“We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.” - Ted BundyA collection of short stories based on fictional serial killers from the twisted imagination of Matt Shaw, one of the horror genre's darkest authors. Needless to say, this collection - also illustrated by Matt Shaw - is not for the faint of heart or easily offended! Stories A Day in the Life of...CruelPopcornHobbiesCaughtThe Whispering ForestsThe VisitorThe BubbleA Man and his DogSomeone's Hereand more!
MATT SHAW was born, quite by accident (his mother tripped, he shot out) September 30th 1980 in Winchester hospital where he was immediately placed on the baby ward and EBay. Some twelve years later (wandering the corridors of the hospital and playing with road kill when he was on day release), the listing closed and he remained unsold, he was booted out of the hospital to start his life as a writer and hobbit – beginning with writing screenplays and short stories for his own amusement before finally getting published when he was twenty-seven years and forty-five seconds old.
Once Published weekly in a lad's magazine with his photography work, Matt Shaw is also a published author and cartoonist. Has to be said, can be a bit of a flirt and definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, somewhat of a klutz.
Favourite books "Roald Dahl's Collection of Short Stories" Tim Burton's Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy Anything, really, written by himself. Because he is that good.
4.5 stars rounded up. The first story was a real mind game. I literally lol'ed. It was probably my fave. Some of the other stories just weren't my taste, but they were so short that it didn't really matter. Overall, this is a fun read
A collection of short horror stories that have one hell of a bite to them.
Only Matt Shaw could create something so wonderfully morbid, disturbing & deranged in such few words. Bubble, which has to be one of the shortest short stories I’ve ever read is also probably one of the best. I laughed, and I probably shouldn’t have, but it did amuse me, and only Matt Shaw could make me laugh in a story about a killer.
I enjoyed every story in this book, but ‘POV’ is probably my favourite. It has a twist that blow your mind. Same with ‘A Day in the Life of’, that is so well written you won’t see what’s coming.
If you’re a fan of Matt Shaw and/or extreme horror, then this is a must read.
"Serial Killers: A Collection of Psychological Horrors" by Matt Shaw
This collection was not at all what I was expecting and that made reading this ten times better. These stories seriously fucked with my head, especially "Punctuality" but I also really enjoyed "POV", "Popcorn", "Hobbies", and "Caught". While these stories are pretty tame in comparison to Shaw's extreme writing, they definitely make you check the shadows and your own home to make sure that you are actually alone. Spooktastic 4 🌟's
I loooove a short story collection and this book contains 12 different serial killer stories!
🩸 POV 🩸 Punctuality 🩸 A Day in the Life of... 🩸 Cruel 🩸 Popcorn 🩸 Hobbies 🩸 Caught 🩸 The Whispering Forests 🩸 The Visitor 🩸 The Bubble 🩸 A Man and His Dog 🩸 Someone's Here
They were all great stories but.... POV, Punctuality, Hobbies, Caught and The Bubble 👀 damn they were just brilliant! Some were just plain old cold hearted but wow they were all so good.
Short but really good stories. Some are predictable others catch you off guard, all really good. Great if you have a spare couple of minutes for each story.
Great collection of serial killer short stories. These were not nearly as extreme as some of the books I’ve read by Matt Shaw, but were still really good.
As the title states, this is “A collection of psychological horrors”. Even the author won’t refer to them as short stories. Because they’re not. The entries in this book are really just story ideas. Probably ideas the author never got around to flushing out, to make them actual stories with a beginning, a middle and an end.
My favorite stories: - POV - Caught - Someone's Here
Likes: - Pacing of all stories was perfect - Plot twists were wild and very hard to predict - Enjoyed the writing and story telling - Genuinely creeped and grossed me out - Insanely creative and very unique
Dislikes: - I felt like some story ended too soon - Some stories went a little too far
Ok, so with this title and cover, I thought it would be much more violent or "scary" than it was. It is nowhere near the level I have come to expect from Matt Shaw. However, it was a pretty quick and interesting read, albeit I was disappointed in the lack of psychological horror.
Actually, I don't think anyone actually really died on screen in the books, the stories cut out before or make references to them afterwards.
The book is a collection of very short stories, maybe at most a couple of chapters, some being only a couple of pages. I give credit to Matt Shaw on his ability to cover the range of possibilities in the world of serial killers. The stories have a scary campfire story feeling where there can be a twist in the ending or maybe a jump scare, but nothing that would keep you up at night.
The cover and subtitle are very misleading though. Read it if you are a fan of Matt Shaw, but know it is not truly representative of some of his more gruesome writing. In all honesty, this is the tamest work from him I have ever read. I prefer the dark humor/gritty gore of his "The Game" series - that is one worth checking out.