Dead Connection

by Vincent V. Cava, Matt Dymerski, Nthato Morakabi

Reader beware!

The stories that lurk within the pages of this book will have you cowering under the covers in fear, praying that the shadows shifting underneath your closet door are nothing more than an optical illusion. Delve into the depraved minds of horror's newest authors in this chilling collection of tales.

Genres: Horror

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2015

About the author

Vincent V. Cava is a horror author from Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.14 stars (based on calculated average)

Dead Connection is not a collection of short horror stories. Instead, it is a collection of creepypastas. I love creepypastas - I used to listen to them for up to three hours every day. But in the end, creepypastas lack in decent characterisation and tension-build up. However, I've decided to rate the stories based on the limited set of tools a creepypasta writer has on hand.

Not Our First Mistake: 4 stars

In this story, electrical patterns of human brains allow access to higher dimensions. It's an existentialist story and one of the only stories in this anthology that offers an interesting backstory for the main character.

The Salesman: 3 stars

I'll admit that I had a soft spot for this story because it was written by an author hailing from my home country of South Africa. The only famous South African authors I know of are Wilbur Smith and J.M. Coetzee. The story is about a salesman who offers people their greatest wish - in this case our main character longs for her dead son and husband to return. The writing in this piece is absolutely brilliant, but the climax falls flat.

Picture This: 4 Stars

This is a great short story about a painter who slowly descends into madness because of his inability to receive criticism. Vincent V. Cava is the reason I bought this collection. I think that if he worked on writing full length novels he'd do a solid job.

9 lives: 2 stars

This is where the collection began falling flat for me. 9 Lives is a story about a single dad and his little girl living in a run-down apartment building. Their cat dies and gets buried but keeps reappearing as a fully-functioning, healthy and very-alvie *cough* Pet Sematary *cough*. With the continuous reappearance of the cat, bad things start to happen. Lots of people die and there's blood and everything. The writing is mediocre and the characters have as much personality as cardboard cut outs. It's not bad - it just brings nothing new to the table.

Witchwick candles: 4 stars

Once there were two men who hated each other. They hated deeply, they hated passionately, and they hated more with each passing year.

I liked this story. It's about two men - best friends - who collect occult relics. Secretly both men hate each other. They have an agreement that if one dies, the other will receive his collection. This is a story about how they oust one another 'til death to them part. It's an "I-say-dear-fellow" kind of book, but well-executed.

Swole: 1 star

This is a story about a self-conscious man who hates that he isn't muscular and obsessively goes to the gym. One day his gym partner gives him mysterious supplements from a company in China. The supplements' production has been halted and the bottle advises the user not to take more than two every other day. He takes the supplements in excess and doubles in size within a month. Turns out the supplements turn you into some kind of werewolf monster. So our main character eats people, runs from the police and roams free. Meh.

Don't Open Letters Marked BTO: 1 star

This is a story about a DJ who gets paid $2000 to perform at a party for some rich folk. He starts getting suspicious when he receives an invitation with "BTO" written on it. He thinks "oh it's just 'Black Tie Event' spelled wrong." The people at the party consist of couples of an older person with a much younger date. I mean really young. You suspect pedophilia? Well, turns out BTO stands for "blood type O" and the older people are vampires who plan to rip open the throats of their young dates. A pedophilia ring would have been much scarier. What bull sh*t.



This book is recommended for: people who like to waste time or only read the first half of books.

Edit: grammar and writing enhancements.

[Kain · Rating 4 out of 5]

As expected of Vincent V.Cava, an excellent collection of short stories, all interesting in their own way, as usual though too short of a book, I want to read much more of his stories, but thats just me... I'm greedy for his stories. My favourites in this collection are Picture This and 9 Lives, sadly I have read 9 Lives before still a great read, never fails to entertain.

[Scarlett Algee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy, but needs polish.

Overall, this collection of stories is solidly disturbing. They could, however, stand a good look from a professional proofreader, because as the collection progressed, the number of mistakes seemed to increase.

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great variety of writing style and story theme. Do yourself a favor and read this

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories

I love short stories. Horror short stories are the best. Though, there could be more. All are great. Good read.

[kozettekaysmith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed

Another disappointing book, truthfully I skipped over most of these boring stories. If you want my opinion do not waste your time or money .
kozetteksmith