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Gone Where The Goblins Go
More stories of modern horror by the author of the Monster trilogy, with illustrations by S.R. Ayers.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 5, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 3, 2024
As the Boogey-Man checks his closet for Chuck Norris, undoubtedly, Dean Koontz checks under his bed for Mr. Bitner. This man is scary. Well, maybe Mr. Bitner, himself, is not terribly terrifying; but his writing…..spine-chilling.
For as long as I can remember, I have gravitated towards the scary, mind-boggling, creepy, inexplicably mysterious tales. Way back when Frog asks Toad, “Don’t you like to get the shivers?” and I shouted, “Yes!”, I began to prowl for those stories that bring chill-bumps to my skin and raise the tiny hairs on the back of my neck. I knew Stephen King when I was eleven. I slipped books out of my parents’ bookshelves: John Saul and Dean Koontz consumed my teen-aged brain. I continued to branch out, yet until very recently, Mr. Bitner lay waiting; lurking, just under my radar.
Totally worth the wait, Mr. Bitner’s writing is no less than dazzling and captivating. Gone Where the Goblins Go is a collection of short, horrifying tales that should not be read prior to going into any swampy area alone. First, there is the writing style. It is compelling. Descriptions are written so that this reader promptly felt immersed in the scene. My t-shirt seemed sticky, and the air in my climate-controlled home grew thick and muggy as I began the first tale. Towards the end of another adventure; The Dunbar Horror, my stomach dropped as if I were on the top of the Double-Ferris-Wheel, swiftly moving towards the ground. As if eliciting raw fear were not enough, the final feature in this collection evoked additional emotions and was surprisingly thought-provoking.
The quality that I feel separates Mr. Bitner’s work from the run-of-the-mill scary book, is the absence of labels. He suggests, rather than tells. There is no twisting, modernizing or adding to existing abominations such as werewolves or faeries. No, the horrors here are undefined. My wacky imagination, craftily fed by Mr. Bitner’s word wizardry, creates a whole new type of terror. In a very good, eerie, spooky kind of way.
I am looking very forward to going back and reading Mr. Bitner’s earlier works, and if you, like Frog, enjoy getting “the shivers”; I highly recommend this book to you.
For as long as I can remember, I have gravitated towards the scary, mind-boggling, creepy, inexplicably mysterious tales. Way back when Frog asks Toad, “Don’t you like to get the shivers?” and I shouted, “Yes!”, I began to prowl for those stories that bring chill-bumps to my skin and raise the tiny hairs on the back of my neck. I knew Stephen King when I was eleven. I slipped books out of my parents’ bookshelves: John Saul and Dean Koontz consumed my teen-aged brain. I continued to branch out, yet until very recently, Mr. Bitner lay waiting; lurking, just under my radar.
Totally worth the wait, Mr. Bitner’s writing is no less than dazzling and captivating. Gone Where the Goblins Go is a collection of short, horrifying tales that should not be read prior to going into any swampy area alone. First, there is the writing style. It is compelling. Descriptions are written so that this reader promptly felt immersed in the scene. My t-shirt seemed sticky, and the air in my climate-controlled home grew thick and muggy as I began the first tale. Towards the end of another adventure; The Dunbar Horror, my stomach dropped as if I were on the top of the Double-Ferris-Wheel, swiftly moving towards the ground. As if eliciting raw fear were not enough, the final feature in this collection evoked additional emotions and was surprisingly thought-provoking.
The quality that I feel separates Mr. Bitner’s work from the run-of-the-mill scary book, is the absence of labels. He suggests, rather than tells. There is no twisting, modernizing or adding to existing abominations such as werewolves or faeries. No, the horrors here are undefined. My wacky imagination, craftily fed by Mr. Bitner’s word wizardry, creates a whole new type of terror. In a very good, eerie, spooky kind of way.
I am looking very forward to going back and reading Mr. Bitner’s earlier works, and if you, like Frog, enjoy getting “the shivers”; I highly recommend this book to you.
October 30, 2020
This book is full of tales of terror of all types! Most authors have a set style to their horror but William Bitner is able to scare the reader is a whole variety of ways! No matter how you like your monsters, there is going to be at least one of Bitner’s stories you’re going to love.
October 10, 2014
I picked up this collection of short stories from Mr. Bitner at this year's River City Comic Con in Marietta, Ohio. Horror isn't typically my favorite genre, but this book was incredibly impressive. It is exactly the kind of writing I like, bare-boned, without any filler or uselessly long descriptive paragraphs. It throws you into a blue-collar world where something terrible is lurking just beneath the surface and leaves you stranded there with no easy explanations of what you just experienced. I always thought it was a cliche when people say "this story really stuck with me long after reading it," but I have seriously not been able to shake several of the tales in this book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews