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Shoebox Train Wreck
"The living haunt the dead . . ." These sixteen genre-bending stories are set against a backdrop of sudden violence and profound regret, populated by characters whose circumstances and longings drive them to the point of no return . . . and sometimes even further. A young girl takes a journey to see what is really hidden within the belly of an ancient water tower. A high school senior learns about defiance on a school bus and witnesses a tragedy that he won't soon forget. Six survivors in an underground bunker discuss the possibility of Armageddon being an elaborate hoax. Two brothers take a walk on the dark side of the wheat field and discover that some bonds are stronger than death. And in the title story, a former train conductor must confront the ghosts of his past while learning that it's not the dead who haunt the living, but the other way around.
Traversing the back roads of the south and beyond, these stories probe the boundaries of imagination, taking the reader to the fringes of a society where the world looks different, and once you visit, you won't ever be the same.
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2012
6 people are currently reading
583 people want to read
About the author
John Mantooth
37 books105 followersJOHN MANTOOTH is the award winning author of two novels and a short story collection. His first novel, The Year of the Storm, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. He has also published three crime novels under the pseudonym Hank Early. Heaven’s Crooked Finger (written as Hank Early) was a Next Generation Indie Book award winner and 2017 Foreword Indies Award Finalist. He lives in Alabama with his wife and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 9, 2020
years ago, connor told me about this idea he had for a game show. it would be called: guess what i'm doing to your dog!! and you can pretty much figure out the rules: contestants would be brought onstage, and based on the types of noises their dogs were making behind a curtain, they would have to guess what was being done to their beloved pet.
and that's how i have always thought of the books that czp publishes: they are usually about the insidious things lurking under the surface of the everyday; the unexpected creepiness attaching itself to your most trusted surroundings.
this book is something of a departure from that theme. there are occasional flashes of the supernatural, but for the most part, these stories focus more on the real and quiet betrayals of the promises of life. the realization that beloved uncles have character flaws, parents cannot always be counted on to protect, love is not forever, life owes you nothing...all the big and horrible truths that pierce our youthful optimism and make us into the failed adults that will go on to disappoint our own children.
plus two stories about what happens when a school bus meets a train at high speeds.
one of the big pithy reveals of this book is that The dead do not haunt the living - the living haunt the dead. i would go one step further to assert that sometimes it's just the living that haunt the living, and that most of the problems that occur in these stories are entirely caused by human frailty. and that's bad enough.
The Best Part is one of my favorites. it perfectly describes those hopeless downtrodden characters i always feel in my heart...that restlessness of wanting something better and the frustration of limited resources and zero opportunities that don't come about as a result of a life of crime...but that puppy-barking yearning that won't be silenced:
and oh, i feel you...
the best story in the collection is the second; the water tower, which is just perfect and heartbreaking. with a few of these stories, you can see what's coming before the characters can, but it doesn't ruin the journey one bit - it makes it more intense because you want to somehow stop it from happening, but you didn't write this, did you, hmmmm? slide and saving doll and the above the best part are all standouts here. i am definitely still on the czp bandwagon, and would recommend this one to anyone who wants some light supernatural but mostly just bad-enough natural stories of loss and choices and resignation.
go on.
come to my blog!
and that's how i have always thought of the books that czp publishes: they are usually about the insidious things lurking under the surface of the everyday; the unexpected creepiness attaching itself to your most trusted surroundings.
this book is something of a departure from that theme. there are occasional flashes of the supernatural, but for the most part, these stories focus more on the real and quiet betrayals of the promises of life. the realization that beloved uncles have character flaws, parents cannot always be counted on to protect, love is not forever, life owes you nothing...all the big and horrible truths that pierce our youthful optimism and make us into the failed adults that will go on to disappoint our own children.
plus two stories about what happens when a school bus meets a train at high speeds.
one of the big pithy reveals of this book is that The dead do not haunt the living - the living haunt the dead. i would go one step further to assert that sometimes it's just the living that haunt the living, and that most of the problems that occur in these stories are entirely caused by human frailty. and that's bad enough.
The Best Part is one of my favorites. it perfectly describes those hopeless downtrodden characters i always feel in my heart...that restlessness of wanting something better and the frustration of limited resources and zero opportunities that don't come about as a result of a life of crime...but that puppy-barking yearning that won't be silenced:
Maybe take art classes. That's what he's always loved, seeing something and making it come alive on paper. There are angles and shadows he sees all the time that he frames inside his head and wants to get down on paper just right, but he's usually with Truck who scoffs at art, or if he's not with Truck he's laid up in the bed trying to sleep off one of Truck's marathon benders he'd been foolish enough to participate in. Seems stupid, really. The one thing that gives him joy, the one thing he loves to do, he mostly just remembers doing a long time ago.
and oh, i feel you...
Like everybody he knows, he wants to get out of this town and start his life all over again. That was the thing he thought about more than anything else when he had been landscaping, mowing or pulling weeds or blowing leaves across somebody's lawn. He would imagine himself in a new place away from Mom's ratty old trailer, away from Truck and Chet and the ex-girlfriends that broke his heart, not because he'd loved them, but because he'd loved them young and now he sees them fat and lethargic, toting around toddlers with dirty faces and shit-heavy diapers, left alone by husbands who in one way or another had learned to abandon everything—including the boys they once were—as a matter of principle.
the best story in the collection is the second; the water tower, which is just perfect and heartbreaking. with a few of these stories, you can see what's coming before the characters can, but it doesn't ruin the journey one bit - it makes it more intense because you want to somehow stop it from happening, but you didn't write this, did you, hmmmm? slide and saving doll and the above the best part are all standouts here. i am definitely still on the czp bandwagon, and would recommend this one to anyone who wants some light supernatural but mostly just bad-enough natural stories of loss and choices and resignation.
go on.
come to my blog!
June 25, 2013
There's a lot of truth packed into this collection of short stories. Two things pop out in particular:
1) It sucks to grow up poor in the South.
2) Bad things happen on school buses.
This is a weird connection to draw, but Shoebox Train Wreck strikes me as the dark, twisted rebuttal to the argument Ray Bradbury put forth in Dandelion Wine . In my review of that book, I said that Bradbury's stories were a meditation on happiness, and that death was always present as a way to sharpen the joy of each moment. Mantooth's stories, on the other hand, are meditations on misery and despair, beginning (as always) in childhood and carrying on through adult life, with death ever present as the only hope for release.
That may not sound like a very good recommendation. But here's the thing: these stories are beautiful and haunting. Mantooth's characters are all people on the fringes of society, sometimes helplessly looking in on a better life, but all their options have been taken away until self-destruction is the only choice that remains. And yet in each case the author is able to evoke the humanity in their situations. There are buckets of sadness in these stories, but only because of the intense compassion Mantooth is able to draw out of the reader. This is most explicit in "James," my favorite story in the collection, in which the narrator encounters people who have been totally ostracized from society, wants to reach out to them, and has no idea how to make the connection.
Anyway, I really urge you to pick up this book. Just be sure to have your alcoholic beverage of choice handy when you read it. Also, I see that the author's first novel is out now. I'll have to get around to that pretty soon.
1) It sucks to grow up poor in the South.
2) Bad things happen on school buses.
This is a weird connection to draw, but Shoebox Train Wreck strikes me as the dark, twisted rebuttal to the argument Ray Bradbury put forth in Dandelion Wine . In my review of that book, I said that Bradbury's stories were a meditation on happiness, and that death was always present as a way to sharpen the joy of each moment. Mantooth's stories, on the other hand, are meditations on misery and despair, beginning (as always) in childhood and carrying on through adult life, with death ever present as the only hope for release.
That may not sound like a very good recommendation. But here's the thing: these stories are beautiful and haunting. Mantooth's characters are all people on the fringes of society, sometimes helplessly looking in on a better life, but all their options have been taken away until self-destruction is the only choice that remains. And yet in each case the author is able to evoke the humanity in their situations. There are buckets of sadness in these stories, but only because of the intense compassion Mantooth is able to draw out of the reader. This is most explicit in "James," my favorite story in the collection, in which the narrator encounters people who have been totally ostracized from society, wants to reach out to them, and has no idea how to make the connection.
Anyway, I really urge you to pick up this book. Just be sure to have your alcoholic beverage of choice handy when you read it. Also, I see that the author's first novel is out now. I'll have to get around to that pretty soon.
July 1, 2021
Horror, despite what detractors may tell you, is a diverse genre. It is more than serial killers and zombies, it is more than the latest Stephen King opus on the paperback rack at Wal-Mart. Because horror is an emotion and not a plot element, most genres of literature have a vein of horror running through them, from gritty war dramas to science fiction dystopias. I consider this “horror-adjacent” fiction: not something that would likely be shelved in the slim horror section of a bookstore, but certainly the type of story that would appeal to the sensibilities of the horror enthusiast.
Which brings us to John Mantooth, and his short story collection, Shoebox Trainwreck, published by Lethe Press. Mantooth is no stranger to the horror community: his books have been blurbed by Laird Barron and Paul Tremblay, and his first novel was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. And yet, most of the stories in Shoebox Trainwreck are not horror stories in the traditional sense. Mantooth eschews monsters (at least supernatural ones); instead, he peoples his stories with two-bit drug dealers and alcoholics, scarred kids and broken men fresh out of second chances. In “The Water Tower,” two young teenagers trek across the blasted landscape behind their trailer park to escape their lousy home lives. The main character in “This Is the Way the Road Ends” tries desperately to stay ahead of his own sin-riddled past. “Halloween Comes to County Rd. Seven” finds a washout father trapped in a violent confrontation between two drug dealers. These are not stories of horror so much as stories of hopelessness, broken dreams and cloudy futures.
Most writers (just like most musicians) remind me of somebody else. I know it’s reductive as hell to define someone by who they sound like, but I can’t help it. Mantooth reminds me of Ed Gorman, whose crime and suspense stories were filled with a similar mix of menace and heartbreak. Just as Gorman could make his midwestern locales and people seem real, Mantooth does the same for rural Alabama. Mantooth also has more than a little bit of Shirley Jackson in him, and his ability to mix mainstream, horror, and crime elements is something Jackson was a master at.
“A Long Fall Into Nothing” is a good example of Mantooth’s “horror adjacent” work. The main character is an troubled teenaged boy, haunted by the suicide death of his mother. He falls in with Larry, a sociopathic teen who begins riding the school bus with him. At first, our protagonist (he is never named) finds Larry’s apathy and capacity for violence appealing, but it takes a sour turn, culminating in an act of violence on the bus that is both shocking and seemingly inevitable. Mantooth captures what it’s like to be fifteen years old, what it’s like to live in a nowhere town with a nowhere future.
In traditional horror fiction, the supernatural beasties and psycho slashers often serve as a metaphor for our fears and anxieties. In the best stories in Shoebox Trainwreck, Mantooth jettisons metaphor entirely. This is us, he says. This is what we deal with, if you're willing to look closely, to truly see. Time and again, these stories find the pulse of horror that thrums through our daily lives. To me, that’s scarier than a whole army of zombies. Much scarier.
Which brings us to John Mantooth, and his short story collection, Shoebox Trainwreck, published by Lethe Press. Mantooth is no stranger to the horror community: his books have been blurbed by Laird Barron and Paul Tremblay, and his first novel was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. And yet, most of the stories in Shoebox Trainwreck are not horror stories in the traditional sense. Mantooth eschews monsters (at least supernatural ones); instead, he peoples his stories with two-bit drug dealers and alcoholics, scarred kids and broken men fresh out of second chances. In “The Water Tower,” two young teenagers trek across the blasted landscape behind their trailer park to escape their lousy home lives. The main character in “This Is the Way the Road Ends” tries desperately to stay ahead of his own sin-riddled past. “Halloween Comes to County Rd. Seven” finds a washout father trapped in a violent confrontation between two drug dealers. These are not stories of horror so much as stories of hopelessness, broken dreams and cloudy futures.
Most writers (just like most musicians) remind me of somebody else. I know it’s reductive as hell to define someone by who they sound like, but I can’t help it. Mantooth reminds me of Ed Gorman, whose crime and suspense stories were filled with a similar mix of menace and heartbreak. Just as Gorman could make his midwestern locales and people seem real, Mantooth does the same for rural Alabama. Mantooth also has more than a little bit of Shirley Jackson in him, and his ability to mix mainstream, horror, and crime elements is something Jackson was a master at.
“A Long Fall Into Nothing” is a good example of Mantooth’s “horror adjacent” work. The main character is an troubled teenaged boy, haunted by the suicide death of his mother. He falls in with Larry, a sociopathic teen who begins riding the school bus with him. At first, our protagonist (he is never named) finds Larry’s apathy and capacity for violence appealing, but it takes a sour turn, culminating in an act of violence on the bus that is both shocking and seemingly inevitable. Mantooth captures what it’s like to be fifteen years old, what it’s like to live in a nowhere town with a nowhere future.
In traditional horror fiction, the supernatural beasties and psycho slashers often serve as a metaphor for our fears and anxieties. In the best stories in Shoebox Trainwreck, Mantooth jettisons metaphor entirely. This is us, he says. This is what we deal with, if you're willing to look closely, to truly see. Time and again, these stories find the pulse of horror that thrums through our daily lives. To me, that’s scarier than a whole army of zombies. Much scarier.
April 21, 2012
John Mantooth's Shoebox Train Wreck is a unique, startling, moving collection of genre-twisting stories that play out in those shadowed places that linger as the sun goes down. These stories happen in the marginalized, dark nooks and crannies of life that most folks only dare look at out of the corner of their eyes, if at all. Some of the best stories are:
"A Long Fall Into Nothing", in which an unhealthy, symbiotic relationship spirals down to its only, inevitable conclusion. "The Water Tower", in which two friends embark on a journey and find something more horrible and sadder than the dead "alien" they'd been looking for.
"Walk the Wheat", a touching - and eerie - story in which brotherhood bonds stretch past the grave. "This Is Where the Road Ends", a story about a man who can't let go of his guilt...and also can't bring himself to admit it to the one he loves. "Saving Doll", an especially wrenching story about a high school track star trying to free herself from her family's squalid destiny, but to do so, she must face a shocking betrayal, rather than run from it. "The Cecilia Paradox", in which the future may be televised, or apocalyptic, or staged...or all three. "Chicken", a story about a boy pretending to be fearless, and the boy he meets who really does fear nothing. Or, perhaps everything.
The three best stories are "Sucky", "James" and the collection's title story, "Shoebox Train Wreck." In "Sucky", a boy with special needs discovers that his greatest fear will deliver a kind of mournful, partial salvation. "James" is a wonderfully non-linear story about those individuals - or, maybe, that same individual - we encounter throughout life who never fits in anywhere, and eventually fades away. And "Shoebox Train Wreck", a story in which a man's grief and sadness holds back more than just his own life.
The best thing about this collection is despite it's shadowed nature...it's not needlessly grim. Often, collections like these boast stories ending in despair and pointlessness, offering no resolution of any kind. That doesn't happen here. These stories feature broken, confused, wandering souls. But many of them find a kind of resolution or peace, or, at the very least, discover the hope of such peace. And that lifts this collection above many others.
"A Long Fall Into Nothing", in which an unhealthy, symbiotic relationship spirals down to its only, inevitable conclusion. "The Water Tower", in which two friends embark on a journey and find something more horrible and sadder than the dead "alien" they'd been looking for.
"Walk the Wheat", a touching - and eerie - story in which brotherhood bonds stretch past the grave. "This Is Where the Road Ends", a story about a man who can't let go of his guilt...and also can't bring himself to admit it to the one he loves. "Saving Doll", an especially wrenching story about a high school track star trying to free herself from her family's squalid destiny, but to do so, she must face a shocking betrayal, rather than run from it. "The Cecilia Paradox", in which the future may be televised, or apocalyptic, or staged...or all three. "Chicken", a story about a boy pretending to be fearless, and the boy he meets who really does fear nothing. Or, perhaps everything.
The three best stories are "Sucky", "James" and the collection's title story, "Shoebox Train Wreck." In "Sucky", a boy with special needs discovers that his greatest fear will deliver a kind of mournful, partial salvation. "James" is a wonderfully non-linear story about those individuals - or, maybe, that same individual - we encounter throughout life who never fits in anywhere, and eventually fades away. And "Shoebox Train Wreck", a story in which a man's grief and sadness holds back more than just his own life.
The best thing about this collection is despite it's shadowed nature...it's not needlessly grim. Often, collections like these boast stories ending in despair and pointlessness, offering no resolution of any kind. That doesn't happen here. These stories feature broken, confused, wandering souls. But many of them find a kind of resolution or peace, or, at the very least, discover the hope of such peace. And that lifts this collection above many others.
October 9, 2015
John Mantooth's gritty, dirt road dark fiction is something to behold, and impossible to classify and store other than somewhere near the top of the Southern Gothic flagpole.
Brutal, beautiful, and bracingly real. Odd, and oddly familiar. He's doing Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and Lightnin' Hopkins and Elmore James while most of the rest of us are doing Blues Hammer.
Pick up this joint. It's superb.
Brutal, beautiful, and bracingly real. Odd, and oddly familiar. He's doing Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and Lightnin' Hopkins and Elmore James while most of the rest of us are doing Blues Hammer.
Pick up this joint. It's superb.
April 24, 2012
Disclaimer: I did illustrations for and laid out this collection of tales. I work on a lot of books and stories, actually ... Editing, illustrating, laying them out. And I always try to remain unbiased, and not review or comment (because, c'mon, it doesn't sound right if the artist or editor praises a book). Usually, when I'm done with them, I never want to read or see them again—I've read them all 20-50 times, and I don't want to see my own mistakes. I rarely, if ever, give a 5-star rating on anything (and if I've worked on it, usually the best it can hope for is a 3).
Shoebox Train Wreck is different. There is something about these tales that, months after my work with them is finished, I pick the volume up again. The personal connections abound, whether we've ever experienced such situations ourselves or not. The emotions, the honesty, the look into intimate moments of life that John has captured are what every author should strive for, and what every reader should yearn for.
I won't say what my favorite stories are, because they're all connected to me through my work on them. I will say that some captured me more than others, for their visual strengths or their connection to my own life ... to what could have been. But that is something that should remain unique to every reader.
I am honoured to have worked on this volume. This is not "horror" or "dark fiction." This is life. And, despite my intimate knowledge of the tales, I continue to re-read them even now. Raw storytelling at its purest is what you'll find in these pages, and it's well worth the journey.
Shoebox Train Wreck is different. There is something about these tales that, months after my work with them is finished, I pick the volume up again. The personal connections abound, whether we've ever experienced such situations ourselves or not. The emotions, the honesty, the look into intimate moments of life that John has captured are what every author should strive for, and what every reader should yearn for.
I won't say what my favorite stories are, because they're all connected to me through my work on them. I will say that some captured me more than others, for their visual strengths or their connection to my own life ... to what could have been. But that is something that should remain unique to every reader.
I am honoured to have worked on this volume. This is not "horror" or "dark fiction." This is life. And, despite my intimate knowledge of the tales, I continue to re-read them even now. Raw storytelling at its purest is what you'll find in these pages, and it's well worth the journey.
November 26, 2014
Shoebox Train Wreck by John Mantooth
11 - A long Fall into Nothing
23 - The Water Tower
38 - Halloween Comes to County Rd. Seven
48 - Walk The Wheat
66 - This is where the Road Ends
84 - Shoebox Train Wreck
95 - The Best Part
117 - Slide
131 - Saving Doll
152 - On the Mountain
163 - The Cecilia Paradox
180 - Chicken
195 - James
209 - Litany
218 - Sucky
238 - Thirteen Scenes from Your Twenty-Fourth Year
Acknowledgements
Publication History
About The Author
About The Illustrator
A great quote from one character "the dead really don't haunt the living. The living haunt the dead."
Good story telling at it's finest. One of the lessons this book has taught me is to avoid buses.
This is copy 12 of 150 signed numbered copies.
11 - A long Fall into Nothing
23 - The Water Tower
38 - Halloween Comes to County Rd. Seven
48 - Walk The Wheat
66 - This is where the Road Ends
84 - Shoebox Train Wreck
95 - The Best Part
117 - Slide
131 - Saving Doll
152 - On the Mountain
163 - The Cecilia Paradox
180 - Chicken
195 - James
209 - Litany
218 - Sucky
238 - Thirteen Scenes from Your Twenty-Fourth Year
Acknowledgements
Publication History
About The Author
About The Illustrator
A great quote from one character "the dead really don't haunt the living. The living haunt the dead."
Good story telling at it's finest. One of the lessons this book has taught me is to avoid buses.
This is copy 12 of 150 signed numbered copies.
July 30, 2013
I originally heard about this collection of short stories through a Goodreads giveaway. While I didn't win the book, the description stuck with me long enough that I eventually bought the book on my own.
When I originally finished the book, it left the impression of an well-written and satisfying collection of short stories. Once I went through the table of contents to figure out which stories were my favorite, however, I quickly changed my mind. I realized that each of the stories was terrific and personal on a level that was almost disturbing. I realized that this is actually an extremely well written collection of short stories.
Every story with one exception (The Cecilia Paradox) centers around the culture of the poor South. The extraordinary part of the stories is the common nature of the stories. For the most part, the stories relate everyday occurrences. They certainly aren't happy or "light" stories, and a few do have supernatural backings, but for the most part, you could see the stories happening on most days. The amazing part is Mantooth's ability to pull you into what could very well be mundane tales without the right author. He makes the stories personal in a way that pull you into them and leave you thinking about them for days. His ability to write such events with such a powerful voice is amazing.
If there is a downside to the book, it's that the stories do tend toward the darker side. While there are a few uplifting moments, they aren't what you would call happy. As a result, reading all the stories in a row could be a daunting task and one that could certainly affect your mood (this fact is once again a testament to the power of the writing). Overall, however, the book is very much worth the read.
When I originally finished the book, it left the impression of an well-written and satisfying collection of short stories. Once I went through the table of contents to figure out which stories were my favorite, however, I quickly changed my mind. I realized that each of the stories was terrific and personal on a level that was almost disturbing. I realized that this is actually an extremely well written collection of short stories.
Every story with one exception (The Cecilia Paradox) centers around the culture of the poor South. The extraordinary part of the stories is the common nature of the stories. For the most part, the stories relate everyday occurrences. They certainly aren't happy or "light" stories, and a few do have supernatural backings, but for the most part, you could see the stories happening on most days. The amazing part is Mantooth's ability to pull you into what could very well be mundane tales without the right author. He makes the stories personal in a way that pull you into them and leave you thinking about them for days. His ability to write such events with such a powerful voice is amazing.
If there is a downside to the book, it's that the stories do tend toward the darker side. While there are a few uplifting moments, they aren't what you would call happy. As a result, reading all the stories in a row could be a daunting task and one that could certainly affect your mood (this fact is once again a testament to the power of the writing). Overall, however, the book is very much worth the read.
August 10, 2012
In most collections there is a story that makes you wonder if they needed a filler. Not so with this wonderful collection. I found myself emotionally connected to characters in just a few paragraphs. The stories about school buses take you through a myriad of emotions from every possible angle. The illustrations by Danny Evarts are beautiful. Wood cuts are a very difficult form of print making and it takes a master to get them looking like something other than choppy and static. I bought this book on my Kindle but I will go back and purchase it in print form because of the art work and because it's a collection I expect to reread several times.
May 8, 2015
I received this book for free as part of the goodreads first reads giveaway. I absolutely loved this eclectic collection of short stories. I found each one so entertaining and thoroughly absorbing that I read it in one afternoon. I look forward to reading more by this author, and would recommend this book to fans of short stories.
March 8, 2012
See my full review on The Crow’s Caw! http://thecrowscaw.com/2012/03/07/rev...
March 17, 2015
Could not put it down. Read this book.
April 27, 2021
Hank Early has been on my radar for several years and both books two and three of his superb Earl Marcus Mystery series, In the Valley of the Devil (book two) and Echoes of the Fall (book three) both feature strongly in two of my annual Horror DNA top tens. If you are interested in ‘Appalachian Noir’ or ‘Hillbilly Noir’, then this detective trilogy set in the mountains of north Georgia is unmissable, and I hope Hank has another Earl Marcus outing in the pipeline before too long. Hank is the alter ego of John Mantooth, whose debut Shoebox Train Wreck was first released back in 2012 and it is great to see Lethe Press republish this highly original and distinctive collection.
You can read Tony's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
You can read Tony's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
October 4, 2013
One of the best collections of short stories I've read - bar none!
I don't usually read short story collections. There's usually one or two goodish stories and then the rest are filler. Not so with "Shoebox Train Wreck." Each and every story is a five-star winner.
I identified with so many of the characters in these stories. Mantooth does a superb job of bringing them to life. I also enjoyed the Alabama and Texas locales. And what's with the kudzu so prevalent throughout the book, just like it is in Mantooth's debut novel "The Year of the Storm?" It's almost another character.
I especially liked the following stories:
A LONG FALL INTO NOTHING - What would I have done in Jake's place or in Fat Mae's?
THE WATER TOWER - I loved this story. Everything was just right. "If Heather put a little more effort into it, she could go forever without her mother seeing her."
WALK THE WHEAT - the extent to which brotherly love will go.
THE BEST PART - Does Danny really WANT to go back to the structured life in prison?
SAVING DOLL - "sometimes the choice you have is rotten no matter which way you go." Loved the ending to this (along with the beginning and middle).
But as I noted earlier in this review, all the stories are stellar. I will be keeping an eye open for more of Mantooth's work.
Oh, and the artwork at the beginning of each story was just the right touch.
I don't usually read short story collections. There's usually one or two goodish stories and then the rest are filler. Not so with "Shoebox Train Wreck." Each and every story is a five-star winner.
I identified with so many of the characters in these stories. Mantooth does a superb job of bringing them to life. I also enjoyed the Alabama and Texas locales. And what's with the kudzu so prevalent throughout the book, just like it is in Mantooth's debut novel "The Year of the Storm?" It's almost another character.
I especially liked the following stories:
A LONG FALL INTO NOTHING - What would I have done in Jake's place or in Fat Mae's?
THE WATER TOWER - I loved this story. Everything was just right. "If Heather put a little more effort into it, she could go forever without her mother seeing her."
WALK THE WHEAT - the extent to which brotherly love will go.
THE BEST PART - Does Danny really WANT to go back to the structured life in prison?
SAVING DOLL - "sometimes the choice you have is rotten no matter which way you go." Loved the ending to this (along with the beginning and middle).
But as I noted earlier in this review, all the stories are stellar. I will be keeping an eye open for more of Mantooth's work.
Oh, and the artwork at the beginning of each story was just the right touch.
July 7, 2014
This book is a collection of short stories, most are naturalistic, a few supernatural, written in a highly readable style. Perhaps these stories are more like tragedies than horror fiction, though there is at least a horrific aspect. Usually a person dies. The characters are poor and/or working class living in the rural South. Since reading this book, I look at school buses differently.
The stories I liked best were the supernatural ones--and I recognize that this is a matter of taste. The titular story "Shoebox Train Wreck" is about a deadly accident involving a train and a school bus, and has a supernatural element. Some people around here are aware of my interest in train stories.
The stories I liked best were the supernatural ones--and I recognize that this is a matter of taste. The titular story "Shoebox Train Wreck" is about a deadly accident involving a train and a school bus, and has a supernatural element. Some people around here are aware of my interest in train stories.
September 15, 2013
These are dark and violent stories about desperate people with nothing left to lose. Yet they contain at least a shred of hope and enough compassion to keep them from being relentlessly bleak. Also, they're very good. The Water Tower, This Is where The Road Ends, Saving Doll and Chicken are just some of my favorites. Mantooth is a skilled writer who, thankfully, doesn't shove his talent in your face. He keeps it simple, tells the story, rips your heart out and leaves you feeling like you just got run over by a bus. A school bus, most likely.
June 3, 2012
I loved this collection. I think I liked each story better than the last and my favorite was always the one I just read. I'm a Stephen King fan, but even in King's short story collections, I usually find some that just don't grab me, so I skip them. Not so with this book. John Mantooth's writing moves the reader along at a quick pace because you will want to see what the next word, phrase, or page is going to bring.
May 23, 2012
Best short story collection I have read in a long time.Get this book.........NOW.
November 20, 2020
The fact that this is so far my least liked short story collection I had the pleasure of reading this year should tell you how good my reading year and especially my short story reading year has been. Easily a 3.5* but we know how goodreads feels about those half stars...
Mantooth's stories are dark, very dark. They are about broken people, we move in and out of trailer parks and the poor part on the edge of poor small communities where crime might be the only option to make a living. People whose futures, hell, whose lives just don't shine that bright populate them, and now we are here sharing in on some of the darkness. They are unsettling crime and grit lit tales, disturbing pieces of coming-of-age, often on the brink of Horror with the occasional full step into it, there can even be a bit of supernatural angle to it but mostly expect the sad and grim side of reality. We follow people who have to make choices that are not really choices anymore and see them and their lives fall to pieces.
Sounds like fun? You got that right, this book was depressing. Usually I would say dark, depressing and disturbing has my name all over it but I think after a while I wanted some variety, there is a certain pattern and predictability to these tales, and of course the themes are often very similar. I would have done better with a few stories in here shaking up the status quo a bit more, some surprises. There were only a few stories that had an otherworldly element and since those were always great it seems a missed opportunity that Mantooth didn't dip into that pool more often. Also, the endings, besides being predictable I often felt as if there was a page too much or one page too little to most stories, somehow only a few ended at the perfect moment for me.
They are well written though, Mantooth gets into the depth of these characters within sentences, he puts you into their dire situations and it is never a problem to sink into the moment with them. He has a really good style going with some lovely poetic edges, the kind where he tried to find the beauty in the mud, successfully I might add. I think with onsetting winter my mental state was a bit wobbly and the depressing nature of these started to get to me more than it should, I try not to count this as a negative but just be warned and ready for that! I took my time with the collection. An additional remark, this reminded me a lot of Nathan Ballingrud who I read very recently, just with less fantastical factors to it and, sadly, not quite as brilliant as I found Ballingrud. But they are still well worth a read, especially if you like your stories with some harsh light of day realism to them.
Oh, but why on earth does Montooth have this negative view of school bus rides? Dang, several stories here have a focus on the yellow bus ride, there must be some childhood trauma he is working through. I never rode one of the yellow buses but now I'm almost certain I dodged a bullet there...
My top 6:
6) James
5) Saving Doll
4) A long Fall into Nothing
3) The Cecilia Paradox
2) Chicken
1) Walk the Wheat
Mantooth's stories are dark, very dark. They are about broken people, we move in and out of trailer parks and the poor part on the edge of poor small communities where crime might be the only option to make a living. People whose futures, hell, whose lives just don't shine that bright populate them, and now we are here sharing in on some of the darkness. They are unsettling crime and grit lit tales, disturbing pieces of coming-of-age, often on the brink of Horror with the occasional full step into it, there can even be a bit of supernatural angle to it but mostly expect the sad and grim side of reality. We follow people who have to make choices that are not really choices anymore and see them and their lives fall to pieces.
Sounds like fun? You got that right, this book was depressing. Usually I would say dark, depressing and disturbing has my name all over it but I think after a while I wanted some variety, there is a certain pattern and predictability to these tales, and of course the themes are often very similar. I would have done better with a few stories in here shaking up the status quo a bit more, some surprises. There were only a few stories that had an otherworldly element and since those were always great it seems a missed opportunity that Mantooth didn't dip into that pool more often. Also, the endings, besides being predictable I often felt as if there was a page too much or one page too little to most stories, somehow only a few ended at the perfect moment for me.
They are well written though, Mantooth gets into the depth of these characters within sentences, he puts you into their dire situations and it is never a problem to sink into the moment with them. He has a really good style going with some lovely poetic edges, the kind where he tried to find the beauty in the mud, successfully I might add. I think with onsetting winter my mental state was a bit wobbly and the depressing nature of these started to get to me more than it should, I try not to count this as a negative but just be warned and ready for that! I took my time with the collection. An additional remark, this reminded me a lot of Nathan Ballingrud who I read very recently, just with less fantastical factors to it and, sadly, not quite as brilliant as I found Ballingrud. But they are still well worth a read, especially if you like your stories with some harsh light of day realism to them.
Oh, but why on earth does Montooth have this negative view of school bus rides? Dang, several stories here have a focus on the yellow bus ride, there must be some childhood trauma he is working through. I never rode one of the yellow buses but now I'm almost certain I dodged a bullet there...
My top 6:
6) James
5) Saving Doll
4) A long Fall into Nothing
3) The Cecilia Paradox
2) Chicken
1) Walk the Wheat
November 12, 2019
Fairly well-written collection of short stories; all pretty depressing and negative about the general state of humanity. I can never tell if these kinds of story collections intentionally re-use specific themes/scenes or if that's just the specific author? This author's writing apparently revolves a lot around trailers/trailer parks, violence, alcoholism, (step-)parental child abuse, and school buses getting hit by trains. It's also very Southern/Appalachian, even before getting to the one with the almost Lovecraftian "mountain people".
Favorites:
"Thirteen Scenes From Your Twenty-Fourth Year" - Excellent use of second person, plus the "scenes" and time jumps really set the tone. The last page, when he's , was my favorite section of the entire book, and I say that as someone who's own mother died at home due to a slow, fatal illness (which also took her ability to talk; the similarity was uncanny).
"Saving Doll" - One of the few with a female main character, and she's quite well-sketched. I enjoyed the sense of inevitability , while maintaining the suspense .
"Walk the Wheat" - Cool ghost(ish) story, and I thought it was the most effective at incorporating the alcoholism, violence, and child abuse.
Dislikes:
"Sucky" - Ugh, just too conceptual and emotionally muddy. Plus every time I read the word "sucky" I shuddered; maybe that was intentional, but ugh.
"James" - Also too conceptual; took me way too long to understand the jumping around and then it ended up not feeling worth the formatting.
"On the Mountain" - Reminded me eerily of Lovecraft's anti-mountain people stories, and ended really abruptly.
Favorites:
"Thirteen Scenes From Your Twenty-Fourth Year" - Excellent use of second person, plus the "scenes" and time jumps really set the tone. The last page, when he's , was my favorite section of the entire book, and I say that as someone who's own mother died at home due to a slow, fatal illness (which also took her ability to talk; the similarity was uncanny).
"Saving Doll" - One of the few with a female main character, and she's quite well-sketched. I enjoyed the sense of inevitability , while maintaining the suspense .
"Walk the Wheat" - Cool ghost(ish) story, and I thought it was the most effective at incorporating the alcoholism, violence, and child abuse.
Dislikes:
"Sucky" - Ugh, just too conceptual and emotionally muddy. Plus every time I read the word "sucky" I shuddered; maybe that was intentional, but ugh.
"James" - Also too conceptual; took me way too long to understand the jumping around and then it ended up not feeling worth the formatting.
"On the Mountain" - Reminded me eerily of Lovecraft's anti-mountain people stories, and ended really abruptly.
April 21, 2020
Dark, depressing, and effective stories about the less fortunate in the South, although the themes here aren’t necessarily restricted by region. I’ll admit it was difficult to keep pushing through this collection, and I’m used to reading some seriously grim horror and fantasy, but the difference is that these feel real, they could happen, likely have happened, and this is one skilled storyteller at kicking your knees out from under you and planting you in the mud.
June 6, 2022
A fantastic and gut-punching collection that made me take breaks to process what I had just read. Every story is full of heart, emotions, messy characters, and difficult situations that will shock you and sometimes disturb you. I enjoyed each tale because the protagonists felt realistic, and diverse in themes and tones, and some of them were troubled by something that would make you empathize with the story. It's a fantastic collection. I really enjoyed it
January 13, 2020
The last story was very, very sad. But otherwise a good collection.
January 27, 2024
A gritty collection in the same vein of *Bastard Out of Carolina* — young people without much hope who nevertheless persevere in unsafe rural wastelands.
February 10, 2014
This is going to be kind of a light review because once again I'm doing this at the end of a 20-hour day. STW was a little uneven, but featured decent work overall. "On the Mountain" didn't do it for me - just not my thing, sorry - and a couple of other stories fell a little flat imho. On the other hand, "A Long Fall Into Nothing" and "Walk the Wheat" were nicely crafted, and "Sucky" wasn't. In fact, that piece was a nice throwback to the subtle, creeptastic feeling I got the first time I watched WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? They're nothing alike, but that movie made six-year-old me a lifelong horror fan, and I've been chasing that feeling ever since. Nice to know I can still catch it from time to time.
There wasn't a single glittery vampire or crappy "horror" trope to be found, which is a definite plus; and Danny Evarts' illustrations are a perfect fit for the neo-gothic tone of the stories.
TL;DR - SHOEBOX TRAIN WRECK doesn't suck and now I have another damn writer to add to my Must-Own-Everything-They-Write list.
There wasn't a single glittery vampire or crappy "horror" trope to be found, which is a definite plus; and Danny Evarts' illustrations are a perfect fit for the neo-gothic tone of the stories.
TL;DR - SHOEBOX TRAIN WRECK doesn't suck and now I have another damn writer to add to my Must-Own-Everything-They-Write list.
May 9, 2014
I received this book for free through Goodreads First reads. This book is very dark. Some of the circumstances the characters find themselves in and the decisions or discoveries that are made based on those circumstances are tragic and sometimes disturbing so this book may not be for everyone. I liked this book because sometimes you just don't know why people do what they do, especially when it comes to death and violence. I wouldn't say that it is true for everyone, but some people really are a victim of their circumstances and environment and these stories are about such people and it's written in such a way that even if you personally have never been in their shoes, you can understand their plight.
November 19, 2013
The two-star review is more about personal taste than quality. Mantooth's stories of working-class rural southerners coping with random violence, dysfunctional families and grief are well written and at times quite powerful, but the point of pretty much all the stories (at least in the half of the book I finished) seems to be that life is nasty, brutish and short, and I can find that out reading the news. The cover description of the book as "genre bending"seems to mean that they have a minimal supernatural element in some stories, and not particularly memorable. Still, if you go for dark, tragic fiction, this might be worth reading.
January 3, 2015
This was a giveaway at a science fiction convention, so I expected it to be science fiction. It was not. Apparently "dark fiction" is another phrase for "awful people being awful". And these people are crushingly, poor (as opposed to the other exemplars of the genre I'm familiar with) so it was mostly just tragic. Which....why would you want to read that? I think I got about four stories in before I decided I could do the crossword puzzle in the magazine in the seatback, since I was out of books. Ugh.
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