Scarce Resources

by Brendan Detzner

The devil plays tennis with the last man in Chicago while a brontosaurus looms in the distance.

An elderly blind woman thinks she's feeding the birds.

A music industry insider falls short of immortality and makes a shocking confession.

A girl with sharp teeth and an excellent sense of smell shops at a convenience store, avoiding chocolate.

And fourteen more.

"Detzner's writing asks all the right questions, and answers just enough of them to leave your mind toying with the ideas for days ... If you're looking for cheap scares, look elsewhere. This is a writer that deals in an uneasy fear, in the unknown but somehow personal."
Derek Gettys, The Arson Club

"....stories of unholy compromise, quiet madness and apocalypses both great and small... If you’re not familiar with his work, these eighteen stories are a great overview of what he’s been doing in the always flexible horror genre."
Michael Penkas, Black Gate

142 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2013

About the author

Brendan Detzner lives, works, and writes in Chicago. His work has appeared in Chizine, Pseudopod, Edge of Propinquity, Ruthless Peoples, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and the Book of Dead Things and Exigencies anthologies, as well as elsewhere. Brendan has also been featured at the Twilight Tales and Reading Under The Influence reading series in Chicago and runs his own reading series Bad Grammar Theater (http://www.badgrammartheater.com). You can keep track of what he's up to at http://www.brendandetzner.com.

Reviews

[Theresa Needham fehse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free book for honest review. juliesbookreview.blogspot.com

The devil plays tennis with the last man in Chicago while a brontosaurus looms in the distance. An elderly blind woman thinks she's feeding the birds. A music industry insider falls short of immortality and makes a shocking confession. A girl with sharp teeth and an excellent sense of smell shops at a convenience store, avoiding chocolate. And fourteen more. ""Detzner's writing asks all the right questions, and answers just enough of them to leave your mind toying with the ideas for days ... If you're looking for cheap scares, look elsewhere. This is a writer that deals in an uneasy fear, in the unknown but somehow personal."" Derek Gettys, The Arson Club ""....stories of unholy compromise, quiet madness and apocalypses both great and small... If you're not familiar with his work, these eighteen stories are a great overview of what he's been doing in the always flexible horror genre."" Michael Penkas, Black Gate

This is not my typical style book but it was interesting if you like horror stories. The author keeps you reading even if you're not sure what you're reading. Worth the read. This is the first book I've read by this author

I rate this book 3 1/2 stars
Jennifer

[Paul Stolp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brevity and dark humor underline these 18 weird stories. But don't let that fool you: each tale is as long as it needs to be, and beneath the dark humor lay some pretty sharp teeth. While I enjoyed all the tales, two stood out: Ducks and Iowa Highway. The former features the best characterization in the book and nails the special alchemy of surrealism and matter-of-fact storytelling that the best weird tales do. The latter seems almost simple on its surface, but stays with the reader long after...it feels like a modern-day Grimm's tale, and I mean that as a high compliment. I'm looking forward to reading more from Mr. Detzner.

[Jason Nickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool collection of stories. Horror infused with dark humor. I really enjoyed it. Fans of Chuck Palahniuk or Jeremy Robert Johnson would probably enjoy.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel kind of bad doing this because someone (thereadingroom.com) actually gave me this book to read & give an honest review......with that being said: I have to say that I couldn't ever find much that I could enjoy about this book! Wow....very scary-ish, gruesome, icky/yucky, way far out there/hard for me to understand much of it! It was certainly more different than anything I'd ever read....I can't think of even 1 person that I might be tempted to recommend it to! I actually tho, really found the 'story notes' at the end...to be the most enjoyable part of the book...I was glad to be able to take away something from it that I might be able to say that I could make some sense of! Reading his acknowledgments/thanks, made the author sound like an actual nice guy....not some warped mind that concocted all that mess that I'd just plodded thru reading!! How's that for an honest review?!
Again, I must say that I won this book in a thereadingroom.com giveaway program, in return for an honest review!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The devil plays tennis with the last man in Chicago while a brontosaurus looms in the distance. An elderly blind woman thinks she's feeding the birds. A music industry insider falls short of immortality and makes a shocking confession. A girl with sharp teeth and an excellent sense of smell shops at a convenience store, avoiding chocolate. And fourteen more. ""Detzner's writing asks all the right questions, and answers just enough of them to leave your mind toying with the ideas for days ... If you're looking for cheap scares, look elsewhere. This is a writer that deals in an uneasy fear, in the unknown but somehow personal."" Derek Gettys, The Arson Club ""....stories of unholy compromise, quiet madness and apocalypses both great and small... If you're not familiar with his work, these eighteen stories are a great overview of what he's been doing in the always flexible horror genre."" Michael Penkas, Black Gate

This is not my typical style book but it was interesting if you like horror stories. The author keeps you reading even if you're not sure what you're reading. Worth the read. This is the first book I've read by this author

I rate this book 3 1/2 stars