Everything's Annoying: A Collection of Dark Fiction & Horror

by J.C. Michael

From J.C. Michael, author of Pandemonium, comes Everything’s Annoying, a collection of dark fiction and horror. Covering a variety of themes, Everything’s Annoying provides an array of unsettling tales that will stay with you long after reading.

168 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2021

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was a great read. I've followed J.C.s work for years now and have loved most of what he has written. It's nice to see him collect so many shorts in the one place. Michael covers a variety of sub genres which keeps the book interesting and makes for quick page turning. I hope we see more of his work in the future. It's always a pleasure to see where he takes you next. Check it out.

[Sea Caummisar · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, let's talk about that title. Everything's Annoying. Yep, I know that feeling. I have those days where the smallest things get under my skin. I was hoping that would be the theme of these shorts, but instead it was the title of the first story that made me LOL.
There wasn't much a theme as I could tell. There was a really short story about a vampire that ended way too soon. A story about crack head parents that I enjoyed. A cult story that ended great. A troll story that had a double meaning, and many many more. The time travel story made me think about timelines and how changing the history would impact current day, or even if it would. My favorite story was Choices. About how having the ability to make choices affects your entire life, whether the results are good or bad.
I would classify these stories more as dark than horror, but still enjoyable

[William Bitner Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything’s Annoying: A Collection of Dark Fiction & Horror
By J.C. Michael

Genre - Fiction/Horror/Short Stories
Format - Digital
Pages - 117
Publication Information - Red Cape Publishing (April 7, 2021), ISBN-13 : 979-8716687219, ASIN : B091WJBHBQ
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewed by - William C. Bitner, Jr. https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...

Just add another “Annoying” thing to the list of “Everything that is”, I finished reading this book weeks ago and am just now getting around to writing my review. Apologies for that! Here we have eleven sublimely devious, horrific and at times otherworldly short stories. J.C. Micheal has long been one of my favorite authors in this genre as well as one of my favorite British authors. From his short stories in various horror anthologies to his novellas and novels he never disappoints. This collection is a richness of some of his best yet. He seems to have a plethora of story ideas locked away and anxious to tell and he is more than capable and talented enough to accomplish that task. “Stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper”, “there is no reason why the simple shapes of stories can’t be fed into computers”, “they are beautiful shapes.”...Kurt Vonnegut. While the author has the job of writing something entertaining and interesting, the reader has the responsibility of reading those writings correctly. Reading J.C. Michael correctly takes very little work and the shapes that I form while reading his stories are three-dimensional, color filled and cinematic in the way I see the different elements of his story, characters and plots come together. Each new story is a treat waiting to be fed upon, digested and savored. Another wonderful bit of literature from a skilled and talented wordsmith.

Found within these pages are 11 short stories: “Everything’s Annoying”, “There Was a Girl”, “Ascalon”, “Daddy”, “When Death Walks the Field of Battle”, “Choices”, “The Fisherman”, “Away Wi ’Em”, “Nineham’s Arrogance”, “The Nasty Old Troll”, and “Scarab”.

From the back cover - “From J.C. Michael, author of Pandemonium, comes Everything’s Annoying, a collection of dark fiction and horror. Covering a variety of themes, Everything’s Annoying provides an array of unsettling tales that will stay with you long after reading.”

About the Author - J. C. Michael is an English horror author.

His debut novel, Discoredia, was published in September 2013 and re-released in 2018 under the new title - Pandemonium. He has featured in the Double Barrel Horror series from Pint Bottle Press and co-authored the novella, You Only Get One Shot, with Scottish writer Kevin J Kennedy.

A number of his short stories have been published in various anthologies from a variety of publishers, as well as within his collection, Everything's Annoying.

Citing Stephen King, James Herbert, and Clive Barker, as his greatest influences, Michael's work sits firmly within the horror genre

[Lee Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute brilliant collection by J. C Michael

I've read J.C's work Pandemonium and a few other short stories before and have never been disappointed. He really brings his A game with this collection as each story brings twists and raises questions within the reader. J.C Michael is a seriously underrated writer with tight prose and horrific introspection. He knows the monsters we are.

Everything Is Annoying kicks off the collection with a character who I related a little bit too much. Is it wrong that I sympathised so strongly with him?

Ascalan.
Excellent look into the human psyche and the puppet masters. Really clever story.

Daddy.
Eloquently written, but just f@cking grim. Quite possibly my favourite.

When Death Walks The Field Of Battle.
Confronts the dehumanising of soldiers. As a vet, I rate this one. Raw and powerful.

Choices.
The easy choice, is usually the hardest consequence. What can you live with?

The Fisherman
Short, sharp and brutal look at grooming our youngsters and possibly why we make it so easy.

Away Wi 'Em
Seriously listen to the village crazies. It will always be an interesting story, or a dangerous truth.

Nineham's Arrogance
Time travelling Western. Im not a fan of time travel stories but this one was a pleasant suprise. If not for Nineham for me at least.

The Nasty Troll
A fantastically twisted stories as the virtual and real worlds collide. Probably my favourite by a shade.

Scarab
Big business. Will your desires make you or break you. If you don't want to know the truth your Boss sure does.

[Lisa Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was understandably excited to find out JC Michaels was releasing a short story collection, and I was absolutely delighted when I finally got to read it! This collection does not disappoint!

Everything’s Annoying: A Collection of Dark Fiction and Horror is everything the title alludes to and more! It is a collection of eleven tales spanning different horror subgenres, from horror thriller to psychological horror, supernatural horror to bizarro, and more. Some of the stories have been previously published in various anthologies, but I found I had not read most of them, and the couple I had read before I thoroughly enjoyed reading again.

The collection begins with the title story “Everything’s Annoying,” a deep and unexpected story with a surprising and twisted ending. And I simply must make mention of the second story, titled “There was a Girl.” This is a very short and haunting tale, told in first person but flowing like prose, it is reminiscent of a classic and begs to be read aloud. These are followed by nine more engrossing tales of varying themes, each one rich with vivid characters, suspense, and complexity.

Everything’s Annoying is a brilliant collection illustrating the literary genius and creative versatility of author JC Michaels. While I initially read it on Kindle for expediency (see impatience), I plan to have it grace the shelves of the Templum Library very soon. And then I shall read it again!

Highly recommended for the horror connoisseur.

[Candace Nola · Rating 4 out of 5]

JC Michael is a new to me author and I was pleasantly surprised by this collection, and somewhat amused by the title. While it would not seem to be a typical title for a horror collection, it is the title of the opening story, “Everything’s Annoying”, which resonated with me far more than I am willing to admit. The main character is Terry Donaldson, who is just your typical guy, going about his typical life. He works in an office as an analyst, forecasting performance figures and creating reports that nobody reads and that nobody cares about. He lives in an ordinary house on an ordinary street.

There is nothing remarkable about him or his life at all, except his level of annoyance at trivial things, everyday things annoy him, little things annoy him, but most of all, other people annoy him. He simply wishes other people would just disappear. That is all he wants most in the world. When his wish is somehow, miraculously granted, with no explanations, things take an unexpected turn. I loved everything about this story, especially the way that I am sure everyone will be able to relate to this story, as most of us have probably felt this way at one time or another.

In another story, “There was a Girl”, a man wakes up only to realize that he has been buried. Confused, and scared, he bangs on the lid of a padded wooden box screaming for help until he passes out from exhaustion and despair. Several times he wakes up and he repeats his cries for help in-between trying to remember what has happened and where could he be? His memory comes to him in flashes, there was a girl. He had been driving home from a late shift at work and she flagged him down. Another flash of memory, of changing her tire, of her standing too close behind him and then? “There Was a Girl” is a chilling tale with bite. Short and sweet and I truly wished for more when it ended.

Another chilling stand-out story was “Daddy” which I found deeply disturbing and left me a bit confused by the horror that unfolded and the questions that were left unanswered. A couple, most likely at their lowest moments in life, addicted to crack, living in filth and far too stoned to know what is going on, have a problem. They have become convinced their daughter is evil, possessed by a witch that crawled out of the TV. The father is not sure what to do or even if what they saw had been real but the wife is convinced that their daughter is possessed. Addiction, fear, and manipulation all play a role as this story unfolds, while the ending leaves you guessing as to what really did happen.

Each story was well-written and speaks to the plight of the human condition, showcasing mankind at its worst, driven by fear, by poor choices, by addiction or weakness, and the chilling outcomes that such things often bring with them. I enjoyed this collection of stories and I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

[Nat Whiston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything's Annoying Review

By J.C Michael
Published by Redcape Publishing

From J.C. Michael, author of Pandemonium, comes Everything’s Annoying, a collection of dark fiction and horror. Covering a variety of themes, Everything’s Annoying provides an array of unsettling tales that will stay with you long after reading

Well, as soon as I saw the cover art and title, how could I say no? J.C had me hooked within the first story; he takes standard horror/fantasy tropes and turns them on their heads. One such story, a girl, caught me completely off guard as I assumed this would be a standard buried alive esk story. But as I kept reading, it was revealed to be a vampire origin story which I loved. He also taps on some pretty tough subjects, such as in Daddy with substance abuse, whether the illusions can override a father's instincts caused by drugs. Story after story, I found myself being surprised by the outcome, and some stories left me wanting more. That being said, I would have loved a bit more from a couple of the stories, though that is a personal preference for me as the two in question weren't the kind of subjects I'd usually go out of my way to read. However, I believe there are some readers they would instantly grab in a heartbeat. The story Ninehams Arrogance sticks in my mind. It hid a crafty little Jack the Ripper style story with some intense scenes and great descriptions that made me consider my writing style. Ascalon was a twisted story with an incredibly well-done structure. I loved the bounce between the terrorist dialogue and the police chief who is investigating. It was easy to follow, and the change in language for both characters was a great touch. Not one point did I find it hard to follow, and the fact that you even get an insight into the terrorist organisations themselves was a significant bit of insight. The collection of different styles and different stories made an excellent addition to the shelf. Because I'm more than happy to revisit this collection at my leisure, so if you like stories with grit and surprising twists and turns, pick up this beastie today. Remember ghoulies drugs are bad, and avoid strange ladies on the side of the road.

[The Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything’s Annoying by J.C. Michael is a collection of graphic and gripping short horror stories. J.C. takes the genre of fantasy, thriller and horror and completely twists it into something much more sinister and gratifying. My overall favourite outcome of each story was I always thought I was being led in a certain way and could predict the outcome, and then J.C. would veer me off into a surprising and shocking direction. It was nice to be constantly surprised and not easily guess how each story would end. It makes for an exhilarating pace that wasn’t boring or predictable. I was holding my breath until the very last page, anticipating what unforeseeable outcome would unfold.

The book title is the first story in the collection and it really set the tone for how the rest of the book would play out. The story’s protagonist is trapped in a world where everything truly is annoying to him. And he lashes out in violent ways to demonstrate his frustrations at his predicament, even to his own detriment. I was quite taken about after reading it, loving how his anger from being annoyed overrides his ability to function or improve his circumstances. “Daddy” was grim and grotesque, the story centering on substance abuse. I would give a definite forewarning before reading. One of my favourite themes is stories centering on the morality of war, the hardships soldiers go through, and the unimaginable decisions that they are forced to make for the sake of their cause. So I was excited to read “When Death Walks the Field of Battle” and it did not disappoint.

A lot of these stories would do well being extended, as they were gripping and enjoyable and I was left wanting more. Everything’s Annoying is a valuable piece of horror literature as it doesn’t lack depth and isn’t afraid to shed light on the human spirit. It’s a piece of work that adult readers would enjoy dissecting and discussing. J.C. displays the horrifying depths of our humaness and psyche and how easily human beings can fall into committing monstrous acts.

I award 5 stars.

[Melanie Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s really only so much I can say about this book. It’s full of short reads that will keep you guessing as to what is going on and what surprises are on the next page. I read JC Michael’s book, Pandemonium, several years ago and let me tell you, he can tell a story that sticks with you. I still think about that book and there are several stories in this collection that I’m sure will be making appearances in my head in the future.

One thing I really must say is I’m not at all mad at the guy in the first story. I can really understand where he’s coming from and can’t say that I blame him one little bit for how that story went. That’s the closest I can get without giving away a spoiler. Just know I get it.

Seriously, this is another great book by this author. He has never let me down, and it doesn’t look like he plans to start anytime soon. I enjoyed every dark minute of it.