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Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror
Not yet published
Expected 15 Jul 26"Neither his face nor his lips moved when he laughed. It was more a plague of laughter than the sound of it; a pervasion of the hearer's mind by hypnotic disease."
A boy discovers his father's oracular grotesque in a secret dungeon below their family funeral home.
An antique spiked collar transforms Philadelphia into a city that worships a dead dog.
A video game dominates the market for years and then disappears, except for one man's memories of its horrors.
A mother with a trunkful of hungry, inhuman babies tracks down the family that abandoned them.
The warden of a penal colony offers to pardon a murderer, but only if the inmate can find the antidote to the poison wine the warden gave him.
A wealthy young woman receives a surgical implant that delivers more than just a shapely body.
Step into a world of fleshly titillation and fresh terror, a dimension of blood and consequence. But buyer beware! Crack the spine and these dark tales are not so easily forgotten. And you may find yourself changing into a beast of insatiable hunger, a tormented sinner, a lunatic on the fringe.
Heed this warning, that what once is read cannot be unread. Turn back now, if you can, or else become one of the...
Infernal Tramps!
A boy discovers his father's oracular grotesque in a secret dungeon below their family funeral home.
An antique spiked collar transforms Philadelphia into a city that worships a dead dog.
A video game dominates the market for years and then disappears, except for one man's memories of its horrors.
A mother with a trunkful of hungry, inhuman babies tracks down the family that abandoned them.
The warden of a penal colony offers to pardon a murderer, but only if the inmate can find the antidote to the poison wine the warden gave him.
A wealthy young woman receives a surgical implant that delivers more than just a shapely body.
Step into a world of fleshly titillation and fresh terror, a dimension of blood and consequence. But buyer beware! Crack the spine and these dark tales are not so easily forgotten. And you may find yourself changing into a beast of insatiable hunger, a tormented sinner, a lunatic on the fringe.
Heed this warning, that what once is read cannot be unread. Turn back now, if you can, or else become one of the...
Infernal Tramps!
207 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication July 15, 2026
About the author
Alex Grass
5 books220 followersAlex Grass was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three kids.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 7, 2026
ARC REVIEW
This short story collection is freaky and gory. Fast-paced and well-written, I enjoyed these stories.
The Tezcat Apparatus- keeping critters out of your garden. A limb for life.
Infernal Tramps- are they aliens demons or hallucinations? I will let you decide.
Rats- YUCK! A dead rat comes back to life. Rats are coming out of people’s mouth, yeah no thanks! Rats are my kryptonite.
Pujkamaunka Splash- a game that no one remembers.
A Woman of Distinction- She sounds like friend material. “How being rude can get you killed”.
Odd Egg- don’t take eggs from strangers.
A Vixenly Hexer- Bloodballs! The stranger and Hexer a deadly team.
Meeting Ivor Voelman- a wizard of dread.
The EPtm Implant - not all plastic surgery is good.
The Golden Mile- don’t touch old circus trunks.
A New World Basement- make sure you pay your medical bills.
Ever Shall They Feed- sometimes playing pranks leads to unwanted visions.
The Equisto Zanosi Fast- don’t cheat!
If Promises Were Meant To Keep- how fast would you run with poison in your blood?
Boxed Breakfast-look out for Boxhead.
Finding Erland- Is Inga good or Evil?
Thanks to Book Sirens for sending me an advanced copy to read and review.
This short story collection is freaky and gory. Fast-paced and well-written, I enjoyed these stories.
The Tezcat Apparatus- keeping critters out of your garden. A limb for life.
Infernal Tramps- are they aliens demons or hallucinations? I will let you decide.
Rats- YUCK! A dead rat comes back to life. Rats are coming out of people’s mouth, yeah no thanks! Rats are my kryptonite.
Pujkamaunka Splash- a game that no one remembers.
A Woman of Distinction- She sounds like friend material. “How being rude can get you killed”.
Odd Egg- don’t take eggs from strangers.
A Vixenly Hexer- Bloodballs! The stranger and Hexer a deadly team.
Meeting Ivor Voelman- a wizard of dread.
The EPtm Implant - not all plastic surgery is good.
The Golden Mile- don’t touch old circus trunks.
A New World Basement- make sure you pay your medical bills.
Ever Shall They Feed- sometimes playing pranks leads to unwanted visions.
The Equisto Zanosi Fast- don’t cheat!
If Promises Were Meant To Keep- how fast would you run with poison in your blood?
Boxed Breakfast-look out for Boxhead.
Finding Erland- Is Inga good or Evil?
Thanks to Book Sirens for sending me an advanced copy to read and review.
May 12, 2026
Despite 17 intriguing premises and a clear respect for literary prose, this horror collection ultimately frustrates more than it frightens.
The author’s passion for prose is evident, but it’s unfortunately overshadowed by overly wordy and syntactically complex sentences. Many of the stories also feel like strong concepts that never fully develop into fully realized narratives. They promise intriguing setups that end abruptly or fizzle out more than expected for a short story.
The collection lacks any meaningful cohesion or overarching theme, making the stories feel like a loose assortment rather than a curated experience. Furthermore, frequent untranslated passages (in various languages) were distracting and occasionally frustrating, especially when they seemed intended to enhance the narrative's flavor or mystery.
While fans of ambitious, concept-driven horror might find enough here to enjoy, the collection would have benefited from more rigorous editing and development. There’s clear potential, but it remains largely unrealized. Still, it’s worth a look for the premises alone.
The author’s passion for prose is evident, but it’s unfortunately overshadowed by overly wordy and syntactically complex sentences. Many of the stories also feel like strong concepts that never fully develop into fully realized narratives. They promise intriguing setups that end abruptly or fizzle out more than expected for a short story.
The collection lacks any meaningful cohesion or overarching theme, making the stories feel like a loose assortment rather than a curated experience. Furthermore, frequent untranslated passages (in various languages) were distracting and occasionally frustrating, especially when they seemed intended to enhance the narrative's flavor or mystery.
While fans of ambitious, concept-driven horror might find enough here to enjoy, the collection would have benefited from more rigorous editing and development. There’s clear potential, but it remains largely unrealized. Still, it’s worth a look for the premises alone.
Review of advance copy received from Author
When I was a child in my early teens, perhaps as a way to rebel against the classic fairy tales I was reading growing up, I found a special kind of fascinating escape in stories and books which featured peculiar characters, the weirder the better, the more interesting for me, going through unconventional adventures, thus providing fresh outcomes, outlooks and lessons than your habitual happily ever after. I could lose myself for hours in those stories, utterly hypnotized.
In the following years I’ve encountered that same captivating dreaminess in many a book, and lately it winked at me in Alex Grass’ new short story collection Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror. The seventeen stories of the collection are seventeen little trap doors leading to fantastic worlds.
“The smallest dreads soak my bones. Be it the paranoid certainty of being watched in a grocery store line, the nagging thought of an unknown debt, a vague notion of an undiagnosable illness coring out my organs. My fears are in my marrow.”
It is those little dreads that creep through all of Grass’ stories, but they can take bigger dimensions too, quite great depending on your own fears; short impressions of vermin, eggs hatching to become monsters, strange things happening every time an author publishes a book, hell hounds dressed as clowns… Each story starts with a strange occurrence or situation that gets even weirder in the course of the story, stretching the limits of that already uncanny situation.
In my absolute highlight Ever Shall They Feed a son who wants to get back to his father for playing a rather unfunny prank on him discovers a whole secret life his dad is living and it’s going unexpected places, and it all starts with a little librarian in Central-East Europe.
I’m going to die now, David.
The prose is impeccable, really, the weird feels genuinely weird, and the stories authentic. Meanwhile glimpses of social commentary, such as people transferred to internment camps to pay their hospital bills, glance at you from between the lines, and the author’s correct use of various Germanic languages is impressive - too many authors make so many mistakes when using foreign languages in their work! I’m glad to see that Alex Grass has a whole body of work that waits to be discovered.
I’d like to thank the author for reaching out and Book Sirens for providing me a review copy. My opinions are my own.
In the following years I’ve encountered that same captivating dreaminess in many a book, and lately it winked at me in Alex Grass’ new short story collection Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror. The seventeen stories of the collection are seventeen little trap doors leading to fantastic worlds.
“The smallest dreads soak my bones. Be it the paranoid certainty of being watched in a grocery store line, the nagging thought of an unknown debt, a vague notion of an undiagnosable illness coring out my organs. My fears are in my marrow.”
It is those little dreads that creep through all of Grass’ stories, but they can take bigger dimensions too, quite great depending on your own fears; short impressions of vermin, eggs hatching to become monsters, strange things happening every time an author publishes a book, hell hounds dressed as clowns… Each story starts with a strange occurrence or situation that gets even weirder in the course of the story, stretching the limits of that already uncanny situation.
In my absolute highlight Ever Shall They Feed a son who wants to get back to his father for playing a rather unfunny prank on him discovers a whole secret life his dad is living and it’s going unexpected places, and it all starts with a little librarian in Central-East Europe.
I’m going to die now, David.
The prose is impeccable, really, the weird feels genuinely weird, and the stories authentic. Meanwhile glimpses of social commentary, such as people transferred to internment camps to pay their hospital bills, glance at you from between the lines, and the author’s correct use of various Germanic languages is impressive - too many authors make so many mistakes when using foreign languages in their work! I’m glad to see that Alex Grass has a whole body of work that waits to be discovered.
I’d like to thank the author for reaching out and Book Sirens for providing me a review copy. My opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Infernal Tramps is a strange and highly memorable collection of weird horror stories. What worked best for me was how distinct each story felt while still connecting to a larger shared sense of theme and purpose. These are stories full of cursed objects, monstrous appetites, body horror, supernatural punishments, strange family legacies, and people being consumed by the consequences of their own choices.
What keeps the collection fresh for me is that so many of the stories seem rooted in recognizable real-life fears and failures. Loneliness, abuse, medical debt, policing, cosmetic surgery, cheating, toxic relationships, grief, addiction, guilt, and class resentment are all present, but they are twisted into something much darker and unsettling. The horror often takes familiar human problems and pushes them to an extreme.
I also appreciated the variety. Some stories lean into folk horror, some into body horror, some into cursed-media horror, and others feel closer to strange morality tales. A few are darkly funny, while others are bleak and unsettling. Even when the stories get bizarre, they rarely feel random. There is usually a strong emotional or thematic idea underneath the ugliness, which gave me something to think about beyond the shock of the imagery.
The writing can be dense, but for me that mostly added to the collection’s personality. In short fiction, that kind of heightened style works better than it might in a full-length novel because each story has room to feel like its own strange little nightmare. The prose gives the collection a unique feel and helps make the stories read as more distinct from one another.
Overall, this was a creative and compelling collection that blends weird fiction and horror with real thematic weight. It is grotesque, strange, and sometimes difficult, but also imaginative and consistently engaging. For readers who like horror that is bizarre, bold, and still grounded in human faults, this is an easy recommendation.
What keeps the collection fresh for me is that so many of the stories seem rooted in recognizable real-life fears and failures. Loneliness, abuse, medical debt, policing, cosmetic surgery, cheating, toxic relationships, grief, addiction, guilt, and class resentment are all present, but they are twisted into something much darker and unsettling. The horror often takes familiar human problems and pushes them to an extreme.
I also appreciated the variety. Some stories lean into folk horror, some into body horror, some into cursed-media horror, and others feel closer to strange morality tales. A few are darkly funny, while others are bleak and unsettling. Even when the stories get bizarre, they rarely feel random. There is usually a strong emotional or thematic idea underneath the ugliness, which gave me something to think about beyond the shock of the imagery.
The writing can be dense, but for me that mostly added to the collection’s personality. In short fiction, that kind of heightened style works better than it might in a full-length novel because each story has room to feel like its own strange little nightmare. The prose gives the collection a unique feel and helps make the stories read as more distinct from one another.
Overall, this was a creative and compelling collection that blends weird fiction and horror with real thematic weight. It is grotesque, strange, and sometimes difficult, but also imaginative and consistently engaging. For readers who like horror that is bizarre, bold, and still grounded in human faults, this is an easy recommendation.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I love when authors realize that horror is not merely about monsters but about ontological contamination; the sense that reality itself has become porous, infected, unreliable. It's my favorite kind of horror. This collection is grotesque and hallucinatory, and is indeed, weird terror.
