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Candy Coated Madness
Horror/comedy master Jeff Strand returns with a collection of twenty-six gleefully macabre tales!
A cheerful snack mascot who snaps under the pressure. The nightmarish effects of the most depressing holiday song of all time. A virtual reality environment that allows you to enact your most depraved fantasies…sort of. A cheerful snack mascot who snaps under the pressure. Giant mutant cockroaches doing battle with zombies in the Old West. An unnerving discovery in the Book of Revelations. The true secret of silent comedian Buster Keaton's success. Plus a Halloween curse, a lot of psychopaths, and much more!
Often hilarious, frequently gruesome, and sometimes just flat-out wrong to the point where laughing at them presents a moral quandary, Candy Coated Madness is Strand at his demented best!
Table of contents...
Virtual Reality Kill Zone
Good Deeds
Captain Pistachio's Charming Rampage
The Last Thing You Want To Be
Lab Experiment Turf War
No Tomato
Clyde the Necrophile
Don't Make Fun of the Haunted House
Ivan's Night Out
Pointy Canes
Giant Mutant Cockroaches in the Old West Vs. Zombies
Outpouring
Smashing Jacks
Faerie
Green Suits
The Fraud
Hostile
The Great Stone Face Vs. The Gargoyles
Parody
Awakening
Dismemberment Fraud
Beware! The! Beverage!
Rotten Eggs
Gave Up The Ghost
December Birthday
My Werewolf Neighbor
A cheerful snack mascot who snaps under the pressure. The nightmarish effects of the most depressing holiday song of all time. A virtual reality environment that allows you to enact your most depraved fantasies…sort of. A cheerful snack mascot who snaps under the pressure. Giant mutant cockroaches doing battle with zombies in the Old West. An unnerving discovery in the Book of Revelations. The true secret of silent comedian Buster Keaton's success. Plus a Halloween curse, a lot of psychopaths, and much more!
Often hilarious, frequently gruesome, and sometimes just flat-out wrong to the point where laughing at them presents a moral quandary, Candy Coated Madness is Strand at his demented best!
Table of contents...
Virtual Reality Kill Zone
Good Deeds
Captain Pistachio's Charming Rampage
The Last Thing You Want To Be
Lab Experiment Turf War
No Tomato
Clyde the Necrophile
Don't Make Fun of the Haunted House
Ivan's Night Out
Pointy Canes
Giant Mutant Cockroaches in the Old West Vs. Zombies
Outpouring
Smashing Jacks
Faerie
Green Suits
The Fraud
Hostile
The Great Stone Face Vs. The Gargoyles
Parody
Awakening
Dismemberment Fraud
Beware! The! Beverage!
Rotten Eggs
Gave Up The Ghost
December Birthday
My Werewolf Neighbor
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 9, 2020
147 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Strand
229 books2,210 followersBram Stoker Award-winning author of a bunch of demented books, including PRESSURE, DWELLER, CLOWNS VS. SPIDERS, AUTUMN BLEEDS INTO WINTER, MY PRETTIES, the official novelization of ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES, and lots of others!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 28, 2021
*Originally reviewed at IndieMuse
* https://www.myindiemuse.com/author/mo...
Strand, Strand, Strand...
what it must be like to have a look around in that messed up head of yours.
From killer songs to nutty nuts, from tomatoes to a really, really messed up fetish - and the incredible lengths to hide them, from parental instincts to going insane, from lawyers to being in denial...and don't forgot the necrophilia, because dead chicks don't say no.
I don't feel so guilty for laughing at your humor anymore, but that probably says more about me than you.
Just keep 'em coming, and I'll keep on buying.
* https://www.myindiemuse.com/author/mo...
Strand, Strand, Strand...
what it must be like to have a look around in that messed up head of yours.
From killer songs to nutty nuts, from tomatoes to a really, really messed up fetish - and the incredible lengths to hide them, from parental instincts to going insane, from lawyers to being in denial...and don't forgot the necrophilia, because dead chicks don't say no.
I don't feel so guilty for laughing at your humor anymore, but that probably says more about me than you.
Just keep 'em coming, and I'll keep on buying.
December 23, 2021
You should take a good long look in the mirror, before ultimately concluding that an awesomely sick and depraved freak would read this book!
-Jeff Strand, Introduction to CANDY COATED MADNESS
I mean, he's not wrong.
Anyway...
If you've never read any of Jeff's short fiction, you're in for a treat. But first, let's talk about that introduction. I'm not going to give anything away, but I will say I was highly amused. Only Jeff.
The stories are wacky, sardonic, and, in many cases, laugh-out-loud funny. And, if I counted correctly, you get TWENTY-SIX of them! Talk about a lot of bang for you buck! Most were included in various publications over the years, but I'm a hardcore Jeff Strand fan, and they were all new to me.
So, which were my favorites?
(In no particular order.)
1. "Good Deeds" - I can't help it...this story is so morbid and so goofy, I couldn't stop laughing.
2. "The Last Thing You Want To Be" - I'm a sucker for revenge stories, and this one is epic.
3. "Clyde the Necrophile" - I'll just let you draw your own conclusions based on the title.
4. "Pointy Canes" - This may be the goofiest one I have listed. :)
5. "Hostile" - Dry humor abounds in this awesome story which was made into a short film...and it's on YouTube if you want to watch!
6. "Parody" - What can I say? I like Weird Al. And Zany Chester too, I guess.
7. "Gave Up The Ghost" - This story is kind of brilliant.
8. "December Birthday" - As a fellow Sagittarian, I feel Jeff's pain. This might be my favorite of all the stories because it's so relatable.
9. "My Werewolf Neighbor" - Probably the longest story of the bunch, the whole "tickling" scene had me snickering.
10. "Green Suits" - There were a few lines in this story which seriously cracked me up. And the very last line? Pure genius.
Yeah, yeah. You know I'm going to recommend this one too. It's great. Would you rather I not recommend it and have you miss out on such a fine collection? Uh-huh. That's what I thought.
Available on Amazon!
October 27, 2021
Be sure to read the introduction. :)
The stories are fun and different and very Jeff Strand.
The stories are fun and different and very Jeff Strand.
December 2, 2020
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when that book is by Jeff Strand, and the cover features a skull vomiting candy, then you pretty much know what you are letting yourself in for.
Jeff Strand’s fourth short story collection (preceded by the equally brilliantly-titled ‘Gleefully Macabre Tales’, ‘Dead Clown Barbeque’ and ‘Everything Has Teeth’) is crammed with 28 stories which include a murderous anthropomorphic pistachio, giant mutant cockroaches, shipwrecked faeries and an epic showdown between Buster Keaton and gargoyles. If you like your horror with a big side of sardonic wit or your comedy with lashings of bloody axe murders, then you have come to the right place.
For anyone who is already a fan of Strand’s, there will be a lot of familiar faces in this new collection. Ivan the Werewolf, from the ‘Wolf Hunt’ series of books, makes a welcome appearance in a short prequel story to those novels. There is also a follow-up story featuring the town of Spittin’ Hollow from ‘Them Old West Mutations’ featured in ‘Gleefully Macabre Tales, as well as two shorts that have been produced as short films (including ‘Give up the Ghost, one of the highlights of this collection). If this book is your introduction to Strand, then it is a great jumping-on point. The stories range from the unapologetically weird (‘Captain Pistachio’s Charming Revenge’, ‘Lab Experiment Turf War’) to the more overtly horrific (‘The Last Thing You Want To Be’, ‘Hostile’) and as a taster for his novel-length works, this is an excellent cross-section of the different extremes between humour and horror you can expect from his books.
While not all 28 stories are out and out winners, there are more hits than misses here, and there wasn’t a single story that failed to raise a smile. The best of the bunch are the closing story ‘My Werewolf Neighbor’, which is a joyously silly mix of Fright Night meets Bad Neighbors, and ‘Outpouring’, which begins as a straight body horror story and takes an unexpectedly biblical turn midway through. I also have to give a special mention to ‘Green Suits’ which has the absolute best closing line in any story I have ever read.
Like a 312-page long sugar rush, this book demands to be devoured in a single sitting. In terms of pure, laugh out loud insanity, you can’t do better than a Jeff Strand short story collection and while this is unlikely to go down in horror history as a genre classic, it will thoroughly entertain, amuse, and disgust you in equal measure. After what feels like a year of living a real-life horror movie, this gleefully demented collection is absolutely the book that 2020 needed. 4 stars
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...
Jeff Strand’s fourth short story collection (preceded by the equally brilliantly-titled ‘Gleefully Macabre Tales’, ‘Dead Clown Barbeque’ and ‘Everything Has Teeth’) is crammed with 28 stories which include a murderous anthropomorphic pistachio, giant mutant cockroaches, shipwrecked faeries and an epic showdown between Buster Keaton and gargoyles. If you like your horror with a big side of sardonic wit or your comedy with lashings of bloody axe murders, then you have come to the right place.
For anyone who is already a fan of Strand’s, there will be a lot of familiar faces in this new collection. Ivan the Werewolf, from the ‘Wolf Hunt’ series of books, makes a welcome appearance in a short prequel story to those novels. There is also a follow-up story featuring the town of Spittin’ Hollow from ‘Them Old West Mutations’ featured in ‘Gleefully Macabre Tales, as well as two shorts that have been produced as short films (including ‘Give up the Ghost, one of the highlights of this collection). If this book is your introduction to Strand, then it is a great jumping-on point. The stories range from the unapologetically weird (‘Captain Pistachio’s Charming Revenge’, ‘Lab Experiment Turf War’) to the more overtly horrific (‘The Last Thing You Want To Be’, ‘Hostile’) and as a taster for his novel-length works, this is an excellent cross-section of the different extremes between humour and horror you can expect from his books.
While not all 28 stories are out and out winners, there are more hits than misses here, and there wasn’t a single story that failed to raise a smile. The best of the bunch are the closing story ‘My Werewolf Neighbor’, which is a joyously silly mix of Fright Night meets Bad Neighbors, and ‘Outpouring’, which begins as a straight body horror story and takes an unexpectedly biblical turn midway through. I also have to give a special mention to ‘Green Suits’ which has the absolute best closing line in any story I have ever read.
Like a 312-page long sugar rush, this book demands to be devoured in a single sitting. In terms of pure, laugh out loud insanity, you can’t do better than a Jeff Strand short story collection and while this is unlikely to go down in horror history as a genre classic, it will thoroughly entertain, amuse, and disgust you in equal measure. After what feels like a year of living a real-life horror movie, this gleefully demented collection is absolutely the book that 2020 needed. 4 stars
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...
March 4, 2022
Great collection of short stories that range from a spoof on what I think is the most annoying Christmas song ever written, to a spoof of West Side Story where the Sharks and Jets are "Lab freaks" created by rival mad scientists, and a couple serial killer and werewolf stories thrown in as well...On a personal note, I must be more fucked up then I thought, since every one of these had laugh out loud moments for me.
November 25, 2020
I had already read most of the stories in this collection, or heard the author read them at conventions and literary events, which makes me wonder what the heck I’m doing with my life. The stories are humorous, horrific, and/or both. There’s witty dialogue here, gory horror, and lots of good stabby fun. My favorite story in the collection was “Clyde the Necrophile,” a fact that I should probably discuss with a therapist or maybe a priest. Highly recommended for fans of macabre humor.
November 30, 2020
Read too many of these before....
Here’s the deal: I think Jeff Strand is genius. However... I had two issues with this collection of short stories. I am
such a fan of Strand, I read the majority of these before. Second issue was this was not his best anthology (“Dead Clown Barbecue”, and “Everything Has Teeth” were better).
These are the stories you should absolutely read:
1. The Fraud
2. Rotten Eggs
3. Ivan’s Night Out
4. My Werewolf Neighbour
5. The Last Thing You Want To Be
6. Virtual Reality Kill Zone
Interestingly, the first two stories I listed are straight out vicious and mean. Both are very disturbing and Strand is very good at this. Number 3 and 4 are also a subject matter that Strand excels at : werewolves... smartass werewolves!
The story I listed as #5 was excellent. Think a mix of Richard Laymon with Ivan from Wolf Hunt. Number 6 was one of the few stories I have never read. It’s a fun little goofy story. Two morons fool another moron into thinking he is actually in a virtual reality environment. What they want him to do and what ends up happening will not be what the reader expects. This was one of the few short stories on this list that was entirely goofy, but I thought really worked from beginning to end.
This leads me to my next point. Jeff Strand has such unique and awesome ideas, and some of these stories had me completely hooked. Unfortunately, some of the endings were either just blah, or the story itself didn’t work.
Some examples:
1. ‘Captain Pistachio’s Charming Rampage’ was hilarious and really fun to read. It’s one of those WTF am I reading type stories. I just felt that something about the ending ruined the overall effect.
2. ‘Lab Experiment Turf War’ was a horror/comedy version of The Outsiders/West Side Story. Completely dopey and near perfect. Again, the ending didn’t work for me.
3. ‘Smashing Jacks’ was also a terrific story that was just missing something to make it part of the must-reads.
4. ‘Green Suits’ was super-cheesy but also a fun read.
5. ‘Pointy Canes’ is wacko!!!
6. ‘Outpouring’ was interesting and unique but conclusion sucked.
7. ‘Good Deeds’ starts off really well but then falls flat.
8. ‘The Great Stone Face Vs The Gargoyles’ is another unique idea but feels mediocre by the time the story ends.
9. ‘December Birthday’ was fun to read and actually made me laugh outloud when the neighbours are caught in their lies.
The rest of the stories I didn’t really care for. A good chunk of them I read before and didn’t feel differently about them the second time around.
I’m not sure what it is... Jeff Strand is a genius at horror-comedy and comes up with some truly unique ideas. I think some stories work overall, and some just don’t.
Here’s the deal: I think Jeff Strand is genius. However... I had two issues with this collection of short stories. I am
such a fan of Strand, I read the majority of these before. Second issue was this was not his best anthology (“Dead Clown Barbecue”, and “Everything Has Teeth” were better).
These are the stories you should absolutely read:
1. The Fraud
2. Rotten Eggs
3. Ivan’s Night Out
4. My Werewolf Neighbour
5. The Last Thing You Want To Be
6. Virtual Reality Kill Zone
Interestingly, the first two stories I listed are straight out vicious and mean. Both are very disturbing and Strand is very good at this. Number 3 and 4 are also a subject matter that Strand excels at : werewolves... smartass werewolves!
The story I listed as #5 was excellent. Think a mix of Richard Laymon with Ivan from Wolf Hunt. Number 6 was one of the few stories I have never read. It’s a fun little goofy story. Two morons fool another moron into thinking he is actually in a virtual reality environment. What they want him to do and what ends up happening will not be what the reader expects. This was one of the few short stories on this list that was entirely goofy, but I thought really worked from beginning to end.
This leads me to my next point. Jeff Strand has such unique and awesome ideas, and some of these stories had me completely hooked. Unfortunately, some of the endings were either just blah, or the story itself didn’t work.
Some examples:
1. ‘Captain Pistachio’s Charming Rampage’ was hilarious and really fun to read. It’s one of those WTF am I reading type stories. I just felt that something about the ending ruined the overall effect.
2. ‘Lab Experiment Turf War’ was a horror/comedy version of The Outsiders/West Side Story. Completely dopey and near perfect. Again, the ending didn’t work for me.
3. ‘Smashing Jacks’ was also a terrific story that was just missing something to make it part of the must-reads.
4. ‘Green Suits’ was super-cheesy but also a fun read.
5. ‘Pointy Canes’ is wacko!!!
6. ‘Outpouring’ was interesting and unique but conclusion sucked.
7. ‘Good Deeds’ starts off really well but then falls flat.
8. ‘The Great Stone Face Vs The Gargoyles’ is another unique idea but feels mediocre by the time the story ends.
9. ‘December Birthday’ was fun to read and actually made me laugh outloud when the neighbours are caught in their lies.
The rest of the stories I didn’t really care for. A good chunk of them I read before and didn’t feel differently about them the second time around.
I’m not sure what it is... Jeff Strand is a genius at horror-comedy and comes up with some truly unique ideas. I think some stories work overall, and some just don’t.
March 19, 2021
When you really enjoy a particular writer’s work, a single-author anthology can be a lot of fun! Candy Coated Madness, by Jeff Strand, is a ridiculously funny collection of short horror stories.
First, make sure you actually read the introduction. I sometimes skip these, but in this case I really would have missed something funny if I had.
“Virtual Reality Kill Zone” allows a person to safely experience killing a person. But it seems awfully real. “Ivan’s Night Out” features a killer who wants to challenge himself to kill others without turning into a werewolf. “Giant Mutant Cockroaches In the Old West Vs. Zombies” is rather quick, but definitely funny. “Outpouring” is one of my favorites here–what do you do when you think there’s a mini-apocalypse going on? “Green Suits” is a great example of one of Strand’s talents: absolutely, positively hysterical dialogue, and the places it can take you. Even when talking about a bank robbery. “Hostile” is another favorite: Harry signed up to kill someone, but Adam thinks he was too boring about it.
“The Great Stone Face Vs. the Gargoyles” is a story about Buster Keaton. The story posits the idea that Keaton just naturally has strange and fortunate things happen to him, so he hires camera crews to follow him around, then edits the footage into money-making movies. “Beware! The! Beverage!” is a hysterical story about an energy drink that has Martian blood as the secret ingredient. It really showcases Strand’s talent for dialogue again. “Gave Up the Ghost” is a hilarious tale of what happens when a writer is desperate to get back the massive novel he has on his hard drive after his computer croaks.
I love “December Birthday,” in which Farley keeps getting presents marked “Christmas and Birthday.” And his friends are always too busy with family to come celebrate his birthday. (I totally relate to that. Three people in my family all have birthdays within a week of Christmas, including me, and including one that’s on Christmas day.)
“Smashing Jacks” is a quick, entertaining consequences story when some very naughty kids go around smashing people’s jack-o-lanterns. “The Fraud” is a creepy look at the possible consequences when a girl plays insane in order to get out of going to jail for killing someone. In “Rotten Eggs,” Rhonda suffers the consequences of carrying a prank on her younger siblings too far. “Good Deeds” involves the unexpected consequences of a song written about a good deed. (Consequences in general make for great horror stories, don’t they?)
“Lab Experiment Turf War” is seriously silly, and fairly entertaining. The creations of Dr. Baleful and Dr. Awry fight over territory–and other issues. Lab experiments combined with soap opera-level shenanigans! Another story, “No Tomato,” is a very satisfying story of someone being a jerk toward restaurant employees. “Clyde the Necrophile” is a great look at the idea of, what if everyone believes you did something that you didn’t do? Might you not want to try the thing you didn’t do as long as everyone thinks you did it anyway? “Don’t Make Fun of the Haunted House” is short and sweet and delivers on the promise of its title. “Pointy Canes” may be one of the most ridiculous (real OR fictional) Christmas spree killings ever. You just kind of have to be amazed that any author could come up with it.
Dismemberment shows up a few times. There’s “Awakening,” in which we meet the Downtown Dixonville Dismemberer. And “Dismemberment Fraud,” in which someone wants to sue a filmmaker for making dismemberment seem so easy. There’s also a werewolf killing people in “My Werewolf Neighbor.” Trevor is absolutely convinced that his neighbor Jerry is turning into a werewolf and killing people on the full moon, but no one believes him.
Two that were just a little too randomly weird for me were “Captain Pistachio’s Charming Rampage” and “The Last Thing You Want To Be.” I was also mostly perplexed by “Parody,” in which a man who likes writing parodies of 80s songs is determined to reach his audience. But then, when someone writes a bunch of stories this strange, most readers are bound to find a few that don’t strike them quite right!
Content note for suicide, gore, self-harm, and general mayhem.
Original review posted on my blog: https://www.errantdreams.com/2021/03/...
First, make sure you actually read the introduction. I sometimes skip these, but in this case I really would have missed something funny if I had.
“Virtual Reality Kill Zone” allows a person to safely experience killing a person. But it seems awfully real. “Ivan’s Night Out” features a killer who wants to challenge himself to kill others without turning into a werewolf. “Giant Mutant Cockroaches In the Old West Vs. Zombies” is rather quick, but definitely funny. “Outpouring” is one of my favorites here–what do you do when you think there’s a mini-apocalypse going on? “Green Suits” is a great example of one of Strand’s talents: absolutely, positively hysterical dialogue, and the places it can take you. Even when talking about a bank robbery. “Hostile” is another favorite: Harry signed up to kill someone, but Adam thinks he was too boring about it.
“The Great Stone Face Vs. the Gargoyles” is a story about Buster Keaton. The story posits the idea that Keaton just naturally has strange and fortunate things happen to him, so he hires camera crews to follow him around, then edits the footage into money-making movies. “Beware! The! Beverage!” is a hysterical story about an energy drink that has Martian blood as the secret ingredient. It really showcases Strand’s talent for dialogue again. “Gave Up the Ghost” is a hilarious tale of what happens when a writer is desperate to get back the massive novel he has on his hard drive after his computer croaks.
I love “December Birthday,” in which Farley keeps getting presents marked “Christmas and Birthday.” And his friends are always too busy with family to come celebrate his birthday. (I totally relate to that. Three people in my family all have birthdays within a week of Christmas, including me, and including one that’s on Christmas day.)
“Smashing Jacks” is a quick, entertaining consequences story when some very naughty kids go around smashing people’s jack-o-lanterns. “The Fraud” is a creepy look at the possible consequences when a girl plays insane in order to get out of going to jail for killing someone. In “Rotten Eggs,” Rhonda suffers the consequences of carrying a prank on her younger siblings too far. “Good Deeds” involves the unexpected consequences of a song written about a good deed. (Consequences in general make for great horror stories, don’t they?)
“Lab Experiment Turf War” is seriously silly, and fairly entertaining. The creations of Dr. Baleful and Dr. Awry fight over territory–and other issues. Lab experiments combined with soap opera-level shenanigans! Another story, “No Tomato,” is a very satisfying story of someone being a jerk toward restaurant employees. “Clyde the Necrophile” is a great look at the idea of, what if everyone believes you did something that you didn’t do? Might you not want to try the thing you didn’t do as long as everyone thinks you did it anyway? “Don’t Make Fun of the Haunted House” is short and sweet and delivers on the promise of its title. “Pointy Canes” may be one of the most ridiculous (real OR fictional) Christmas spree killings ever. You just kind of have to be amazed that any author could come up with it.
Dismemberment shows up a few times. There’s “Awakening,” in which we meet the Downtown Dixonville Dismemberer. And “Dismemberment Fraud,” in which someone wants to sue a filmmaker for making dismemberment seem so easy. There’s also a werewolf killing people in “My Werewolf Neighbor.” Trevor is absolutely convinced that his neighbor Jerry is turning into a werewolf and killing people on the full moon, but no one believes him.
Two that were just a little too randomly weird for me were “Captain Pistachio’s Charming Rampage” and “The Last Thing You Want To Be.” I was also mostly perplexed by “Parody,” in which a man who likes writing parodies of 80s songs is determined to reach his audience. But then, when someone writes a bunch of stories this strange, most readers are bound to find a few that don’t strike them quite right!
Content note for suicide, gore, self-harm, and general mayhem.
Original review posted on my blog: https://www.errantdreams.com/2021/03/...
November 21, 2020
Good
There's some good stories in that book, but not astounding as the author's usual work. The reason is simple: the great force of Jeff Strand lies in his characters. He has a way to develop them to make them life-like and always atypical. Because the length of the short stories, he can't really develop them like in his usual story, hence the 4 stars.
There's some good stories in that book, but not astounding as the author's usual work. The reason is simple: the great force of Jeff Strand lies in his characters. He has a way to develop them to make them life-like and always atypical. Because the length of the short stories, he can't really develop them like in his usual story, hence the 4 stars.
November 14, 2020
Huge fun and freak!
I love everything by this author and this book was especially great. Strand is amazingly clever, funny, irreverent and gory. His books are a lovely escape from reality. Let's face it, things are crap right now and we all need humor and escape more than ever. I've read every book by Strand and have yet to be disappointed. Thank you Jeff for transporting me from our currently lousy reality to a weird, screwed up place where I can have some fun.
I love everything by this author and this book was especially great. Strand is amazingly clever, funny, irreverent and gory. His books are a lovely escape from reality. Let's face it, things are crap right now and we all need humor and escape more than ever. I've read every book by Strand and have yet to be disappointed. Thank you Jeff for transporting me from our currently lousy reality to a weird, screwed up place where I can have some fun.
November 28, 2020
Got some good laughs and several cringes
Love Jeff Strand! His dialogue, no matter what the circumstance, is the best. It's not often that you laugh out loud reading a horror story, but I did!
Love Jeff Strand! His dialogue, no matter what the circumstance, is the best. It's not often that you laugh out loud reading a horror story, but I did!
June 15, 2021
There’s nothing quite like visiting an old friend, someone you know will say all the right things, the ones you need to hear. Jeff Strand is that friend. Except I don’t know him. That doesn’t change the fact that he always writes the right things I need to read.
His latest collection, Candy Coated Madness, is a perfect example of this. I read this while I was also reading Kelli Owen’s The Headless Boy . Both were on my to-review pile for far too long, but I didn’t double them up for that reason. I did it because Owen’s novel deals with some heavy topics, and I know Strand is always good for a laugh (in the best possible way).
You can read Steve's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
His latest collection, Candy Coated Madness, is a perfect example of this. I read this while I was also reading Kelli Owen’s The Headless Boy . Both were on my to-review pile for far too long, but I didn’t double them up for that reason. I did it because Owen’s novel deals with some heavy topics, and I know Strand is always good for a laugh (in the best possible way).
You can read Steve's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
December 31, 2022
I received a copy of this via the Horror Aficionados Halloween giveaway! Thanks, HA mods!!!!
Wow, what a fun and wild ride! As with any other short story collection, they weren't all my cup of tea. But the ones that were good were good--and fucking hilarious! Seriously, I did not expect this to be so funny! My favorite stories were "Virtual Reality Kill Zone," "The Last Thing You Want to Be," "No Tomato," "Clyde the Necrophile," "Don't Make Fun of the Haunted House," "Outpouring," "The Fraud," and "Parody."
Wow, what a fun and wild ride! As with any other short story collection, they weren't all my cup of tea. But the ones that were good were good--and fucking hilarious! Seriously, I did not expect this to be so funny! My favorite stories were "Virtual Reality Kill Zone," "The Last Thing You Want to Be," "No Tomato," "Clyde the Necrophile," "Don't Make Fun of the Haunted House," "Outpouring," "The Fraud," and "Parody."
January 8, 2021
Macabre, Morbid, and Hilarious!
Once again, Jeff Strand delivers his signature blend of horror and comedy, as only he can! Jeff Strand is a constant reminder that horror and comedy are not strange bedfellows, and they make some pretty cool kids. Thanks Jeff. Keep up the great work.
Once again, Jeff Strand delivers his signature blend of horror and comedy, as only he can! Jeff Strand is a constant reminder that horror and comedy are not strange bedfellows, and they make some pretty cool kids. Thanks Jeff. Keep up the great work.
January 7, 2021
I love Jeff Strand’s books. Personally, I prefer a full book not short stories. However he didn’t disappoint me in any way. Obviously I appreciated some of the stories more than others. I enjoyed them all!
September 8, 2021
Sometimes as a reader you are touched by the cover of a book. That happened with Jeff Strand's Candy Coated Madness. And I was pleasantly surprised by this great collection of short stories. How so?
The cover of the book matches the content perfectly. This is because she correctly captures the essence of the stories: absurdist humor and horror. The cover as a whole is absurdist and the skull (the lurid) is appropriately put into perspective by the humor (the candies). This makes this collection of great horror/comedy stories accessible to a wide variety of readers.
Another strong point of this collection is the connecting motif madness. In one story it's more absurd in my experience, for example December birthday, Green Suits and No Tomato, and in the other horror, of which Smashing Jacks and My Werewolf Neighbor make sense, and that gives dynamic to the book as a whole.
And Strand has a pleasant, smooth style and writes very strong dialogues. He especially deserves a compliment for the latter. Not only are they convincing and powerful, they also show perfect humorous timing that rivals Terry Pratchett in my experience.
This short story collection also contains enough basic material to be adapted into a miniseries in the style of Tales from the Crypt. The perfect example of this is 'Smashing Jacks'. In my opinion, this macabre gem illustrates precisely Alain Badiou's explanation of the darkness of the human soul as a revelation. And the author does this in an original, atmospheric, absurdist, in short, great way!
In addition, 'Good Deeds' is also a sinister masterpiece, because it can be seen as a counterpart to 'A Christmas carol' by Charles Dickens. It makes fun of the Christmas spirit in a macabre way. Original, imaginative and absurd, Strand shows the power of a Christmas carol.
In short, 'Candy coated Madness' is a great absurdist horror story collection that is accessible to a wide audience. A macabre must-read!
The cover of the book matches the content perfectly. This is because she correctly captures the essence of the stories: absurdist humor and horror. The cover as a whole is absurdist and the skull (the lurid) is appropriately put into perspective by the humor (the candies). This makes this collection of great horror/comedy stories accessible to a wide variety of readers.
Another strong point of this collection is the connecting motif madness. In one story it's more absurd in my experience, for example December birthday, Green Suits and No Tomato, and in the other horror, of which Smashing Jacks and My Werewolf Neighbor make sense, and that gives dynamic to the book as a whole.
And Strand has a pleasant, smooth style and writes very strong dialogues. He especially deserves a compliment for the latter. Not only are they convincing and powerful, they also show perfect humorous timing that rivals Terry Pratchett in my experience.
This short story collection also contains enough basic material to be adapted into a miniseries in the style of Tales from the Crypt. The perfect example of this is 'Smashing Jacks'. In my opinion, this macabre gem illustrates precisely Alain Badiou's explanation of the darkness of the human soul as a revelation. And the author does this in an original, atmospheric, absurdist, in short, great way!
In addition, 'Good Deeds' is also a sinister masterpiece, because it can be seen as a counterpart to 'A Christmas carol' by Charles Dickens. It makes fun of the Christmas spirit in a macabre way. Original, imaginative and absurd, Strand shows the power of a Christmas carol.
In short, 'Candy coated Madness' is a great absurdist horror story collection that is accessible to a wide audience. A macabre must-read!
June 15, 2021
There’s nothing quite like visiting an old friend, someone you know will say all the right things, the ones you need to hear. Jeff Strand is that friend. Except I don’t know him. That doesn’t change the fact that he always writes the right things I need to read.
His latest collection, Candy Coated Madness, is a perfect example of this. I read this while I was also reading Kelli Owen’s The Headless Boy . Both were on my to-review pile for far too long, but I didn’t double them up for that reason. I did it because Owen’s novel deals with some heavy topics, and I know Strand is always good for a laugh (in the best possible way).
You can read my full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
His latest collection, Candy Coated Madness, is a perfect example of this. I read this while I was also reading Kelli Owen’s The Headless Boy . Both were on my to-review pile for far too long, but I didn’t double them up for that reason. I did it because Owen’s novel deals with some heavy topics, and I know Strand is always good for a laugh (in the best possible way).
You can read my full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
March 25, 2023
A wonderful mix of crazy horror shorts with a liberal sprinkling of humour. The introduction is AMAZING so don't skip it! The stories vary wildly and there was one I couldn't read once I realised what it was about because I definitely would have vomited 🤮 It's Outpouring incase you're curious about what turns my stomach!
I think we've established at this stage that I'm a huge fan of Jeff Strand and I feel like everybody should read something of his at least once. He has such a unique ability to make me cringe and split my sides laughing at the same time and it's just so refreshing. We all know how heavy and bleak most horror is, and while we sure love it, it's nice sometimes to have a go at the lighter side of the genre. Jeff, if you read your reviews, I think you're amazing and I feel like you wrote December Birthday especially for me 😆
I think we've established at this stage that I'm a huge fan of Jeff Strand and I feel like everybody should read something of his at least once. He has such a unique ability to make me cringe and split my sides laughing at the same time and it's just so refreshing. We all know how heavy and bleak most horror is, and while we sure love it, it's nice sometimes to have a go at the lighter side of the genre. Jeff, if you read your reviews, I think you're amazing and I feel like you wrote December Birthday especially for me 😆
June 1, 2021
2 ... thats how many stories I liked in this book. I truly enjoy a lot of Jeff Strands other books. Witty , irreverent , kinda offbeat funny and a good chunk of gore/horror/violence thrown in. That seems to work well for the full length novels but not his short stories. I found myself sighing with disappointment after a majority of them and the quirky humor loses it ability to amuse when its in every story. Almost feels like he had an idea and then forced it into a template that has always worked for him. Could be I'm not a short story guy and this won't prevent me from reading the rest of his books ( well not any more of the short story collections) but just didn't care for them. Read his novels for a truer feel for his gift of story telling.
January 12, 2024
I think I gave Strand's book 'Five Novellas' four stars because it was the first time I'd read anything like it in multiple, sustained pieces of writing. I almost gave this one four also, for the same reason, but IMHO a few of these were a little flat. And that's fine. I loved the collection. I am going to read more of this author. But I am going to save my extra star for a collection that is a little more consistent. Next, I'm going to try the 'Haunted Forest Tour'...
April 9, 2021
Good quick moving stories
They are fresh , original and unexpected. It's been a while since I enjoyed an entire Anthony of short stories. I would recommend this book for those who need to be introduced to the author, and a refreshing breeze to those of us who are already fans
They are fresh , original and unexpected. It's been a while since I enjoyed an entire Anthony of short stories. I would recommend this book for those who need to be introduced to the author, and a refreshing breeze to those of us who are already fans
April 6, 2022
Sweetly preposterous: comedy horror collection offers cartoonish violence, linguistic mischief, and eccentric characters. Full review: http://theakersquarterly.blogspot.com...
December 4, 2021
More zany anthology-ness
The creepy, weird, hilarious stylings of Jeff Strand continue on in this anthology, as they often do in his story collections. Check out the madness!
The creepy, weird, hilarious stylings of Jeff Strand continue on in this anthology, as they often do in his story collections. Check out the madness!
August 10, 2022
Another good one
Every time I read anything of Jeff strand's it keeps get better and better. Looking forward to my next read of his.
Every time I read anything of Jeff strand's it keeps get better and better. Looking forward to my next read of his.
July 19, 2023
Great book
had great time reading this on my day off , typical Jeff Strand humor and horror mix , he's quickly moving up my favorite aurtur list
had great time reading this on my day off , typical Jeff Strand humor and horror mix , he's quickly moving up my favorite aurtur list
August 8, 2023
EXTREMELY funny and spooky at the same time. I will be forever grateful that he put my feelings about the song "Christmas Shoes" on paper, even though he didn't know he did. :)
September 23, 2023
As always, Jeff Strand delivers.
October 23, 2023
Another hilariously perfect collection of short "scary" stories. This one's going on the shelf!
August 13, 2021
This collection of short stories is exceptional if you like your horror with a large helping of comedy and irony. I found myself laughing out loud several times in the course of the collection. It was well balanced and creative. Definitely one of the oddest and funniest horror collections I have ever read
December 6, 2022
These stories are like candy-coated popcorn that makes you giggle the whole next day and have to take a shower and giggle during that shower and really that's not popcorn, but more like wonderful little tales that make you smile and then brush your teeth because now you can see the food stuck in your bicuspid. This is all to say that that these stories go down easy and come back up the same way.
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