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Kensington Gore's Hammered Horror: 6 Doorways To Disturbance
As we proceed through life’s journey we come across closed doorways beckoning us to enter unknown realms. Journey through 6 Doorways to Disturbance to discover what happened to those who opened doors that lead along a pathway they wish they never started.
Dare you open a doorway to disturbance?
A collection of six disturbing novellas by Darla Hogan, writer of acclaimed short story collection Demise & Other Macabre Endings?
Dare you open a doorway to disturbance?
A collection of six disturbing novellas by Darla Hogan, writer of acclaimed short story collection Demise & Other Macabre Endings?
- GenresHorror
186 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 5, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2016
Review of Darla Hogan’s
6 Doorways to Disturbance
The first story: The Pen and Publisher
Get ready for a meticulously masterful adventure in torture inspired by the master himself, Edger Allen Poe.
Ken Groat, is a publisher who has lost his money making the author and is scrapping to get by. Now, you may have a moment of pity for this poor soul until you find out takes author works sent to him, tells the author that he is not interested, and revises the work to publish as his own—that is bound to catch up with a person.
Mr. Groat is sent a partially finished book he knows is his money maker, but the author has left no way to for Groat to respond to him. He’s up nights wondering how he can find the author of this magnificent piece—the dollar signs are shining in all their glory.
Through some intricate clues left by the author, Groat is led to this talented, but a strange author, Harley Evans. Harley is independently wealthy, but his world was ripped from him when the only woman he’d ever loved left him in his younger year. Her cold-hearted departure began Mr. Evans’ wondrous journey to his unique way of inspiration for writing.
With his one and only true love’s act, she destroyed the man he once was. He was left an emotionless vessel of a man; he plunged himself into his greatest creation, a novel.
He was inspired by Mr. Poe’s writing, that scared and intrigued him when he was younger. But Mr. Poe’s writings were the foundation for the inspiration Evans’ needed to create his masterpiece.
This story is prodigious; the writing is masterful. The author will take you into a world that is both, forbiddingly captivating and frightening. However, you’ll find can’t stop—you can’t wait to find out what will happen next.
If I could give this story more than 5 stars, I would. A nefariously, beautiful piece of writing.
Review of Darla Hogan’s
6 Doorways to Disturbance:
(Second story) The Collector
There are those of us who are fanatical even borderline OCD about the items that we collect. Even if they mean nothing to the rest of the world, those trinkets are our personal treasures and we have our own special routine for those items. We treasure them, protect them, admire them, and relish the thought if anything ever happened to them—these are an unbreakable bond between us and those items.
That bond of collecting inanimate objects is no different for Ernest Benjamin Thompson though his items are antique, rare, and worth a fortune.
Mr. Thompson has made a fortune with an old theater he bought with inheritance. He turned the old theater into a pawn shop. He made it through the financial crises that came and went throughout the years. Also, Mr. Thompson was able to purchase a mansion for considerably less than it was worth due to the financial incline in the area. It had been his boyhood dream to buy this mansion called the Granite Lodge. He gets the home for steel; well below its true market value. In buying this place he also inherited secrets it holds. It's those secrets that will bring chills to the reader.
The story is well written and, once again, effortlessly pulls the reader into the main characters world. If you’re a horror fanatic or just a reader who loves a good story, this book is proving to be one you should indulge.
Review of Darla Hogan’s
6 Doorways to Disturbance
(Third Story)Fellside House
This is the third story in this book, and it did not let me down. I’m loving each story I read more than the last and finding the author seamlessly pulling me into another imaginative horror.
Do you believe in haunted houses? No, how about a home that is cursed? Well, this story may change your think or, at least, open it up to the possibility that strange things happen in this world that cannot be explained away by science.
Jayne and John Dexter have just found that their lives are about to change when John secures a job as the new Head of English at Kirkby Landhome School. They are both excited about the modification. They will be out of the city of London; heading for the small Kirkby Landholme to inspect the town. Their hopes are to possibly find a home they can afford to by. They find the people of the town delightful and, with their help, find a home they fell in love with in the village of Hardton; not too far from Kirkby Landholme.
The home named the Fellside House; they are told a disturbing history and people have gone miss or have been found dead. But more disturbing is the story that no child has lived to be twenty born in that house. The happy couple pushes the idea of a haunted home out of their minds; after all, it is a foolish notion, right?
Their dreams are made complete when Jayne announces not too long after the move that she is with child. However, this is also when their horror begins.
I would say more, but you’ll have to find out how this brilliantly written perplexing story progresses yourself.
Review of Darla Hogan’s 6 Doorways To Disturbance:
(4th story) The Fairy Garden
Have you ever heard the expression: some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best of intentions? Well, this is a story which is the very essence of that particular phrase.
Professor Peterson, while he was alive, dabbled into the science of how in colonies of insects could wipe out species that cause sickness, such as rodents. His work in the science of insects has saved lives. But Professor Peterson had taken his work further. He began breeding different species of insects to create a stronger, larger breed to eradicate weaker disease-carrying species. He went further than anyone imagined—before he realized what he had actually done.
When a reporter’s bones are found at Grassmere Manor, the professor’s home, after going out to investigate a picture take by some girls; Josh and Sara out to the Manor to find out what happened. What they find…well, I’ll be having nightmares about it for a long time.
Creepy and imaginative are the words that come to mind when I read this story. Darla has mastered the art of writing to ignite a person's fear. If your have Entomophobia (fear of insects), you may not want to read this alone.
Review of Darla Hogan’s 6 Doorways to Disturbance:
(5th story) Black Rose
Can a wrong doing of the past come back to collect? Well, it’s been seventy years since the disappearance of a young girl named Rose Hayrettin. No one ever knew what had happened to her, but John Dutton and his neighbor Dave are about to find out.
John Dutton’s wife died suddenly; he is now alone. He has a son, but his son has his own life. It would be sad but John has his garden, and it is what makes him happy.
For the last forty-one years, his neighbor Dave’s roses have won the FETE and John has always been a close second but this year will be different. He stops a little nursery he spotted before his wife had died and the man gives him eight experimental rose bushes of a hybrid of the Halfeti Rose. The Nursery own give John the plants under the contrition that John records each process he does with the plants and informs the man if the plant produces a pure black rose. John hopes for the purest of black petals to be produced to win the fete this year.
However John’s hand get hurt during his care of his roses, and he hires a gypsy girl by the name of Rose to care for his roses until they heal. This is where the past comes back to haunt, and the girl is a part of it. You’ll have to read the story to find out exactly what happens.
I loved this story. It’s well written and leaves the reader with the sense of redemption.
Review of Darla Hogan’s 6 Doorways to Disturbance:
(6th story) My Lady
For every decision, we make in life there are many others we could have made leading to different outcomes—good or bad. For every desire, we have there multiple others that we could feel. However, some are more compelling calling us to them. For every action, we perform there is an equal and opposite reaction—enhanced or mediocre. However, in the end, whether our lives are happy or miserable, whether we’re enriched or reduced, whether we’re enlightened or lost, it all comes down the choice we’ve made. Life is given to us to live how we live it and what becomes of it is ultimately in our own hands.
This could not be any truer than it is for Mark. Mark is an ordinary man whose life is changed when looking at a painting of a woman he referrers to as My Lady. He becomes obsessed with the woman in the painting by an unknown artist.
And though he gets married to a beautiful woman named Sabrina; his obsession, his love is only for my lady. Mark is so enthralled with the woman in the painting he finds the mother of the artist who is a fortune teller. She explains her family all has the gift to see the future and that her son is the one who painted the woman he seeks. Her son told her that he painted the lady for Mark and that the woman will come into Mark’s life.
Mark becomes more obsessed with the woman in painting when the painting falls into his hands. His wife, Sabrina become with child, but Mark closes himself off from her and their unborn child. They eventually divorce, and he never meets his child. As fate would have it, Mark become very ill and is dying. Day’s before he is to take his last breath, he has a visitor. What this visitor reveals is enough to rip the heart from a healthy man.
This is my favorite story in this thrilling collection of short stories. Though this collection is mainly horror stories, this one broke my heart—I cried. My Lady is a story that re-enforces my belief that we must live our life’s to their fullest—leave no rock unturned, leave no closed door unopened, and never burn bridges that you may one day want to cross.
6 Doorways to Disturbance
The first story: The Pen and Publisher
Get ready for a meticulously masterful adventure in torture inspired by the master himself, Edger Allen Poe.
Ken Groat, is a publisher who has lost his money making the author and is scrapping to get by. Now, you may have a moment of pity for this poor soul until you find out takes author works sent to him, tells the author that he is not interested, and revises the work to publish as his own—that is bound to catch up with a person.
Mr. Groat is sent a partially finished book he knows is his money maker, but the author has left no way to for Groat to respond to him. He’s up nights wondering how he can find the author of this magnificent piece—the dollar signs are shining in all their glory.
Through some intricate clues left by the author, Groat is led to this talented, but a strange author, Harley Evans. Harley is independently wealthy, but his world was ripped from him when the only woman he’d ever loved left him in his younger year. Her cold-hearted departure began Mr. Evans’ wondrous journey to his unique way of inspiration for writing.
With his one and only true love’s act, she destroyed the man he once was. He was left an emotionless vessel of a man; he plunged himself into his greatest creation, a novel.
He was inspired by Mr. Poe’s writing, that scared and intrigued him when he was younger. But Mr. Poe’s writings were the foundation for the inspiration Evans’ needed to create his masterpiece.
This story is prodigious; the writing is masterful. The author will take you into a world that is both, forbiddingly captivating and frightening. However, you’ll find can’t stop—you can’t wait to find out what will happen next.
If I could give this story more than 5 stars, I would. A nefariously, beautiful piece of writing.
Review of Darla Hogan’s
6 Doorways to Disturbance:
(Second story) The Collector
There are those of us who are fanatical even borderline OCD about the items that we collect. Even if they mean nothing to the rest of the world, those trinkets are our personal treasures and we have our own special routine for those items. We treasure them, protect them, admire them, and relish the thought if anything ever happened to them—these are an unbreakable bond between us and those items.
That bond of collecting inanimate objects is no different for Ernest Benjamin Thompson though his items are antique, rare, and worth a fortune.
Mr. Thompson has made a fortune with an old theater he bought with inheritance. He turned the old theater into a pawn shop. He made it through the financial crises that came and went throughout the years. Also, Mr. Thompson was able to purchase a mansion for considerably less than it was worth due to the financial incline in the area. It had been his boyhood dream to buy this mansion called the Granite Lodge. He gets the home for steel; well below its true market value. In buying this place he also inherited secrets it holds. It's those secrets that will bring chills to the reader.
The story is well written and, once again, effortlessly pulls the reader into the main characters world. If you’re a horror fanatic or just a reader who loves a good story, this book is proving to be one you should indulge.
Review of Darla Hogan’s
6 Doorways to Disturbance
(Third Story)Fellside House
This is the third story in this book, and it did not let me down. I’m loving each story I read more than the last and finding the author seamlessly pulling me into another imaginative horror.
Do you believe in haunted houses? No, how about a home that is cursed? Well, this story may change your think or, at least, open it up to the possibility that strange things happen in this world that cannot be explained away by science.
Jayne and John Dexter have just found that their lives are about to change when John secures a job as the new Head of English at Kirkby Landhome School. They are both excited about the modification. They will be out of the city of London; heading for the small Kirkby Landholme to inspect the town. Their hopes are to possibly find a home they can afford to by. They find the people of the town delightful and, with their help, find a home they fell in love with in the village of Hardton; not too far from Kirkby Landholme.
The home named the Fellside House; they are told a disturbing history and people have gone miss or have been found dead. But more disturbing is the story that no child has lived to be twenty born in that house. The happy couple pushes the idea of a haunted home out of their minds; after all, it is a foolish notion, right?
Their dreams are made complete when Jayne announces not too long after the move that she is with child. However, this is also when their horror begins.
