cold, thin air: volume 4: A Fourth Collection of Disturbing Narratives and Twisted Tales

by C.K. Walker

A tumble beneath the earth, a brutal murder unsolved, a child's fevered wish for a pet, an illogical death, a stroller on a frozen lake, a boy in an alley. Come inside and meet our friends. Some who are silent. And some who only scream.

Genres: Horror

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2022

About the author

C.K. Walker has been published by Jitter Press, The Altar Collective, and Thought Catalog. Her stories have been adapted for audio by Chilling Tales for Dark Nights and the NoSleep Podcast.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

cold, thin air: volume 4 is an exceptional collection of horror stories. I first heard of C.K. Walker from the masterpiece Borrasca , first published anonymously on Reddit as a Creepypasta in 2015 and 2016. Creepypasta is a term for horror stories published on the Internet, often posted by unnamed authors claiming to have actually experienced the events that they write about. This subgenre has exploded in popularity recently, with many Youtube channels and podcasts dedicated to narrating them. Walker’s work has been among the best of the best. The author has since revealed that her real name is Rebecca Klingel and, according to her Amazon.com blurb, she is an author and television writer based out of Los Angeles, California. “Her film writing credits include "The Haunting of Hill House", "The Haunting of Bly Manor", and "The Fall of the House of Usher". While writing mostly horror, C.K. Walker also enjoys writing in the thriller, mystery, and science fiction genres.”

cold, thin air: volume 4 contains eight stories:

The Boy in the Alley
My Pet Monster
Lake Wilcom
Gray
Rocking A Ranch
Fall
The Drayton Tracks Incident
Whitefall

Of these, I found “Fall” to be particularly scary, while “Rocking A Ranch” is quite disturbing on a deeper level. “Gray” displays the author’s proclivities for science-fiction The book ends with novella-length shot to the back of the head “Whitefall,” one of the strangest and most unsettling stories that I have read. I highly recommend this collection to fans of horror. I dearly hope to see some audiobook versions of these stories in the near future, as have been done with many of Walker’s stories.

Title: cold, thin air: volume 4: A Fourth Collection of Disturbing Narratives and Twisted Tales
Author: C.K Walker [Rebecca Klingel]
Year: 2022
Genre: Fiction - Short story collection, horror
Page count: 240 pages
Dates read: 10/4/22-10/5/22
2022 reading journal entry #: 267

[autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will always read C.K. Walker’s short stories. I fell in love with Borrasca years ago on Reddit and have been a fan ever since. A lot of these were a bit disappointing, but I especially loved the story Gray. It felt new for the author instead of some of the others which felt like repeats of previous stories. Hoping to see more branching out in the next volume.

[Blair Hoyle]

Volume 4 of C.K. Walker's Cold, Thin Air series is quite a deviation from the Creepypasta type of short horror fiction she became known for. Whitefall is definitely my favorite story here (though it's more of a novella), with Rocking A Ranch being the other gem of the bunch.

[Zacus Strunkus · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the love of God, reread the stories for mistakes before writing them. The amount of obvious mistakes in this is jarring.

The stories aren't bad in this one, but they also aren't great. Good, but forgettable. Whitehall's twist was annoying and pointless, and the others were predictable.

[Scott Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Klingel’s stories and hope to one day be able to read a new e-book from her that isn’t riddled with typos. One can dream!

[Rikke Nordravn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come on C.K! you're making me a sad panda. I know you are an awesome, gifted, amazing horror author. But I don't understand why the two last book in this series are so uninspired. Though I give it that this is heaps better than the third book in this series, and there are some real good stories in this collection.
Then I miss the time when you'd actually creep me out. I mean that, cause some of your earlier stories were the stuff you'd think about for days, and the more you thought about it, the creepier it got.
But knowing myself, I'd probably buy the fifth collection too, cause I have hope.

And thank you for the story about the kids and the monsters, that was absolutely the star of this collection.