What do you think?
Rate this book
Broken on the Inside
Black Shuck Shadows presents a collectable series of micro-collections, intended as a sampler to introduce readers to the best in classic and modern horror.
Phil Sloman’s Broken on the Inside presents a quintet of macabre mentality in: Broken on the Inside, Discomfort Food, The Man Who Fed the Foxes, There Was an Old Man and Virtually Famous.
Phil Sloman’s Broken on the Inside presents a quintet of macabre mentality in: Broken on the Inside, Discomfort Food, The Man Who Fed the Foxes, There Was an Old Man and Virtually Famous.
- GenresHorror
166 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2018
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Phil Sloman
25 books13 followersPhil Sloman is a writer of dark psychological fiction. Phil is a three-time finalist at the British Fantasy Awards in the categories of Best Newcomer for his novella Becoming David (2017), Best Anthology for The Woods in 2020 as editor, and for Best Collection for his second collection No Happily Ever After in 2024. Phil was also part of Impostor Syndrome from Dark Minds Press shortlisted for British Fantasy Award Best Anthology in 2018. Phil regularly appears on several reviewers' Best of Year lists.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 4, 2018
4.5/5*
BROKEN ON THE INSIDE is not only the title, but also the theme of this book. Containing 5 short tales, each featuring a person in distress, I couldn't help but feel for them all, in one way or another.
BROKEN ON THE INSIDE- the title story, starred a woman who's had enough of her mother. So much so that it's making her physically sick. When a doctor tells her he can cure her with nanotechnology she jumps on the chance. But just like her mother said, it wasn't all that easy. (Why are mothers always right? It's enough to drive one crazy.)
DISCOMFORT FOOD This tale is about another young woman, this one working at a fast food burger joint. One night her manager goes a little too far in his harassment of her and she is forced to react. Never again will dinner time be the same.
THE MAN WHO FED THE FOXES is a sad narrative about a lonely man who has let his beautiful garden go to pot. When a group of foxes take up living in his abandoned paradise, he begins to feed them a special diet, and they bring him unusual gifts in return.
THERE WAS AN OLD MAN In this tale John Hinklow is a gentlemen rather obsessed with having swallowed a fly. Rightfully so, it turns out.
VIRTUALLY FAMOUS was a weird little story about a man named Chet who became addicted to a game-The Game. In it, players can opt to be Chet, (the star), , or to be other people in the story-line. But what happens when the main player begins playing himself? In the end it becomes difficult to determine who was the real Chet and which was the Chet in the game. Whether it be gaming or drugs, addictions are dangerous.
These stories were all heavy hitters and combined, make up this powerful narrative as a whole. I enjoyed it as entertaining storytelling on one level, but it also caused me to think deeply about life as we know it and how we go about living that life. Every single person in this book had problems-addictions and obsessions. They were broken on the inside. This led me to thinking about the people I know and even myself. Aren't we all BROKEN ON THE INSIDE in one way or another?
Highly recommended for fans of extremely well written dark fiction!
*I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*
BROKEN ON THE INSIDE is not only the title, but also the theme of this book. Containing 5 short tales, each featuring a person in distress, I couldn't help but feel for them all, in one way or another.
BROKEN ON THE INSIDE- the title story, starred a woman who's had enough of her mother. So much so that it's making her physically sick. When a doctor tells her he can cure her with nanotechnology she jumps on the chance. But just like her mother said, it wasn't all that easy. (Why are mothers always right? It's enough to drive one crazy.)
DISCOMFORT FOOD This tale is about another young woman, this one working at a fast food burger joint. One night her manager goes a little too far in his harassment of her and she is forced to react. Never again will dinner time be the same.
THE MAN WHO FED THE FOXES is a sad narrative about a lonely man who has let his beautiful garden go to pot. When a group of foxes take up living in his abandoned paradise, he begins to feed them a special diet, and they bring him unusual gifts in return.
THERE WAS AN OLD MAN In this tale John Hinklow is a gentlemen rather obsessed with having swallowed a fly. Rightfully so, it turns out.
VIRTUALLY FAMOUS was a weird little story about a man named Chet who became addicted to a game-The Game. In it, players can opt to be Chet, (the star), , or to be other people in the story-line. But what happens when the main player begins playing himself? In the end it becomes difficult to determine who was the real Chet and which was the Chet in the game. Whether it be gaming or drugs, addictions are dangerous.
These stories were all heavy hitters and combined, make up this powerful narrative as a whole. I enjoyed it as entertaining storytelling on one level, but it also caused me to think deeply about life as we know it and how we go about living that life. Every single person in this book had problems-addictions and obsessions. They were broken on the inside. This led me to thinking about the people I know and even myself. Aren't we all BROKEN ON THE INSIDE in one way or another?
Highly recommended for fans of extremely well written dark fiction!
*I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*
July 16, 2018
My first exposure to Sloman's work, this is a superb short collection of dark psychological horror - common themes unite the stories, but there's enough variety in the characterizations and quality in the prose to stop it becoming 'samey'. Highly recommended.
November 28, 2018
The five excellent short stories on offer here all follow a similar theme; insanity. Characters who are ‘on the verge’ are always fascinating to me. A protagonist or antagonist who’s mental state makes them unpredictable is always a great hook, especially in a horror story. Phil Sloman has done a superb job here of luring you into a world of the unhinged, and once inside he just dares you to read on.
After the first couple of stories I knew exactly what I was in for; intriguing tales with more twists than a bunch of decaying lemons gyrating in a 60s dance hall. These short stories do exactly what a short story should do; have you yearning to reach the conclusion and being entirely satisfied once you’re there. And making you feel a little bit creeped out.
The collection starts with the title track, Broken on the Inside, where Kira undergoes an operation for an unnamed ailment. This state of the art treatment involves nano-technology but, of course, it comes with a price, and not a financial one. The implant speaks to Kira’s mind, warning of potential dangers to her health. These warnings seem a little extreme, like an over-the-top parent, something she certainly doesn’t have in real life.
As the story progresses Kira becomes increasingly angry at the voice in her head and constantly tells it to shut the hell up. But can it ever shut up, and what damage is this treatment actually doing to her and those around her?
Next up is another strange tale, Discomfort Food. Rebecca has done a bad thing. What’s worse is that her evening meal of fast food from the restaurant she works at, knows about it, too. Being mocked by food is quite a strange concept, but the way this is pulled off makes it seem, I don’t know, kind of normal? The interactions between Rebecca and her burger, chips, and onion rings make the food stand out like real characters themselves.
Of course as the story develops we discover what the bad thing is. And it’s bad. Really bad.
Paul is the protagonist of the next story, The Man Who Fed the Foxes. Paul is a lonely guy, his wife has left him and no one seems to care about him, except for the nosey busy-body neighbour, and even she’s just after the gossip. But Paul finds friendship in the most unlikely of places. His garden, once pristine, is now overgrown and home to the wild foxes he feeds every night. It seems they are all he has left. The ending to this story creeps up on you and then bam, smacks you with one hell of a twisted and ‘woah, what?’ ending.
Things turn a little icky in There Was an Old Man, where John swallows a fly. He soon convinces himself that the fly is alive and well inside him and goes to extreme lengths to rid his ageing body of this parasite. But he doesn’t swallow a spider, then a bird and so on; no, he takes things to the extreme. This one brought a few audible ‘eew’s from me I can tell you.
The collection is rounded off nicely by Virtually Famous. Without being as brutal and sickening as the other four, this one is definitely high on the weird and disturbing spectrum. Think virtual reality/celebrity culture gone insane. Doesn’t everyone just want to be famous?
So what an introduction to Phil Sloman this was. It got me aching for more. This is well worth your investment.
After the first couple of stories I knew exactly what I was in for; intriguing tales with more twists than a bunch of decaying lemons gyrating in a 60s dance hall. These short stories do exactly what a short story should do; have you yearning to reach the conclusion and being entirely satisfied once you’re there. And making you feel a little bit creeped out.
The collection starts with the title track, Broken on the Inside, where Kira undergoes an operation for an unnamed ailment. This state of the art treatment involves nano-technology but, of course, it comes with a price, and not a financial one. The implant speaks to Kira’s mind, warning of potential dangers to her health. These warnings seem a little extreme, like an over-the-top parent, something she certainly doesn’t have in real life.
As the story progresses Kira becomes increasingly angry at the voice in her head and constantly tells it to shut the hell up. But can it ever shut up, and what damage is this treatment actually doing to her and those around her?
Next up is another strange tale, Discomfort Food. Rebecca has done a bad thing. What’s worse is that her evening meal of fast food from the restaurant she works at, knows about it, too. Being mocked by food is quite a strange concept, but the way this is pulled off makes it seem, I don’t know, kind of normal? The interactions between Rebecca and her burger, chips, and onion rings make the food stand out like real characters themselves.
Of course as the story develops we discover what the bad thing is. And it’s bad. Really bad.
Paul is the protagonist of the next story, The Man Who Fed the Foxes. Paul is a lonely guy, his wife has left him and no one seems to care about him, except for the nosey busy-body neighbour, and even she’s just after the gossip. But Paul finds friendship in the most unlikely of places. His garden, once pristine, is now overgrown and home to the wild foxes he feeds every night. It seems they are all he has left. The ending to this story creeps up on you and then bam, smacks you with one hell of a twisted and ‘woah, what?’ ending.
Things turn a little icky in There Was an Old Man, where John swallows a fly. He soon convinces himself that the fly is alive and well inside him and goes to extreme lengths to rid his ageing body of this parasite. But he doesn’t swallow a spider, then a bird and so on; no, he takes things to the extreme. This one brought a few audible ‘eew’s from me I can tell you.
The collection is rounded off nicely by Virtually Famous. Without being as brutal and sickening as the other four, this one is definitely high on the weird and disturbing spectrum. Think virtual reality/celebrity culture gone insane. Doesn’t everyone just want to be famous?
So what an introduction to Phil Sloman this was. It got me aching for more. This is well worth your investment.
June 25, 2018
Imagine it's a normal day. You're on the bus heading to work, in a cafe slurping on a coffee, or even sat in the dentist's. You look around at the other five people on the bus, or in the cafe, or in the waiting room. Five people; all very different in age, sex, weight, how they present themselves. On one side, a trim older man, immaculately groomed and dressed, while on the other, a slightly over-weight girl in her early twenties, wearing the uniform of a fast food restaurant.
I recall my favourite contemporary psychoanalyst (what, you don't have one?) Darrien Leader in a presentation, telling the tale of a young clinician who was required to assess a well-dressed, affluent lady. She doesn't look like someone undergoing a psychosis, the trainee had said.
So which of these people are suffering an acute psychosis? Which of these five are in the grip of terror and confusion as delusions cause hallucinations and vice versa?
The cover of this book by Phil Sloman gives a slight hint.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this, as I rarely read blurbs and (sorry, Kendall Reviews!) reviews in-depth before starting a book. I don't want to know a thing. From the page count, I expected a novella, so was surprised when the first story ended and the next began. Following the second piece, I was onto the theme, and I was keen to see if Sloman could pursue this through to the end of the book without the idea going stale. I believe he does this with a cracking sense of characterisation, which is absolutely top notch, and by catering to different tastes with each tale.
Like horror stories of technology gone awry?
Like dark humour?
Like psychological horror?
How about some gross out body horror? That float your boat?
Finally, what about...more technology...that's gone awry? But completely different from the first one?
Something for everyone indeed. I have to disagree with Kendall Reviews (see, I did read it) and hang my #1 ribbon onto the last story. The previous four resolve incredibly well but the final piece steps out from the pack by remaining ambiguous right to the end. It keeps the reader guessing in the best possible way, and leaves you wanting more.
In summary, goddamn this Phil Sloman and his book. It's a perfect example of how strong the horror game can be, particularly on reaching levels of characterisation other authors may require chapters to reach. Goddamn him.
I give it 5/5 individuals suffering due to Government cuts to local mental health services.
I recall my favourite contemporary psychoanalyst (what, you don't have one?) Darrien Leader in a presentation, telling the tale of a young clinician who was required to assess a well-dressed, affluent lady. She doesn't look like someone undergoing a psychosis, the trainee had said.
So which of these people are suffering an acute psychosis? Which of these five are in the grip of terror and confusion as delusions cause hallucinations and vice versa?
The cover of this book by Phil Sloman gives a slight hint.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this, as I rarely read blurbs and (sorry, Kendall Reviews!) reviews in-depth before starting a book. I don't want to know a thing. From the page count, I expected a novella, so was surprised when the first story ended and the next began. Following the second piece, I was onto the theme, and I was keen to see if Sloman could pursue this through to the end of the book without the idea going stale. I believe he does this with a cracking sense of characterisation, which is absolutely top notch, and by catering to different tastes with each tale.
Like horror stories of technology gone awry?
Like dark humour?
Like psychological horror?
How about some gross out body horror? That float your boat?
Finally, what about...more technology...that's gone awry? But completely different from the first one?
Something for everyone indeed. I have to disagree with Kendall Reviews (see, I did read it) and hang my #1 ribbon onto the last story. The previous four resolve incredibly well but the final piece steps out from the pack by remaining ambiguous right to the end. It keeps the reader guessing in the best possible way, and leaves you wanting more.
In summary, goddamn this Phil Sloman and his book. It's a perfect example of how strong the horror game can be, particularly on reaching levels of characterisation other authors may require chapters to reach. Goddamn him.
I give it 5/5 individuals suffering due to Government cuts to local mental health services.
May 8, 2020
Read my full review on The British Fantasy Society website:
http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/...
http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/...
March 3, 2024
Intriguing collection of stories
Loved every story in this collection. I love how we’re always left with a slight bit of uncertainty but a definite sense of dread. This is true in every one of Sloman’s works and that’s why I pick them up every time.
Loved every story in this collection. I love how we’re always left with a slight bit of uncertainty but a definite sense of dread. This is true in every one of Sloman’s works and that’s why I pick them up every time.
January 2, 2025
Sloman scores another home run for me with this excellent collection that is horrifying, thought-provoking, and highly entertaining.
December 23, 2023
Danger! Danger! Beware those voices inside your head.
This is the second short collection I have read from Phil Sloman. The first, his most recent, NO HAPPILY EVER AFTER, which I also gave five stars to.
Strong writing here again as expected, with great attention to detail.
As hard as it is to pick a favourite, I'm going to go with THERE WAS AN OLD MAN because it made me feel so damn itchy. And that ending... Ooft.
Such a pleasure to read Phil's work. Truly.
This is the second short collection I have read from Phil Sloman. The first, his most recent, NO HAPPILY EVER AFTER, which I also gave five stars to.
Strong writing here again as expected, with great attention to detail.
As hard as it is to pick a favourite, I'm going to go with THERE WAS AN OLD MAN because it made me feel so damn itchy. And that ending... Ooft.
Such a pleasure to read Phil's work. Truly.
March 11, 2019
Broken on the Inside (Black Shuck Books) is a collection of five very dark short stories by Phil Sloman. All start from a point of psychological turmoil, the mind building its own madness which then manifests into something physically and disturbingly real. The lead story, Broken on the Inside, is an example of the power of mind control and the unintended consequences of the manipulation of others, in this case murder. Discomfort Food will probably put you off your burger and chips. The Man Who Fed the Foxes and There Was an Old Man (be warned, there are some gross moments!) are accounts of mental breakdown in the starkest detail whilst Virtually Famous flips and distorts reality.
Yes, it is a small collection, but Broken on the Inside packs a big punch. Strong, powerful and wonderfully dark, this is high quality writing and I would happily recommend it to anyone and everyone.
Yes, it is a small collection, but Broken on the Inside packs a big punch. Strong, powerful and wonderfully dark, this is high quality writing and I would happily recommend it to anyone and everyone.
July 18, 2018
4.5 stars from me! A nearly perfect little collection of short stories. I love stories that make me wonder just what in the possible hell is going to to happen next and these deliver. This collection spans the range (often within a single tale) of speculative fiction, sci-fi, bizzaro, psychological horror, body horror, and just MESSED UP stuff. Talking burgers and fries? Seems insipid, I know, but it totally works. The writing is seamless and none of the stories drag or needlessly long (a definite pet-peeve of mine).
June 14, 2018
Review to follow shortly.
August 30, 2018
A great little collecting of short stories around the theme of internal conflict and identity.
January 28, 2019
I really like what Black Shuck are doing with this Shadows series, and I like Phil Sloman's short fiction - so it's no great surprise that I enjoyed this! Five nicely written horror fictions.
October 1, 2021
This short collection comprises five punchy little stories that really make you think. The title story especially has a twist that I really didn't see coming. Darkly clever and very enjoyable.
December 19, 2021
Great Collection of shorts Stories
This is an great collection of dark, thought provoking tales ideal for dark winter nights, if you don’t want to sleep!
This is an great collection of dark, thought provoking tales ideal for dark winter nights, if you don’t want to sleep!
January 2, 2025
Phil Sloman is so good, as is this micro collection. I loved every single story in it for completely different reasons.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews