ABC's of Terror, Volume IV

ABC’s of Terror

by Patrick C. Harrison III (Editor), Arther Wick, Ash Ericmore

When you think of your neighbors, what do you think of? The friendly older couple that wave each day as you return home from work. The guy across the street that is always working in his yard. The lady that walks her dog around your home. What if you found out those people had horrifying secrets? Secrets not meant for the world to know. This book contains 26 stories of neighbors to hope you never encounter.

Includes stories from -

R.J. Benetti

Peter Caffrey

Benjamin Chadwick

Shawnna Deresch

Ash Ericmore

Chris Grindstaff

Matt Henshaw

W. Dale Jordan

D.A. Latham

Todd Love

Nathan D. Ludwig

John Lynch

Gary McDonough

Connor McQueen

Matt Micheli

Harrison Phillips

Joe Scipione

John Shupeck

Elton Skelter

Colt Skinner

J. Snow

Megan Stockton

Steve Thompson

B.M. Tolkovsky

Mark Towse

Arther Wick

Genres: Horror

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2022

About the author

Patrick C. Harrison III (PC3, if you prefer) is an author of horror, splatterpunk, and all forms of speculative fiction. His current publications include GRANDPAPPY, A SAVAGE BREED, VAMPIRE NUNS BEHIND BARS, 5 TALES THAT WILL LAND YOU IN HELL, among others, and his works can be found in numerous anthologies, including AND HELL FOLLOWED and ROAD KILL: TEXAS HORROR BY TEXAS AUTHORS VOL. 4.

PC3 is the Splatterpunk Award-winning editor (with Jarod Barbee) of AND HELL FOLLOWED, and has edited several other anthologies. He is a freelance editor, having done work for notable authors like Aron Beauregard, Daniel J. Volpe, Mark Towse, Rebecca Rowland, and many others.

PC3 also has a FREE substack, in which he frequently does movie reviews and updates readers on his fiction. Check out pc3horror.substack.com.

Reviews

[Diana | Indie Book Addict · Rating 5 out of 5]

This creepy collection is centered around neighbors. We’ve all had at least one weird neighbor and these authors have created some great stories about the crazy ones. There isn’t a bad story in the bunch, but I wanted to highlight some of my favorites.

A is for Abscess Aphrodisiac: Ben’s neighbor seemed nice and just wanted to help him out. I guess in a way she did fix his problem. McQueen wasted no time hitting the gag reflex in this one.

E is for Elderly (Ethel Edgerton): Pete is torn from his slumber to the sound of scratching. When he sees it’s his neighbor Ethel, he relaxes a bit until he notices something with her eyes. Or maybe he’s hallucinating. Either way something creepy is going on and he’s about to find out what it is. Love the creepy vibes!

F is for Foe Killer Creek: Molly scored a deal on a single wide trailer thanks to Realtor Barbie. Molly aims to get close to her new neighbor Ben. She has something interesting planned for him. Love the twisted ending!

G is for Gary Gilroy: The Gilroy’s are the worst kind of neighbors. Unkept yard, dog waste all over, peeling paint, etc. Robbie had had enough and headed next door to give Gary a piece of his mind. Only things don’t go quite as he planned. Cock-dogs for the win!!

S is for Screamer: Mr. Rodan had himself a kinky neighbor; at least in his head she was. He allows his naughty thoughts to take over whenever he hears her voice through the wall. In the end, he gets a pretty big surprise. His neighbor only wanted to be seen.

W is for Won’t You Be My Neighbor: The Turner family moves into their new home and are instantly greeted by neighbors bearing gifts of food. Months pass and they decide to mingle with the neighbors at an outing. The neighbors were surprised to see the family since they weren’t being too neighborly. From here it gets all kinds of crazy. I love this one. Super creepy! With neighbors like this, I wouldn’t want to be too neighborly either.

"I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you."

[Jeremy Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, it took me a few days to be able to formulate my thoughts for this collection. All in all, I absolutely loved it!! It was dark, gruesome, funny, haunting, and creepy aka all the horror book words. All 26 stories are woven together to create something that I think is pretty amazing. This review cannot even tap into all the things that you will experience as a reader of this book. You will hit some high, positive notes, and you will sink into despair in some stories. You MOST ASSUREDLY will get the ICK in more of these stories than not. And this ICK just might leave a mental residue that you can't get out. The imagery of these stories obviously varies from story to story, but with 26 unique storytellers, there is something for everyone. I don't want to give too much away, but all I will say is to READ THIS COLLECTION!

[DA · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I have a story in this book but I am not reviewing my own story*


A is for absolutely astounding collection

B is for bunch of talented authors

C is for completely enthralling stories

D is for diabolically unique ideas

E is for eerie tales of weird neighbors


I loved every story in this book. Twenty six authors with twenty six unique stories of weird neighbors. This book makes me glad I interact with my neighbors as little as possible!

[Tera (TheBookishAbyss) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an extraordinary read! This anthology certainly lives up to its name. If you enjoy stories of terror, there are 26 morsels waiting for you by a variety of authors. Be prepared for anything…there’s a lot of blood, guts, sexual deviance, and at least one story involving violence toward a baby. Those are your trigger warnings!

There are some repeated tropes, but each has its own twist. I enjoyed this book even when it made my face scrunch in disgust and my stomach churn. We horror lovers are a strange breed. Get this one!

[Elton Skelter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do have a story in this collection, but this rating is for all the incredible authors who make up the other 25 letters of the alphabet and their horrifying tales of terrible neighbours. Seriously, this book is incredible and I recommend it to any horror lover for a bit of everything, a lot of variety and maybe to find your new favorite authors to follow.

[C.I.I. Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

ABCs of Terror provides a current who's who list from the indie horror community, and these writers do not let the reader down. The theme for this volume is "Neighbors" and God help you if you find yourself living next door to any of these monsters. We have cannibals, witches, cults and serial killers. The gore and suspense are here in equal supply. Here are a few standouts for me:
D is for Draugr by Colt Skinner - nothing scarier than getting trapped in a basement.
P is for Patrick by W. Dale Jordan - a voyeur story turned on its head
Q is for Qwaint by Megan Stockton - sheer visceral monster attack.
R is for Rachel (like from friends) - Some great Lovecraftian fare
W is for Won't You Be My Neighbor by R.J. Benetti - effectively ruining one of the last vestiges of my childhood innocence. I nearly cried laughing near the end of this story.
Y is for Yuri by J Snow - I'd never read anything of Snow's and I was kind of blown away. Just a real unique writer's voice that kind of blew my hair back

[Betty Bagwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gross, vomit inducing.

Okay, not all the stories are that gross, but the very first story is enough to make you toss your lunch. Then there's E is for Elderly. The only two stories I actually liked were C is for Crash because it reminded me of old school horror movies, and Y is for Yuri, because it's kind of redneck horror which I like.