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Dead Ends: Stories from the Gothic South
Look at this picture. Tell me what you see... The American South is rife with stories of a haunted past--especially its houses. In this eclectic and impressive collection, thirteen novelists were asked to build their tales around the photo of a dilapidated mansion. They were given two requirements--the house must appear in the story, and it should be a Southern Gothic tale. And they delivered. From childish demons to a mad novelist, from the Mississippi delta to the Appalachians, this collection from emerging voices and New York Times bestselling authors explores what happens when secrets that lie beneath the dust are disturbed--and our worst nightmares begin. Darkness lurks behind every corner, especially dead ends.
333 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2017
105 people are currently reading
1338 people want to read
About the author
J.T. Ellison
81 books6,863 followersJ.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 30 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. She also writes fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.
With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards They have also been optioned for television, and published in 28 countries.
J.T. lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens, one of whom is a ghost, where she is hard at work on her next novel.
With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards They have also been optioned for television, and published in 28 countries.
J.T. lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens, one of whom is a ghost, where she is hard at work on her next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
October 11, 2017
I'm originally from the southern part of the US and there always will be a love for southern literature flowing in my veins. There is something a little darker, more brooding about southern tales. Naturally when I saw this collection, Dead Ends: Stories from the Gothic South, my heart began to race a little faster! Gothic noir? Old houses? What could better? It did not disappoint.
The premise each writer was given was to write about a photo of an old house that they were shown. Each story, however, was as unique and creative as the writers themselves. There were tales of haunted mansions, witches, ghosts, ghouls and even zombies! While I admit that I did not read all of the stories, two simply were not my style or taste at all, there were some surprises! I never have read about or seen anything concerning zombies but "Women Zombies" was my favorite short in the book! I wanted more of it! Death Doula was a very close second favorite and the author now has a new fan.
This is a quick read and perfect for noir lovers or those just looking for a good Halloween tale.
The premise each writer was given was to write about a photo of an old house that they were shown. Each story, however, was as unique and creative as the writers themselves. There were tales of haunted mansions, witches, ghosts, ghouls and even zombies! While I admit that I did not read all of the stories, two simply were not my style or taste at all, there were some surprises! I never have read about or seen anything concerning zombies but "Women Zombies" was my favorite short in the book! I wanted more of it! Death Doula was a very close second favorite and the author now has a new fan.
This is a quick read and perfect for noir lovers or those just looking for a good Halloween tale.
October 23, 2017
I'm a little biased because my story is in the collection...but my review is about my fellow authors. An amazing, talented bunch who really produced great work here. I'm honored to be among them. Enjoy!
September 29, 2017
I bought this to read Amanda Stevens story The Death Doula. Creeptastic story.
October 9, 2017
I adore single point inspiration stories. You know, those ones that all start from the same image, or thought, or trigger? Dead Ends, edited by JT Ellison, is just such a collection. I read the first and immediately realized that this is a collection to be savored. Trotted out for those occasions when you need good story, often accompanied by good wine, to take you away. This collection is that and more. I will be savoring these stories in special moments.
February 2, 2019
If there is one thing I love about being a native Southerner, it's our deep sense of history, mystery, and myth. I've been fortunate to live all over the US and other parts of the world in my 49 years, and I can honestly say that there is no place like home.
The Perfect Buyer (Jeff Abbott) - shades of The Shining. 3.5 stars
Women and Zombies (Helen Ellis) - my favorite in this collection and I did not want it to end. I will definitely be looking for more by this author. 5+ stars
No Truth to Tell (Patti Callahan Henry) - for me this was a classic Gothic story. 4 stars
The Death Doula (Amanda Stevens) - downright creepy. I could easily see this being made into a horror movie. The ending freaked me out. 4+ stars
The Gentleman's Magicians (Paige Crutcher) - maybe it was just me but I didn't quite "get" what this story was supposed to be about. I'm giving it 3 stars because it held my attention.
Fortunate Sons (Dana Chamblee Carpenter) - creepy but good. I didn't see that ending coming. A definite Gothic you would find in the South! 4+ stars
Stone Angels (Laura Benedict) - while I can definitely see this being played out in a psychological thriller/horror movie, it wasn't my taste. 3 stars
The Body Electric (Bryon Quertermous) - creepy and weird. I'm not sure what to think about it. 3 stars
In Home Visit (Dave White) - Another one I'm not sure what to think about it, but it also ended abruptly. 2 stars
The Perfect House (Lisa Morton) - Would make the perfect horror movie if you're into that kind of entertainment. 3+ stars
Sleeping Angels (David Bell) - I didn't exactly enjoy it, but I did relish the "fuck you" at the end. You'd have to read it to understand. 3 stars
Catwood (JT Ellison) - I spent most of this story confused. 2 stars
Looking for the Lost (Ariel Lawhon) - this one I really enjoyed and could see being made into a tv series. (I would definitely tune in). 4+ stars
I picked this up free on Barnes and Noble and it was definitely worth my time. If you like spooky, creepy, Gothic stories that make you think, consider picking this up.
July 29, 2023
No southern, no gothic.
June 26, 2023
One or two were hard to follow but most were good. Stevens’ “The Death Doula” was creepy and not what I expected from the title. Benedict’s “Stone Angels” was creepy and gave me vibes of The Twilight Zone. White’s “In Home Visit” was odd and surprising. Morton’s “The Perfect House” reminded me of the movie The Skeleton Key in miniature, at least in its ending. Like most short story collections, this is a mixed bag but with an interesting premise.
Everyone understood the assignment, except for Ellis in “Women and Zombies” which was a jarring departure into post-modern supposedly-feminist writing that’s all volume and obscenity.
Everyone understood the assignment, except for Ellis in “Women and Zombies” which was a jarring departure into post-modern supposedly-feminist writing that’s all volume and obscenity.
