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VS #1
VS: US vs. UK Horror
A BATTLE ROYALE OF US AND UK INDIE HORROR HEAVYWEIGHTS!
All proceeds from the purchase of this book will be donated to the West Wales Poundies Dog Rescue (UK) and the Second Chance Center for Animals (US) charities.
Who writes the best horror: the US or the UK? Find out for yourself in VS: US vs UK, a competition anthology featuring some of the year's best horror, judged by horror enthusiasts and you: the readers.
Featuring Pre-Fight Hype from The Ginger Nuts of Horror and The Eyes of Madness!
The Contenders...
Duncan Ralston vs Rich Hawkins
James Ward Kirk vs Kit Power
Glenn Rolfe vs Lex H. Jones
Tim Miller vs Daniel I Russel
John Ledger vs Jim Goforth
Essel Pratt vs Daniel Marc Chant
Thomas S Flowers vs Kyle M Scott
Jonathan Ondrashek vs David Owain Hughes
TS Woolard vs Toneye Eyenot
Michael Noe vs Dani Brown
Sisters of Slaughter vs Matt Hickman
Salome Jones vs Kitty Kane
Peter Oliver Wonder vs Kevin J Kennedy
All proceeds from the purchase of this book will be donated to the West Wales Poundies Dog Rescue (UK) and the Second Chance Center for Animals (US) charities.
Who writes the best horror: the US or the UK? Find out for yourself in VS: US vs UK, a competition anthology featuring some of the year's best horror, judged by horror enthusiasts and you: the readers.
Featuring Pre-Fight Hype from The Ginger Nuts of Horror and The Eyes of Madness!
The Contenders...
Duncan Ralston vs Rich Hawkins
James Ward Kirk vs Kit Power
Glenn Rolfe vs Lex H. Jones
Tim Miller vs Daniel I Russel
John Ledger vs Jim Goforth
Essel Pratt vs Daniel Marc Chant
Thomas S Flowers vs Kyle M Scott
Jonathan Ondrashek vs David Owain Hughes
TS Woolard vs Toneye Eyenot
Michael Noe vs Dani Brown
Sisters of Slaughter vs Matt Hickman
Salome Jones vs Kitty Kane
Peter Oliver Wonder vs Kevin J Kennedy
467 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2016
69 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 20, 2016
Yes, I am in this book. But the sheer quality of writing from the other participants is so good that I couldn't read it and not review it. There are many standouts, so I won't name names. But I'm going to vote for my favorites right now! :D
www.ShadowWorkPublishing.com/vs-voting
www.ShadowWorkPublishing.com/vs-voting
December 5, 2016
A very good anthology
I throughly enjoy this book. With the battles of uk vs us it was a trip. The cost Is cheap and the proceeds go to charity. I highly recommend this book to all fans of modern horror
I throughly enjoy this book. With the battles of uk vs us it was a trip. The cost Is cheap and the proceeds go to charity. I highly recommend this book to all fans of modern horror
December 1, 2016
VS. By 26 Excellent Authors/Contenders
A 5 Star Battle Royale
Anyone that truly knows me, knows I am not a big anthology girl… In fact, I usually don’t buy them unless they have some type of theme, link in the end, or a major Holiday.
This was an excellent all around 5-star anthology set-up like a fight or a boxing match. You had the UK, Canada, and Australia VS. the US. Two pre-fight hypes, Zachary Walters for the UK, and Jim McLeod for the US. Then 13 tough rounds that turned into creepy madness, shocking, creature features, depraved, wild, gross, funny, hallucinogenic, psychotic, had heroes, but the best, there was blood dripping down the pages. You are introduced to your 4 judges at the end. Then special awards were given out for all time best. So, come join the party and have some fun. I know I sure did.
Round One
“The Yard Sale” by John Ledger VS. “Line Dancing At The Hack House” by Jim Goforth
Bloody Revenge against I Dare You , Double Dare You , Bloody Dare You.
John Ledger started off strong, but Jim Goforth was the heavyweight
My Winner: Jim Gorforth.
Round Two
“DeathDay Wishes” by Toneye Eyenot VS. “The Throbbing Thurman In Thurman” by T. S. Woolard
Ha, Try Cheating Death against hilarious, glowing, fluorescent green, genitals.
Both put up a good fight , but in the end comical came back at the last count.
My Winner: T. S. Woolard.
Round Three
“Not In Kansas Anymore” by Glenn Rolfe VS. “Bone And Bread” by Lex Jones.
Creatures of the night with a good son against fracking that awakens an old forgotten enemy. Even fight here but I love a good son.
My Winner: Glenn Rolfe
Round Four
“Doorknob Davey And the Window Watchers by David Owain Hughes VS. “Familiar Scents” by Jonathan Edward Ondrashek.
Depravity at it worst against depravity that is just gross.
Both put up another good fight, David was always the strongest contender of the match and the favorite to win. Yet, David went down for the count and big upset for fans. Jonathan left him bleeding.
My Winner: Jonathan Edward Ondrashek
Round Five- This is Handicap Match
“Sibling Rivalry” by Matt Hickman VS. Absolution by Michele Garza and Melissa Lason aka. “The Sisters Of Slaughter”
This has been an ongoing verbal war for the last couple of years. Now, “Brazen” Matt actually calling out them by their real names, against sins of murderers
My Winner: Matt Hickman
Round Six
“Middle Of Nowhere” by Kevin Kennedy VS. “Prank” by Peter Oliver
Bloody Revenge against a bloody clown
Both are new contenders and fought hard to the end.
My Winner: Kevin Kennedy
Round Seven
“Squirm” by Duncan Ralston VS. “Misery Artist” by Rich Hawkins
They both bleed in the end, but one does it for inspiration and creativity.
Duncan took a hard uppercut from Hawkins and was down for the count. Carried out by stretcher after for a concussion.
My Winner: Rich Hawkins
Round Eight
“The Fallen” by Salome Jones VS. “You Reap What You Sow” by Kitty Kane
Very scary against terrifying
Both are also new contenders for me. Put up a good show.
My Winner: Kitty Kane
Round Nine
“Have A Nice Day” by Michael Noe VS. “Riding the Waves Of Luminescent Transdimensional Sea Turtles” by Dani Brown
One just snapped against a mouthful of a hallucinogenics ..Lol.
My Winner: Dani Brown
Round Ten
“Cernunnos” by Daniel Marc Chant VS. “One Night Of Sleep” by Essel Pratt
Spontaneous Human Combustion against a cute doggie.
My Winner: Essel Pratt.
Round Eleven
“Gone” by Thomas S. Flowers VS. “Broken Things” by Kyle M. Scott
My Winner: Kyle M. Scott
Round Twelve
“Block” by James Ward Kirk VS. “Zombie Dad” by Kit Powers
My Winner: Kit Powers
Round Thirteen
“Rape Van” by Tim Miller VS. “Hush” by Daniel I. Russell
Natural born killers against perverted washed up actor.
My Winner: Tim Miller
*Note: These are my own picks for winners. The true winners are given at the end of each round or you can pick your own winner.
A 5 Star Battle Royale
Anyone that truly knows me, knows I am not a big anthology girl… In fact, I usually don’t buy them unless they have some type of theme, link in the end, or a major Holiday.
This was an excellent all around 5-star anthology set-up like a fight or a boxing match. You had the UK, Canada, and Australia VS. the US. Two pre-fight hypes, Zachary Walters for the UK, and Jim McLeod for the US. Then 13 tough rounds that turned into creepy madness, shocking, creature features, depraved, wild, gross, funny, hallucinogenic, psychotic, had heroes, but the best, there was blood dripping down the pages. You are introduced to your 4 judges at the end. Then special awards were given out for all time best. So, come join the party and have some fun. I know I sure did.
Round One
“The Yard Sale” by John Ledger VS. “Line Dancing At The Hack House” by Jim Goforth
Bloody Revenge against I Dare You , Double Dare You , Bloody Dare You.
John Ledger started off strong, but Jim Goforth was the heavyweight
My Winner: Jim Gorforth.
Round Two
“DeathDay Wishes” by Toneye Eyenot VS. “The Throbbing Thurman In Thurman” by T. S. Woolard
Ha, Try Cheating Death against hilarious, glowing, fluorescent green, genitals.
Both put up a good fight , but in the end comical came back at the last count.
My Winner: T. S. Woolard.
Round Three
“Not In Kansas Anymore” by Glenn Rolfe VS. “Bone And Bread” by Lex Jones.
Creatures of the night with a good son against fracking that awakens an old forgotten enemy. Even fight here but I love a good son.
My Winner: Glenn Rolfe
Round Four
“Doorknob Davey And the Window Watchers by David Owain Hughes VS. “Familiar Scents” by Jonathan Edward Ondrashek.
Depravity at it worst against depravity that is just gross.
Both put up another good fight, David was always the strongest contender of the match and the favorite to win. Yet, David went down for the count and big upset for fans. Jonathan left him bleeding.
My Winner: Jonathan Edward Ondrashek
Round Five- This is Handicap Match
“Sibling Rivalry” by Matt Hickman VS. Absolution by Michele Garza and Melissa Lason aka. “The Sisters Of Slaughter”
This has been an ongoing verbal war for the last couple of years. Now, “Brazen” Matt actually calling out them by their real names, against sins of murderers
My Winner: Matt Hickman
Round Six
“Middle Of Nowhere” by Kevin Kennedy VS. “Prank” by Peter Oliver
Bloody Revenge against a bloody clown
Both are new contenders and fought hard to the end.
My Winner: Kevin Kennedy
Round Seven
“Squirm” by Duncan Ralston VS. “Misery Artist” by Rich Hawkins
They both bleed in the end, but one does it for inspiration and creativity.
Duncan took a hard uppercut from Hawkins and was down for the count. Carried out by stretcher after for a concussion.
My Winner: Rich Hawkins
Round Eight
“The Fallen” by Salome Jones VS. “You Reap What You Sow” by Kitty Kane
Very scary against terrifying
Both are also new contenders for me. Put up a good show.
My Winner: Kitty Kane
Round Nine
“Have A Nice Day” by Michael Noe VS. “Riding the Waves Of Luminescent Transdimensional Sea Turtles” by Dani Brown
One just snapped against a mouthful of a hallucinogenics ..Lol.
My Winner: Dani Brown
Round Ten
“Cernunnos” by Daniel Marc Chant VS. “One Night Of Sleep” by Essel Pratt
Spontaneous Human Combustion against a cute doggie.
My Winner: Essel Pratt.
Round Eleven
“Gone” by Thomas S. Flowers VS. “Broken Things” by Kyle M. Scott
My Winner: Kyle M. Scott
Round Twelve
“Block” by James Ward Kirk VS. “Zombie Dad” by Kit Powers
My Winner: Kit Powers
Round Thirteen
“Rape Van” by Tim Miller VS. “Hush” by Daniel I. Russell
Natural born killers against perverted washed up actor.
My Winner: Tim Miller
*Note: These are my own picks for winners. The true winners are given at the end of each round or you can pick your own winner.
January 30, 2017
Great book
I LOVED this book!!! All the stories are excellent. You get a little something for everyone. My favorite was Broken Things. This is a must read.
I LOVED this book!!! All the stories are excellent. You get a little something for everyone. My favorite was Broken Things. This is a must read.
January 10, 2021
The concept sold me on this, so I bought it some time ago and only just got round to reading it.
As with any collection, the stories are a wide mix, some you'll love, some you won't.
Structure: it is meant to be pairs of stories, UK versus US, so it is a minor disappointment that each pair is introduced as versus each other ... but there's no indication of which is the UK story, which is the US. Since the authors can write in any setting, I really wasn't able to keep track of it, so the idea of UK versus US was lost almost immediately, instead just one story versus another. That could easily have been fixed by the "Round x" page of each pairing just indicating which story was which.
Editing: it really needed another proofread. There were just enough typos to keep pulling me out of a story because of that lack of polish, from basics like wrong words, to incorrect use of apostrophes, or quotation marks not being closed. I won't include every example, but here are some of those I marked:
"We can be swift to overreact and leisure about seeing issues from another point of view." [leisurely?]
"American's are passionate" [Americans]
"sections of his victims flesh" [victim's]
"pale of water" [pail]
"is their blood?" [there]
"And now that's scent is on you." [that]
"viscious fucking thing" [vicious]
"sick the law on us" [sic]
"but she right now she was willing" [only one she needed]
"the film came to its gristly end" [grisly]
"specs of red" [specks]
"within year" [within the year / within a year]
"knew he's be back. knew he's knew he'd be back." [no idea, I suspect a typo - that's the end of one story.]
"chicken coup" [coop]
"Fuck you're sex toy" [your]
[Tim Miller's story got the names of Chrissy and Bridget mixed up in a few places - e.g. Bridget owns the van, but a line later she is the hitchhiker picked up in the van; Bridget pulls a gun on someone, but sometimes gets named Chrissy etc. So some scenes made no sense until you realised the author had his characters mixed up.]
So, most of the content gets 3* from me. I've chaired a Bram Stoker jury and many of the tales were reminiscent of the bulk of submissions there - okay stories that weren't layered enough to go into the top tier.
However, a few stories were far better, one or two five stars where they did something original, or layered meaning and theme in exciting ways. E.g. Squirm by Duncan Ralston, an excellent and confidently written, multi-layered story. I also really liked Zombie Dad, by Kit Power, another polished and well-written story. Hush by Daniel I. Russell was nasty and riveting and in the top three.
My average score for the whole collection is three stars but the collection gets a bonus star for its money going to animal rescues. Overall: if you want to try a wide variety of tales as samplers of style and authors, then give the collection a go.
As with any collection, the stories are a wide mix, some you'll love, some you won't.
Structure: it is meant to be pairs of stories, UK versus US, so it is a minor disappointment that each pair is introduced as versus each other ... but there's no indication of which is the UK story, which is the US. Since the authors can write in any setting, I really wasn't able to keep track of it, so the idea of UK versus US was lost almost immediately, instead just one story versus another. That could easily have been fixed by the "Round x" page of each pairing just indicating which story was which.
Editing: it really needed another proofread. There were just enough typos to keep pulling me out of a story because of that lack of polish, from basics like wrong words, to incorrect use of apostrophes, or quotation marks not being closed. I won't include every example, but here are some of those I marked:
"We can be swift to overreact and leisure about seeing issues from another point of view." [leisurely?]
"American's are passionate" [Americans]
"sections of his victims flesh" [victim's]
"pale of water" [pail]
"is their blood?" [there]
"And now that's scent is on you." [that]
"viscious fucking thing" [vicious]
"sick the law on us" [sic]
"but she right now she was willing" [only one she needed]
"the film came to its gristly end" [grisly]
"specs of red" [specks]
"within year" [within the year / within a year]
"knew he's be back. knew he's knew he'd be back." [no idea, I suspect a typo - that's the end of one story.]
"chicken coup" [coop]
"Fuck you're sex toy" [your]
[Tim Miller's story got the names of Chrissy and Bridget mixed up in a few places - e.g. Bridget owns the van, but a line later she is the hitchhiker picked up in the van; Bridget pulls a gun on someone, but sometimes gets named Chrissy etc. So some scenes made no sense until you realised the author had his characters mixed up.]
So, most of the content gets 3* from me. I've chaired a Bram Stoker jury and many of the tales were reminiscent of the bulk of submissions there - okay stories that weren't layered enough to go into the top tier.
However, a few stories were far better, one or two five stars where they did something original, or layered meaning and theme in exciting ways. E.g. Squirm by Duncan Ralston, an excellent and confidently written, multi-layered story. I also really liked Zombie Dad, by Kit Power, another polished and well-written story. Hush by Daniel I. Russell was nasty and riveting and in the top three.
My average score for the whole collection is three stars but the collection gets a bonus star for its money going to animal rescues. Overall: if you want to try a wide variety of tales as samplers of style and authors, then give the collection a go.
March 3, 2018
This is a solid collection of stories, some I loved, a few I didn't like and a lot that I found enjoyable. It's a cool concept for a book as well, putting authors against each other in an epic battle of the ages and all going towards a great charitable cause.
My favorite story of the collection was from Matt Hickman, offering up one of the most meta anthology stories I have ever read. Other favorites were from Kit Power as well as Daniel Marc-Chant.
My favorite story of the collection was from Matt Hickman, offering up one of the most meta anthology stories I have ever read. Other favorites were from Kit Power as well as Daniel Marc-Chant.
September 13, 2017
I love the concept of VS- to pit U.S. (and Canadian) authors against U.K, authors. There is a very eclectic mix here, everything from extreme slasher slice and dice, to folk horror, to the dark psychological thriller. There were a few stories that I stood out for me above the rest of the pack, but overall, I'd say it was a tie!
September 23, 2017
This American must say upfront - the UK bloody well ROCKS this antho! I love the vs. idea and enjoyed the read very much. I'm positive you will too! It's a charity anthology for a cause that's very close to my heart. You'll make a donation and get to read some chilling shorts from some amazing authors. Pick up a copy and give these guys a great review they deserve!
June 13, 2020
Depends on what kind of horror you like
I am a die-hard horror fan, but I like stuff that's atmospheric, psychological, and nuanced. If you're more into slasher stuff, this is probably for you. I didn't finish the book, but did read the first five pairings to try to give it a genuine chance. I felt like most of these stories seemed written by adolescent boys who've watched way too much late night tv and had one hand down their pants the whole time. Not one of the ten stories I read was actually scary... The strong points of this book are that the proceeds went to charity, and I loved the "face-off" concept. Thus, I will say my money was well spent. I really wanted to enjoy this, and I'm sure some people will, but not for me.
I am a die-hard horror fan, but I like stuff that's atmospheric, psychological, and nuanced. If you're more into slasher stuff, this is probably for you. I didn't finish the book, but did read the first five pairings to try to give it a genuine chance. I felt like most of these stories seemed written by adolescent boys who've watched way too much late night tv and had one hand down their pants the whole time. Not one of the ten stories I read was actually scary... The strong points of this book are that the proceeds went to charity, and I loved the "face-off" concept. Thus, I will say my money was well spent. I really wanted to enjoy this, and I'm sure some people will, but not for me.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews