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After Dark: A Collection of Horror
Imagine a world where there is only the daylight to banish the darkness. And when the sun goes down, what lurks in the shadows after dark? This book of thirteen scary tales is storytelling at its finest, with monsters in the closet, boogeymen under the bed, and ghosts in the graveyard. Timeless in their style, these stories are relentless in their approach to basic fears. From dark fantasy and pure suspense to classic horror tales, this collection of twelve short stories and one novella surprises its readers with Hitchcock-style, twisted endings. So after dark, let's gather around the campfire and tell each other tales of terror. terror.
383 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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February 6, 2009After Dark: A Collection of Horror
by Jeani Rector
Publish America
Trade paperback $ 24.95
Review by Nickolas Cook
You know, being a reviewer, I get the opportunity to consider a good deal of self published material. Sadly, I see a lot of amateur consistencies in them. The editing is usually sub par, the writing lackluster, or just plain silly, and, worst of all, most are uninteresting exercises in mediocrity.
Jeani Rector's AFTER DARK: A COLLECTION OF HORROR could be the poster child for all of those wince inducing foibles. While her stories aren't so terrible one can't wade through them and get some basic measure of enjoyment, they're far from inspiring. In fact, for the most part, they're downright unoriginal, or, as stated above, just plain silly. They come off more as a young adult collection to be told around a campfire than anything a sophisticated adult reader could take seriously.
Lackluster writing and stilted writing aside, the major issue I had with AFTER DARK was Rector's heavy-handed exposition. She seems to have a penchant for taking historical events and tweaking them with horror tropes- something I have a certain passion for as a reader. But she delivers her historical exposition without subtlety. The stories read as if she were reporting 'the facts' from a textbook. She spends too much time on over detailing the history of each tale than creating interesting characters. None of the stories or characters stand out.
Since it leads the collection, and Rector, as the author, expects it'll hook the reader, I'll use "Dem Bones" as an example. The story is simple. A young student steals ancient Native American bones from a dig. He brings them home, and before you know it, inexplicably, rats attack him. The Indian's angry ghost pops up later to explain that the rats attack at his command: "I am a medicine man. I was a shaman among my people, when I was alive. I have come to take back my bones. The necklace contains big magic. It is mine, too. The rats do my bidding. I'm leaving now. But the rats will stay."
Why?
We never find out.
The author never gives us any narrative connection between the two. There is no attempt at foreshadowing, nor any other commonly used literary device. And to my knowledge, there is no major historical connection between Native Americans and rats. The simple fact is that the shaman's angry spirit comes off as a silly contrivance to get the reader to the end scene of the rats eating the man alive.
Another major problem with Rector's exposition is that her characters have the unfortunate habit of speaking aloud to give the reader back-story or their thoughts. She might as well have drawn dialogue bubbles. This is one of those amateur mistakes. It's lazy writing. There's no craft in such a delivery.
But all is not lost.
Rector includes a novella, "The Rye Witch", which uses the Salem Witch Trials as its springboard. By far, this novella shows more promise than her short stories. Perhaps because the word count allows the author to stretch out a bit and let the story do the work.
My suggestion to Jeani Rector is to get out of the way of her stories and let them walk and talk on their own. Stop shoving so many facts into them. If we want to read non-fiction, there're plenty of history textbooks from which to choose.
--Nickolas Cook
by Jeani Rector
Publish America
Trade paperback $ 24.95
Review by Nickolas Cook
You know, being a reviewer, I get the opportunity to consider a good deal of self published material. Sadly, I see a lot of amateur consistencies in them. The editing is usually sub par, the writing lackluster, or just plain silly, and, worst of all, most are uninteresting exercises in mediocrity.
Jeani Rector's AFTER DARK: A COLLECTION OF HORROR could be the poster child for all of those wince inducing foibles. While her stories aren't so terrible one can't wade through them and get some basic measure of enjoyment, they're far from inspiring. In fact, for the most part, they're downright unoriginal, or, as stated above, just plain silly. They come off more as a young adult collection to be told around a campfire than anything a sophisticated adult reader could take seriously.
Lackluster writing and stilted writing aside, the major issue I had with AFTER DARK was Rector's heavy-handed exposition. She seems to have a penchant for taking historical events and tweaking them with horror tropes- something I have a certain passion for as a reader. But she delivers her historical exposition without subtlety. The stories read as if she were reporting 'the facts' from a textbook. She spends too much time on over detailing the history of each tale than creating interesting characters. None of the stories or characters stand out.
Since it leads the collection, and Rector, as the author, expects it'll hook the reader, I'll use "Dem Bones" as an example. The story is simple. A young student steals ancient Native American bones from a dig. He brings them home, and before you know it, inexplicably, rats attack him. The Indian's angry ghost pops up later to explain that the rats attack at his command: "I am a medicine man. I was a shaman among my people, when I was alive. I have come to take back my bones. The necklace contains big magic. It is mine, too. The rats do my bidding. I'm leaving now. But the rats will stay."
Why?
We never find out.
The author never gives us any narrative connection between the two. There is no attempt at foreshadowing, nor any other commonly used literary device. And to my knowledge, there is no major historical connection between Native Americans and rats. The simple fact is that the shaman's angry spirit comes off as a silly contrivance to get the reader to the end scene of the rats eating the man alive.
Another major problem with Rector's exposition is that her characters have the unfortunate habit of speaking aloud to give the reader back-story or their thoughts. She might as well have drawn dialogue bubbles. This is one of those amateur mistakes. It's lazy writing. There's no craft in such a delivery.
But all is not lost.
Rector includes a novella, "The Rye Witch", which uses the Salem Witch Trials as its springboard. By far, this novella shows more promise than her short stories. Perhaps because the word count allows the author to stretch out a bit and let the story do the work.
My suggestion to Jeani Rector is to get out of the way of her stories and let them walk and talk on their own. Stop shoving so many facts into them. If we want to read non-fiction, there're plenty of history textbooks from which to choose.
--Nickolas Cook
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