January 26, 2018
This book reads like a unique writing exercise, wherein the editor, J T Ellison has presented 13 short stories, which have been authored by different writers, based on a picture of a dilapidated Gothic mansion that was presented to them. The only condition was that the house should figure in all the stories. Interestingly, the kindle edition of the book even features the photo in question- the one that was presented to the authors. It depicts a dilapidated mansion in the Gothic style, unkempt grounds, a broken down high gate at which a desolate man in a grimy suit is watching the mansion with his back to the camera. It is quite an evocative picture, and sky is the limit as far as a writer’s imagination can soar, as has been demonstrated by the tales that have been spun by these 13 authors.
Of the 13 stories, about 10 are outstanding. 3 of the stories in the collection did not impress me much. But, it was interesting to note as to how the authors have managed to narrate stories, merely using the picture of that desolate house as a prop. True artistry, and that is why I feel the genre of short stories is both challenging as well as the most fruitful, provided the author gets the right mood as well as a credible plot into place.
Of the 13 stories, about 10 are outstanding. 3 of the stories in the collection did not impress me much. But, it was interesting to note as to how the authors have managed to narrate stories, merely using the picture of that desolate house as a prop. True artistry, and that is why I feel the genre of short stories is both challenging as well as the most fruitful, provided the author gets the right mood as well as a credible plot into place.
January 18, 2018
An amazing collection of stories. Each one so different from the others. I love the premise for this book and hope to see a possible second go round. Definitely one of my favorite reads!
April 18, 2025
Listened to the audio version that is bundled under the title “A Bundle of Shadowy Tales” and includes the book “Stories of the Night.” I’ve included the first half of this review for an overall review and the second part is for each story. Overall this comes out to a 1.75 based on each story, but I honestly can’t say this is a 2🌟 book with any sense of truth. It’s just horrible.
I expected so much from this book and so excited to finally get to it. It was a complete disappointment. After listening to “Stories of the Night” and realizing it was an utter disappointment, I should’ve thrown in the towel and not wasted another 12+ hours with this one. This is a little over 8 hours long but I kept having to backtrack to figure out what was going on in these stories. I kept thinking I’d missed something, but I hadn’t. They were just really poorly written, disjointed, ramblings, most of which made no sense.
The premise of this book sounded awesome. A group of writers are given a picture of an old, dilapidated mansion and told to write a story following two requirements: the house must appear in the story and it should be a Southern Gothic tale. (I use that word very loosely. Words were written yes, but I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying any of these authors are professional writers). Sadly, the majority of these stories neither involved the house nor were Southern Gothic. Because the majority of them didn’t involve a house has a one sentence reference to a house, it really didn’t come across as a collection based on a photo. It definitely didn’t line up with the hype Ellison made in the opening about showing this picture and telling authors to create a story based on the picture. Just saying there’s a house and having a story that has nothing to do with a house seems to fail the idea of basing stories off of a picture. It felt like the assignment not only wasn’t followed, but that it wasn’t even clear to Ellison what it was since house could be just the word house (or in a few of them, not even that) and the story got passed through.
None of these stories were well written. This felt like stories given as a writing assignment to a high school class and the first drafts collected to make an “anthology.” The writing was incredibly juvenile and choppy. Nothing flowed or felt natural. Nothing felt polished or developed. Most of them were too disjointed and just didn’t make sense. More than half didn’t even have an ending. Nearly all just abruptly ended. They felt unfinished and were very confusing. They were overly descriptive with too many similes, metaphors and had a thesaurus overkill. They are all too long, tedious and boring. I kept falling asleep. I just wasn’t interested in the stories or characters; I was bored, lost and felt my IQ slipping; and the narration was awful.
The narrator was horrendous. Most of the stories felt like I was listening to someone learn to read. The slow pace, drawn out pauses between every word, and over pronunciations were cringy and painful. The “southern” accents and male accents were also horrific. It felt more like a parody reading of southern accents. It was read like a children’s story time with overly dramatic voices that aren’t natural.
There’s really nothing Gothic, Southern, or creepy here.
I’m not sure how so many of these stories made it in this collection because they had nothing to do with the assignment of including a haunted house. Several simply had a line stating there was a house but nothing else. The writing makes it clear they didn’t have an editor by itself, but the number of stories in a relatively small collection that had absolutely nothing to do with the prompt lets me know not only is J. T. Ellison not a good author for my taste, she’s not even a decent editor.
Skip this one if you’re looking for creepy Southern Gothic tales. Skip if you want something even halfway decently written. This collection just wasn’t good.
1. The Perfect Buyer by Jeff Abbott 2🌟
A couple buys an old family home belonging to a rival family of the wife’s. The husband goes crazy. He has a huge ego but is a complete worthless tool, so the ego didn’t really fit. The story is way too long with nothing happening. It was too long, boring, and too predicable. Nothing was creepy. It wasn’t even heart pounding for the “ghosts” or murder scenes. The story was flat and uninteresting.
2. Women and Zombies by Helen Ellis 1🌟
Zombie apocalypse in an old high school. Incredibly long with no plot. It’s just a long rambling of what people look like and how they got their nicknames. It has nothing to do with a dilapidated, creepy gothic mansion. At all. Theres no mention of a house at all since the story takes place in an old high school. Absolutely nothing happens. Zero plot. We learn Purell is named because she steals Purell, white bullet is named for stealing tampons, dildo named for stealing, you guessed it, dildos. This author clearly didn’t understand the assignment since there’s no story, no gothic mansion present, nothing creepy, nothing southern, there’s just a whole lot of nothing. It was trying too hard to be a modern feminist tale but ended up being a comedy with crude depictions of women like all of them are she-men in the apocalypse.
3. No Truth to Tell by Patty Callahan Henry 2.5🌟
A woman remembers a house from her childhood that her mother denies existed. Another long rambling of a mentally unstable woman’s inner thoughts. She doesn’t seem to like anyone and hates everything about her life/around her. Her imaginary friend wasn’t exactly imaginary which was predictable, but still decently fun. I knew who the friend was as soon as he was mentioned and what had happened with the house. No surprises and not a new take on this plot trope. This was one of only two stories that seemed to follow the assignment of an old run down house in a southern setting. The ending was dull and the story just stopped. There wasn’t really a resolution.
4. The Death Doula 2.5 🌟
I never could figure out who the death doula was, so I’m assuming she was like a Voodoo priestess. This was more based on strange characters than a story based on the picture of the dilapidated house. The house really doesn’t even come into play other than it’s inferred she begins working at a house. The priestess tricks a girl into a job of reading to a dying man daily. She seals the young girls fate for something more permanent than a daily job. I loved the idea here, but the story didn’t have a clear ending or explanation. Like the rest of this collection it felt unfinished and the sudden “end” left a lot to be desired. The majority of the story is the young woman describing herself to the dying man.
5. The Gentleman’s Magicians 1🌟
This didn’t make sense at all. I have absolutely no idea what this was supposed to be. There seemed to be a haunted house maybe or at least a house in the story. Hollowland Estate I guess is supposed to be haunted? A bartender and two grandsons are given the details of a will at the very end of the story and it’s really a one line about a house being involved. The story rambles on and on without going anywhere and the last couple of minutes we get the reading of the will where the house is given to the three people. What’s wrong with the house or going on? No clue. It’s alluded to that the bartender and the two men have some kind of history but this storyline is never developed or pursued so it makes the reason for these three people to be picked even more confusing and disjointed. There’s also an allusion to the old man knowing a secret about the house but again, this is never a developed point. The story has no ending and ends with “shadows of shadows” stepping away from the walls inside that was clearly supposed to be ominous but just felt juvenile and stunted. Show don’t tell wasn’t a strong point for this author.
6. Fortunate Sons 2.5🌟
A young man thinks he’s getting to take advantage of a naive girl, yet she has other plans. This one had a great idea going but failed to develop the story and execute it. Another long winded droll that was full of unnecessary descriptions and not enough plot moving action. Seriously, how long does it take to pull a stocking off or raise a skirt? The guy fumbled with lifting her skirt for 3/4 of the story. The story had a huge plot hole in the fact that they are supposedly in the backseat of a car the entire story but somehow at the end the car is in a bedroom with a rocking chair inside the house. It felt like the author suddenly remembered at the end they were supposed to be writing about a haunted house so they threw it in and forgot they’d written a story based entirely on being in the backseat of a car. It also wasn’t clear why the girl lured the young man to this place and why she and her “mother” do what they do. There was an attempt to explain this, but it just felt like a last ditch effort at trying to tie something together that really didn’t go together.
7. Stone Angels 2.5🌟
A young widow in need of a place to live with her daughter and a job after the war is tricked into taking a job at an old mansion as a tutor for the homeowner’s granddaughter. The granddaughter isn’t what she seems and goes to drastic, evil lengths to keep people from leaving her. There’s one sentence at the end about what the child is but that’s it so it felt more like a forced let me tell you what’s happened because I haven’t been able to show you in the entire story. Another undeveloped idea thrown into the story at the last possible minute to “explain” the entire story that ultimately failed. This idea had potential and was eerie. Creepy children always are. By the time I felt like I was getting somewhere in the story it was over. It felt very unfinished with random idea points spread throughout that the author couldn’t link together to form a concise, well formed flowing story. The house is also basically just an inference that they’ve moved into this house with this lady, her granddaughter, a weird maid and a rude chauffeur. The story really didn’t feel like it was based on a picture of a dilapidated mansion at all.
8. The Body Electric 1🌟
I have no idea what this was supposed to be. There were words. That’s all I can say. This did not make sense at all. Nothing fit. Nothing was explained. There wasn’t a house present in this one at least not that could be easily identified. I got tired of hearing about her baby and listening to her say “my baby” over and over instead of a kids name. The kid apparently didn’t have a name and she wasn’t a baby at all. This was definitely a school age child. Not only was there zero ending, there wasn’t a story. This was so convoluted and all over the place I can’t even begin to guess what the point was.
SPOILER here but only so you save your time should you decide to suffer through the book, you can at least skip this mess. TW: child abuse, child death, child molestation, drugs, neglect.
******SPOILER******
There’s a weird perverted preacher, a drug addicted, constantly high, “mother” doesn’t watch or care for her daughter because she’s too busy doing drugs and sleeping around. Also seems she lives in a community full of child molesters and knowingly, willingly, leaves her kid in their care and oh, she kills her father. The kid maybe falls from a tree and dies but that’s questionable since electricity wires are also referenced. Maybe the weird preacher brings her back to life? The mother then leaves the kid with a sex offender..why? Who knows. The sex offender kills the kid and she goes back to the preacher to bring her back to life again? Suddenly the preacher gives her a knife after she says she’ll do anything and talks about the body being sacred especially a man’s private parts and a young flexed body? The story just abruptly ends there without any explanation and never makes sense. It seemed more like the author was wanting to down low income, poor, addicted, ex con type groups rather than write anything remotely close to something with a plot. No mention of a house…
9. In Home Visit 1🌟
How many times can we say air conditioning, air, air conditioned air…or say Ha-Ha? The “goblin” voice and laughter was so annoying and just sounded stupid. I was so tired of hearing the throaty, grunting ha-ha every other sentence like the narrator was portraying a constipated parody of a goblin voice. Rather than make a creepy, evil voice, this just sounded like something you’d make up to make a 3 yr old laugh. It was just awful and distracting. The storyline didn’t make sense. I still have no idea if the sister was dead or not or what was going on. Not once did the goblin have two sentences in a row that made sense or fit together. This was all over the place. It was confusing and incredibly annoying. A college basketball recruiter who is also referenced as a coach? goes to a small southern town to meet a potential recruit. It bounces back and forth whether this town is his hometown or not. The student isn’t actually a student so he goes to a random house address to meet the mother. The random house is described as a random house with the man thinking about going by his old house while there then it’s suddenly his own house? Then it’s back to a random house and the story ends I think after a few more back and forths with it being his. I couldn’t follow the story with how repetitive and basic the language was and all the stupid throaty constipated goblin grunts and ha ha’s.