There’s a very old-school, weird-fiction vibe here that's filtered through body horror and nightmare logic and the writing is familiar to the likes of modern works from Paul Tremblay and Clay McLeod Chapman. It's dense, strange, and highly atmospheric. There are 17 stories in all ranging in a variety of different flavors of terror "aka" something for everyone to love. All are rather short with a couple around 2 pages and I think the longest was less than 30. There is artwork prior to each story that I found interesting too.
We don't get cheap jump scares but instead psychic corrosion, blending cosmic horror, body horror, and surreal nightmare imagery into something that feels both vintage and modern. From a dead dog worshipping city to surgical implants becoming existential horror, not to mention THE strangest and most terrifying eggs, weird fits the bill.
Horror is fundamentally sensory before it is narrative and this collection hones in on that. 😌 Some of my favorites were :
~ The Tezcat Apparatus
~ A Woman of Distinction (the star of the show for me)
~ Odd Egg
~ The EP™️ Implant
~ The Black Gaucho of Revendiction
~ The Golden Mile
~ If Promises Were Meant to Keep
~ Boxed Breakfast
If you enjoy fragmented nightmare logic, body horror, cosmic dread, and the “wth did I just read?” sensation, it's a standout collection of quick reads. 🙌
Some tales do lean on the more ambiguous side, but that ambiguity is part of the charm for me. If you love a weird short story collection, it's worth the read!
There’s a very old-school, weird-fiction vibe here that's filtered through body horror and nightmare logic and the writing is familiar to the likes of modern works from Paul Tremblay and Clay McLeod Chapman. It's dense, strange, and highly atmospheric. There are 17 stories in all ranging in a variety of different flavors of terror "aka" something for everyone to love. All are rather short with a couple around 2 pages and I think the longest was less than 30. There is artwork prior to each story that I found interesting too.
We don't get cheap jump scares but instead psychic corrosion, blending cosmic horror, body horror, and surreal nightmare imagery into something that feels both vintage and modern. From a dead dog worshipping city to surgical implants becoming existential horror, not to mention THE strangest and most terrifying eggs, weird fits the bill.
Horror is fundamentally sensory before it is narrative and this collection hones in on that. 😌 Some of my favorites were :
~ The Tezcat Apparatus
~ A Woman of Distinction (the star of the show for me)
~ Odd Egg
~ The EP™️ Implant
~ The Black Gaucho of Revendiction
~ The Golden Mile
~ If Promises Were Meant to Keep
~ Boxed Breakfast
If you enjoy fragmented nightmare logic, body horror, cosmic dread, and the “wth did I just read?” sensation, it's a standout collection of quick reads. 🙌
Some tales do lean on the more ambiguous side, but that ambiguity is part of the charm for me. If you love a weird short story collection, it's worth the read!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Alex Grass’s Infernal Tramps is a collection that lives up to its name—it is gritty, unsettling, and intentionally strange. It belongs to the "Weird Fiction" genre, which blends horror with the surreal to leave you feeling more "off-balance" than just scared. The book is built around characters who exist on the fringes of society. These aren't polished heroes; they are drifters, outcasts, and "tramps" who stumble into situations where reality starts to break. The "Infernal" part of the title hints at the darkness and decay that follows them. Grass excels at making the setting feel heavy. Whether it’s a dusty road or a cramped room, you can almost smell the rot and feel the tension. It feels like a fever dream that won't end. Instead of classic movie monsters (like vampires or werewolves), the "terror" here is often psychological or cosmic. It's the fear of the unknown and the things that shouldn't exist but do. The prose is sharp and doesn't waste time. Grass uses simple language to describe very complex, horrific images, which actually makes the horror hit harder because it’s so easy to visualize.
In my view, this book is a masterclass in "discomfort." Most horror books try to make you jump; this book tries to make you feel unsafe in your own skin. What I find most impressive is how Grass gives dignity to his "tramp" characters. Even as they face cosmic horrors, their human struggles (hunger, loneliness, regret) feel very real.
In my view, this book is a masterclass in "discomfort." Most horror books try to make you jump; this book tries to make you feel unsafe in your own skin. What I find most impressive is how Grass gives dignity to his "tramp" characters. Even as they face cosmic horrors, their human struggles (hunger, loneliness, regret) feel very real.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This was my first delve into work written by Alex, so I had no expectations or any experience of how he wrote. All I had was the book details. Labelled as ‘weird fiction,’ this is a collection of seventeen short stories and flash fiction with a huge range of sub-genres such as sci-fi horror and creature horror.
If each one of Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children were short stories, not people, then they would feel at home in this eccentric, phantasmagorical collection of unorthodox tales. As the label suggests, this is an elaborate, bizarre and eccentric collection, which will have something that appeals to everyone no matter what your favourite horror trope is. That said, because of the very nature of a varied story collection, there will be stories that will not appeal to everyone’s tastes.
This is the first time that I have read something with such surrealistic, mind-bending, and disturbing imaginative prose delivered with outlandish, peculiar verbiage and, well … just immense wordiness, that it creates an atmosphere filled with idiosyncratic characters that will either drag you screaming through an individual story or will have you staring blankly at the page with WTF teetering on your tonsils.
Definitely weird.
My favourite stories were the self-titled Infernal Tramps, A Woman Of Distinction, Odd Egg, The EP™ Implant, and Finding Erland.
If each one of Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children were short stories, not people, then they would feel at home in this eccentric, phantasmagorical collection of unorthodox tales. As the label suggests, this is an elaborate, bizarre and eccentric collection, which will have something that appeals to everyone no matter what your favourite horror trope is. That said, because of the very nature of a varied story collection, there will be stories that will not appeal to everyone’s tastes.
This is the first time that I have read something with such surrealistic, mind-bending, and disturbing imaginative prose delivered with outlandish, peculiar verbiage and, well … just immense wordiness, that it creates an atmosphere filled with idiosyncratic characters that will either drag you screaming through an individual story or will have you staring blankly at the page with WTF teetering on your tonsils.
Definitely weird.
My favourite stories were the self-titled Infernal Tramps, A Woman Of Distinction, Odd Egg, The EP™ Implant, and Finding Erland.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you so much to Dickinson Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I find this book to be an interesting experience - both positive and negative - I don't have that much experience with reading any anthology book. I practically have no experience except for the occasional anthology series that I cross paths with.
I found it to be quite hard to get into some stories - even though they were short (which is not a problem for me at all) - it sometimes felt a bit too much like I was being dropped in the middle of a mystery house where Nothing was clear and I found that to be a bit too confusing.
Having said that, it could just be my inexperience with anthology reads (and maybe this book wasn't really for me - if you never try you'll never know).
I did find this book to be a neat creative endeavour and I'm Very unsure where this writer got his ideas from but I did like that they were quite original - even though not every one of them landed as well with me as I would've liked.
I would also like to say that this book has some incredible sentences and prose - which is quite unexpected but I'll give it a shoutout - I found it to be a very neat positive point.
I would also like to say that I did enjoy Rats, Odd Egg, The EP™ Implant and Ever Shall They Feed - they struck a certain nerve in the best way.
I find this book to be an interesting experience - both positive and negative - I don't have that much experience with reading any anthology book. I practically have no experience except for the occasional anthology series that I cross paths with.
I found it to be quite hard to get into some stories - even though they were short (which is not a problem for me at all) - it sometimes felt a bit too much like I was being dropped in the middle of a mystery house where Nothing was clear and I found that to be a bit too confusing.
Having said that, it could just be my inexperience with anthology reads (and maybe this book wasn't really for me - if you never try you'll never know).
I did find this book to be a neat creative endeavour and I'm Very unsure where this writer got his ideas from but I did like that they were quite original - even though not every one of them landed as well with me as I would've liked.
I would also like to say that this book has some incredible sentences and prose - which is quite unexpected but I'll give it a shoutout - I found it to be a very neat positive point.
I would also like to say that I did enjoy Rats, Odd Egg, The EP™ Implant and Ever Shall They Feed - they struck a certain nerve in the best way.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass is filled with amazing prose and haunting imagery. As weird as the stories get, they often hunkered down and made me wonder: "Is this just reality with a beast shoved in its midst?"
This book is a nightmarish read, and a living nightmare for its characters. I was struck by how creative each and every premise was, even if some wisp of the creature is familiar—Grass made it new. Grass also presented parallel images that were almost movie-like in their transition.
Speaking of creativity, each story is preceded by incredible artwork the author put together (occasionally from public domain), which added another layer to the horror!
As for the characters: they're very real in their flaws, or intrusive thoughts, or less-than-savory actions. Which, obviously, made the stories even more interesting.
Infernal Tramps is absolutely beautiful in its grotesqueness, and I simply couldn't get enough!
Full review, with my thoughts on each story, here.
This book is a nightmarish read, and a living nightmare for its characters. I was struck by how creative each and every premise was, even if some wisp of the creature is familiar—Grass made it new. Grass also presented parallel images that were almost movie-like in their transition.
Speaking of creativity, each story is preceded by incredible artwork the author put together (occasionally from public domain), which added another layer to the horror!
As for the characters: they're very real in their flaws, or intrusive thoughts, or less-than-savory actions. Which, obviously, made the stories even more interesting.
Infernal Tramps is absolutely beautiful in its grotesqueness, and I simply couldn't get enough!
Full review, with my thoughts on each story, here.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Well, this was a lovely surprise
Picked up Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror by Alex Grass with no real expectations but came away thoroughly entertained and perhaps a little sickened — in a good way — as well.
There are seventeen short stories featured in this collection. While there were no real scares per se, the pages were filled to the brim with nightmarish imagery, body horror, gore by the bucketful, and a terrible sense of discomfort as well as unease.
The characters were flawed, well-rounded, and memorable. The author's prose was stark and to the point, which really worked well in contrast to the contents of the collection.
Ordinarily, I can go either way with cosmic horror, but the stories here were rooted in mundane, everyday fears which simply made everything feel more impactful and hard-hitting.
Personal favourites were Infernal Tramps, The Tezcat Apparatus, Boxed Breakfast, and The Golden Mile
Recommended.
With thanks to Dickinson Publishing Group for the ARC.
Picked up Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror by Alex Grass with no real expectations but came away thoroughly entertained and perhaps a little sickened — in a good way — as well.
There are seventeen short stories featured in this collection. While there were no real scares per se, the pages were filled to the brim with nightmarish imagery, body horror, gore by the bucketful, and a terrible sense of discomfort as well as unease.
The characters were flawed, well-rounded, and memorable. The author's prose was stark and to the point, which really worked well in contrast to the contents of the collection.
Ordinarily, I can go either way with cosmic horror, but the stories here were rooted in mundane, everyday fears which simply made everything feel more impactful and hard-hitting.
Personal favourites were Infernal Tramps, The Tezcat Apparatus, Boxed Breakfast, and The Golden Mile
Recommended.
With thanks to Dickinson Publishing Group for the ARC.
Review of advance copy
✦•┈๑⋅⋯ Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass ⋯⋅๑┈•✦
➝ • 3/5 ☆ •
☆꧁✬◦°˚°◦..◦°˚°◦✬꧂☆
This is a short collection with a wide mix of ideas, and like most collections, some pieces were stronger for me than others. The concepts are interesting and the collection has a very specific voice, but the writing style wasn’t one I connected with. I had to stay very focused to follow what was happening, and that pulled me out of the stories more than I wanted.
Even so, I can see what the collection was reaching for. There’s real creativity here, along with a willingness to poke at strange ideas from multiple angles. I appreciated the ambition, even when the execution didn’t always work for me personally.
Still, this could be a solid pick for readers who enjoy experimental short fiction.
☆꧁✬◦°˚°◦..◦°˚°◦✬꧂☆
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ experimental short fiction
✔️ strange concepts
✔️ collections with mixed tones
✔️ disorienting narrative style
✔️ unusual narrative choices
✔️ dark and offbeat ideas
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
📅 Pub Day: July 15, 2026 📚
💌 ARC provided via BookSirens from Dickinson Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.
➝ • 3/5 ☆ •
☆꧁✬◦°˚°◦..◦°˚°◦✬꧂☆
This is a short collection with a wide mix of ideas, and like most collections, some pieces were stronger for me than others. The concepts are interesting and the collection has a very specific voice, but the writing style wasn’t one I connected with. I had to stay very focused to follow what was happening, and that pulled me out of the stories more than I wanted.
Even so, I can see what the collection was reaching for. There’s real creativity here, along with a willingness to poke at strange ideas from multiple angles. I appreciated the ambition, even when the execution didn’t always work for me personally.
Still, this could be a solid pick for readers who enjoy experimental short fiction.
☆꧁✬◦°˚°◦..◦°˚°◦✬꧂☆
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
If you like:
✔️ experimental short fiction
✔️ strange concepts
✔️ collections with mixed tones
✔️ disorienting narrative style
✔️ unusual narrative choices
✔️ dark and offbeat ideas
── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
📅 Pub Day: July 15, 2026 📚
💌 ARC provided via BookSirens from Dickinson Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I received a digital copy of Infernal Trumps from the author. I’ve read three of his novels and loved them. This short story collection, according to the author, is something a bit different for him.
And what a collection it is! Normally when I read a short story collection, I always find a couple of clunkers tucked in with the good, but I have to say that all the stories in Infernal Tramps range from pretty damn good to outstanding. All the stories, whether they were short or long, left this reader in awe of his writing. All were very strange, many of them leaving this reader unsettled. All were superbly written, and the author’s use of semi-invented words in many of the stories just kicked up their strangeness. While some may describe this collection as Lovecraftian, I truly believe Alex Grass has crafted a style of horror all his own.
Infernal Tramps comes with my highest recommendation.
And what a collection it is! Normally when I read a short story collection, I always find a couple of clunkers tucked in with the good, but I have to say that all the stories in Infernal Tramps range from pretty damn good to outstanding. All the stories, whether they were short or long, left this reader in awe of his writing. All were very strange, many of them leaving this reader unsettled. All were superbly written, and the author’s use of semi-invented words in many of the stories just kicked up their strangeness. While some may describe this collection as Lovecraftian, I truly believe Alex Grass has crafted a style of horror all his own.
Infernal Tramps comes with my highest recommendation.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror feels like a collection built to disturb rather than comfort, leaning fully into grotesque horror, psychological unease, and bizarre imagery that lingers in your head long after reading. Each story seems to take an ordinary fear and twist it into something surreal and deeply unsettling, whether it is obsession, guilt, hunger, addiction, or human cruelty. What makes the book stand out is how unapologetically strange it is, it does not try to be polished or safe, but instead embraces chaos, body horror, and dark imagination in a way that feels almost feverish. The atmosphere across the stories feels heavy and claustrophobic, like stepping into nightmares that become harder to escape the deeper you go. It is definitely not a casual horror read, but if you enjoy weird fiction that shocks, unsettles, and constantly makes you feel like something is deeply wrong beneath the surface, this collection seems designed exactly for that experience.
May 2, 2026
”Think how much longer your life would be if you’d been forewarned that gentlemanliness can safeguard your physical safety. The name of the book? I think going to call it How Being Rude Can Get You Killed. I’d let you read it, but you won’t be around.”
If you know me, you know I love me a good anthology book. I looooove short horror stories. So when I got the opportunity to read this arc, I jumped at the chance and I’m glad I did! This book has 17 unsettling, disturbing and just weird stories where not one story is the same. Each one has its own personality and you feel different emotions with each one. The cover is also a perfect representation of the inside with just that fever dream, creepy element.
Thank you to the author for the arc!
If you know me, you know I love me a good anthology book. I looooove short horror stories. So when I got the opportunity to read this arc, I jumped at the chance and I’m glad I did! This book has 17 unsettling, disturbing and just weird stories where not one story is the same. Each one has its own personality and you feel different emotions with each one. The cover is also a perfect representation of the inside with just that fever dream, creepy element.
Thank you to the author for the arc!
Review of advance copy
This is a collection of short horror stories. Even though they were all short, they all had their own atmosphere. Some of these stories were quite gruesome; the title story stood out to me in that regard, as well as "Rats". The story I found most unsettling in a psychological way was probably "A Woman of Distinction".
I always think the interesting thing about horror is that what scares us can vary from person to person. Another reader could read this, and if you asked them which stories they liked best or found most frightening, their choices might be entirely different.
Either way, if you're in the mood for some horror, there should be something for you here.
I always think the interesting thing about horror is that what scares us can vary from person to person. Another reader could read this, and if you asked them which stories they liked best or found most frightening, their choices might be entirely different.
Either way, if you're in the mood for some horror, there should be something for you here.
Review of advance copy
Thanks to Booktrovert for the e-copy of this collection.
Like most collections, I loved some of the stories and and hated some of them, and found several of them incomprehensible. Interestingly, even the stories where I had no idea what was going on, still hooked me with the author's interesting use of verbiage.
Creepy, harrowing, nightmare-inducing -- all these apply, and (for me) in the best way possib;e.
The cover pretty much lets you know what you're in for -- a mixed bag, for sure, but with several jewels to be discovered.
Like most collections, I loved some of the stories and and hated some of them, and found several of them incomprehensible. Interestingly, even the stories where I had no idea what was going on, still hooked me with the author's interesting use of verbiage.
Creepy, harrowing, nightmare-inducing -- all these apply, and (for me) in the best way possib;e.
The cover pretty much lets you know what you're in for -- a mixed bag, for sure, but with several jewels to be discovered.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Somehow or other, probably via newsletter, the author has decided to snail mail me a copy of his very fun book (s).. and I also found a copy on Hidden Gems...... this is the second book I've read by this very talented writer. This particular book is an anthology, and, as anthologies always go, I loved some and others I thought "what the heck did I just read".. and ""How did his brain ever conceive this"... but suffice it to say, none of them are dull! Not really a book to read from cover to cover, I paced myself at a story an evening. I highly recommend this book ;-)
Review of advance copy received from Author
Thanks to the author for providing me with an advance copy of this! It's a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. The prose is technically brilliant, and evocative; there's a feeling of griminess to the whole thing. What didn't work for me was that the collection is a mix of very short stories and some longer pieces. There were stories that felt either too short, or ones that I wish had been developed further. Some of the ones that stuck with me was the one about the bloody dog collar and the city being taken over by psychic clown dogs, and the horrific story about plastic surgery implants gone wrong. At times I felt like there was a certain Brechtian detachment to the stories, and I wish it had been a bit more visceral and in your face. Despite the flaws this is definitely a collection worth picking up when it comes out!
Review of advance copy received from Author
These grotesque and shocking stories are full of lovely prose that reminded me of Cormac McCarthy. Fans of classic weird tales as well as shows like Black Mirror will love the storylines, the imaginative what-ifs, monstrosities, and outrageous body horror.
April 4, 2026
Short bite sized terror filled stories for those fans of Clive Barker and Lovecraft. Get to know some strange creatures and feel the fear. If you are comfortable feeling uncomfortable come on this journey.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
received a free copy of this book via Hidden Gem books and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
LIKE THE BOOK
start slow
good for Halloween
This is where I say the author gives enough information.
So, I do not give anything away.
LIKE THE BOOK
start slow
good for Halloween
This is where I say the author gives enough information.
So, I do not give anything away.
Review of advance copy
Wow what a collection of different stories which will take you on a very unexpected journey in each one. Some are best not read at night just in case you get nightmares
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and a good read
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and a good read
April 30, 2026
ARC/Goodreads Giveaway Review:
Think “Twilight Zone meets Hostel”. The short stories immediately captivate the reader. The language is eloquent and thoughtful. I highlighted many quotes while reading. Loved the surprise PA references: Wawa, Hoagies, and the Schuylkill river. For horror fans, a must read! Excited to read more from this author!!!
Think “Twilight Zone meets Hostel”. The short stories immediately captivate the reader. The language is eloquent and thoughtful. I highlighted many quotes while reading. Loved the surprise PA references: Wawa, Hoagies, and the Schuylkill river. For horror fans, a must read! Excited to read more from this author!!!
May 16, 2026
A gory collection of short stories. I really enjoyed some of them (the egg one!) but the others I either did not understand what was happening, or the endings were too open ended for me to come to any conclusion on what I was supposed to get.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This book of short stories is a must for horror fans. Very original with a sense of dark humor. Perfect for a quick horror fix.
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