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Flash Flood #2
Monster Maelstrom: A Flash Fiction Halloween Anthology
24 Extremely Short Halloween Stories for your Briefest Moments
From a Hillary Clinton stripper to mythical beast-women in the harsh Scandinavian tundra and from an unusual band of steadfast teddy bears to the last man in zombie-occupied Chicago, fill your briefest moments with pulse-pounding frights and off-beat chuckles with this collection of 24 flash fiction stories.
Commuting to work? Grabbing a quick coffee? Each story tells a complete tale in but a few short minutes with the added promise of a lifelong introduction to new indie writers.
You never know, you might just find your next favorite author.
Monster Maelstrom, the second anthology in the Flash Flood series, is a hand-picked selection of master works in humor, horror and fantasy themed for Halloween and guaranteed to keep you engaged.
Sign up now to get free copies of book 1, Bite-Sized Stories, and future flash fiction anthologies themed for Christmas, Valentine's Day, May the 4th and Independence Day.
From a Hillary Clinton stripper to mythical beast-women in the harsh Scandinavian tundra and from an unusual band of steadfast teddy bears to the last man in zombie-occupied Chicago, fill your briefest moments with pulse-pounding frights and off-beat chuckles with this collection of 24 flash fiction stories.
Commuting to work? Grabbing a quick coffee? Each story tells a complete tale in but a few short minutes with the added promise of a lifelong introduction to new indie writers.
You never know, you might just find your next favorite author.
Monster Maelstrom, the second anthology in the Flash Flood series, is a hand-picked selection of master works in humor, horror and fantasy themed for Halloween and guaranteed to keep you engaged.
Sign up now to get free copies of book 1, Bite-Sized Stories, and future flash fiction anthologies themed for Christmas, Valentine's Day, May the 4th and Independence Day.
133 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 16, 2016
57 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
George Donnelly
16 books31 followersFormer starship redshirt turned rag-clad resistance fighter, George Donnelly is the author of space opera, cyberpunk & post-apocalyptic science fiction series. A single unschooling expat dad, George prefers zombies to aliens but is primed for any meatspace apocalypse minus grey goo.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 8, 2016
24 Extremely Short Halloween Stories for your Briefest Moments
From a Hillary Clinton stripper to mythical beast-women in the harsh Scandinavian tundra and from an unusual band of steadfast teddy bears to the last man in zombie-occupied Chicago, fill your briefest moments with pulse-pounding frights and off-beat chuckles with this collection of 24 flash fiction stories.
Commuting to work? Grabbing a quick coffee? Each story tells a complete tale in but a few short minutes with the added promise of a lifelong introduction to new indie writers.
You never know, you might just find your next favorite author.
Monster Maelstrom, the second anthology in the Flash Flood series, is a hand-picked selection of master works in humor, horror and fantasy themed for Halloween and guaranteed to keep you engaged.
Sign up now to get free copies of book 1, Bite-Sized Stories, and future flash fiction anthologies themed for Christmas, Valentine's Day, May the 4th and Independence Day.
I must say I realised they were short stories but they are very short stories, much shorter than I expected.
Some are quite bizarre but still worth a read. Nice change to read some new author's as well.
From a Hillary Clinton stripper to mythical beast-women in the harsh Scandinavian tundra and from an unusual band of steadfast teddy bears to the last man in zombie-occupied Chicago, fill your briefest moments with pulse-pounding frights and off-beat chuckles with this collection of 24 flash fiction stories.
Commuting to work? Grabbing a quick coffee? Each story tells a complete tale in but a few short minutes with the added promise of a lifelong introduction to new indie writers.
You never know, you might just find your next favorite author.
Monster Maelstrom, the second anthology in the Flash Flood series, is a hand-picked selection of master works in humor, horror and fantasy themed for Halloween and guaranteed to keep you engaged.
Sign up now to get free copies of book 1, Bite-Sized Stories, and future flash fiction anthologies themed for Christmas, Valentine's Day, May the 4th and Independence Day.
I must say I realised they were short stories but they are very short stories, much shorter than I expected.
Some are quite bizarre but still worth a read. Nice change to read some new author's as well.
November 21, 2016
A lot of good stories
There were a lot of good stories in this book. Some were really funny. They were all short but good. I like dark humor. This was the book for me. I even found a few new authors to read.
There were a lot of good stories in this book. Some were really funny. They were all short but good. I like dark humor. This was the book for me. I even found a few new authors to read.
November 2, 2016
A great blend of humor, horror, and fantasy. Snag it for your Halloween reading pleasure.
July 12, 2024
Decent premises; the execution, though?
Stuck between a 2- and a 3-star for this one.
A few stories, notably those at the beginning of each section, were okay. But then the rest fell down, filler copy becoming the norm.
The worst parts were:
» the storylines, which in some of the stories made them tough to follow;
» the consistency, some of the stories had plot devices that were either clumsy or made no sense, to the point where it was impossible to determine what was happening
» and the motives, which were either jarring and added nothing to the stories, or just served to confuse some of the extremely thin storylines.
Overall, a disappointing experience, but I do feel sorry for some of the authors, who now see some of their stories sat next to much poorer quality stories than their own...
Stuck between a 2- and a 3-star for this one.
A few stories, notably those at the beginning of each section, were okay. But then the rest fell down, filler copy becoming the norm.
The worst parts were:
» the storylines, which in some of the stories made them tough to follow;
» the consistency, some of the stories had plot devices that were either clumsy or made no sense, to the point where it was impossible to determine what was happening
» and the motives, which were either jarring and added nothing to the stories, or just served to confuse some of the extremely thin storylines.
Overall, a disappointing experience, but I do feel sorry for some of the authors, who now see some of their stories sat next to much poorer quality stories than their own...
December 1, 2017
If you want to explore a wide variety of authors this is a great opportunity.
Ranges from horror to suspense. Gross zombies on a mission to some really sympathetic "folks".
Some authors I found funny or compelling. Some just too gross or disturbing.
But no harm no foul, because this was a super fun currently free package.
I was honestly thrilled to meet so many new authors in one cool package.
Be sure to check it out!
Ranges from horror to suspense. Gross zombies on a mission to some really sympathetic "folks".
Some authors I found funny or compelling. Some just too gross or disturbing.
But no harm no foul, because this was a super fun currently free package.
I was honestly thrilled to meet so many new authors in one cool package.
Be sure to check it out!
August 5, 2025
Overall, a mixed bag of stories. Some were outstanding and others were...not. Definitely a middle of the road collection, but I feel like there's something in here for everybody. You've just got to go searching for it. The bright side is that all of the stories are extremely short, so it only takes a few bite-sized moments to get through them.
October 29, 2018
Much better than the first collection. Sadly, there is a repeat of George Donnelly's story. The humor section did bring a few giggles, but the horror section was not even slightly scary. Overall, nice little short stories!
June 13, 2017
An excellent collection of short stories about monsters, funny and creepy, and so enthralling I read it in one afternoon. Possibly my new favourite kind of story
October 30, 2017
Some really good, some not so good.. Overall worth reading.
November 13, 2017
Not too bad
Some very good short stories in here, others not so good! Found some new authors that I will look into though.
Some very good short stories in here, others not so good! Found some new authors that I will look into though.
November 19, 2017
This is a very nice little collection of stories, especially around Halloween. I enjoyed the humor and fantasy sections most, but the horror section is fine too. I'm just not a big horror fan
November 21, 2017
every one of these I have read are good to great but sometimes entirely too quick
January 10, 2018
Action packer collection of short stories. It is fun read.
October 16, 2018
I liked this mixed collection of Halloween short stories.
April 7, 2020
Did not finish. Don't think I was in the mood for so many super short stories (about 5 pages long). Not really for me.
August 22, 2023
An interesting collection of very short horror stories. Even though short, they are well written. A good blend of humour, horror and fantasy.
October 28, 2023
Halloween / Short stories
⭐⭐⭐/5
An interesting collection, many humorous, some twisted, many dark, some scary.
November 8, 2024
The comedy flash stories were OK, but having written flag fiction, I'm not sure it could be done differently. The horror was much more varied, and we'll done.
June 29, 2022
Entertaining fantasy listening 🎶🔰
Another will written fantasy humour, horror, and fantasy with twenty-four short story by a number of authors. I would highly recommend this novella to readers of fantasy novels 👍🔰. Enjoy the adventure of reading all kinds of different types of stories. 2022
Another will written fantasy humour, horror, and fantasy with twenty-four short story by a number of authors. I would highly recommend this novella to readers of fantasy novels 👍🔰. Enjoy the adventure of reading all kinds of different types of stories. 2022
November 5, 2019
This collection is organized by genre: humor, horror and fantasy. Much like the other volumes in the series, each story is only several pages in length. I find this short format to be challenging for authors to create decent and memorable stories. These stories were mostly fantastic, with a few that were 2 stars. Overall, I enjoyed this!
January 10, 2017
This is the second Flash Flood anthology, focusing on Halloween/horror-themed stories.
I found this collection of stories a little more uneven than the first collection (Bite-Sized Stories: A Multi-Genre Flash Fiction Anthology (Flash Flood Book 1) but the price (free) and commitment (minimal, given the whole idea is to present short-short stories that can be read in a few minutes, I can still give this a solid thumbs-up for the standout stories.
It's not easy to pull off a fully self-contained story in so few words so when it comes together it almost feels like a little alchemy is involved.
On the negative side, the collection starts off weak, with a flat zombie story set against the backdrop of a strip bar. There are also enough stories from the first person POV where that person ends up being dead by the end that I'm wondering if this is some new trend in fiction. If so, it should be stopped immediately because it is lazy, cheating storytelling, the equivalent of those hokey twist endings on The Twilight Zone that we laugh about now.
On a more positive note, there are some nicely rendered stories here, including:
- "Teddy Bear Defenders" (Tom Germann). A cute story with a (horror-tinged) Toy Story vibe.
- "What I did at Halloween" (Edward M. Grant). A little girl thwarts a would-be robber with Bob. Bob is Bad. But this story is good. The ending seemed a little too on-point but doesn't diminish the amusing interplay between the characters prior to it.
- "Monsters Like Us" (Jeanette Raleigh). An atmospheric take that initially feels like it might be yet another vampire story but turns into something more interesting--and chilling.
- "In the Eye of the Beholder" (Bill Hiatt). This *is* a vampire story, in a manner of speaking, and though the twist might be obvious to some, it is nicely executed (no pun intended--mostly).
There are other stories worth checking out but really, just grab the collection and have a look. The stories that don't work breeze by so quickly it's akin to dabbing something sour on your tongue before moving onto something sweet.
Overall, I can recommended this anthology for both horror fans and anyone looking for new writers to discover.
I found this collection of stories a little more uneven than the first collection (Bite-Sized Stories: A Multi-Genre Flash Fiction Anthology (Flash Flood Book 1) but the price (free) and commitment (minimal, given the whole idea is to present short-short stories that can be read in a few minutes, I can still give this a solid thumbs-up for the standout stories.
It's not easy to pull off a fully self-contained story in so few words so when it comes together it almost feels like a little alchemy is involved.
On the negative side, the collection starts off weak, with a flat zombie story set against the backdrop of a strip bar. There are also enough stories from the first person POV where that person ends up being dead by the end that I'm wondering if this is some new trend in fiction. If so, it should be stopped immediately because it is lazy, cheating storytelling, the equivalent of those hokey twist endings on The Twilight Zone that we laugh about now.
On a more positive note, there are some nicely rendered stories here, including:
- "Teddy Bear Defenders" (Tom Germann). A cute story with a (horror-tinged) Toy Story vibe.
- "What I did at Halloween" (Edward M. Grant). A little girl thwarts a would-be robber with Bob. Bob is Bad. But this story is good. The ending seemed a little too on-point but doesn't diminish the amusing interplay between the characters prior to it.
- "Monsters Like Us" (Jeanette Raleigh). An atmospheric take that initially feels like it might be yet another vampire story but turns into something more interesting--and chilling.
- "In the Eye of the Beholder" (Bill Hiatt). This *is* a vampire story, in a manner of speaking, and though the twist might be obvious to some, it is nicely executed (no pun intended--mostly).
There are other stories worth checking out but really, just grab the collection and have a look. The stories that don't work breeze by so quickly it's akin to dabbing something sour on your tongue before moving onto something sweet.
Overall, I can recommended this anthology for both horror fans and anyone looking for new writers to discover.
February 17, 2017
Got this book free, but anything I read I review. All I keep thinking about this book is...teddy bears...vampires...not in the same story, different types of stories as well, had forgotten there were so many for something like halloween, though personally tend to like the funnier ones myself. Bill Hiatt has at least a story in here, don't think he was the teddy bear one, ah he was the monster not monster vampire but not, and if you want that translated it's easier to just read it anyway and you'll enjoy it more than if someone tried to tell you what everything meant.
January 8, 2018
I loved the book. I had a hard time putting this one down to do anything.
Currently reading
December 31, 2023N.D Iverson - All That Glitters isn’t Gold: Fun Quick read
Jaleta Clegg - Oh, My Darling: ok read
J. Naomi Ay - Skin Deep: This was a strange read.
Tom Germann-Teddy Bear Defenders - This was a lovely read.
J. David Core - The Real Monster: An entertaining read.
Edward M. Grant - What I did at Halloween: This was a fun
Tom Germann - .Teddy Bears and a Good Cop: This was a sweet read.
Alexa Grave -.Monster in the Room: Fun read
Cora Buhlert - The Reanimated Reunion Tour: weird read
Eli Nixon - Shades of Hell: Good read
Jeanette Raleigh - Monsters Like Us: Good read
George Donnelly - Hero: OK read
John D. Ottini - Monsters are Everywhere: Good read
Heather Biedermann - Hounds: Good gory story.
Griffin Carmichael - Last One at the Door: weird story
Jaleta Clegg - Oh, My Darling: ok read
J. Naomi Ay - Skin Deep: This was a strange read.
Tom Germann-Teddy Bear Defenders - This was a lovely read.
J. David Core - The Real Monster: An entertaining read.
Edward M. Grant - What I did at Halloween: This was a fun
Tom Germann - .Teddy Bears and a Good Cop: This was a sweet read.
Alexa Grave -.Monster in the Room: Fun read
Cora Buhlert - The Reanimated Reunion Tour: weird read
Eli Nixon - Shades of Hell: Good read
Jeanette Raleigh - Monsters Like Us: Good read
George Donnelly - Hero: OK read
John D. Ottini - Monsters are Everywhere: Good read
Heather Biedermann - Hounds: Good gory story.
Griffin Carmichael - Last One at the Door: weird story
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews