Pestilence

by Jason Jordan

A boy whose skin is multiple colors. A home that freezes in the middle of summer. A pair of brothers who witness the apocalypse and attempt to fight it. A boy with four arms. A rogue wave that destroys a landlocked city. A house whose occupants experience different plagues each day. The six stories that populate this chapbook slough off the notion of reality, replacing it with an unsettling irreality that may be, upon closer inspection, the work of something sinister. What cannot be explained must still be endured. And so, let there be pestilence.Jason Jordan is in the Ph.D. program for Creative Writing at Ohio University. His books are The Dying Horse (Main Street Rag, 2012), Cloud and Other Stories (Six Gallery Press, 2010), and Powering the Devil’s Redux (Six Gallery Press, 2010). Additionally, he edits the monthly online literary magazine decomP, accessible at decompmagazine.com, and reads for the New Ohio Review. He infrequently posts on his blog, poweringthedevilscircus.blogspot.com.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2013

Reviews

[Peter Tieryas]

My review at HTMLGiant:

"Strange situations infect the stories in Jason Jordan’s Pestilence and the unusual premise of each tale blends the surreal with everyday life in a disturbingly enchanting mix."

http://htmlgiant.com/reviews/pestilen...

[Ben Spivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and entertaining read of weird stories worth revisiting.

[Christina Baker jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting collection of short stories full of unique imagination. My only wish is that there were more stories in the collection.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I loved the creativity in this collection of short stories. The reason why I gave two stars, though, is simply because I'm not a huge fan of short stories. I like a big book that I can read all day in which there's a major plot and I become attached to the characters.
However, each story was very unique and interesting. I've never read anything remotely close to them, which was good. I feel like if the author wanted, he could craft the ideas in this story into something bigger that I'd want to read.
I received a copy of this book for free through a giveaway/Goodreads First Reads.

[LittleGoblinLibrary · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting creepy stories, and that's definitely not what I got. They're just... weird. I don't know any better way to describe it. A few of the stories don't even make sense. It all seems very amateur, exactly like a college student writing for a literary magazine, except worse. I'm glad I didn't pay for this.

[Laura Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Jason Jordan--his storytelling is just about flawless. The book is beautiful, but too damn short.

[Venohe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I expected some creepy horror stories after reading the description and seeing the cover... The stories were okay to read but I expected something different.

[Vanessa Mcgee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apologies I was not too keen on these stories, they left me feeling a bit lost afterward