10. The Perfect House by Lisa Morton 3🌟
This was probably the best story in the collection but the ending ruined it completely. It was a good eerie house story with a crazy family history, nutcase relatives, and a poor guy who simply checks out the wrong house for a movie set. It was going great until the final couple of lines and the whole thing was derailed into a cheesy, verging on stupid sci fi ish possession take over. The narration of the accent…I’m assuming it was supposed to be French, was just awful. We have a dramatic build up then suddenly a long pause and this random, horrible attempt at a French accent suddenly takes over. This story had some great building and tense moments then the utter silly nonsense ending threw it all out of the window. The dumbest line was this ancient evil spirit saying he’d “have to trust to instinct when it comes to operating it” when he sees a car. At least this one followed the assignment of a haunted house and had an ending.
11. Sleeping Angels 1🌟
There’s nothing involving a haunted house here. There’s one line about the reporter claiming to have spent the night in a house where murders happened, but nothing further. No description of the house or what happened in it or during this supposed stay. The FMC is annoying and a typical overbearing, tactless, lying reporter who tries to provoke an elderly man by videoing him during an interview that turns out to have nothing to do with what she told him she was interviewing him for, then her claiming he’s attacked her during this Facebook live video. It goes as far as her giant, brute strength, no brain boyfriend tackling this 70 yr old man and “slamming” him into the ground. There was never an attack by this old man, he jumps up upset, his bathrobe falls open, and he’s angry but he never actually moves towards this woman so having her boyfriend barge in to restain him and slam him down made no sense and just felt crude. I couldn’t care about her. Regardless if the old man was a scumbag, she was just as bad. The story rambled without really going anywhere and there was nothing creepy here. It’s just about a lying reporter who is not who she says she is in any way and about her book being a fraud. The ending made no sense. How is the editor starting to understand a new world when he’s been in publishing all this time, he’s early 60s and still working. This seemed to be a clear confusion with the elderly one time author that’s interviewed at the beginning, a total different character because it’s stated earlier the elderly man has been secluded so long he doesn’t know the world has changed with cell phones and social media/live videos. It made no sense. There’s also really nothing to do with a house here other than stating she claims she spent the night in a house.
12. Looking for the Lost 1🌟
Really? Two of the main characters are named Piss and Vinegar. I knew it was going to be a flop as soon as I heard this. There are so many F bombs used back to back it felt more like a kid trying out a curse word for the first time. It didn’t fit and felt forced and silly. The narration was again horrible. The narrator read this sounding like an attempt at a dramatic, deep, throaty, tough detective radio program voice from the 40s. Some women can pull off male voices well, this narrator is not one of them. It was distracting and just sounded awful. It made no sense there’s a burial manifest of the dead’s names at this remote location full of unmarked/unclaimed graves of John/Jane Does. If they have names and records of being burning there…they aren’t J. Doe’s. It also doesn’t make sense this guy has to find this manifest and destroy the entire building to keep people from finding this one person. Why not just destroy that one record? If this is a graveyard of unknown bodies…how would anyone find this persons burning here? This was also not about a haunted dilapidated house. There’s a reference to the building once being an asylum and now the property is used for graves of unknown/unclaimed people. Another story that made no sense and had glaring plot holes and went nowhere. It was literally just a bunch of F bombs.
I expected so much from this book and so excited to finally get to it. It was a complete disappointment. After listening to “Stories of the Night” and realizing it was an utter disappointment, I should’ve thrown in the towel and not wasted another 12+ hours with this one. This is a little over 8 hours long but I kept having to backtrack to figure out what was going on in these stories. I kept thinking I’d missed something, but I hadn’t. They were just really poorly written, disjointed, ramblings, most of which made no sense.
The premise of this book sounded awesome. A group of writers are given a picture of an old, dilapidated mansion and told to write a story following two requirements: the house must appear in the story and it should be a Southern Gothic tale. (I use that word very loosely. Words were written yes, but I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying any of these authors are professional writers). Sadly, the majority of these stories neither involved the house nor were Southern Gothic. Because the majority of them didn’t involve a house has a one sentence reference to a house, it really didn’t come across as a collection based on a photo. It definitely didn’t line up with the hype Ellison made in the opening about showing this picture and telling authors to create a story based on the picture. Just saying there’s a house and having a story that has nothing to do with a house seems to fail the idea of basing stories off of a picture. It felt like the assignment not only wasn’t followed, but that it wasn’t even clear to Ellison what it was since house could be just the word house (or in a few of them, not even that) and the story got passed through.
None of these stories were well written. This felt like stories given as a writing assignment to a high school class and the first drafts collected to make an “anthology.” The writing was incredibly juvenile and choppy. Nothing flowed or felt natural. Nothing felt polished or developed. Most of them were too disjointed and just didn’t make sense. More than half didn’t even have an ending. Nearly all just abruptly ended. They felt unfinished and were very confusing. They were overly descriptive with too many similes, metaphors and had a thesaurus overkill. They are all too long, tedious and boring. I kept falling asleep. I just wasn’t interested in the stories or characters; I was bored, lost and felt my IQ slipping; and the narration was awful.
The narrator was horrendous. Most of the stories felt like I was listening to someone learn to read. The slow pace, drawn out pauses between every word, and over pronunciations were cringy and painful. The “southern” accents and male accents were also horrific. It felt more like a parody reading of southern accents. It was read like a children’s story time with overly dramatic voices that aren’t natural.
There’s really nothing Gothic, Southern, or creepy here.
