Thriller, horror, and suspense short stories. Multiple Award-Winning authors.
A is for Addiction...B is for Barnacles...C is for Clairvoyance...
Discover the rest of these original horror stories from around the world. Each author chose a letter of the alphabet and was given complete artistic freedom to make something horrible happen. Some stories will be mysterious, others creepy or even profound, but all are crafted to thrill and terrify you to the last page.
This is what happens when dozens of uncensored creative people are allowed to mine the depths of the human psyche for the most depraved, twisted, horrible things imaginable.
Special edition with intricate full-page illustrations bring the stories to life!
What it really meant was she was rotting away in a cage of her own flesh. The weight of her own body had crushed the flesh on her backside so that it had stopped circulating blood, had started to die. It meant that, after only twenty-six days of freedom, I had to go home and take care of her again. I came back to a familiar smell of piss and sweat and mold; but that was all mixed with a new taint, the sour and yet sickeningly-sweet smell of rotting flesh. She wasn’t in her usual chair. Instead, I found her collapsed on a mattress in a bedroom she hadn’t used for as long as I could remember, the springs creaking under her weight. She was dressed in a simple blue shirt, almost like a hospital gown, and lifting up the bottom edge, my eyes came level to where she was rotting.- N is for Necrosis
Former neuroscience researcher, born again horror writer. During my studies, it struck me as odd that I could learn so much about why humans behave without understanding the intricacies of human nature. It occurred to me that I learned more about the depths of human experience from reading Dostoyevsky than I ever had from my text books, and I was inspired to write.
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An ingenious collection of 27 short stories (A-Z including ampersand) that leave you with a shiver down your spine and a sense of dread of what is happening the further you read into the book. Some stories are scary, others just mysterious, but I must say it was the last few stories in the collection that left an impact with me at the revelations. While Tobias Wade says the book is a collection of stories written by various authors, I'm wondering whether this is perhaps a sleight of hand on his behalf as the stories are too interconnected to simply be a letter of the alphabet each chosen by a different author. The stunning conclusion ties all the stories together in scenes dripping in horrid conspiracy, and I think only one author could achieve such an ending of a complex series of plots. I have another of the author's books that I'm beginning to read now and I'll see how it compares to this work. The author really has a talent for building dread and exposing the horror in seemingly everyday events. (I never knew that a barnacle was a living creature and after reading the short story revolving around them I NEVER want to see one. They are the creepiest little fuckers ever!!)
I received an ebook copy of this novel from the author via Bookfunnel. I have voluntarily chosen to review the book, and the gifting in no way determines my rating/review, which reflects my honest opinion.
I trudged my way all the way to the story &. While there where a few decent stories, I really feel like it was just a sad waste of time. I need to work on this stubborness! I'm getting old and there are so many more books.
This book is horror stories for every letter of the alphabet. I loved all the stories except N. Let me rephrase that. N was a good story but it was way too gory and gross for me. I couldn't finish it. I had to skip it.
I was reading the story for N and my husband asked me what was wrong. He said I had such a look of horror on my face. He had never seem me look like that while reading, haha. I couldn't even explain, I just had him read it. He couldn't finish it either and he can handle gory stuff. I mean Final Destination is one of the mans favorite movies! That should tell you something!
The book has a decent premise: the book is written by a bunch of different authors; (26?) each one taking a letter of the alphabet, and writing a scary story. The PROBLEM is that this book is written by a bunch of different authors; (26?) each one taking a letter of the alphabet, and writing a scary story. You know that old adage about "too many cooks in the kitchen;" this absolutely holds true here. This book is just confusing and muddled. Some of the stories play off of each other, and intertwine. Some of the stories are completely independent of all the rest. Some are well written. Some are pure dreck. Some are edited and devoid of grammatical and typographical errors. Some are chock full of distracting mistakes. It's just not a good book. It's all over the place, and I found myself losing interest pretty early in the alphabet.
Here's an example of a spot where I was just left scratching my head. (This isn't a spoiler, even though, I don't think this book CAN be spoiled, due to it's weird nature.)
"You've let the power get to your head Olivia." "He gestured to a Blue Shirt who emerged from the shadows, bearing that ever hateful symbol her uniform. 'This woman, Olivia, will be taking over for you kids so you can help your friends in town,' he told us in a saccharine tone. After that, Olivia would exit town with no form of weapon on her, yet our town shook from the explosions she was no doubt the cause of."
So wait....Olivia is the protagonist in this particular story, with the story being told from her first person perspective. So, is the woman who will be taking over also named Olivia? Is he saying, "Olivia, this person will be taking over?" Or is it, "Olivia, Olivia, will be taking over?"
Turns out, I think, it's the last one. So, they're both named Olivia, and you find that out in the most bafflingly confusing way possible.
Just a weird read, and not one I'd like to do again. Some of the stories can be fleshed out into their own books, but as a hodge podge of short stories, this book falls flat.
First of all, this book wasn't at all what I expected. Usually a collection like this contains unconnected stories, sometimes written by different authors. That was not the case with this book.
Each story was named for a letter of the alphabet (hence the name), with a different author's name on each. However, I think that Mr. Tobias Wade actually wrote each of the stories since they had a similar writing style.
Some of the stories were quite creepy, but some were just disturbing. There was a smattering of sci-fi, some serial killers, a "priest" leading believers in a cult, and a lot of sexual perversion. In fact, it seemed like most of the stories had a sexual undertone, even when it really didn't add much to the tale.
A few of the stories had some haunting qualities about them and I will never look at barnacles in the same way! The "B" story called "Barnacles" was probably the best of the lot.
There were some threads connecting the stories to each other in the way that something in one story was a reference to another story. The last chapter was (supposedly) the wrap up of the collection, but I just didn't see it.
The narrator did a good job, but like another reviewer said, his very British accent was not a good fit for this Midwestern set of stories. Nothing against the narrator, it just didn't fit.
All in all, this just wasn't that good of a horror collection in my opinion. I never really got that creepy, look behind you feeling while I was reading this book. My feelings were more revulsion at some of the things that were described but weren't scary, just disgusting. There was some horror, but not that much. I was given a copy of this audiobook by Audiobook Boom and chose to review it.
This book is an intriguing concept. It's an anthology of 27 short horror stories by 27 different authors, one for each letter of the alphabet and an additional story for "ampersand," but that's not the intriguing concept. The stories are a mixed bag - some good, some mediocre, and some that left me totally flat - but after reading several of them, it becomes apparent they are not random and disconnected. The reader notices similar themes, similar settings, similar characters, but it's not until the later stories that a coherent narrative finally develops and comes into focus, sort of like an old Polaroid photograph.
When I realized how the stories were connected, my interest in finishing the book increased. I would have rated Alphabet Soup higher than three stars, except that some of the stories just weren't that good. Also, some of the stories needed better editing. But still, it was an interesting read.
Final footnote: I read this via my Kindle app on my phone. So I would read it at odd times - while waiting in line or at other random moments. I think I would have perceived and appreciated the overall story arc sooner and more clearly if I'd actually sat down and read the book in a more conventional manner.
The authors told stories with the kind of characters you would find in our contemporary times today, with very evil people inside them and makes you think that you think you're in a very bad situation now, there are far worse things that could happen (to anybody), like the story V is for Venom, or ones that show you everything from the bad guy's point of view, like the film American Psycho, in the story P is for Prey.
Me personally, I am a fan of horror anthology, and they all come in different forms whether they are books or TV shows or films.
The story of M is for Mirror, is what the horror film Mirrors (with Sutherland) could have been. The story S is for Sable, reminds me of the 1973 British anthology film Witness To Madness's third story Mel, where a man pisses his wife off, by bringing a small tree back home, and that this tree looks kinda human.
This is a book I'd recommend for horror anthology fans who can't sleep at night or want something to read, just after 1AM or 2AM in the morning.
First of all: "This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."
With that out of the way, let's talk about this book. The short stories in this book are all connected in a couple of ways. First of all, they are presented sequentially, with the title of each story starting with the next letter in the alphabet, A is for Addiction, B is for Barnacle, etc. They are also connected thematically, with many recurring elements throughout the stories, such as barnacles, doomsday cults, etc. I really liked the cohesiveness this lent to the work as a whole. While the writing style overall was excellent, I found that some of the stories just didn't hold my interest.
The narrator of this audiobook has a terrific voice for the genre of horror. His accent added an element of mystery to everything, and his voice was overall very pleasing. The emotional rawness of the tales was expressed nicely in his vocal tones, and he really helped to draw me in to those stories that grabbed me the most. Overall, a nice collection.
Pretty good collection of stories that are somewhat connected to an overall narrative (some more than others). This reminded me of the Limbus Inc anthology although that collection included a lot of sci fi and I felt had more cohesiveness.
Some of the stories here were difficult to connect some storylines and characters - ex there is a Sheriff Jake Hammond who appears in a few stories. There is a “Jake” in “Your Match” - is he the same guy? There are two Olivias - one a kid and one a woman and sometimes it was confusing keeping them straight. Why couldn’t they just have different names?
I also didn’t like the last story and felt it ended with a lot of unresolved questions.
So for me the individual stories for the most part were very good, but taking them as part of an interwoven narrative I felt it wasn’t as strong as it could have been. Still a good read and worth checking out.
Twenty-seven short stories by multiple authors about many (seemingly) different events. All have one thing in common. They are horrific, many have extremely gruesome happenings. There are small similarities, characters from one author's tale make guest appearances in other author's works. Hints were dropped, but not until I read the final chapter did I see everything pulled together and it blew me away. Please note, this is NOT a clean book. It is filled with ghastly, disturbing and repugnant occurrences with cursing, cannibalism and sex thrown into the mix.
I liked the premise of this book, and discovering how they began to interconnect means I will probably re-read this at some point.
I’m giving 3 stars instead of 4 because several of the stories needed to be edited further. Typos and sentences that need correction because of extra words or words out of order really have no place in any written work at this point. The stories themselves could also flow better together. I was expecting 26 individual short stories so the connection was pretty cool. But they didn’t flow very well and a little effort to smooth that out (along with the regular editing) could even make this a 5 star book.
27 horror stories with each chapter based on a letter of the alphabet (they’re considering an ampersand a letter). Since 26 was a running theme through all of the stories, they could have left out a chapter and stuck with the proper 26). The stories were new and imaginative and I enjoyed them until it became apparent (about halfway in) that they were going to end up all being related. The last quarter felt a little verbose and desperate to make the connections. The R for Romance chapter was a little too porny for me.
The "idea" behind this, 26 short stories by 26 different authors with a common plot and thread running through them, had great potential but was poorly executed, resulting in a work that was slipshod, discombobulated and sloppy (especially, as one would expect, in the editing).
But it could have worked, and worked well, if greater attention had been paid not just to simple fixes 9grammar, syntax, etc.) but to the through line of the main story. The style, and skill of the writers varied significantly which also lent it a strong note of discord.
An anthology of (some very short) stories that one gradually discovers link together. One or two did leave me a little puzzled as to exactly what they were about. The main themes throughout the book soon reveal their interconnectedness. I was left wanting more and hope we do get more of Morai, I would certainly read it. They’re supposedly written by 27 different authors however the style and content of the whole lead me to believe that this is a clever conceit on the part of Tobias Wade.
Awesome collection of horror shorts! Very interesting concept! I really enjoyed the stories, and the narration was amazing!
All connected somehow, but each stands on its own. Really enjoyed listening, and hope to hear more in the future.
If you're into horror stories, and you know you are, check this out! I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Awesome Book! Usually short stories have nothing to do with each other. They may have a theme, like zombies or vampires. But THIS collection.............you are happily reading along, when all of a sudden, you start thinking....... I READ this already........... no wait.......... sort of. LOL I don't want to spoil the surprise.......... I will leave it at this: you will WANT to go back and read the "Forward" again, after you finish the last story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy the ride!!!!!
Four Stars for the first 3/4 only!! A promising and fulfilling collection of very short horror stories of varying subject and tone that sadly devolves into a strangely stilted and silly "novel" when it reaches the letter W. The last handful of stories are not only each a slog, but cheapen all of the great work other authors proffered in the first three quarters of the book. Four stars only reflect the majority of the stories, as I'd hate to drag everyone down due to a cheap finish.
The stories-some quite short-were interesting but some left me confused at their conclusion. Towards the end of the book most of them tie together. But after I finished the book I was left with a few unanswered questions...like some of the stories didn't fully fit into the ending. Still, I finished it-so it did keep my attention.
A novel setting and method for creating the world. Some of the stories seemed to be gore and lewd just for the sake of shock, but still an excellent read. I would recommend this for anyone that enjoys cult horror and doesn't mind shock value gore and smut.
This book from Kindle Unlimited actually surprised me. I liked how the stories were somewhat interconnected as an overall narrative (some way more obvious than others). Also, it turned out to be more science fiction than horror which was an interesting change of pace. There were a few moments that made me cringe.
I really enjoy short stories, and when they are horror stories, all the better. Even though each story was written by a different author, they all had something in common. I like that concept. My son is an indie horror author and has done something similar with other indies. Good work from the indie writers from this novel!
This book has several authors writing uncensored. They each write a horror based on the 26 letters of the alphabet! The stories are rich in horror and they will chill you to the bone! This is worth your time!
Most of the stories were ask written. However there were a few at I had difficulty getting the point. I had to reread those and ponder them. But perhaps that was the author's intent.
I liked the theme of this anthology and how each story ties in with the others. I recommend this book to horror and scifi fans who like a little twist to stir up their tales. I plan to read more books from this author.
I was given this audiobook in return for a review.
Fun set of stories in the vein of ABCs of Death, but more sci-fi rather than horror. Obviously, some stories are more memorable than others, but I liked that many of the stories had a linking thread to them.
Loved,the different authors and how all of their stories blended together,without really seemingly "blending". Totally bizzarre, interesting and like nothing I've ever read. I highly recommend!
It definitely was a collection of Alphabet horror stories!
Most stories were great, some calmly terrifying! Some were a little confusing, but in following stories explanations suddenly came to light! All in all, the book certainly kept my interest!
I love short fiction. I like horror. Put the two together and I was excited to read this collection, but aside from a few stories, the whole thing fell flat. Too much reliance on sex and gore to tell a story for my taste.
So, I didn’t hate this at all. It was pretty neat and I loved how some of the stories were interwoven. However, I would’ve liked a little more cleared up about the Moirai and who and what they are. But overall, I enjoyed this read.