Dreams from the Edge of Reality: 27 Frightening, Funny, and Fantastic Tales

by Phil Giunta

Meet the desperate and the devious, the tortured and the treacherous, the courageous and the corrupt.

A fugitive breaks into an old country chapel to escape from something far more terrifying than prison.
Gods and mortals unite in combat against slithering demons in famine-stricken Finland.
A man with the uncanny ability to hear death approaching acquires a haunted car with a sinister past.
Travel to Ireland where an ancient artifact regenerates severed limbs while healing old family wounds.
A boy and his dog remain loyal to one another until the bitter end... and beyond.
At a Halloween festival, a distraught young woman confronts her past traumas in a haunted corn maze.
A young couple steals away over the holidays to become engaged—until reality disintegrates around them.

And much more."Phil Giunta weaves a tapestry of real magic with these tales of darkness, hope, fear, and wonder. Dreams from the Edge of Reality takes us from the shadows of the heart to the farthest reaches of nightmare!” — Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Red Empire and Ghosts of the Void and five-time Bram Stoker Award winner

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“Lots of people write scary stories. It takes a writer like Phil Giunta to find the humanity in them. You'll never look at a ghost the same way again.” — Michael Jan Friedman, New York Times bestselling author

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“Phil Giunta’s diverse and delightful collection of stories is truly a literary smorgasbord—and you won't leave hungry.”
— Weldon Burge, author of Harvester of Sorrow

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“Dreams from the Edge of Reality presents twenty-seven "What if...?" tales spawned by the prolific imagination of Phil Giunta. Ranging from mysterious to macabre, fantastical to funny, this collection should entertain any reader with the fortitude to follow that fogbound road deep into Twilight Zone territory.” — Howard Weinstein, New York Times bestseller and author of Galloway's Gamble, winner of the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award

381 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2026

About the author

Phil Giunta’s novels include the paranormal mysteries Testing the Prisoner, By Your Side, and Like Mother, Like Daughters. His short stories appear in two dozen anthologies of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and more.

He is a multiple award-winning author and member of the Horror Writers Association, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group.

Phil is currently working on his fourth paranormal mystery novel while plotting his triumphant escape from the pressures of corporate America where he has been imprisoned for thirty years. Visit Phil’s website at www.philgiunta.com.

Find him on Facebook: @writerphilgiunta, Instagram: @phil_giunta71, and BlueSky: pgiunta.bsky.social

Reviews

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always a bit of a task to review short stories books, especially when the stories contained span a broad range of genres. This book was no different.
As a whole, I did really enjoy a vast majority of the short stories. There were, of course, a few that were relatively predictable. That's only natural. But entertaining, nonetheless.
There is nothing really groundbreaking in these stories, but again, that is to be expected. This is not a bad thing to say the least, as I did enjoy his writing style. Obviously, I cannot review this as I would a full-length novel in terms of character development or worldbuilding, but the dialogue particularly was convincing for me to continue reading.
"Dreams from the Edge of Reality" brought the reader a balanced taste of what Mr. Giunta has to offer as a writer and storyteller. There are stories of science fiction, a bit of fantasy, some thriller, and little horror elements thrown in. This collection is a melting pot of genres, and I enjoyed reading the author's creative genre experimentation. In my personal opinion, Phil Giunta shines in the science fiction and thriller themes. Not that he lacks in the other genres, but I can see that he can tell a story better in these areas. That's just my take and observation. Others may think different.
There are advertisements at the end of this book for some of his other works, and I would like to explore his full-length novels and get a fuller understanding of his writing style.
A big thank you to the author for a free copy of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review. An added bonus for signing it for me, I really appreciate that!!!

[Scott Breslove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually when I read a collection, or compilation, (or whatever you’d call a book like this) you get a few excellent stories, a few terrible stories and the rest fall somewhere in between. That was definitely not the case here! Some might have been a little more predictable than others, but every single story in this book was very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed every single one and never felt disappointed, in fact, I kept reading more and more to see what would happen next instead of closing the book and coming back to it another time, and really, that’s about the best compliment I can pay to a book.
I will definitely be searching out and reading more of Mr. Giunta’s work.