I’m not sure how so many of these stories made it in this collection because they had nothing to do with the assignment of including a haunted house. Several simply had a line stating there was a house but nothing else. The writing makes it clear they didn’t have an editor by itself, but the number of stories in a relatively small collection that had absolutely nothing to do with the prompt lets me know not only is J. T. Ellison not a good author for my taste, she’s not even a decent editor.
Skip this one if you’re looking for creepy Southern Gothic tales. Skip if you want something even halfway decently written. This collection just wasn’t good.
1. The Perfect Buyer by Jeff Abbott 2🌟
A couple buys an old family home belonging to a rival family of the wife’s. The husband goes crazy. He has a huge ego but is a complete worthless tool, so the ego didn’t really fit. The story is way too long with nothing happening. It was too long, boring, and too predicable. Nothing was creepy. It wasn’t even heart pounding for the “ghosts” or murder scenes. The story was flat and uninteresting.
2. Women and Zombies by Helen Ellis 1🌟
Zombie apocalypse in an old high school. Incredibly long with no plot. It’s just a long rambling of what people look like and how they got their nicknames. It has nothing to do with a dilapidated, creepy gothic mansion. At all. Theres no mention of a house at all since the story takes place in an old high school. Absolutely nothing happens. Zero plot. We learn Purell is named because she steals Purell, white bullet is named for stealing tampons, dildo named for stealing, you guessed it, dildos. This author clearly didn’t understand the assignment since there’s no story, no gothic mansion present, nothing creepy, nothing southern, there’s just a whole lot of nothing. It was trying too hard to be a modern feminist tale but ended up being a comedy with crude depictions of women like all of them are she-men in the apocalypse.
3. No Truth to Tell by Patty Callahan Henry 2.5🌟
A woman remembers a house from her childhood that her mother denies existed. Another long rambling of a mentally unstable woman’s inner thoughts. She doesn’t seem to like anyone and hates everything about her life/around her. Her imaginary friend wasn’t exactly imaginary which was predictable, but still decently fun. I knew who the friend was as soon as he was mentioned and what had happened with the house. No surprises and not a new take on this plot trope. This was one of only two stories that seemed to follow the assignment of an old run down house in a southern setting. The ending was dull and the story just stopped. There wasn’t really a resolution.
4. The Death Doula 2.5 🌟
I never could figure out who the death doula was, so I’m assuming she was like a Voodoo priestess. This was more based on strange characters than a story based on the picture of the dilapidated house. The house really doesn’t even come into play other than it’s inferred she begins working at a house. The priestess tricks a girl into a job of reading to a dying man daily. She seals the young girls fate for something more permanent than a daily job. I loved the idea here, but the story didn’t have a clear ending or explanation. Like the rest of this collection it felt unfinished and the sudden “end” left a lot to be desired. The majority of the story is the young woman describing herself to the dying man.
5. The Gentleman’s Magicians 1🌟
This didn’t make sense at all. I have absolutely no idea what this was supposed to be. There seemed to be a haunted house maybe or at least a house in the story. Hollowland Estate I guess is supposed to be haunted? A bartender and two grandsons are given the details of a will at the very end of the story and it’s really a one line about a house being involved. The story rambles on and on without going anywhere and the last couple of minutes we get the reading of the will where the house is given to the three people. What’s wrong with the house or going on? No clue. It’s alluded to that the bartender and the two men have some kind of history but this storyline is never developed or pursued so it makes the reason for these three people to be picked even more confusing and disjointed. There’s also an allusion to the old man knowing a secret about the house but again, this is never a developed point. The story has no ending and ends with “shadows of shadows” stepping away from the walls inside that was clearly supposed to be ominous but just felt juvenile and stunted. Show don’t tell wasn’t a strong point for this author.
6. Fortunate Sons 2.5🌟
A young man thinks he’s getting to take advantage of a naive girl, yet she has other plans. This one had a great idea going but failed to develop the story and execute it. Another long winded droll that was full of unnecessary descriptions and not enough plot moving action. Seriously, how long does it take to pull a stocking off or raise a skirt? The guy fumbled with lifting her skirt for 3/4 of the story. The story had a huge plot hole in the fact that they are supposedly in the backseat of a car the entire story but somehow at the end the car is in a bedroom with a rocking chair inside the house. It felt like the author suddenly remembered at the end they were supposed to be writing about a haunted house so they threw it in and forgot they’d written a story based entirely on being in the backseat of a car. It also wasn’t clear why the girl lured the young man to this place and why she and her “mother” do what they do. There was an attempt to explain this, but it just felt like a last ditch effort at trying to tie something together that really didn’t go together.
7. Stone Angels 2.5🌟
A young widow in need of a place to live with her daughter and a job after the war is tricked into taking a job at an old mansion as a tutor for the homeowner’s granddaughter. The granddaughter isn’t what she seems and goes to drastic, evil lengths to keep people from leaving her. There’s one sentence at the end about what the child is but that’s it so it felt more like a forced let me tell you what’s happened because I haven’t been able to show you in the entire story. Another undeveloped idea thrown into the story at the last possible minute to “explain” the entire story that ultimately failed. This idea had potential and was eerie. Creepy children always are. By the time I felt like I was getting somewhere in the story it was over. It felt very unfinished with random idea points spread throughout that the author couldn’t link together to form a concise, well formed flowing story. The house is also basically just an inference that they’ve moved into this house with this lady, her granddaughter, a weird maid and a rude chauffeur. The story really didn’t feel like it was based on a picture of a dilapidated mansion at all.
8. The Body Electric 1🌟
I have no idea what this was supposed to be. There were words. That’s all I can say. This did not make sense at all. Nothing fit. Nothing was explained. There wasn’t a house present in this one at least not that could be easily identified. I got tired of hearing about her baby and listening to her say “my baby” over and over instead of a kids name. The kid apparently didn’t have a name and she wasn’t a baby at all. This was definitely a school age child. Not only was there zero ending, there wasn’t a story. This was so convoluted and all over the place I can’t even begin to guess what the point was.
SPOILER here but only so you save your time should you decide to suffer through the book, you can at least skip this mess. TW: child abuse, child death, child molestation, drugs, neglect.
******SPOILER******
There’s a weird perverted preacher, a drug addicted, constantly high, “mother” doesn’t watch or care for her daughter because she’s too busy doing drugs and sleeping around. Also seems she lives in a community full of child molesters and knowingly, willingly, leaves her kid in their care and oh, she kills her father. The kid maybe falls from a tree and dies but that’s questionable since electricity wires are also referenced. Maybe the weird preacher brings her back to life? The mother then leaves the kid with a sex offender..why? Who knows. The sex offender kills the kid and she goes back to the preacher to bring her back to life again? Suddenly the preacher gives her a knife after she says she’ll do anything and talks about the body being sacred especially a man’s private parts and a young flexed body? The story just abruptly ends there without any explanation and never makes sense. It seemed more like the author was wanting to down low income, poor, addicted, ex con type groups rather than write anything remotely close to something with a plot. No mention of a house…
9. In Home Visit 1🌟
How many times can we say air conditioning, air, air conditioned air…or say Ha-Ha? The “goblin” voice and laughter was so annoying and just sounded stupid. I was so tired of hearing the throaty, grunting ha-ha every other sentence like the narrator was portraying a constipated parody of a goblin voice. Rather than make a creepy, evil voice, this just sounded like something you’d make up to make a 3 yr old laugh. It was just awful and distracting. The storyline didn’t make sense. I still have no idea if the sister was dead or not or what was going on. Not once did the goblin have two sentences in a row that made sense or fit together. This was all over the place. It was confusing and incredibly annoying. A college basketball recruiter who is also referenced as a coach? goes to a small southern town to meet a potential recruit. It bounces back and forth whether this town is his hometown or not. The student isn’t actually a student so he goes to a random house address to meet the mother. The random house is described as a random house with the man thinking about going by his old house while there then it’s suddenly his own house? Then it’s back to a random house and the story ends I think after a few more back and forths with it being his. I couldn’t follow the story with how repetitive and basic the language was and all the stupid throaty constipated goblin grunts and ha ha’s.
10. The Perfect House by Lisa Morton 3🌟
This was probably the best story in the collection but the ending ruined it completely. It was a good eerie house story with a crazy family history, nutcase relatives, and a poor guy who simply checks out the wrong house for a movie set. It was going great until the final couple of lines and the whole thing was derailed into a cheesy, verging on stupid sci fi ish possession take over. The narration of the accent…I’m assuming it was supposed to be French, was just awful. We have a dramatic build up then suddenly a long pause and this random, horrible attempt at a French accent suddenly takes over. This story had some great building and tense moments then the utter silly nonsense ending threw it all out of the window. The dumbest line was this ancient evil spirit saying he’d “have to trust to instinct when it comes to operating it” when he sees a car. At least this one followed the assignment of a haunted house and had an ending.
11. Sleeping Angels 1🌟
There’s nothing involving a haunted house here. There’s one line about the reporter claiming to have spent the night in a house where murders happened, but nothing further. No description of the house or what happened in it or during this supposed stay. The FMC is annoying and a typical overbearing, tactless, lying reporter who tries to provoke an elderly man by videoing him during an interview that turns out to have nothing to do with what she told him she was interviewing him for, then her claiming he’s attacked her during this Facebook live video. It goes as far as her giant, brute strength, no brain boyfriend tackling this 70 yr old man and “slamming” him into the ground. There was never an attack by this old man, he jumps up upset, his bathrobe falls open, and he’s angry but he never actually moves towards this woman so having her boyfriend barge in to restain him and slam him down made no sense and just felt crude. I couldn’t care about her. Regardless if the old man was a scumbag, she was just as bad. The story rambled without really going anywhere and there was nothing creepy here. It’s just about a lying reporter who is not who she says she is in any way and about her book being a fraud. The ending made no sense. How is the editor starting to understand a new world when he’s been in publishing all this time, he’s early 60s and still working. This seemed to be a clear confusion with the elderly one time author that’s interviewed at the beginning, a total different character because it’s stated earlier the elderly man has been secluded so long he doesn’t know the world has changed with cell phones and social media/live videos. It made no sense. There’s also really nothing to do with a house here other than stating she claims she spent the night in a house.
12. Looking for the Lost 1🌟
Really? Two of the main characters are named Piss and Vinegar. I knew it was going to be a flop as soon as I heard this. There are so many F bombs used back to back it felt more like a kid trying out a curse word for the first time. It didn’t fit and felt forced and silly. The narration was again horrible. The narrator read this sounding like an attempt at a dramatic, deep, throaty, tough detective radio program voice from the 40s. Some women can pull off male voices well, this narrator is not one of them. It was distracting and just sounded awful. It made no sense there’s a burial manifest of the dead’s names at this remote location full of unmarked/unclaimed graves of John/Jane Does. If they have names and records of being burning there…they aren’t J. Doe’s. It also doesn’t make sense this guy has to find this manifest and destroy the entire building to keep people from finding this one person. Why not just destroy that one record? If this is a graveyard of unknown bodies…how would anyone find this persons burning here? This was also not about a haunted dilapidated house. There’s a reference to the building once being an asylum and now the property is used for graves of unknown/unclaimed people. Another story that made no sense and had glaring plot holes and went nowhere. It was literally just a bunch of F bombs.
March 20, 2019
When undecided, I always “round up” my star ratings; thus the two-star rating for this one. I downloaded this book of short stories because it was listed as a J.T. Ellington book, and I had just finished a highly-enjoyable book of short stories and novellas by her. This book was not written by her. The book contains 13 short story/novellas - all written in response to a visual prompt of an old deserted house. Horror is not a genre I usually read or like, a fact that partially explains my mostly negative review comments. Different authors, different lengths, different writing-skill levels, different interest levels, so different reviews:
•The Perfect Buyer by Jeff Abbott - reasonably interesting, but too long
•Women and Zombies by Helen Ellis - ridiculously boring
•No Truth to Tell by Patti Callahan Henry - well-written; interesting.
•The Death Doula by Amanda Stevens - odd, but well-written and interesting.
•The Gentleman’s Magicians by Paige Crutcher - huh!?
•Fortunate Sons by Dana Chamblee Carpenter - okay
•Stone Angels by Laura Benedict - well-written. Interesting.
•The Body Electric by Byron Quertermous - totally incoherent to me.
•In Home Visit by Dave White - pitiful
•The Perfect House by Lisa Morton - imaginative. Interesting.
•Sleeping Angels by David Bell - ???
•Catwood by J.T. Ellison - Well written and interesting.
•Looking for the Lost by Ariel Lawhon - One of the better stories in the book.
•The Perfect Buyer by Jeff Abbott - reasonably interesting, but too long
•Women and Zombies by Helen Ellis - ridiculously boring
•No Truth to Tell by Patti Callahan Henry - well-written; interesting.
•The Death Doula by Amanda Stevens - odd, but well-written and interesting.
•The Gentleman’s Magicians by Paige Crutcher - huh!?
•Fortunate Sons by Dana Chamblee Carpenter - okay
•Stone Angels by Laura Benedict - well-written. Interesting.
•The Body Electric by Byron Quertermous - totally incoherent to me.
•In Home Visit by Dave White - pitiful
•The Perfect House by Lisa Morton - imaginative. Interesting.
•Sleeping Angels by David Bell - ???
•Catwood by J.T. Ellison - Well written and interesting.
•Looking for the Lost by Ariel Lawhon - One of the better stories in the book.
September 27, 2021
Mostly "Dead Ends" In This Anthology
As the Editor and Author, J.T. Ellison explains in the foreward, "if you give thirteen writers a photo and ask them to write a story, you’ll get thirteen completely different stories." And so it goes for the gothic anthology, "Dead Ends: Stories From The Gothic South." Included are thirteen individual stories, each written by a different author, and let me tell you they could not be more different in every way.
Out of the thirteen stories, I found only five (5) to be actually interesting, creative, and truly creepy enough to be worthy of being in a gothic anthology since there were actually parameters given for the story. The five standouts (with respective authors), in my humble opinion, were: The Death Doula (Amanda Stevens); Fortunate Sons (Dana Chamblee Carpenter); Stone Angels (Laura Benedict); The Perfect House (Lisa Morton); and Catwood (J.T. Ellison). I could see all of these being a Twilight Zone or Creepshow episode. All very enjoyable and great writing from these authors.
At the opposite end of the literary spectrum, we have HOT garbage in the likes of: 1) "The Body Electric," which was so bizarre it was unlike anything I've ever read - but not in a good way. It seemed (to me) the author liked to pile/dump on those less fortunate in society, especially those with social taboos. Not cool, in my humble opinion.
2)The HOTTEST and WORST piece of garbage in the anthology is titled, "Women and Zombies." This story is set in an post-apocalyptic high school/commune, aka "The Frizz," where only women are allowed and are named according to their fine-honed kleptomania skills - one steals hand sanitizer, thus her name is Purell; another, super glue - yep, you guessed it, SuperGlue is her name. Half of the student body was killed after eating poisoned tater tots imported from Iraq, the other half was killed by the school staff. I personally thought this story was imbecilic and immature. I have no idea how it made it into this anthology, as there is nothing gothic, horror, or thriller based at all in the storyline. It read more like a comedy. Such nonsense and utterly ridiculous. I know there had to have been far superior stories out there that could have replaced WAZ, but for some reason Ellison chose to include it. Someone must know where she is hiding her bodies. Kidding, Kidding.
As for the remaining six stories, they are okay. Not great, not bad, just okay. Enjoyable enough for a quick read before bed or the like.
Ultimately, however, I cannot recommend the book. Doing some quick math, feeling only 5 out of 13 of the stories truly were above average is only a 39% success rate - it isn't even close to half the book. Due to the fact you have to pay for this anthology, unless it goes down in price, I wouldn't bother.
I, myself, would like a refund, but know that is wishful thinking.
Hope this review is helpful to someone.
As the Editor and Author, J.T. Ellison explains in the foreward, "if you give thirteen writers a photo and ask them to write a story, you’ll get thirteen completely different stories." And so it goes for the gothic anthology, "Dead Ends: Stories From The Gothic South." Included are thirteen individual stories, each written by a different author, and let me tell you they could not be more different in every way.
Out of the thirteen stories, I found only five (5) to be actually interesting, creative, and truly creepy enough to be worthy of being in a gothic anthology since there were actually parameters given for the story. The five standouts (with respective authors), in my humble opinion, were: The Death Doula (Amanda Stevens); Fortunate Sons (Dana Chamblee Carpenter); Stone Angels (Laura Benedict); The Perfect House (Lisa Morton); and Catwood (J.T. Ellison). I could see all of these being a Twilight Zone or Creepshow episode. All very enjoyable and great writing from these authors.
At the opposite end of the literary spectrum, we have HOT garbage in the likes of: 1) "The Body Electric," which was so bizarre it was unlike anything I've ever read - but not in a good way. It seemed (to me) the author liked to pile/dump on those less fortunate in society, especially those with social taboos. Not cool, in my humble opinion.
2)The HOTTEST and WORST piece of garbage in the anthology is titled, "Women and Zombies." This story is set in an post-apocalyptic high school/commune, aka "The Frizz," where only women are allowed and are named according to their fine-honed kleptomania skills - one steals hand sanitizer, thus her name is Purell; another, super glue - yep, you guessed it, SuperGlue is her name. Half of the student body was killed after eating poisoned tater tots imported from Iraq, the other half was killed by the school staff. I personally thought this story was imbecilic and immature. I have no idea how it made it into this anthology, as there is nothing gothic, horror, or thriller based at all in the storyline. It read more like a comedy. Such nonsense and utterly ridiculous. I know there had to have been far superior stories out there that could have replaced WAZ, but for some reason Ellison chose to include it. Someone must know where she is hiding her bodies. Kidding, Kidding.
As for the remaining six stories, they are okay. Not great, not bad, just okay. Enjoyable enough for a quick read before bed or the like.
Ultimately, however, I cannot recommend the book. Doing some quick math, feeling only 5 out of 13 of the stories truly were above average is only a 39% success rate - it isn't even close to half the book. Due to the fact you have to pay for this anthology, unless it goes down in price, I wouldn't bother.
I, myself, would like a refund, but know that is wishful thinking.
Hope this review is helpful to someone.
September 21, 2025
Didn’t finish the book. I love short stories, I also love the concept of the book and how it all stems from the picture of the house. It was what made me buy it, but a couple stories in I just couldn’t continue. I don’t like to do the DNF thing but someone said that there are too many books in the world that I would enjoy reading than to be stuck reading something I felt obligated to finish just cause. The only story I kind of liked so far was the death doula. I think I stopped there cause it just wasn’t enough to keep me going for the other stories. The way the stories were written just felt very, low quality. I don’t really know how else to put it that is nicer but that is how I felt.
March 10, 2018
This is a collection of stories by 13 authors that were shown a photo of an old mansion and were asked to write a story inspired by it and within the boundaries of the theme "southern gothic". I'm a fan of that subject and thought it was a really cool and interesting exercise. I bought it originally because of Amanda Stevens, but really enjoyed most of the stories, some were exquisitely eerie while others were downright creepy.
A fun read that will be throughly enjoyed by those into horror and southern charm.
A fun read that will be throughly enjoyed by those into horror and southern charm.
August 17, 2024
I find it hard to rate this collection of short stories. The premise was for a group of authors to write a gothic story after taking inspiration from a picture of a male figure staring at the crumbling gates of a tumble down, formerly elegant Victorian home, hidden in the woods. All the stories had merits, and each had a surprising and maudlin conclusion, but some I "didn't get" at all. The time I spent on this wasn't uplifting, but given the inspiration the authors were given to work with, I thought that the creativity and differing approaches were interesting and universally creepy.
November 15, 2017
So much fun seeing how 13 authors can take the same premise of an enigmatic, dilapidated house and each turn it into something captivating. An engaging, joyous book to have, and one I took my time going through between stories, so that I could pause and reflect. I especially liked Amanda Steven's contribution. She has a new fan in me! Thank you J.T. Ellison for spearheading this book. It was a wonderful way for me to discover authors I might not have discovered otherwise.
December 30, 2017
Short Stories are AOK
Soooo, this book is full of short stories in which each author is given the same photograph of an old mansion and they each write a story. The stories all have commonalities such as mystery, ghosts, secrets, certain smells, etc. Most I enjoyed very much and wanted the full novel format and didn’t want them to end. What a creative book combining so many mystery driven short stories.
Soooo, this book is full of short stories in which each author is given the same photograph of an old mansion and they each write a story. The stories all have commonalities such as mystery, ghosts, secrets, certain smells, etc. Most I enjoyed very much and wanted the full novel format and didn’t want them to end. What a creative book combining so many mystery driven short stories.
October 8, 2023
I loved the idea of having the image of an old abandoned house as the thread running through this collection of stories. I really loved three of the stories, didn't like 2 or 3 at all and found the rest to be enjoyable and interesting reads. Some felt as if they were excerpts of a longer novel rather than a short story unto itself. Overall, a nice collection to read during the Fall spooky season.
November 7, 2017
Overall, an enjoyable short-story read to meet the requirements for one of the Popsugar challenges. Some of the stories were really creepy (especially the ones involving children), some of them were just okay, and one was really a great story but the author did not wrap the story up very well (no real ending). A mix bag of stories.
September 10, 2021
4.5 stars. Very cool premise -- all writers in this collection are creating their story with the single prompt of a photo. Some of the stories are genius and warrant 5 stars -- Women and Zombies, Sleeping Angels, Catwood, and Looking for the Lost -- while others are good, but not so memorable. A good addition if you are a fan of story collections from different authors.
August 19, 2018
Dead Ends, indeed!
These short stories are totally engrossing - a feat accomplished with so few words. Dark and often heart-rending - each is its own microcosm built around a single photo. Read and enjoy!
These short stories are totally engrossing - a feat accomplished with so few words. Dark and often heart-rending - each is its own microcosm built around a single photo. Read and enjoy!
September 20, 2018
Very enjoyable gothic anthology
A wide variety of wonderful gothic tales all set in the South. They all worked very well and the range of stories was very fun. My only complaint is that I wish some of them were longer.
A wide variety of wonderful gothic tales all set in the South. They all worked very well and the range of stories was very fun. My only complaint is that I wish some of them were longer.
November 6, 2019
I saved this for Halloween week. Some stories were better than others. Enjoyable overall. This is a fun quick read full of spooky stories perfect for fall nights. Loved the premise of the mansion as the subject.
October 17, 2020
As with most short story collections, some stories were good while some were just okay. The stories I liked were "The Perfect Buyer"; "The Death Doula"; "The Stone Angels"; "The Perfect House"; and "Sleeping Angels".
October 15, 2017
Really good selection of stories! Can’t say I loved all of them, a few were just weird. I’ve read books by a few of the authors here, will definitely be reading more of them.
November 20, 2017
Goosebumps! Not to be read before bed! 13 writers are shown a picture and asked to write a short story, with 2 conditions: the story must be gothic, and Southern related. Boy did they come through!
March 14, 2018
The stories are good but I guess I just need them to be a little longer.
April 3, 2018
Some stories are pretty good, but a couple should be skipped for being dull or gross. I still can't find a book similar to mine that I want published.
January 8, 2019
You had me at “Southern Gothic”
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