories from one of my favourite authors!! These pages combine a delicious intertwining of horror,sci-fi and heart and there is something here for every taste!

I have to say that every single story is fantastic but my absolute favourites were…

The Wish
The Last Haunted House Story
My Father’s Ashes
Overnight
Over 1,000,000 Copies in Print
Autumn Sugar
Marmalade
Row

Whether you have your feet on the ground, in the water,or in space No-one is Safe!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

He did it yet again.

Fracassi keeps consistently announcing to us that he’s the heir to Stephen King’s throne and I feel that more people need to be listening. He has the same knack for compelling storytelling, charming wit, original ideas, and a real sense for horror, and it’s all on display here in his latest story collection.

The author is really flexing his muscles here, tackling a variety of horror subgenres, really showing his versatility. He’s at his creepiest when he’s spinning a tale of cosmic horror, with the best examples here being ”The Rejects,” “Aquarium Diver,” and “1,000,000 Copies in Print.” But he’s just as good with the more accessible horror that seems like something that you could’ve pulled straight out of King’s Night Shift, like the family drama/vampire story “My Father’s Ashes,” the creepy cat tale “Marmalade,” or “The Last Haunted House Story,” a tale told from the house’s point of view. The book also includes his noir novella Overnight, which I previously reviewed here.

But it was the story “Autumn Sugar” that truly stunned me. I was struck by how terribly tragic it was and how simply and beautifully it was told.

Although I had my favorites and some were better than others, every single story here has value and was pretty enjoyable. That’s a tall order for a short story collection, so the fact that this one really pulls that off… 5 Stars.

[Brennan LaFaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the cover art to the font to the back cover copy, No One is Safe! makes no bones about the types of stories that Philip Fracassi offers up in this collection. Twilight Zone meet 1950s schlock cinema meets Weird Tales. The book never dwells in one sub-genre for too long, instead dipping and weaving through excruciatingly strange, macabre, and alien landscapes to immerse the reader in a great big old fish tank of weird and wild brutality.
As in any Fracassi collection to date, not a single story feels like filler, no matter its length. The book reads as though carefully curated from several years of booming short fiction contributions to various anthologies and publications, and you get the best of the best, and the ones that cater to this theme, alongside a brand new story - "Row".
As I've said, every story brings a necessary ingredient to the collection, however two of my favorites were "The Wish" and "Aquarium Diver". "The Wish" will draw in so many new readers, picking up their first Fracassi collection. A terrifically fresh spin on a classic idea, and the creepiest thing the author has written to date. "Aquarium Diver" feels like that aforementioned Twilight Zone episode. An excellent monster and an approach that brings depth and chaos to drive up the tension.
No One is Safe! is a win-win. Fans of Fracassi's previous work will find a lot to love in here, and new readers will find accessible stories that deliver frights and fun in equal measure.

[B. Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75 stars. Literally almost perfect. Out of 14 stories I only disliked 2. My top five were Marmalde, the guardian, the wish, aquarium diver, and row. The one called serial numbers was just downright dumb. Sorry PF but just my honest opinion. Still I loved this collection so much.

[unstable.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowowowow! An absolute banger of a book. Every story hit the mark for me. Mr. Fracassi is a master of horror. Thank you SO much to Lethe Press for sending me this ARC <3 Mark your calendars and pick this up April 1st, 2024!

[Mark Hazelden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Fracassi has done it again. In my opinion, this is a writer who can do no wrong, a guy who puts out amazing stories time and again. I’ve been a fan since I read Gothic, and since then I’ve had to consume everything he’s written, and boy, it hasn’t disappointed.
Philip’s latest book is a collection of fourteen stories, covering a range of different subgenres in horror. I can honestly say, not one disappointed, and that’s the truth. It’s been a while since I read a short story collection that impressed me as much, not since the early days of King have I been invested in such a collection.
A shout-out to some of my personal favourites from NO ONE IS SAFE! - The Wish, The Last Haunted House Story, My Father’s Ashes, Aquarium Diver, Overnight and The Guardian. But like I said, they’re all great stories.
If you love science fiction thrillers, alien invasions, and old-school horror tales then I completely recommend picking this up, you won’t be disappointed.

[Horror Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent collection highlights just how versatile Philip Fracassi is as an author. Filled with a mix of genres, each one hitting the mark, this is one that keeps the chills going and puts the dread in dreadful.

Sci-fi, pulp horror, vampires, aliens, lake monsters, flesh eating money (yep), and much more await in these stories. From the heartfelt to the noir-ish to the straight up terrifying, these stories are sure to please horror fans of every ilk.

The thing is, he knows how to build a scene to it's full tension filled breaking point and then sends your mind tumbling down nightmarish depths.

Featuring a great introduction by Ronald Malfi, I highly recommend this book.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another phenomenal collection from Fracassi. Every one of these stories hooked me and most of them left me haunted long after I finished. If you've read the blurb, you'll note the diversity in this collection and I think that is the impressive thing about the stories within. This book has horror, thrills, science fiction, heartfelt characters, shocking endings, classic monsters, weird monsters, human monsters and more. Fracassi is firing on all cylinders, there is truly something for everyone.

As with any collection, I had favorites. I had read a number of these previously (#FracassiFreak), but the re-read was just as much fun. Overnight was new to me, and was probably my favorite, that ending got me good. Marmalade was one I had read before and was still a favorite, it's a Sabbath story after all! My Father's Ashes was also new to me and I loved that take on a classic monster. Even if you've read most of these in other collections or publications, the one original story to this collection, Row, would be worth the price of admission!

Pick this one up when it releases in April 2024. Just don't read it at the beach; or while floating on a lake...you've been warned!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Fracassi’s story collection was so deserving of 5 stars. Simply a brilliant story collection! Every story seemed to be better than the last. I sank my teeth into this, not completely knowing what it was all about.

It seems like everything Fracassi writes turns to gold. Almost thought this short story collection was written by Stephen King or Ray Bradbury. So fun and entertaining! Some stories really get under your skin. I was blown away by writing and the stories ranging from dark, sci-fi, campy, pulpy, and thrilling.

The tales in this one, left me frightened and amazed. Truly a stunning collection! What a way to start the year reading this! Hope to read a lot more from Fracassi this year and onwards.

[Jeff Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Fracassi has a dangerous mind. He eats his characters. He slices them to ribbons. He sends them screaming into public places filled with people who can't help. He explodes them, roasts them, and sends them directly into the belly of the beast. And that's nothing compared to what he does to the reader.

No One is Safe will stretch your brain from one horror to the next until it's so thin the moonlight can shine through. There's a streak of humor in some of these stories, but like the horror it's dark, and gleefully so.

Row, Aquarium Diver, and Autumn Sugar are standouts among the outstanding. Read Autumn Sugar in October if you live in the midwest. Trust me on that.

I've never been let down by a Fracassi story and this collection keeps that statement true. I've read one of his other collections, Beneath a Pale Sky, and this one is more fun and over-the-top than that collection. BaPS was deeper and more emotional.

Five full stars.

[Aaron B · Rating 5 out of 5]

NO ONE IS SAFE is the third collection from Philip Fracassi, following BEHOLD THE VOID in 2017 and BENEATH A PALE SKY in 2021. Included here are 14 stories that run the gamut of human tragedy to which all flesh is heir. The philosophy of Fracassi shows that we’re all complicit in our fate, that our fate is derived from the primordial unified reality of creation and myth shot through with implacable Karma. The stories illustrate this reality, notably in Overnight when a morally compromised guard seeking redemption comes undone by the inability to escape his true nature. In The Wish, a child’s grief becomes a case of Monkey’s Paw meets Murphy’s Law. There is cosmic horror in Row and The Rejects, noir science fiction in Murder By Proxyand a momentary lapse in love is commingled in the Autumn Sugar. These, then, are the precepts of a Fracassi joint; one moment, one incident, one deviation from the norm leading inexorably to the unescapable end.
Having said that, let me tell you how this makes me feel. Existence is flawed, a struggle to rise with frequent falls. The wages of metaphysical sins are madness, despair and death; be sure thy sins will find thee out, foul deeds will rise, etc. To read the stories in NO ONE IS SAFE is to recognize those precepts, but also to (admittedly rarely) find hope in the human condition. At least, that is, when there are no cosmic terrors manifesting. I recommend this volume to you with great urgency. You should read it immediately for your own edification and to discover this author’s original vision and cinematic use of language. Five stars; AB sez, why ain’t you readin’ it already?

[Brett Burkhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like a box of mixed snack packs, something for every taste and finished before you even know it.

[Andy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good!

[Brian James Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

NO ONE IS SAFE!
Philip Fracassi
April 5, 2024
Lethe Press
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hello once again, you wonderful horror fiends, it’s your old pal Skull with an amazing short horror collection by Philip Fracassi. Not only that, but there is a fab introduction by Ronald Malfi that is an absolute treat to read. Just released this month by Lethe Press, No One Is Safe! Features fourteen stories giving readers over 300 pages of tales that both entertain and deliver that delicious fear we all crave to bust us out of our boring everyday lives. Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

Things start off with the innocent sounding title The Wish, but it quickly becomes clear that Jonathan’s birthday party isn’t going to run smoothly. His dad has a heart attack while trying to grill up some burgers mid-party and then has the audacity to die. What a party pooper! Everybody freaks out and boom, party over. Later that evening, a helpful neighbor tries to end the kid’s birthday on a happy note with the whole cake and candles thing. The still angry Jonathan makes a very specific and binding wish that will affect his entire life. Sometimes wishes do come true even if you wish they didn’t.

Another great story is Murder by Proxy which does a seamless job of marrying old school Humphrey Bogart detective fiction with what may be our AI controlled future. The detective on this case is Dixon “Dixie” Merriweather, who’s been a Los Angeles detective for over 20 years. He knows a few things, like how to talk to a homicide victim’s AI tabletop unit about what occurred in this unique case where it appears the guy just exploded. The unit, named “Beximo” seems cooperative, but there’s something about the whole situation that just isn’t adding up right. As Dixie digs deep, he realizes that the problem he’s trying to solve has frightening worldwide implications and that sometimes what you can’t see is the most lethal.

Sometimes a person makes a bad judgement call. We’re human, it happens. Most of the time we realize that there’s been a screw up and can fix at least some of the damage, apologize, maybe grovel if required. But when large sums of money enter the picture, many people toss good judgement out the window and will cheerfully dunk their head in a full toilet bowl again and again. Money talks and nobody walks. Overnight is a story about the treacherous road of deceit and the consequences. Pete is a night guard for a major movie company that’s shooting a flick in a remote area. He’s got his directions, knows what to do, but somehow when this dude shows up waving cash and asking for favors, he lets his guard down. Hell, Pete can make some big green from this guy if he just bends the rules a little. Then some bad shit goes down on his watch, putting him on the hot seat. Pete worries that he might end up behind bars, but soon finds out that there are far worse punishments than cooling your heels in prison.

“Marmalade” is your old pal Skull’s favorite story in No One Is Safe! It starts out with a young guy talking to a person who’s writing a book about exactly what happened in the neighborhood of Sabbath Corners. The main topic is an ancient old woman named Ms. Grimmel and her cat, Marmalade. As the interviewer goes about talking to multiple witnesses, more details fill in the picture, which is both wonderful and completely terrifying. Were miracles really happening in that little neighborhood or was it all the work of the devil? This approach is somewhat akin to Carrie by Stephen King with the kind of social revelations brought to us by Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.
I don’t think it will surprise anyone who’s read this far that Damaged Skull Writer and Reviewer gives No One Is Safe! By Philip Fracassi a very hearty FIVE STARS! I love short stories and these stories are awesome! Every tale grabs you by the collar and thrusts you into a new adventure that’s very different than the one before it. From what I understand, this was Fracassi’s aim with this collection and he definitely achieved it. The movie poster cover by Jim & Ruth Keegan lures you in and then the master takes over, pulling you into the pages like a giant red space monster that wants to “communicate”. No one puts it better than Ronald Malfi who says, You’re in it now, riding the high that is the powerhouse fiction of Philip Fracassi. If this is your first time reading Philip’s work, be prepared to become that self-confessed Fracassi junkie that I, too, have become. Highly recommended.

No One Is Safe is available at your favorite booksellers, including Amazon.com which also features all this author’s work and a cool way to follow him. For more information check out: Philip Fracassi’s website: www.pfracassi.com You can also visit him on Facebook/Instagram at pfracassi and on Twitter/X at: @philipfracassi. Also be sure to check out Lethe Press at: www.lethepressbooks.com for more great titles. You can also find them on Twitter/X @lethepress and Facebook and Instagram. Tell them that your old pal Skull sent ya! Thanks for popping by the Skullcave for another cool review and remember to support independent horror!

About my mortal:
Brian James Lewis is a disabled poet and writer with PTSD who finds writing to be vastly important to his recovery. Working class to the bone, he writes inclusive, real-world prose and poetry that hits home. Brian’s work has appeared in anthologies from Smoking Pen Press, No Bad Books, and HellBound Books. He’s also appeared in online publications like The Sunlight Press, the Hook of A Book Poetry Project, and The Sirens Call e-Zine. Besides writing, Brian enjoys bringing old typewriters back to life, including a Royal KMM formerly owned by Rod Serling. Visit him at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com for news and independent book reviews, or on X/twitter@skullsnflames76

[Kevin L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved The Last Haunted House Story and Row (new for this collection) - both 5⭐️ reads with tight and compelling storytelling. Row needs to be a little 70 minute movie, if I’m honest. And please go back in time and get Matthew Lilliard from Scream and cast him in it.

The other stories were hit and miss, and I got tired of waiting for/seeing the twists that so many had. It’s one of my least favorite storytelling methods, and in this case having so many in the collection tried my patience. I most likely would have enjoyed these okay if I had read them in their original publications.

3.5 ⭐️

[Craig Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know the old adage, "don't judge a book by its cover." Well, 'No One Is Safe!' is one where you absolutely can. When I first saw the design, it evoked ideas of the pulp sci-fi scares of the 1950s, of monsters and demons, of damsels in distress and extraterrestrial entities, and that's exactly what this book contains. Just be warned that the ideas the title portrays are just as accurate as the cover—you may not want to get too attached to these characters.

I loved nearly all of these stories, and there's none that I didn't really enjoy reading. This book is more than up to par with Fracassi's previous two collections—while I generally favour his novels, there's a feeling of freedom with the ideas on display here. There's twists on standard horror tropes: the haunted house, vampires, a wish granted but gone wrong, but some really inventive threads pulled at. Some of my favourites are: a pairing of sci-fi and hard-boiled detective noir that go together like PB&J; a creature feature that brings to mind The Blob meets Arrival; a cat that may just be able to work miracles; and maybe my personal pick of the bunch, an exclusive new story named Row, a tense thriller that has more bubbling under the surface than you may expect.

As Ronald Malfi says of the author in the book's introduction, "His characters are real people, his prose is unapologetically aesthetic, and the astute reader can sense a sense of care coming right off the pages." This is just as true in 'No One Is Safe!' as in every other book I've read of Fracassi's, his writing making you feel like you're in a safe pair of hands, taking you on a journey, making it seem like you're there watching the story unfold—but always with the knowledge that those safe hands are just as eager to twist the knife at the first chance they get.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading any of these short stories even though all but the last one have previously been published elsewhere. I think they all worked flawlessly together in this collection; I had a lot of fun reading them. The themes were all over the place which I loved! No two stories were even remotely alike, even the horror element ranged so you really didn’t know what you were going to get. I’ll be a Fracassi fan for the rest of my days.

1. The Wish: Careful what you wish for meets father of the year. Geez Louise
2. The Last Haunted House Story: I have never heard a haunted house story like this one. POV: the house. I devoured this one 😉
3. Murder By Proxy: A detective noir type story that feels both past, present and futuristic.
4. The Rejects: This is the kind of sci-fi I like!
5. My Father’s Ashes: PSA: Ask Fracassi for writing advice before starting your next vampire story.
6. Aquarium Diver: If Blake Crouch or Andy Weir wrote The Blob… except Fracassi did which I have discovered is a million times better. It’s another science fiction masterpiece, heavy on the science.
7. Serial Numbers: Thou shalt not steal. For real.
8. Overnight: She will have her revenge! There’s a fever dream aspect that I absolutely loved.
9. Over 1,000,000 Copies in Print: Sure, religion isn’t a cult. Bravo, Fracassi!
10. Autumn Sugar: This one hurt.
11. Marmalade: 😻
12. The Guardian: When nature fights back. If you liked Sacculina, you’ll like this one.
13. The View: A one page, poetic story.
14. Row: Violence and superstition collide in this variation on the final girl horror trope.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off with just a fantastic story, in the concept, in the narrative hook, in the mode of telling. Truly one of the better, spookier, and more memorable stories I've read in a while. Not sure anything else hits that height, but plenty of good ones, many with a cosmic-horror twist that play well on famous conspiracy theories and contemporary culture--what we found inside the moon (uh-oh), book signing by one of those kids who survived and met God (or, whoops, gods; again, uh-oh), star stalking and fetishism goes really wrong (big, delayed uh-oh), trip to secluded country estate with plesiosaur or something in lake (you guessed it; also feels like a rewrite of/homage to King's "The Raft"), magic cat unfortunately doesn't get to finish the job (yay, then uh-oh). Some of the others are a tad predictable; I wanted the haunted-house one to do something other than proceed to the end that felt inevitable from the first sentences; the cyberpunk hard-boiled one felt too easy to predict as well and didn't do anything bigger; the one about blood money was a decent one-liner.

I admired the craft here and the range of voices and tones. Need to read more of him, maybe starting with his other collections, which he describes as having different vibes.

[Jason Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If short stories are an art form, Fracassi is a master. No One Is Safe contains select short-stories that theme around campy horror and sci-fi stories that feel like they are straight from a stack of pulp magazines from my past. The stories, both in setting and plot, remind me of Bradbury... a compliment I don't give out cheaply. While most of the stories were previously published in other periodicals, the short story/novella titled Row is new to this collection and ended up being my favorite story of the book. Row feels like an exploration of common, yet loved, summer tropes of teenagers finding themselves alone in a cabin in the woods, but the story quickly dumps the stereotype on it's ear and keeps the reader guessing to the very end. In the spirit of the rest of No One is Safe, the conclusion of Row is the campiest, pulpiest, and most delicious finale and the perfect way to end the book. Even the most avid Fracassi reader who has read everything Philip has written would benefit from picking up this book just for Row, while new readers will truly enjoy all the stories starting on page 1.

[Tom Coombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the afterward of this collection, Philip Fracassi discusses the pulp influences of these stories. It's a mode that suits him well. Not every story works, but the ones that hit, hit HARD. The type of stories that make a writer say not just "I wish I'd written that," but "If I had ONE of these stories under my belt I'd retire happily."

There's "Marmalade," the tale of an unusual cat that's grossly funny, until it's not. "Aquarium Diver" is a cosmic horror sequel to "The Blob" that takes the premise of the original movie to its nightmarish, logical conclusion. And the closing story, "Row," is a survival horror/final girl tale that fired the "Gotta find out what happens" nerve long after I should have been asleep.

I've enjoyed his past collections a great deal, but this one is a new high-water mark.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, there is no better genre of book than a collection of scary short stories, and this one is a doozy. Philip Fracassi continues his confident march towards becoming a household name with this dazzling collection of 14 short stories that range all over the horror spectrum. Vampire story? Check. Haunted house story? Check. A story about a night guard on a movie set that thinks he’s harmlessly selling an A list actress’s mementos but winds up sauntering himself right through the gates of hell? Bingo.

With each release, Fracassi is cementing his status as one of the preeminent horror authors (along with other superstars like Ronald Malfi and Tananarive Due) working today. I can’t wait to see what he cooks up next.

[Raaven&#x1f496; · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of Boys in the Valley so I was super interested in seeing how Phillip did a short story collection. Most of these didn’t really hit for me, but a few had a last impression.

Autumn Sugar, Marmalade, and Row were my favorites. Overnight started out fantastic and then lost me at the end. Aquarium Diver, My Father’s Ashes, The Wish, & The Last Haunted House Story were also pretty good and kept my attention. Serial Numbers was just hilarious and the premise had me laughing.

This collection ranges from supernatural to cosmic horror. It has a little bit of everything for any type of horror fan. While none of them really jumped out at me as “scary”, I really enjoy Phillip’s writing style. I however have to take off points for a HP reference in 2024.

[Ellis Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fracassi, as always, is a wickedly good writer and storyteller. My grievance is more a matter of personal preference regarding horror stories and their content. I loved his two previous collections because every story felt completely unique and its own thing. This collection was more an homage to the pulp magazines and B-movies of the 1950s-80s. I am not huge on pulpy stuff, apart from the early pulp years of Weird Tales, 1920s and 1930s. I was expecting more a continuation of Fracassi's earlier collections.

Again, my so-so reaction to the collection is my own taste. In terms of storytelling and writing ability, Fracassi shines as always. If you dig B-movie type horror you will love the collection, as it is a good tribute to the sub-genre.