The Slab

by Michael R. Collings

On the surface, 1066 Oleander Place seems a typical twenty-something-year-old tract house in the peaceful Southern California town of Tamarind Valley. What no one--not even the closest neighbors--grasps is that this house is dark, dangerous, and evil to the core. It consumes those who enter it, one by one--spiritually, psychologically, physically! Even to visit the place challenges fate...and promises horror for everyone there. In the tradition of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, The Shining, and Pet Sematary, Dean R. Koontz's The Bad Place, and Robert R. McCammon's Usher's Pashing, The Slab offers a phantasmagoria of fear, horror, and terror. Another great read by a master storyteller!

Genres: Horror

Audible Audio

First published December 13, 2010

About the author

Michael Robert Collings is an American author, poet, literary critic, and bibliographer, and a former professor of creative writing and literature at Pepperdine University. He was Poet in Residence at Pepperdine's Seaver College from 1997-2000.

Collings has had multiple collections of his poetry published on subjects such as Latter Day Saint theology, Joseph Smith, Christmas, science fiction, and horror. He is known for his literary critiques and bibliographies of the works of Orson Scott Card and Stephen King, though he has also published critiques and bibliographies of the works of Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, C. S. Lewis, Brian W. Aldiss, and Piers Anthony. His In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott Card was the first book-length academic look at Card's works.

Michael Robert Collings was born on October 29, 1947 in Rupert, Idaho. He graduated from Bakersfield College in 1967 with an Associate's degree, then graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English from Whittier College two years later. After graduating with a Master's degree in English from the University of California, Riverside in 1973, Collings received his Ph.D. in English literature from UCR in 1977, specializing in Milton and The Renaissance.

Before he began teaching creative writing and literature at Pepperdine University, Collings taught at UCR, San Bernardino Valley Community College, and UCLA. He taught at Pepperdine from 1979 until 2010, when he retired. He now lives in Idaho with his wife, Judi. His son, Michaelbrent Collings, is a fantasy and horror writer.

Reviews

[Joe Orozco · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was unnecessarily complex. The switch between timeframes and house occupants was confusing. The Audible narration was fine, but no great reader could have moved this book from just okay to a sensation. I would read another title by the author. The writing was decent, but as for this title, you'd be well-advised to skip it.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This started out a little slow and I wondered where it was going in the beginning, but I kept reading and found it hard to put down. The horrors in this book will keep you reading and the ending left me shocked and sad. A really great book that I could read again!

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like a haunting/horror book that takes place over multiple time periods with multiple people so this book was appealing in that way. The writing was good, the dialogue felt real, and it wasn't boring. It just wasn't very original in any way and felt a bit cliched in places. But overall, a good, fun, quick read.

[Jason Mueller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many errors, no proof reading apparently. Rushed story, plot could have been developed better. There was alot of potential, but never reached it.

Too many errors, no proof reading apparently. Rushed story, plot could have been developed better. Entertaining, but not that great.

[Cheryl A Staley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was good but the grammatical errors and misspellings were horrible . Bio says author was a English professor he should n be mortified

. Or the editor should be sued.

Very annoying to read with so many mistakes. Hard to believe it sold like that

[Julie Fernandes · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be frank, the plot was quite boring.

[Danielle Notz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit too ambiguous for my taste, but I did like the characters.

[Dick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new author for me. In his acknowledgements, he praised three of my favorite authors - Stephen King, Robert McCammon and Dean Koontz. So, I thought that the book had good models to live up to. And, in my opinion, it had elements of all three. Plus, Anne Rivers Siddon - at least here first novel anyway.
Several scenes in the book made me twist and turn with discomfort - like any good horror story. And all through the book I flipped my kindle as quickly as possible to read the next page, chapter, etc. (I have found that with the Kindle I read faster than I have ever read before, and because I don't know how to flip ahead in the book to see where I am, I read longer than ever before - that translates to later as well. )
I will keep my eye out for more books by Mr. Collings.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Slab is my second read by Michael Collings, who writes what I call mood horror: infect a location with a ghost, let the ghost taint the thoughts, emotions, actions and relationships of the people who live in the house, destroy the house, maybe spare the people. Do all this in tightly written, atmospheric scenes loosely associated by plot and theme.

To really enjoy a story like this, you have to accept an amorphous, undirected antagonistic force which is more mood than monster, more impression than personality.

[M.L. Roos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something went wrong with the construction of 66 Oleander place. Horribly wrong. And now the house consumes each family who dares to live there. A gripping tale fraught with emotion and fear, this one will keep you reading far into the night.

Another house, another infestation...crickets. I hate crickets with a passion. I loathe them, despise them and am eternally in fear of their little conniving ways. I know they are out to get me. They plot behind the water cooler, under the dark, in the kitchen cupboard and are plotting a coup to take me down. Damn bugs....

[Chantel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. That's about all I can say about it. The story was a bit hard to follow although the reason for the haunting was easy enough to figure out in the first chapter. The premise seemed kind of non-sensical to me. Perhaps better writing or organization would have made the story more believable. Finally, annoyingly full of typos and actually had a couple of blank pages which is just sloppy and unacceptable even for an electronic version.

[Shannon Guckeen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lost interest reading it and ending wasn't interesting either.

[Michelle Purvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an edge of your seat thriller, but it had some great moments of horror and it was an entertaining quick read.

[Carrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this and the reader was really terrible. I may have enjoyed it more had I read the book myself.

[Brandi Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

a really good horror. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[Danielle Mcfarlane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haunted house, bad things happen, predictable story line, bla bla bla.

[denise young · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's alright

although a little creepy it wasn't really scary. and the ending was flat. So I can only give one star.

[Tanya Smart · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Not terribly exciting or horrifying. 1/5 in and it was still such a bore, I gave up.