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Too Late
A woman on death row.
A couple stuck in a snow bank when a beast looms near.
A man recounting working with a notorious serial killer.
A pair of thieves in a ghost town in the Old West.
A writer afraid he might be possessed by a demon.
Try to run. Try to fight.
In the end, it’s all too late.
A couple stuck in a snow bank when a beast looms near.
A man recounting working with a notorious serial killer.
A pair of thieves in a ghost town in the Old West.
A writer afraid he might be possessed by a demon.
Try to run. Try to fight.
In the end, it’s all too late.
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First published September 30, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 15, 2017
A fun collection of horror stories, a few supernatural, most firmly within the slasher sub-genre. The stories are all well-paced with a good balance between setting and character, humor and gore, never using too much or too little of any single element. A collection well worth reading by an emerging talent in the weird / horror field.
August 3, 2017
Really engrossing set of stories with varied authorial voices and consistently interesting plots and characters. Read in one sitting without even considering stopping, read again the next day, a story at a time, just to soak it all in.
There are some textual mistakes...they seem to be the kind that createspace causes, rather than editorial. I just ordered the paperback.
Recommended.
There are some textual mistakes...they seem to be the kind that createspace causes, rather than editorial. I just ordered the paperback.
Recommended.
December 4, 2016
(Originally appeared in a slightly different form on my blog, the Conqueror Weird.)
Sean M. Thompson‘s debut Too Late opens with a story about a murderess on death row who carves her victims’ heads into “art” before selling them online.
That’s a pretty good tone-setter for this book.
Let’s backtrack a bit – full disclosure must come first. Sean M. Thompson stories have appeared on my site before (the dark and gross “LillyBridge“; an original serialized novella called The Demon; and, on my Matthew M. Bartlett fan site, the manic nightmare of “Martin Pussfoot Strikes Again“), I am a devoted listener to the podcast he co-hosts, and I did blurb this book.
However –
– there is a reason why I did all of those things.
That reason?
Sean M. Thompson is friggin’ awesome.
The art for TOO LATE - the art being the cover by Mark Richards and the promotional piece by Yves Tourigny - really sum up the spirit of the book. One is bursting with energy and insanity, the other is a quieter terror. There’s a good mix of both throughout the book.
The first story, the one I mentioned before – “Fickle Mortality” being its title – is an ideal example.
On the one hand, you’ve a (hopefully) insane woman raving about murder as a tool to travel backwards through the gateway of death into a new life.
On the other hand, you’ve got a tired old criminal sitting on death row, reflecting on their crimes, pondering what will happen next.
Such balancing acts are what Thompson excels at in these stories – an ability to make the supernatural frenzied and bloody while simultaneously slow and creeping.
This is continued into the next story, one called “Stranded in the Storm”. Brrrrr. I could imagine reading this by the fire on Christmas Eve, the spirits of Charles Dickens and M.R. James reclining in armchairs, delighted at the chance for one last ghost story for Christmas.
Except this isn’t a ghost story. Not, at least, in the literal sense.
Instead it’s about a couple driving in the snow when the car breaks down. This is a classic urban legend motif, of course, and but one of the reasons why Too Late‘ll make a great Halloween read (with its EC Comics-style nastiness and its inventive usage of classic monsters). I won’t delve into the details, but let’s just say there’s something very nasty in the snow – something both tragic and horrifying, with its eyes set on the young lovers.
My personal favorite, though, is story number three, a tale called “Jumpin’ Jack”. This introduces the forest of Whispering Pines, which is a connective element between some of Thompson’s stories. Its a very short vignette that only hints at the supernatural, but Jesus, it’s disturbing. The less one knows about this story walking in, the better, but it sent a noticeable shudder through my frame.
Then we have “Dust”, a ghostly Western following two murderous outlaws that come across a ghost town. The slow buildup in this one is delicious, and the characters are probably the most fleshed-out in the book. Again, any hint of what is to come is a bit of a spoiler, but it’s quite possibly the bloodiest tale in the book – at least, one with the most onscreen violence.
Concluding the book – wait, are we really done already? – concluding the chapbook is “The End of Humanity”, a short piece which is thematically connected to the aforementioned serialized novella The Demon. It’s a piece which damns you as you read the first word, epitomizes the title of the collection, claims to sentence the reader to eternal agony via a culturally transmitted disease – demonic possession. Thankfully, this story is a work of fiction. If it wasn’t, then I’d be dooming you just by writing this review – even as your eyes scan the screen, you’d be infected.
But it’s not true.
Phew.
…
Look, the point is, Too Late is a knock-it-out-of-the-park debut and the perfect book for Halloween. Clocking in at an appropriate 66 pages, it’s very, very short, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in content. That content consists of good, realistic people (straight out of our own lives) thrown into nasty, bloody situations (straight out of the pulp magazines). It’s dark, it’s gruesome, and above all, it’s promising.
I’m a Sean M. Thompson fan.
And I’m proud of it.
Sean M. Thompson‘s debut Too Late opens with a story about a murderess on death row who carves her victims’ heads into “art” before selling them online.
That’s a pretty good tone-setter for this book.
Let’s backtrack a bit – full disclosure must come first. Sean M. Thompson stories have appeared on my site before (the dark and gross “LillyBridge“; an original serialized novella called The Demon; and, on my Matthew M. Bartlett fan site, the manic nightmare of “Martin Pussfoot Strikes Again“), I am a devoted listener to the podcast he co-hosts, and I did blurb this book.
However –
– there is a reason why I did all of those things.
That reason?
Sean M. Thompson is friggin’ awesome.
The art for TOO LATE - the art being the cover by Mark Richards and the promotional piece by Yves Tourigny - really sum up the spirit of the book. One is bursting with energy and insanity, the other is a quieter terror. There’s a good mix of both throughout the book.
The first story, the one I mentioned before – “Fickle Mortality” being its title – is an ideal example.
On the one hand, you’ve a (hopefully) insane woman raving about murder as a tool to travel backwards through the gateway of death into a new life.
On the other hand, you’ve got a tired old criminal sitting on death row, reflecting on their crimes, pondering what will happen next.
Such balancing acts are what Thompson excels at in these stories – an ability to make the supernatural frenzied and bloody while simultaneously slow and creeping.
This is continued into the next story, one called “Stranded in the Storm”. Brrrrr. I could imagine reading this by the fire on Christmas Eve, the spirits of Charles Dickens and M.R. James reclining in armchairs, delighted at the chance for one last ghost story for Christmas.
Except this isn’t a ghost story. Not, at least, in the literal sense.
Instead it’s about a couple driving in the snow when the car breaks down. This is a classic urban legend motif, of course, and but one of the reasons why Too Late‘ll make a great Halloween read (with its EC Comics-style nastiness and its inventive usage of classic monsters). I won’t delve into the details, but let’s just say there’s something very nasty in the snow – something both tragic and horrifying, with its eyes set on the young lovers.
My personal favorite, though, is story number three, a tale called “Jumpin’ Jack”. This introduces the forest of Whispering Pines, which is a connective element between some of Thompson’s stories. Its a very short vignette that only hints at the supernatural, but Jesus, it’s disturbing. The less one knows about this story walking in, the better, but it sent a noticeable shudder through my frame.
Then we have “Dust”, a ghostly Western following two murderous outlaws that come across a ghost town. The slow buildup in this one is delicious, and the characters are probably the most fleshed-out in the book. Again, any hint of what is to come is a bit of a spoiler, but it’s quite possibly the bloodiest tale in the book – at least, one with the most onscreen violence.
Concluding the book – wait, are we really done already? – concluding the chapbook is “The End of Humanity”, a short piece which is thematically connected to the aforementioned serialized novella The Demon. It’s a piece which damns you as you read the first word, epitomizes the title of the collection, claims to sentence the reader to eternal agony via a culturally transmitted disease – demonic possession. Thankfully, this story is a work of fiction. If it wasn’t, then I’d be dooming you just by writing this review – even as your eyes scan the screen, you’d be infected.
But it’s not true.
Phew.
…
Look, the point is, Too Late is a knock-it-out-of-the-park debut and the perfect book for Halloween. Clocking in at an appropriate 66 pages, it’s very, very short, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in content. That content consists of good, realistic people (straight out of our own lives) thrown into nasty, bloody situations (straight out of the pulp magazines). It’s dark, it’s gruesome, and above all, it’s promising.
I’m a Sean M. Thompson fan.
And I’m proud of it.
November 17, 2017
"You never believe in us. You assume we are made up, to explain the nature of man. Child, we are the nature of man, because we have infiltrated humanity, time and time again. Every foul act you blame on your evolution, on your 'human nature' we take pride in under veils of delicious shadow, and hate, and psychic refuse. We bask in the glory of your undoing, one rape, one child murder, one genocide at a time. And you say 'God is dead.' You couldn't be more right. The battle for the world was lost long ago, and as your preachers thump the pulpit with bloody fists, we throw another body on the pyre."
Right out of the gate, Sean M. Thompson comes swinging with his debut collection of stories, Too Late. In just 62 pages, Thompson manages to violate and decimate you with tales of lust, betrayal, murder, urban legends, and demonic possession. Thompson's visceral, hardcore prose will bludgeon you until you are at the threshold, leaving you a whimpering, bloody pulp. And if you manage to survive, his stories will linger within you long after you are done reading them; trauma locked away deep down inside you.
Thompson's collection technically contains five stories, but a sixth story is added as bonus material. While the stories are not related to one another, there is a sense of cohesion, as they all take place in various parts of Massachusetts; this makes the stories, I think, more intimate for the reader, thus having a stronger impact. Thompson's stories are about very real, very flawed people who find themselves in unreal situations that challenge their perceptions of reality. There are terrible, unfathomable things on the fringes that are hungry for both flesh and spirit.
The first story in the collection is Fickle Mortality. A serial killer is on death row, and during her final 60 minutes of life, she reflects on her crimes and how much she enjoyed them; the thrill of the hunt, and taking pleasure in her victims' final moments of life. Our killer also hints at something greater at work, indicating that she will be reborn and live on. Is she telling the truth, or is she just insane? That's for you to decide. With some commentary on childhood abuse, and the celebrity status of serial killers, Thompson starts off nice and slow, tying you to a chair and giving you a small taste of what is coming for you.
The next story, and my favorite of the six, is Stranded in the Storm. Josh and Karen are driving in the middle of a snow storm, on their way to party. Their car spins out of control and crashes into a snowbank. Josh calls for a tow truck to get them out, but is told it'll take about an hour for it to arrive; in the meantime, Josh and Karen sit tight, but have no idea that something is out in the woods, something huge and unnatural, and it's stalking them. Thompson's detailed descriptions of the snow, cold, and the menace that is looming over Josh and Karen, really help to dial up the dread, making you anxious and shaky. This is high-octane horror with a hint of tragedy at the end that is enough to make you shed a tear or two.
Jumpin' Jack is tale about how you can never truly know someone. Our narrator reveals that Jack Brentweather, his co-worker, massacred fifteen girls in one night, and reflects on how no one could've known that Jack was capable of something so horrible, but also reflects on the self-guilt that ravages his mind. The narrator plays back over and over about how he should've been more aware, more in tune with the fact that something was wrong with Jack. It's a great commentary on how we punish ourselves for not doing something, anything, that could've stopped a horrible tragedy from happening. And like in Fickle Mortality, there is some commentary about how killers are immortalized long after their deaths through song, stories, the media, and any other medium. Thompson also leaves this one up to the reader to interpret if Jack was just insane, or if something greater was at work, something guiding him.
Dust is my second favorite story in the collection. It's a fine Weird Western, something that we don't have enough of, if you ask me. Clickin' Clarence and Red Robert are looking for a place to shack up in, after robbing some people who were passing by in their wagon. Not wanting to get caught in the sandstorm that is rapidly approaching, they find shelter in a town called "Dust," except that it's deserted. They soon discover, especially Clarence, that there's more to the town than they truly know. This tale is dripping with atmosphere; it's creepy, and nicely paced. The theme of betrayal is at the center of this tale, but I love how Thompson fleshes out the town of Dust and its ghostly residents, and even making the town a character itself, in the sense that it's always looking for people to visit, except they never leave.
The End of Humanity is a maniacal, apocalyptic tale about an author who is in a creative slump. He searches the web for some ideas and come across the site of a demonologist by the name of Henry Scatherty, who only lives a few towns over. Unbeknownst to the writer, Mr. Scatherty is not what he appears to be. The story is told in the first person, from the point of view of the writer, giving the reader a palpable sense of the doom that is approaching, and the feeling of degeneration in the writer, as he loses more and more of his humanity, taken over by something malevolent. Reading it makes you feel like the apocalypse is really happening, or that it's almost at your doorstep; it's too late for you to do anything. There is no interpretation to be made here: there are things that exist in places that we only see in nightmares. They are real, and they want you.
The bonus story is Those Damn College Kids. Four friends are on their way to cabin for a little getaway, but things slowly begin to fall apart for them. Tempers flare, motives are revealed, and a tale of folk horror turns out to be true. Thompson adds a sort of commentary within the commentary, as the friends talk about what would happen in a horror movie, but that those things wouldn't happen to them because they are in the real world. The story has the feel of a Friday the 13th movie; there's lust, sex, alcohol, running and tripping, woods, and killer on the loose.
With his debut collection, Thompson brings to the table a nice mix of stories that range in tone, themes, emotion, power, humor, and varying levels of horror and madness. Above all, though, Thompson brings the reader a powder keg of entertainment. These stories are akin to a late night at the drive-in, so bring a friend or your significant other, get yourself a beverage, some popcorn, and sit back for a fun night of gore and terror!
Right out of the gate, Sean M. Thompson comes swinging with his debut collection of stories, Too Late. In just 62 pages, Thompson manages to violate and decimate you with tales of lust, betrayal, murder, urban legends, and demonic possession. Thompson's visceral, hardcore prose will bludgeon you until you are at the threshold, leaving you a whimpering, bloody pulp. And if you manage to survive, his stories will linger within you long after you are done reading them; trauma locked away deep down inside you.
Thompson's collection technically contains five stories, but a sixth story is added as bonus material. While the stories are not related to one another, there is a sense of cohesion, as they all take place in various parts of Massachusetts; this makes the stories, I think, more intimate for the reader, thus having a stronger impact. Thompson's stories are about very real, very flawed people who find themselves in unreal situations that challenge their perceptions of reality. There are terrible, unfathomable things on the fringes that are hungry for both flesh and spirit.
The first story in the collection is Fickle Mortality. A serial killer is on death row, and during her final 60 minutes of life, she reflects on her crimes and how much she enjoyed them; the thrill of the hunt, and taking pleasure in her victims' final moments of life. Our killer also hints at something greater at work, indicating that she will be reborn and live on. Is she telling the truth, or is she just insane? That's for you to decide. With some commentary on childhood abuse, and the celebrity status of serial killers, Thompson starts off nice and slow, tying you to a chair and giving you a small taste of what is coming for you.
The next story, and my favorite of the six, is Stranded in the Storm. Josh and Karen are driving in the middle of a snow storm, on their way to party. Their car spins out of control and crashes into a snowbank. Josh calls for a tow truck to get them out, but is told it'll take about an hour for it to arrive; in the meantime, Josh and Karen sit tight, but have no idea that something is out in the woods, something huge and unnatural, and it's stalking them. Thompson's detailed descriptions of the snow, cold, and the menace that is looming over Josh and Karen, really help to dial up the dread, making you anxious and shaky. This is high-octane horror with a hint of tragedy at the end that is enough to make you shed a tear or two.
Jumpin' Jack is tale about how you can never truly know someone. Our narrator reveals that Jack Brentweather, his co-worker, massacred fifteen girls in one night, and reflects on how no one could've known that Jack was capable of something so horrible, but also reflects on the self-guilt that ravages his mind. The narrator plays back over and over about how he should've been more aware, more in tune with the fact that something was wrong with Jack. It's a great commentary on how we punish ourselves for not doing something, anything, that could've stopped a horrible tragedy from happening. And like in Fickle Mortality, there is some commentary about how killers are immortalized long after their deaths through song, stories, the media, and any other medium. Thompson also leaves this one up to the reader to interpret if Jack was just insane, or if something greater was at work, something guiding him.
Dust is my second favorite story in the collection. It's a fine Weird Western, something that we don't have enough of, if you ask me. Clickin' Clarence and Red Robert are looking for a place to shack up in, after robbing some people who were passing by in their wagon. Not wanting to get caught in the sandstorm that is rapidly approaching, they find shelter in a town called "Dust," except that it's deserted. They soon discover, especially Clarence, that there's more to the town than they truly know. This tale is dripping with atmosphere; it's creepy, and nicely paced. The theme of betrayal is at the center of this tale, but I love how Thompson fleshes out the town of Dust and its ghostly residents, and even making the town a character itself, in the sense that it's always looking for people to visit, except they never leave.
The End of Humanity is a maniacal, apocalyptic tale about an author who is in a creative slump. He searches the web for some ideas and come across the site of a demonologist by the name of Henry Scatherty, who only lives a few towns over. Unbeknownst to the writer, Mr. Scatherty is not what he appears to be. The story is told in the first person, from the point of view of the writer, giving the reader a palpable sense of the doom that is approaching, and the feeling of degeneration in the writer, as he loses more and more of his humanity, taken over by something malevolent. Reading it makes you feel like the apocalypse is really happening, or that it's almost at your doorstep; it's too late for you to do anything. There is no interpretation to be made here: there are things that exist in places that we only see in nightmares. They are real, and they want you.
The bonus story is Those Damn College Kids. Four friends are on their way to cabin for a little getaway, but things slowly begin to fall apart for them. Tempers flare, motives are revealed, and a tale of folk horror turns out to be true. Thompson adds a sort of commentary within the commentary, as the friends talk about what would happen in a horror movie, but that those things wouldn't happen to them because they are in the real world. The story has the feel of a Friday the 13th movie; there's lust, sex, alcohol, running and tripping, woods, and killer on the loose.
With his debut collection, Thompson brings to the table a nice mix of stories that range in tone, themes, emotion, power, humor, and varying levels of horror and madness. Above all, though, Thompson brings the reader a powder keg of entertainment. These stories are akin to a late night at the drive-in, so bring a friend or your significant other, get yourself a beverage, some popcorn, and sit back for a fun night of gore and terror!
June 15, 2020
This is great collection of six short horror stories by Sean M. Thomson, and what I loved about the book was how Thompson encourages the reader to bring along their horror baggage of expectations.
From the opening story Fickle Mortality with our main character on death row as they contemplate their last hours, I was swept along by the world building inside the mind of a serial killer. This immediate sense of being with the characters and their situation is very much followed through in each story.
The book culminates in the superbly titled 'Bonus Material Those Damn College Kids' immediately you have an inkling of what Thompson is about to serve up. The ingredients are added a group of four college friends, an isolated cabin in the woods, and in the shadows out of sight a silent figure ...waiting.
Thompson manages to provide the reader load up the baggage of expectation, so they can be led down a path so horror pre-conceptions can be challenged. I very much liked the suspense and tension in all the stories of the collection and would thoroughly recommend it.
From the opening story Fickle Mortality with our main character on death row as they contemplate their last hours, I was swept along by the world building inside the mind of a serial killer. This immediate sense of being with the characters and their situation is very much followed through in each story.
The book culminates in the superbly titled 'Bonus Material Those Damn College Kids' immediately you have an inkling of what Thompson is about to serve up. The ingredients are added a group of four college friends, an isolated cabin in the woods, and in the shadows out of sight a silent figure ...waiting.
Thompson manages to provide the reader load up the baggage of expectation, so they can be led down a path so horror pre-conceptions can be challenged. I very much liked the suspense and tension in all the stories of the collection and would thoroughly recommend it.
January 2, 2018
"Dust" was my favorite story, and "Those Damn College Kids" had me laughing nonstop. This is a great collection of short stories!
October 31, 2016
Great Halloween book! My personal favorite short story was Dust......really wasn't sure where it was going and the author tied it up neatly. Reminded me of the Twilight Zone stories. Great writing....interesting ideas....I know it is his first book.....please keep writing!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews