"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...
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.
Date : 22nd May 2026 Book : Infernal Tramps : Tales Of Weird Terror Author : Alex Grass Genre : Horror / Weird Fiction
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
This book was interesting! Super stoked that the author reached out and offered me a chance to read his work. I’ve already been eyeing this book for a while now on Goodreads and all over Bookstagram so it was just my lucky day!
This book is just not your normal horror book but it’s a collection of short stories that’s pretty awesome…and grotesque, might I add. Especially if you love bodily horror!🤩
I’m definitely not gonna spoil it but I’m gonna give a couple of reviews of my fav ones that I’ve read.
✨ Ever Shall They Feed : A son who tries to pull a prank on his dad to get back at him but lets just say it backfires when he kinda stumbles onto a huge and terrifying secret life his dad has been keeping.
✨ The EP Implant : (2 words - BLACK MIRROR!!!) I kid you not, this was prolly my fav one!! This one is about a wealthy woman who is completely obsessed with getting plastic surgeries and decides to get a high tech implant that she can control with an app. As you can guess, the tech glitches out and SHTF!
✨Pujkamaunka Splash : This guy has a fixation on a weird game back when he was younger but NOBODY remembers it but him. Now if you’re curious…. that just means you gotta read this!😝
This book made me feel like a kid reading short horror stories again while laying in bed before it was time to hit the sack. I loved it! I do feel some of the stories (especially in the beginning) were different due to the writing but I’m glad I caught on and found a few that I deeply enjoyed!
And the author was so kind to send a physical copy that’s on the way to the US! Thank you🥹❤️✨
Alex Grass’s writing is exquisite. It’s intelligent, crisp, provocative, and vivid, and the stories in his collection Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror are fantastic tales to thrill your mind and chill your bones. Grass weaves subtext so integrally one might not realize at first why such twisted fictions can seem so real and disturbing.
There is not a story in here I didn’t like, but among those I was particularly struck by is the first story, “The Tezcat Apparatus.” This is a short, quick, bizarre little read with incredibly disturbing subtext regarding automation of home systems, and the ending absolutely floored me with its implications.
The fifth story, “A Woman of Distinction,” is a flash fiction piece that is expertly, brilliantly, and impactfully written in second person POV, and I loved it. It is such a good read and so well done I honestly wanted to stand up and applaud both story and author, which I did do mentally. Then I read it again so I could enjoy the experience again. And even the second time, the final line of the story (no spoilers) brought things together so perfectly my reaction was verbal and audible.
The twelfth story, “In a New World, Its Basement,” is also a flash fiction piece. It’s a powerful transgressive tale reflecting how the healthcare industry in particular, and probably the industries of things we need in general, affects our lives and can enslave us to debt. The reality within the surrealness is so ultimately horrifying it tightened both my head and chest.
Infernal Tramps is an eclectic collection of dark and weird tales, 17 stories in all, varying in subgenre leaning, subject matter, and perspective. I could wax eloquent (per se) at length about each if time and space permitted. I will say I was impressed by the author’s use of story endings to either tie up elements of a complex tale or change your perspective on what appeared to be a straightforward one. A few were even clearly written to make the reader think, consider the continuity, the mystery, or even personal perspective of the subtext.
But as I said, I could go on and on here. Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror is not light reading. It’s a sophisticated collection for readers wanting dark stories of substance that stimulate the mind and clench the gut. This is a shelf-worthy book and a fantastic reading experience I cannot recommend enough (obviously).
These stories read like Twilight Zone episodes: very creative and strange.
That being said. Maybe it’s the overly complicated storytelling or perhaps it’s the path of which they take, but most of them unfortunately left me disappointed. The concepts are there. The plots are there. The creativity is there. Whether it be a woman killing her victims to stay young, a woman addicted to plastic surgery willing to try the latest phenomenon or a story about a prison, I appreciated the imaginative worlds created.
I enjoyed the variety of stories. I enjoyed the creativity and the overall plots of most the stories as well. But it just felt too literary, too wordy, too hard and just plain too much work to translate and keep up. It was hard to get immersed in the stories when I was too busy using my brain to break down sentences. Make sure you have a thesaurus and/or dictionary handy. There are moments of brilliant writing and moments of confusion. But maybe that’s just me. Everyone is different and perhaps you would enjoy this more than I did! Like I said, the creativity is abundant. I want to thank the author for reaching out and providing me a copy of his book.
Reviews for each story below:
The Tezcat Apparatus - 4 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Infernal Tramps - 13 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rats - 2 pages - ⭐️⭐️
Pujkamaunka Splash - 10 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Woman of Distinction - 3 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Odd Eggs - 11 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Vixenly Hexer - 4 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Meeting Ivor Voelman - 23 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The EM Plant - 12 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
The Black Gaucho of Revendication - 5 pages - ⭐️⭐️
The Golden Mile - 21 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
In a New World, Its Basement - 5 pages - ⭐️⭐️💫
Ever Shall They Feed - 15 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Eguisto Zanosi’s Fast - 9 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If Promises Were Meant to Keep - 20 pages - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Dickinson Publishing Group for the advanced copy. First, the highlights: Punjkamaunka Splash - utilizes my beloved lost media trope and contains some truly disturbing imagery; The Black Gaucho of Revendication is a concise post-apocalyptic tale; The Golden Mile, which was chosen for publication in Macabre Magazine, is the best “weird terror” yet in this volume; In a New World, Its Basement delivers on the mysterious enigma of its title, short but intriguing; Finding Erland ends the collection on a high note, and is one of the only stories with female protagonists.
The Tezcat Apparatus had potential but was too short to be fleshed out. Odd Egg stands out for being just plain weird at least, likewise for Boxed Breakfast (another super short one). Igor Voelman was okay. Interesting enough concept but the purple prose and untranslated … Afrikaans? were off putting. Several stories use untranslated bits but at least in some of them you can figure it out from context, while others like this and the title story, Infernal Tramps (German), are just confusing.
Most of the stories are just mediocre. The EP Implant and Ever Shall They Feed were my least favorites. The latter, plus some lines in other stories, give the impression that Grass sees fat womens’ bodies as great sources of grotesquerie, though Finding Erland is perhaps an exception. Many of the stories are narrated by nasty men so there’s plenty of misogynist language to be found throughout.
4 ⭐️ the title ‘takes of weird terror’ stands true! These stories were horrific, dark, disturbing, mind boggling and some of them were unforgettable! If you’re looking for a weird horror collection of short stories to add to your spooky TBR then I can say without a doubt the tales in this book will give you the heebie jeebies 🤭
I wanted to like this, but it just wasn't for me. I'm not sure if it was the writer's style or the abrupt end to every short story, but it fell flat.
The writer does an amazing job of painting a horrifically vivid picture, but he seems to struggle with conclusions. It's a shame, it has a lot of promise.
”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.
Step into Alex Grass's world of fresh terror filled with a dimension of blood and consequences. Once you crack open this collection of short stories and dark tales you won't be able to look away. This is a good collection of short stories. The writing is unique and I think that there is definitely a story for everyone in this book. The additions of the illustrations before each story are an added bonus that I really enjoyed. While I did enjoy this collection, I do think that some of the stories went right over my head. For this being a collection of short stories, the author places a lot of contexts that aren’t needed into the stories instead of strictly sticking with one main focal point of each story, making the stories seem a bit discombobulated or even confusing at times. While the author’s writing is unique and impressive at times, I sometimes felt like the author was attempting to use as many large worse as possible, some of them didn’t even need to be included in the story itself at times. The stories I seemed to enjoy the most were the stories that were just that, straight forward horror stories that had a plot and left me craving more. While I was craving more simplistic horror stories, I do think this is an overall good collection. I will say that each story is unique in its own way and is something that I’ve never read before in other collections. I appreciated the various lengths of the stories as well. While there were some stories that I didn’t mesh with I had my favorites such as: A woman of distinction, Odd, Ever shall they feed, Eguisto Zanosis fast, and my overall favorite being Finding Erland. You should definitely give this one a go if you’re in the mood for unique and creative stories that will make your imagination run wild while also expanding your own vocabulary.
Infernal Tramps is a collection of weird, grotesque horror that did not work consistently for me. But when it did work? It was gloriously unhinged.
My standouts: “The EP™ Implant” turns cosmetic enhancement into body horror with an app-controlled butt implant that is much more alive (and much hungrier) than expected. Butt gremlins. We have butt gremlins, people.
“Odd Egg” confirms an important life lesson: never accept mysterious eggs from strange men.
“Pujkamunka Splash” delivers nostalgic video-game horror about remembering something no one else seems to believe existed. I loved its liminality.
And “A Woman of Distinction” is a short, viciously funny lesson in what may happen when a man forgets how to behave like a gentleman.
This collection should work best for readers who enjoy body horror, pulpy excess, eldritch horror, dark humor, nasty little twists, and ordinary situations that spiral into something grotesque.
Readers looking for more emotionally grounded or subtle horror may connect less with this collection. But if “butt gremlins” made you curious, this might be exactly your kind of weird.
Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass Publication Date: July 15, 2026 4.5
There's something incredibly nostalgic about a good collection of horror short stories. They remind me of my grandpa, who loved telling us creepy, unsettling, and wonderfully odd stories when I was growing up. Infernal Tramps gave me that same feeling, and because of that, I enjoyed this collection even more. Each story felt like stepping into a strange world somewhere between Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone. Some left me unsettled, others had me questioning reality, and all of them carried an eerie atmosphere.
A few of my favorite stories were: Eguisto Zanios Fast In A New World, It's Basement A Woman of Distinction Infernal Tramps The Odd Egg
Truthfully, I enjoyed the entire collection, those were simply the ones that stood out the most..
I also have to mention the artwork throughout the book. It's unique, haunting, and perfectly complements the unsettling tone of the stories, making the entire reading experience even more immersive. If you enjoy horror anthologies, weird fiction, or stories that leave you feeling uncomfortable, I'd definitely recommend picking this one up.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an advanced copy. I absolutely love it.
First of all, I would like to thank Alex Grass for the advanced reading copy. I’m always grateful to read an indie author!
I appreciate the author’s prose and what he was trying to do within each of his short stories. For me personally, I felt a little lost at times because I was trying to sort through the prose to get to the point of the story.
I really love that Grass added a statement against AI at the end. Readers can know and trust they’re reading an original work! Thanks again Alex.
If I'd read this ten years earlier, I'd be ecstatic: the unsettling imagery, the precious turns of phrase, and the downright bizarre premises of the stories make going through the book a unique reading experience. But in the meantime I've read Tremblay, Langan, Gene Wolfe, Maria Enriques, and Lucius Shepard - masters of the genre the author of this collection is trying to fit in, and it proved impossible to enjoy his stories when comparing them to the source. The premises felt uninspired, the body horror unoriginal, and the language lacking focus and cohesion. Ambiguity and weirdness can work together to produce magical and uncanny narratives full of energy and substance, but in this case they are often in conflict, making the writing style difficult to parse, and the endings tepid and unclear. I spent most of the time ignoring the ambiguities in order to appreciate the weirdness, and vice versa. It was exhausting- almost like reading poetry, which, TBH, I dislike. It felt too experimental and lyrical in all the places it just shouldn't. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this.
As with most collections, I found that there was a portion of these stories, mostly in the first half, that didn’t really land for me. These stories tended to feel like flash fiction to me, and without them having context around them I didn’t connect with them.
But - the second half of the collection was almost all bangers with some swell cosmic horror and some really great writing.
I liked this anthology a lot. I'm a big fan of weird horror, and I liked a lot of the short stories. There was a lot of good twists that I wasn't expecting.
Infernal Tramps is one of the weirdest horror novels I’ve read, and I mean that as a compliment. The individual stories, mythology, and dark humor were exactly what I wanted. There are moments in this book that are genuinely bizarre, unsettling, and unforgettable.
My biggest hurdle wasn’t the story—it was the prose.
I constantly felt like I had to work for the narrative. The writing is dense, literary, and often so poetic that I found myself stopping to decipher paragraphs instead of racing to see what happened next. I even found myself translating German and looking up references just to make sure I understood what I was reading.
Ironically, every time I figured out what a chapter was actually saying, I loved it. The ideas weren’t the problem. The presentation was.
I read because I enjoy getting swept up in a story. I want the pages to disappear. Infernal Tramps rarely let me do that. Instead, it asked me to slow down, analyze, and unpack almost everything.
I don’t think that’s a flaw for everyone. Readers who love dense literary horror will probably have a completely different experience. For me, though, I couldn’t help feeling that the incredible stories underneath would’ve been even stronger if the prose trusted them a little more.
I’m glad I read it, and there are scenes I’ll remember for a long time. I just wish getting to them hadn’t felt like homework.
Thank you to the author for supplying the physical ARC in exchange for an honest 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!!!
Pennsylvania-based author Alex Grass recently contacted me and generously offered to send me an honest-to-goodness print version of his latest work for review, a short story anthology of weird fiction titled Infernal Tramps. This appears to be Alex’s fifth book, and was published very recently, in mid-July of 2026.
Comprised of tales of varying lengths (including some flash fiction and short vignettes), Infernal Tramps is categorized as weird terror, mixing body horror, creature features, sci-fi-tinged dread, and a strong undercurrent of esoteric, almost alchemical unease. Less like standard horror stories and more like slow-burn, sometimes apocalyptic nightmares, the book isn’t for everyone (as nothing is), but it should appeal specifically to fans of Thomas Ligotti, early Clive Barker, Brian Evenson, or Eric LaRocca, so if you’re on that wavelength, then you will probably love this.
I will say from the jump that Alex Grass has a real gift for visceral, tactile prose that makes the grotesque feel intimate and inescapable. You can practically smell the rot, feel the slime, and hear the wet sounds of transformation. The overarching feel of all the tales prioritize atmosphere, moral decay, and that queasy feeling that the world is fundamentally wrong in some way, often leaving things vague or open to interpretation.
The stories often center characters who are already on the margins, like desperate drifters or lonely misanthropes, and then drops them into situations where the monstrous isn’t just external; it’s growing inside them or already wearing their face. The ambiguity and almost eschatological vibe of most of these stories also reminded me of another short story collection I reviewed a while back, 2022’s Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas, now that I’m thinking about it.
The opening piece, “The Tezcat Apparatus,” is very short but throws you into this bizarre world right away, and actually ended up being one of my favorite stories in the bunch. We have a folksy old blind salesman (or is he?) showing up at a presumably rural man’s home with the titular device, a pest control thingamabob which will supposedly stop all the local critters from munching on the vegetables in the garden. The salesman, whose appearance subtly changes over the course of the story, offers to install the apparatus for free as part of a “test program.” The device seems to do what’s advertised, but the first weekly maintenance visit reveals something far more sinister is going on, the details of which are hinted at but largely left to the reader’s imagination. The whole feel of this one really appealed to me, and got me invested in the book right away.
“Pujkamaunka Splash” is another highlight, being a nostalgic, creeping story about a kid in 1993 obsessed with a supposedly legendary video game that no one else seems to remember. The kid is taken by his grandfather to stand in line to buy this game when it’s released, but the story very quickly curdles into something much darker involving a wishing well, pit bulls, possible murder and dismemberment, and a sense that memory itself might be the unreliable narrator. It had an appealing lost-media creepypasta energy but was executed with far more literary bite and emotional weight.
The title story, “Infernal Tramps,” was also a standout, a longer work revolving around reclusive, whiskey-soaked bum living near abandoned railroad tracks who witnesses a phantom caboose materialize out of the mist. From it emerges a towering, hunchbacked mother creature who drops off a grotesque infant with an oversized mannequin-like head and a collagen exoskeleton. The lonely and strangely compassionate drifter, for whatever reason, feels compelled to essentially adopt the “baby” and tries to raise it. It soon transpires that there are more of these infants out there, who soon grow into carrion-eating adults, speak German to one another, and may have likewise been dropped off the phantom train to be raised by others on the margins of society.
I also need to mention “Meeting Ivor Voëlman,” a meta horror story with strong In the Mouth of Madness vibes. The narrator (later revealed to be named Dennis Hurston) is a horror enthusiast. His friend Zola brings him a rare, limited-edition hardback of the 1970s horror magazine Whispers (a Fritz Leiber double issue). Hidden inside is a phone number. When the narrator calls it, a man’s voice quotes a bleak, nihilistic line: “It is good to be a cynic—it is better to be a contented cat—and it is best not to exist at all.”
Shortly after, an envelope appears at his door containing an invitation from the reclusive, legendary horror author Ivor Voëlman, along with first-class plane tickets to Palm Beach. Despite Zola’s initial hesitation, they fly to Florida the next day. Strange shit starts on the plane immediately, including the flight attendants being different every time one passes and Zola drooling a black, ink-like substance in her sleep; once they land, the eccentric driver who picks them up rants incoherently about flesh, blood, “strings in the guts,” and field-dressing deer. Shortly after arriving at an opulent resort, Zola is taken away to parts unknown while Dennis is ushered into a meeting with Ivor Voëlman himself, who soon reveals a horror about Dennis that he was in no way expecting.
My favorite story in the book, though, had to be “Odd Egg,” another relatively short one that hit just the right balance of weird, funny, kind of gross, and batshit insane. It’s told from the first-person POV of a seemingly normal woman named Maryellen who answers her door one day to find a strange man with an elongated, egg-shaped head named Roger waiting on her porch.
Roger claims to represent the Keystone Co-operative Growers Association (KCGA) and presents her with a carton of “farm-fresh, cruelty-free” eggs as a community service. His sales pitch quickly turns cult-like and unhinged: he speaks of a god living inside the eggs, the coming “Time of the Egg,” how the eggs will feed the sick and poor, the “Many Heads,” and a future in which the world’s flags will be “blooded” and everything dead will be reborn. After his pitch, he sprints into the woods.
Maryellen is creeped out (as you would be) and initially decides not to eat the eggs, probably a wide decision. The next morning, however, they are the only food in her fridge. When she tries to cook them, eleven of the eggs are mysteriously empty despite feeling full. The twelfth hatches a small, egg-shaped human head with six spindly legs (three on each side). The tiny creature sizzles in the pan, makes baby-like cries, and dies after she flips it onto the counter.
Shaken, she drinks and smokes on the porch. When she returns to the kitchen, the creature has vanished, only to be replaced by a much larger grapefruit-sized egg. As you can imagine, the situation does not improve from there. I legit loved this one; it was so bizarre and like many of the stories, hinted at much larger things without spelling everything out, but still remained somewhat grounded.
As I mentioned, this type of weird fiction is an acquired taste for sure, but if you dig the authors I mentioned above, and maybe even a few other ones like Nathan Ballingrud, Michael Cisco, or Agustina Bazterrica, then I suspect this would be in your wheelhouse; it’s somewhat cryptic and inscrutable, but also quite revoltingly tangible and grisly at the same time, if that makes any sense. Many thanks to Alex Grass for sending me the print book; it’s a great collection of peculiar tales that are likely going to stick with me for a long while.
Until next time, keep it creepy, my friends.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I am usually a big fan of the horror genre, I would dare say that it is one of my favorite genres, but this was a struggle for me to get through. I received an ARC copy of this book and figured that it would be right up my alley, and there were a couple stories in it that I did really like (A Woman of Distinction' and 'In a New World, Its Basement'). There was a few times when some of the jumps in a story lost me until I reread a previous paragraph, but my main problem with the book was honestly how many times I got taken out of the stories by having to look up what a word meant, or translate a foreign phrase. Grass goes into great details on the descriptions, which can be nice but the word choice for me honestly made it feel like I was too dumb for this book and came off in some instances as too wordy. As for translations of foreign phrases, if it is in there I assume it is important to the plot and if I have to step away to translation it or struggle to figure out what it means by context clues, then I am no longer in the story.
With all that said though, the stories written definitely give a sense of the uncomfortable even if not terrifying. While it was not my cup of tea, I can see fans of The Twilight Zone or Beyond Fact and Fiction liking it.
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.
Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror By Alex Grass Publisher: Dickinson Publishing Group Published Date: July 15, 2026 ASIN: B0GSN4BX4Y Page Count: 207
Triggers: Gore, body horror, medical horror, rats, death, violence, disturbing imagery, poison, surgical horror, unsettling creatures, dark humor, weird fiction chaos
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Skull Dread Rating: 💀💀💀
What Did I Just Walk Into?
I opened this book expecting weird horror and immediately realized I had not emotionally prepared for the level of “what in the haunted carnival basement is happening here” that was waiting for me.
Infernal Tramps is a collection of strange, nasty, unsettling short stories that do not politely knock on the door. They kick it in, leave something wet on the floor, and then ask if you are comfortable. No. I was not. Thank you for asking.
This is the kind of horror collection that feels like it was grown in a petri dish labeled “bad ideas with excellent execution.” There are cursed situations, disturbing bodies, grotesque surprises, bizarre creatures, and enough “absolutely not” moments to make me question why I enjoy this genre. Then I remembered I do, in fact, enjoy being personally attacked by fiction, so here we are.
Here’s What Slapped:
The variety in this collection is what makes it work so well. Each story brings its own flavor of nightmare, and none of them feel like they are politely trying to be normal. We get strange objects, creepy transformations, horrifying consequences, medical nightmares, unsettling family secrets, bizarre punishments, and rats. Unfortunately, yes, rats. My soul filed a complaint.
The stories are quick to read, but they do not feel empty. Mr. Grass has a strong imagination and clearly enjoys taking a simple idea and asking, “How can I make this worse?” Then he answers himself repeatedly and with enthusiasm. Respectfully, sir, who hurt you, and also please continue.
I also loved that the collection does not stay in one lane. Some stories are disgusting in the best horror way. Some are more eerie and strange. Some feel darkly funny, like the universe is laughing right before it pushes someone down the stairs. That mix kept me turning pages because I never knew what kind of nonsense was coming next.
The writing has a literary edge without losing the horror. It can be sharp, strange, and a little fancy in places, but it still knows how to land the creepy parts. This is not plain mashed-potato horror. This is the weird dish at the table that you side-eye, taste anyway, and then keep eating while wondering if it is legal.
What Could’ve Been Better:
As with most anthologies, some stories grabbed me harder than others. A few felt like they could have expanded a little more, because the concepts were so interesting that I wanted to dig around in them longer. That may just be me being greedy, but I said what I said.
There were also a few moments where the prose got a little dressed up for the occasion. Readers who like clean, direct horror may have to adjust to the style. Personally, I did not mind it, but now and then I did feel like the book handed me a dictionary and whispered, “Keep up.”
Still, these were small things compared to how much fun I had with the collection. And by fun, I mean the horror-reader version of fun, where everything is awful and we are somehow delighted.
Perfect for Readers Who Love:
Weird horror, body horror, grotesque short stories, dark and twisted anthologies, strange creatures, cursed objects, medical horror, unsettling endings, cosmic horror, literary horror, Clive Barker vibes, old-school creepy story collections, and books that make you pause and say, “I need an adult,” even though you are the adult.
These stories lean into the “weird” of the subtitle in a genuine way. Weird horror is its own subgenre and most of these stories embrace that sensibility, not that they’re nonsensical or surreal but they have a tone of being detached, just so slightly skewed away from normality, and not interesting in explaining what unseen forces mediate their alignment. That said, not all the stories hit the mark for me. Each of the seventeen stories had an interesting central premise but in the weird, kind of obtuse approach some of the stories just felt underserved. Many of the stories felt a bit overwritten, with exhaustive vocabulary words that did not add to the story or the experience, nor were they genuinely reflective of the narrator in the story. I like lush and dense writing and am a fan of combining a multisyllabic vocabulary with horror, but by and large it just leant an artificial taste to these stories, further detaching them from an emotional reading experience. Similarly, a number of stories had sections in foreign languages that went untranslated (and not always the same foreign language), and while I can appreciate that as a narrative and storytelling technique this collection did not feel nearly robust enough for it to be leaned on so frequently that I took note of it.
That said, there are some gems in this collection, and it was fun to read. The stories vary in length, from ~1,000-word, practically flash pieces to ~7,500-word stories with multiple character POVs. To be honest I most enjoyed the stories on either end of that spectrum, The shortest stories get in there and get the job done quick and efficiently, leaving you grinning and enjoying the ride, not missing the sense of character depth or interiority because the characters and world fit the needs of the story perfectly. The longer stories actually give the author some time to give a little more context and not just wander in the observational hinterlands that the medium length stories felt a little mired in. It is part and parcel with the subgenre but most of these stories are written in this style that doesn’t want you to experience deep connection but instead wants you to observe, maybe gawk, maybe scratch your head. None of the stories drag or feel overly long. The collection doesn’t have a singular theme, but the style and tone of the stories is similar enough that even with the diversity of ideas and topics they do feel like they’re circling the same well. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you don’t read collections front to back as if they were a novel but instead take your time and read them between other things, but it is something that was noticeable by the end (ironically the final story being the most dissimilar in turns of style and tone, and one of my favorites in the collection).
Infernal Tramps tales of Weird Terror is our first introduction to the work of Alex Grass. As fans of all things Weird Fiction, we found this small volume an instant page turner. “The Apparatus” opens the door into Grass’ bizarre landscape as a strange door-to-door salesman details a new device to a customer. The door never closes as we are drawn further and further into Grass' panorama of twisted tales, each lush with unexpected prose, redolent with elements of Clive Barker, Margaret Atwood, and a smattering of Ray Bradbury.
Grass does not offer usual tropes of haunted houses, but settings we may know and take for granted. Like Barker and Atwood, Grass takes obscene, often grotesque characters, and settings to new heights of comprehension through illustrative language. The result being a hold on the reader to take it all in as a bloody eye-opening tapestry.
The title story “Infernal Tramps,” takes place at a railyard of which terrifying beings emerge from the caboose of a train. This reviewer once had life changing experiences during 6 months of riding the rails in the 90's of which this story triggered flashbacks. The experiences were not as horrific as described in this tale, yet I was absorbed in the story each step of the way. Such is the case of Grass' monstrous tales, each are attractive and terrifyingly alluring.
Who has gone to the mall and waited on line for the release of a video game? Never shall that experience be the same again. Nor will plastic surgery for those who seek major body modification. Little did I know that Lovecraft's “The Rats in the Walls,” was only the beginning with Grass' own tale “Rats,” which you will not be able to turn away from. Even shorter tales, “Woman of Distinction” leave distorted echoes that sit with the reader after closing the volume.
In reading Infernal Tramps there are reverberations of others, such as linguistic eloquence of Wilum Pugmire, or the horrors of Barker & Lovecraft, or an Atwood style; but this work is wholly its own. Tramps not only lives up to the heights of Weird Terror, but it can also shudder your mind to its maddening end.
Goodness, when he said "Weird terror" he meant it!
This collection is such a crazy ride-I found myself just devouring each story so quickly and was left sitting and pondering about what the hell I had just read (in the best way).
I hate to draw comparisons because they're very different in so many ways, but it was like when I was younger me reading Stephen King's short story collections. Just in the way that I couldn't even fathom the mind that could come up with some of these crazy ideas and make me sit and contemplate the story I'd just consumed.
Alex Grass's narrative voice for each story is so unique, they don't all read similar at all, allowing each story to have a distinctive personality and perspective. My only drawback is that on occasion, the story would be so off the wall and the language so weird and flowery that it was a bit over my head. This is in no way a criticism, I believe it's intentional to flesh out the characters, for example, in one story about a homeless man and a train-his language gave me an idea of the man behind the narration. It's a genius way to tell us more about who he is just by his dialect and wording choices.
For me though, I did at times find myself going "Am I not intelligent enough for this?" but I think it's just how wacky and fun these stories are, it's always good to stop and have to think about what you're taking in. Going from one story with this insane prose and language, then the next having it switch out for a different way of speaking entirely was such a wonderful contrast.
I think this collection truly showcases this author's ability to really demonstrate an almost chameleon like writing style. It definitely makes me want to explore more works by him.
Overall, an insanely bizarre and enjoyable experience and I would give this a 4.5!
I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I received an ARC copy of this book, and I was eager to get into it. It felt like it was recalling the short story collections I read in Junior High and appealed to my nostalgic desire to curl up with a book of strange horror shorts.
The stories aren’t interconnected, nor do they necessarily stay in the same genre throughout. While this is a bold approach and could provide a novel and engaging reading experience, it felt uneven and stilted overall.
The writing is evocative, extensively descriptive, and thoughtful. However, in some spots, the pacing slowed under the weight of lengthy passages and abstract ideas. Weird fiction naturally leaves room for interpretation, which I generally enjoy, but a few stories went beyond this to the point that they lost some of their emotional resonance. I understood what Grass was trying to accomplish, but it just didn’t hit. Because of this, the overall impact wasn’t as consistent as I’d hoped.
Once of ‘Infernal Tramps’ greatest strengths is its originality. It’s refreshing to read horror that trusts the reader to sit with discomfort and uncertainty. The atmosphere is rich, the concepts are imaginative, and there are amazing stories to be found within the collection.
For me, a five-star version of this collection would have benefitted from a cohesive theme and/or greater consistency across the stories. Tighter pacing in some pieces, and a clearer emotional anchor would have made the more experimental elements land with greater force. Also some stories could have used a bit more narrative payoff to balance the ambiguity.
Overall, this is a solid collection for readers who enjoy literary weird horror, surreal imagery, and stories that prioritize prose and atmosphere. Even though it didn’t completely connect with me, I can see the potential there.
Firstly I am going to start this by saying that I really adore the way Alex Grass writes, its poetic, its full of descriptive words that give such short stories a lot of life and I feel that this makes this collection of tales of weird terror really stand out. They are weird, I like that, I am a weird person, we fit together well. 🤣 They hit that macabre poetic nerve that tickles my brain when it comes to wording and story, and gives way to my imagination. That is something I love about reading.
This book has some stand out short stories, one of them being the titular Infernal Tramps, I loved how this story doesn’t really tell you what the creatures are. It describes them, it gives you, the reader, the grotesque imagery to imagine that yourself. In simple terms, its very artistically done and it really works. Another favourite of mine is A Woman Of Distinction – we don’t get much story about the lady who is talking to us, just that we are her next victim, but you feel her rage, her pent up anger at the world around her, all in 3 pages and god did I want to know more about her and read her story. I feel this story has real potential to become more than just a few pages and become something explosive, but that’s the beauty of a short story that doesn’t tell you much.. it keeps its secrets and it leads us to our own conclusions. You will find this a lot in many of the stories in this book, and as someone who’s brain always fills in the blanks, it works well and often leads you to that over-imaginative space that breeds nightmares. We see a lot of gore, gutts and nerve-wracking plott points in this book that will no doubt leave you keeping the lamp on at night. Alex Grass goes full hog and boy, did I enjoy it.
Infernal Tramps is released July 15th and is available now to preorder through amazon. Thank you so much to Alex Grass for sending me a physical ARC copy of this, I truly enjoyed it. 👏
Alright, this one's for the weirdos! This is a short story collection filled with strange, nightmarish, grotesque, and macabre stories. Some will gross you out and some may make you scratch your head wondering what in the hell did you just read. While not everyone will enjoy Alex's writing style, and while I admit at times the language felt a tad overwrought for me when the prose seemed valued over plot or story, Alex has a poetic and descriptive way of writing that my brain absolutely loves which gives way to my imagination. Some stories were certainly more digestible than others where I found myself trying to decipher what was going on or what was trying to be said. Not every story will quite hit the mark and some feel more like fragmented nightmares rather than fully realized narratives. He certainly shines more in the stories that are more expanded upon, but even some of the ones that felt more like bits and pieces pulled from a fever dream had me curious. You can tell Alex has a rich imagination filled with unique atmospheric tales of terror that create an unsettling distortion of reality and being. The body horror and cosmic dread you will find in these pages is grotesquely superb and I loved every bit of it.
Favorite Stories: *Meeting Ivor Voëlman *Ever Shall They Feed *The EP^TM Implant *If Promises Were Meant to Keep *Finding Erland *A Woman of Distinction *Odd Egg *Pujkamaunja Splash
If you like: • Experimental and offbeat weird short fiction • Body horror • Cosmic horror • Ontological horror • Unique concept-driven horror • Poetic prose • Fragmented nightmare logic • Unusual and disorienting narrative choices • Ambiguity
Thank you SO much to the author, Alex Grass, for gifting me an ARC copy of this collection in exchange for an honest review. This book was published on July 15th so go ahead and pick this one up if it intrigues you!
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.