I would say more, but you’ll have to find out how this brilliantly written perplexing story progresses yourself.
Review of Darla Hogan’s 6 Doorways To Disturbance:
(4th story) The Fairy Garden
Have you ever heard the expression: some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best of intentions? Well, this is a story which is the very essence of that particular phrase.
Professor Peterson, while he was alive, dabbled into the science of how in colonies of insects could wipe out species that cause sickness, such as rodents. His work in the science of insects has saved lives. But Professor Peterson had taken his work further. He began breeding different species of insects to create a stronger, larger breed to eradicate weaker disease-carrying species. He went further than anyone imagined—before he realized what he had actually done.
When a reporter’s bones are found at Grassmere Manor, the professor’s home, after going out to investigate a picture take by some girls; Josh and Sara out to the Manor to find out what happened. What they find…well, I’ll be having nightmares about it for a long time.
Creepy and imaginative are the words that come to mind when I read this story. Darla has mastered the art of writing to ignite a person's fear. If your have Entomophobia (fear of insects), you may not want to read this alone.
Review of Darla Hogan’s 6 Doorways to Disturbance:
(5th story) Black Rose
Can a wrong doing of the past come back to collect? Well, it’s been seventy years since the disappearance of a young girl named Rose Hayrettin. No one ever knew what had happened to her, but John Dutton and his neighbor Dave are about to find out.
John Dutton’s wife died suddenly; he is now alone. He has a son, but his son has his own life. It would be sad but John has his garden, and it is what makes him happy.
For the last forty-one years, his neighbor Dave’s roses have won the FETE and John has always been a close second but this year will be different. He stops a little nursery he spotted before his wife had died and the man gives him eight experimental rose bushes of a hybrid of the Halfeti Rose. The Nursery own give John the plants under the contrition that John records each process he does with the plants and informs the man if the plant produces a pure black rose. John hopes for the purest of black petals to be produced to win the fete this year.
However John’s hand get hurt during his care of his roses, and he hires a gypsy girl by the name of Rose to care for his roses until they heal. This is where the past comes back to haunt, and the girl is a part of it. You’ll have to read the story to find out exactly what happens.
I loved this story. It’s well written and leaves the reader with the sense of redemption.
Review of Darla Hogan’s 6 Doorways to Disturbance:
(6th story) My Lady
For every decision, we make in life there are many others we could have made leading to different outcomes—good or bad. For every desire, we have there multiple others that we could feel. However, some are more compelling calling us to them. For every action, we perform there is an equal and opposite reaction—enhanced or mediocre. However, in the end, whether our lives are happy or miserable, whether we’re enriched or reduced, whether we’re enlightened or lost, it all comes down the choice we’ve made. Life is given to us to live how we live it and what becomes of it is ultimately in our own hands.
This could not be any truer than it is for Mark. Mark is an ordinary man whose life is changed when looking at a painting of a woman he referrers to as My Lady. He becomes obsessed with the woman in the painting by an unknown artist.
And though he gets married to a beautiful woman named Sabrina; his obsession, his love is only for my lady. Mark is so enthralled with the woman in the painting he finds the mother of the artist who is a fortune teller. She explains her family all has the gift to see the future and that her son is the one who painted the woman he seeks. Her son told her that he painted the lady for Mark and that the woman will come into Mark’s life.
Mark becomes more obsessed with the woman in painting when the painting falls into his hands. His wife, Sabrina become with child, but Mark closes himself off from her and their unborn child. They eventually divorce, and he never meets his child. As fate would have it, Mark become very ill and is dying. Day’s before he is to take his last breath, he has a visitor. What this visitor reveals is enough to rip the heart from a healthy man.
This is my favorite story in this thrilling collection of short stories. Though this collection is mainly horror stories, this one broke my heart—I cried. My Lady is a story that re-enforces my belief that we must live our life’s to their fullest—leave no rock unturned, leave no closed door unopened, and never burn bridges that you may one day want to cross.
June 25, 2016
First Impression: I have read quite a few horror short stories in these recent months and I keep waiting for them to lose their appeal, but books like this just keep fuelling that fire. Nothing is perfect of course but overall this was a great effort. As the reader I was mystified, creeped out and kept on the edge of my seat for parts of these 6 pieces of horror fiction. I will be reviewing this book as a whole as the themes within run across all the material.
Summary Of The Book:
Once you get over that evil looking cover art, tuck into 6 diverse tales that span the horror universe.
First we meet a publisher who receives quality material via email and is chilled by the graphic detail within, wanting to know his secret he pursues this author to experience his talent first hand...
Next we meet a collector. Having brought himself up from nothing and amassed a vast collection of valuable antiques, the collector is very protective of his property. Theft in his house carries the ultimate penalty...
Fellside house is the perfect place for John and Jayne to raise their family. Big, sturdy, near John's work and has plenty of land around it. Never mind its dark past that spans a whole century....
Two girls from the countryside take some interesting photographs, interesting enough for a newspaper to send out a journalist to find out the story behind it. Two days later his skeleton turns up and there is no plausible explanation of what happened to him...
Two neighbours are competing in a rose of the year competition in their local village. John's neighbour David wins every year and John has had enough. Trying to beat the odds John tries something new, but after people start dying and going missing, he begins to regret his idea...
Finally we get mixed up in obsession. Finding the woman of his dreams, an art valuer can't think of any else but her. The only downside is that the woman in question is a portrait of an unknown person. After seeing a mystic he finds out that they are destined to meet one day...but when?
My Review:
As I said before I enjoy horror short stories and these were for me definitely up to standard. I do have several issues with these pieces and I will get back to these but I believe these stories contain the essence needed to scare and entertain the reader.
Let's start with some positives. The strongest area of this book is the story telling, which is important as really it is harder to build up characters in such a short period of time. The basis for every story is strong and they each work in their own way but remain connected by themes. The themes in this book are abundant, curiosity, fear, pain, suffering, black magic and sacrifice to name a few. The author weaves these themes through all 6 stories and even though each story is worlds apart from the next, they all feel connected in small ways. This book didn't make me laugh or cry but it did make me cringe, wince, feel sad and smile in places.
There are some negative points to this material, I felt they undermined the reading experience and the readers enjoyment. This for me did not stop me from enjoying the book but more fickle readers may be affected. The first major concern is the casualness that DH includes in these stories. A good portion of the stories are very subtle or even mundane until the horror kicks in and takes it up a notch. Especially the Fellside house portion of this book, I began to feel like I was actually just reading about a couple picking out their first house until the underlying horror kicked in. That leads to the other concern which is boredom, which pops up here and there as a result of the more casual and uneventful parts. There was not enough to flag a real cause for concern, but it is there and I had to mention it. I really look forward to reading some of Darla Hogan's more intense fiction, I hope he doesn't hold back as much as he did here.
I have quite a few favourite parts of this material. My Lady, the last story in 6DTD for me was the most chilling, it is really out there and it totally works as horror fiction. The writing is so vivid when DH is doing his thing and I wish there was more of it. There are some truly great talking points to this book but I don't want to get into it too much as I will spoil everything for everyone who reads this. There is no new ground being covered here but its the unique touches to the usual horror set ups that makes this book worth reading.
Overall I do recommend buying this book. I know I am critical of it as casualness for me doesn't belong with horror but that is personal opinion and it does actually work to accentuate and intensify the horror parts when they appear. If you love short stories or the horror genre then this is definitely for you!
7/10
READ, SHARE, COMMENT, ADD (FACEBOOK!) FOLLOW (TWITTER/GOODREADS!)
WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN BRING GREAT BOOKS TO AWESOME PEOPLE!
ALWAYS TRUST IN BOOKS!
Summary Of The Book:
Once you get over that evil looking cover art, tuck into 6 diverse tales that span the horror universe.
First we meet a publisher who receives quality material via email and is chilled by the graphic detail within, wanting to know his secret he pursues this author to experience his talent first hand...
Next we meet a collector. Having brought himself up from nothing and amassed a vast collection of valuable antiques, the collector is very protective of his property. Theft in his house carries the ultimate penalty...
Fellside house is the perfect place for John and Jayne to raise their family. Big, sturdy, near John's work and has plenty of land around it. Never mind its dark past that spans a whole century....
Two girls from the countryside take some interesting photographs, interesting enough for a newspaper to send out a journalist to find out the story behind it. Two days later his skeleton turns up and there is no plausible explanation of what happened to him...
Two neighbours are competing in a rose of the year competition in their local village. John's neighbour David wins every year and John has had enough. Trying to beat the odds John tries something new, but after people start dying and going missing, he begins to regret his idea...
Finally we get mixed up in obsession. Finding the woman of his dreams, an art valuer can't think of any else but her. The only downside is that the woman in question is a portrait of an unknown person. After seeing a mystic he finds out that they are destined to meet one day...but when?
My Review:
As I said before I enjoy horror short stories and these were for me definitely up to standard. I do have several issues with these pieces and I will get back to these but I believe these stories contain the essence needed to scare and entertain the reader.
Let's start with some positives. The strongest area of this book is the story telling, which is important as really it is harder to build up characters in such a short period of time. The basis for every story is strong and they each work in their own way but remain connected by themes. The themes in this book are abundant, curiosity, fear, pain, suffering, black magic and sacrifice to name a few. The author weaves these themes through all 6 stories and even though each story is worlds apart from the next, they all feel connected in small ways. This book didn't make me laugh or cry but it did make me cringe, wince, feel sad and smile in places.
There are some negative points to this material, I felt they undermined the reading experience and the readers enjoyment. This for me did not stop me from enjoying the book but more fickle readers may be affected. The first major concern is the casualness that DH includes in these stories. A good portion of the stories are very subtle or even mundane until the horror kicks in and takes it up a notch. Especially the Fellside house portion of this book, I began to feel like I was actually just reading about a couple picking out their first house until the underlying horror kicked in. That leads to the other concern which is boredom, which pops up here and there as a result of the more casual and uneventful parts. There was not enough to flag a real cause for concern, but it is there and I had to mention it. I really look forward to reading some of Darla Hogan's more intense fiction, I hope he doesn't hold back as much as he did here.
I have quite a few favourite parts of this material. My Lady, the last story in 6DTD for me was the most chilling, it is really out there and it totally works as horror fiction. The writing is so vivid when DH is doing his thing and I wish there was more of it. There are some truly great talking points to this book but I don't want to get into it too much as I will spoil everything for everyone who reads this. There is no new ground being covered here but its the unique touches to the usual horror set ups that makes this book worth reading.
Overall I do recommend buying this book. I know I am critical of it as casualness for me doesn't belong with horror but that is personal opinion and it does actually work to accentuate and intensify the horror parts when they appear. If you love short stories or the horror genre then this is definitely for you!
7/10
READ, SHARE, COMMENT, ADD (FACEBOOK!) FOLLOW (TWITTER/GOODREADS!)
WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN BRING GREAT BOOKS TO AWESOME PEOPLE!
ALWAYS TRUST IN BOOKS!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 30, 2016
If readers haven't picked up a collection of short stories by this author, you are missing out. Darla Hogan is a master of short tales that will take readers on a path and into the doorways of amazing adventure and days after closing the book the stories may just come back to haunt you. I won't go into each story separately, but just know all are well written and hard to put down. As a writer and a reader I find this author has a unique ability to tell a story that feels like a novel in a few short pages and put just the right twisted ending on each short story. Great job by the go to author for short stories.
Read
May 5, 2016An extremely well crafted book that I think any horror fan will love. It was an enthralling read and I loved every minute that I worked on it.
Disclaimer: I do not star review or do any in depth reviews on books that I have personally worked on.
Disclaimer: I do not star review or do any in depth reviews on books that I have personally worked on.
May 18, 2016
This is a nice collection. My favorite was the first story (especially since I love the influence of Edgar Allen Poe).
January 24, 2017
This is an awesome book. I love anything this author writes. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews