Dancing With Tombstones

by Michael Aronovitz

This new book from critically acclaimed genre author Michael Aronovitz collects some of his greatest stories that celebrate the beauty of the darkness in the world.

-In the section titled GIRLS, you'll learn "How Bria Died," and will also meet "The Sculptor" in the story that inspired Aronovitz's full-length serial killer novel of the same name.

-In the section featuring PSYCHOS, you'll feel the chill of the Anti-Christ in "Quest for Sadness," and fall prey to the most frightening circus creature on the face of the earth in "The Exterminator."

-In TOOLS & TECH, you'll find out the dark secret of "The Tool Shed," and will also experience the full-length ghost-novella, "Toll Booth."

-And finally, in MARTYRS & SACRIFICIAL LAMBS you'll experience hell on earth in "The Echo," and unwittingly release the darkest force of the forest in "The Falcon."

With Dancing with Tombstones, the author of Alice Walks and The Sculptor deliciously thrusts us down the twisted avenues deep inside the haunt of our most secret repressions.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Ebooks

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2021

About the author

Novels:
Alice Walks
The Witch of the Wood

Collections:
Seven Deadly Pleasures
The Voices in Our Heads

Writer of Reviews and Criticism on / in:
Hellnotes
The Weird Fiction Review
Chiaroscuro
The Australian Metro

Anthologies:
Searchers After Horror
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror

Upcoming:
Novel- "Phantom Effect" Night Shade Books / February 2016
Novel- "Becky's Kiss" Vinspire Press / November 2015 under the pseudonym Nicholas Fisher

Reviews

[Heather Horror Hellion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm having a hard time putting a star review to this book but, let's go with 3.5 so a 4 rounded up.

There are some really fun and gross stories in here, but there are also some that just didn't tickle my fancy.

I loved the Sculptor! If you had to describe the last bag checker, security guard, or random man on the side of the road you saw to the police, could you do it?

The Exterminator was really good too. I think anything with creepy clowns in it is always good.

The other stories were not bad. Don't get me wrong they were well written. They were just too wordy for my taste.

That's the great thing about short stories though there is usually something for everyone and just because I didn't enjoy all of them doesn't mean you wont!

[Joel Sundquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Cemetery Dance for the advance copy in exchange for a review. This book was phenomenal. Every story gripped me in different ways. There is some very creepy stuff in here. I was not let down by a single story. They are all nearly flawless! His prose is amazing and I will definitely be looking for more books by him. The last lines of most of the stories kicked me right where it hurts the most. Engaging and brilliantly written. Would read again.

[Marina Garrido · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I’d like to thank Cemetery Dance Publications for a free e-book in exchange for an honest review. Every reader knows how rare it is to like every story in a collection, but that’s exactly what happened with Dancing with Tombstones. There was not a single tale that wasn’t well written, they all flowed well and had distinct elements that made them unique. There were stories written in the first person POV, the third person POV, written in a dialogue format, stories woven within each other, and ones narrated through snapshots. The book is divided in four sections: Girls, Psychos, Tools and Tech (which contains the novella Toll Booth), Martyrs and Sacrificial Lambs. I’d also like to point out that these short stories were written during a span of ten years, and I think that’s one of the reasons why the tales were so wonderfully distinct and varied both in theme and style.

Seeing as there are seventeen short stories in Dancing with Tombstones and if I were to comment on every single one this review would never end, I picked my favorite from each section. Starting off strong with The Girl Between the Slats from Girls, we have what seems to be a standard story of how the ghost of a little girl came to be. However, the reader soon learns that things are a lot more complex than they look, and every time you think you’ve figured out what’s happening the author throws you another curve ball. In my opinion, this was the trickiest one to pull off because of the structure the author was working with, it required impeccable timing and the ability to keep the reader invested throughout all the twists and turns. Moving on to the Psychos category, we have Quest for Sadness, which takes the concept of the antichrist and gives it an interesting twist. The choice to have a filthy rich man being confronted, by his own “servant”, that he fitted the role of the antichrist was incredibly smart. After all, if the devil really did send someone to the earth it would most likely be a millionaire, the hard thing to do with a character like this protagonist is making the reader care about his fate. The author sidesteps this issue by keeping you engaged with the story by making you want to know what the character is going to do to others, instead of what’s going to be done to him.

From Tools and Tech, I picked The Tool Shed and if there’s one trope I love is the father who’s got a skeleton in his closet, or, in this case, the tool shed. Even though the reader can figure out early on who the culprit and the victim were, the story keeps you hooked on the how. Sprinkling in the supernatural element and having the focus be this creepy shed full of animal remains is what put this story over the top for me. Now, the best for last, very few pieces of literature have hit me as hard as The Soldier, I was not expecting something so emotional, especially regarding the topic of the story. To me, this tale perfectly showcases the dangerous consequences of toxic masculinity and how damaging it is to push boys to be “tough” all the time. It’s also such a beautiful representation of fatherly love and the strong bond that can exist between father and son. Just remember to have a tissue box handy when you read this one, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Finally, if all of that wasn’t enough to convince you to pick up this amazing collection, let me present to you one more reason. How could you not want to read a book that has one of the most powerful lines I’ve ever read: “I have a soul, but I loaned it to the church.”

Marina Garrido.

[Irene Well Worth A Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She Drags her jump rope on cement and calls you from the heating vent. Turn a promise to a lie and you will be the next to die."
Creepy right?
I had never read any Michael Aronovitz before. I'm rather shocked by that considering how much I love short horror stories. Somehow I missed out on these in previous publications. These stories are quite dark and deliciously creepy. Several feature children, and those were my favorites because you just never know what children might do. They may have frightening events befall them or they may be the cause of terror. That is why I love them in horror, they are so unpredictable. I'm also a fan of ghosts, and you will meet some here, after all the dead can't rest if they are dancing with tombstones. I enjoyed all of the stories but these are the ones I can't stop thinking about.

The very first story "How Bria Died" in which a teacher regrets telling his class a scary story was one of my favorites.
"The Girl Between The Slats" was sheer brilliance. It led me down a totally unexpected path that there is no way for me to describe without spoiling it for you. Check out your face in the mirror after you read it and see how surprised you look.
In "Puddles" poor Doris Watawitz is in germaphobe hell and I really felt for her. This story was just a lot of gross fun.
"Soul Text" takes a look at the technology of tomorrow that is nearly the horror of today. Maybe we were better off when a tablet was just a pad of paper.
"The Tool Shed" is where siblings discover a gruesome secret.
In "The Falcon" an unusual child is born, grows up, and gets revenge.
"The Soldier" was another of my favorites not because of being scary but because I cared about the characters and it nearly made me cry. I don't expect to care that much about characters in a short story because I only meet them for such a brief time.
Highly recommended to all who love horror and dark fiction.

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications.

[Emily Haynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A father thinks his three year old son is perfect just like his life. The woman who wants everything clean no matter what. Chilling stories that makes you wonder about people near you.

[John Michael Cozzoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

My book review for Dancing With Tombstones first appeared in The Horror Zine https://www.thehorrorzine.com/) . It is reposted here with permission.

Turns out evocation is a good word to describe Michael Aronovitz’s collection of short stories and one novella in Dancing with Tombstones. Sure, there are the de rigueur sudden or drawn-out deaths, but then there are power tools wielded and heavy machinery painfully bumped in to. In-between all that his girls, psychos, martyrs, sacrificial lambs, students and teachers, and unbeknownst victims dance closer to their graves’ edges before toppling in. It is especially in the academic milieu where he nails it, from actual experience, along with some hands-on knowledge of power tools and heavy construction, oddly enough.

His love for tools and tech stretches from Toll Booth—where heavy construction figures in—a story told in flashback where the ghost is alluded to while the tired-of-living main character does all the haunting of himself, and Soul Text—where cool tech turns hot—a convergence of instant access, social media, and a special neural implant, all colliding into quite a freak-out. Where Toll Booth executes a neat little trick that Aronovitz pulls off with a bit of heavy machinery, a mean hand at dialog and inner monologuing, and a bad bully-buddy relationship as the instigator for the downward spiral that begins with one bad act too many, Soul Text lulls us into a potentially real problem to play with our heads because of our childlike acceptance of tech. If you thought Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 wall-sized televisions were prescient of where we are heading as a society, you aint’ seen nothin’ yet until you read Soul Text.

The dénouements and dire situations evoked through his characters’ thoughts, words, and points of view will make you loosen your collar a little and have you listening more attentively for unusual sounds as you read. Do not fight it: you will succumb to their words and aching lives and unpleasant quietuses with a knowing nod of guilty satisfaction. His people know or should know, or do not want to know, and there lies the bare bodkin each in turn plunges and twists into themselves. Aronovitz has a knack for extending the twisting part and shortening the plunge, driving home the terrors faced in this collection with a nonchalant yet poetic turn. Perhaps a little too well as he stalls the terror until it creeps in towards the end, suddenly, to wreak its havoc.

Unless he is writing about serial killers, however.

With them he extends the terror throughout, as in The Exterminator and The Matriarch. Between evil clowns and “they all look like Mama” he cracks open the minds of his killers cleanly, in a judicious use of words and descriptions that capture the craziness with a matter-of-fact approach that is unsettling as they crack open their victims. Interesting tidbit: The Matriarch later turned into a pre-chapter for his novel Phantom Effect. In The Matriarch he delivers perhaps the best and most concise fictional witness statement put to print. It comes at the end and goes to the dark heart of experiencing real terror. It will leave an impression.

His plentiful terrors, both large and small, begin with a teacher, in How Bria Dies, who whips up a spooky tale for his unruly middle schoolers, but one so good it evokes something bad. His last terror ends with The Boy in the Box, a lose-win-lose hometown baseball story that gets the boy out of the gear box and onto the field, but that box lies waiting all summer long for a replacement. In the Girl Between the Slats, a surgically structured plot twists into an unexpected personal tragedy stretching three years of delusion and avoidance. In Puddles, an obsessive-compulsive paranoia leads to an improper use of an industrial shop-vac. Clearly, Aronovitz should never be left alone in a Home Depot.

Put to more proper and skillful use are his choice of words, which elevate his stories to a unique balance between the show and the tell, the basic challenge of fiction writing. His paragraphs give both internal thoughts and external actions and situations a depth that is vivid with emotions, that emanate from his characters but, in turn, are then invoked in his readers. An example can be found in How Bria Died, where the word “juking” is used as in “He was in the far corner of the room listening to his iPod, juking his head a bit…” Not many writers would use the word. It’s North American, informal, and means to do a sham move; or, it’s Northern English, Scottish, and means to turn or bend quickly to avoid something. Now think about it. The sentence imagery has the character listening to an iPod, presumably shaking his head to the beat of the music. Either definition you choose, you can see the character’s head bobbing a little up and down or doing a slight downward side tilt, back and forth, like a prize fighter shying away from a well-aimed glove. One simple word, yet he gets maximum impact for imagery in the mind’s eye of the reader.

Here's another interesting example from Toll Booth. “The woman and I shucked hard against each other.” Not many writers would use “shuck,” either, especially in the way Aronovitz does. It’s North American and has a slang meaning, but it usually means the outer covering of corn or shellfish. Its past tense means to remove the outer covering or husk. The way it is used in the sentence is curious. Especially when you realize the woman mentioned is dead. It almost has a sexual connotation given the sentence’s rhythm, but there appears to be a more direct relationship-driven implication here. Perhaps you will figure it out, but only after you read the story to learn more about that unfortunate relationship.

He broadens his approach with more careful choice of words like “Rayovac” (a brand of flashlight for you newbies), “Bazooka” (bubble gum that came with a Bazooka Joe mini-comic), “bent up Genesee Cream ale bottle cap” (soda bottled in Rochester, New York, from 1960), “Good and Plenty” (licorice candy that also had a cartoon character called Choo-Choo Charlie): not just words, but specific products that evoke a location, an age, an environment, and an identity for the narrator more so than simply saying “flashlight” or “bubble gum” or “bottle cap” or “licorice” could ever do. Possibly even evoking a sense of nostalgia in some readers that translates to an emotional tug, connecting them with the character. A sneaky way to endear yourself to your readers, but an effective one because it is so subtle.

One could summarily say that Dancing with Tombstones is filled with teachers making bad choices, kids making bad choices, kids with special needs not being given those choices, and crazies making bad choices for themselves and everybody near them. All those bad choices create bad outcomes, horrible outcomes in so many splendidly imaginative ways. And Aronovitz loves to make you suffer through it all through his honed knives of words and handy power tools of plotting structure. You will love it too.

Eventually. Once you get past the terror of it all.

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of horror stories, in magical prose and a variety of settings. The collection is divided into four parts: "Girls", "Psychos", "Tools & Tech", and "Martyrs and Sacrificial Lambs". The story in "Girls", of "How Bria Died", opening the collection as a whole, stands out for its characterization, tight plot, psychological depth and the creepy atmosphere permeating the story; this is one to remember! "The Sculptor" was quite disturbing. Things get very unsettling from there on. "The Tool Shed" in "Tools & Tech" has a lot to recommend it: though the ending is predictable, the road to get there is peppered with such piercing prose and nasty twists it was simply a delight to read! And, of course, "Toll Booth", a novella, is a must-read for any horror fan: tightly wound, atmospheric, and relentless as hell. But the strongest stories come towards the end. They have all been picked with care and it's very difficult to choose a favorite. The last story especially, outstanding! Michael Aronovitz is a master! And the editing and the proof-reading stand out as well. (I received a complimentary copy and left a voluntary review).

Merged review:

A wonderful collection of horror stories, in magical prose and a variety of settings. The collection is divided into four parts: "Girls", "Psychos", "Tools & Tech", and "Martyrs and Sacrificial Lambs". The story in "Girls", of "How Bria Died", opening the collection as a whole, stands out for its characterization, tight plot, psychological depth and the creepy atmosphere permeating the story; this is one to remember! "The Sculptor" was quite disturbing. Things get very unsettling from there on. "The Tool Shed" in "Tools & Tech" has a lot to recommend it: though the ending is predictable, the road to get there is peppered with such piercing prose and nasty twists it was simply a delight to read! And, of course, "Toll Booth", a novella, is a must-read for any horror fan: tightly wound, atmospheric, and relentless as hell. But the strongest stories come towards the end. They have all been picked with care and it's very difficult to choose a favorite. The last story especially, outstanding! Michael Aronovitz is a master! And the editing and the proof-reading stand out as well. (I received a complimentary copy and left a voluntary review).

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was approached to see if I would read & review Dancing with Tombstones by Michael Aronovitz &, to be honest, I wasn’t sure. I am not a horror fan but, as this was an anthology, I tackled it with an open mind as I like gore & twisted as much as the next reader (who likes gore & twisted).

How can I describe this book? An anthology of weirdness, darkness & horror best sums it up.
There are some short & sweet shocks, although I’m not sure ‘sweet’ is the right word.
Medium length tales including The Sculptor, which has inspired a full length novel.
A complete novella too, Toll Booth.
Word of warning, if you don’t like clowns avoid The Exterminator. I know this isn’t a picture book but my imagination more than made up for that!

A good read & being shorter stories meant I could dip in & out unlike a full length novel. Some passages felt overly drawn out but, overall, I think there is something for all - read the synopsis & choose where to start for yourself.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a new horror book, this is an ideal find! Michael Aronovitz is the author of “Dancing with Tombstones”. He is the creator of other works such as, “Alice Walks,” and “Seven Deadly Pleasures.” Currently “Dancing with Tombstones,” has a 4.19-star rating on the app Goodreads. This horror book is split into spine-chilling short stories, all within four distinct categories (Girls, Psychos, Tools & Tech, and Martyrs & Sacrificial Lambs). All of these stories are rich with vivid descriptions and brilliant imagery. Aronovitz incorporates distinct POVs within each short horror story. He even uses a bold framework within one of the stories under Psychos, The Matriarch. The longest short story under Tools & Tech, Toll Booth, was my absolute favorite out of them all. A great gift for someone during the holidays that appreciate horror!

[Ian Gielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of short stories that have been in other collections before but now included in one and refined and updated to the authors current style.

The range of stories is impressive and when you start one, you won’t want to put it down.

I can’t pick a favourite here which is a great indication of the quality and consistency of each story.

Definitely recommended if you’re after some stories that will keep you awake at night.

[Jenni Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun mix of short stories!

[Tanner Qualls · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this collection. I stumbled upon it in a used book store and the cover got my attention so I grabbed it. I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to find other works by Aronovitz!