The Bad Book

by John F.D. Taff (Editor)

The Good Book.
You might have clutched it in your church pew on Sunday mornings. You know the one?
With the pebbled black soft cover, the words HOLY BIBLE stamped in gold ink.
Perhaps it strengthened your faith, comforted you in dark times.
Multiple Bram Stoker Award-nominated John F.D. Taff has assembled a Last Supper of Dark Apostles to turn some of those "good book" parables on their heads--twisting Bible stories into sinister horror tales.
Blasphemous? Heretical? We sincerely hope so.
As you read on, remember one thing, though.
There’s no comfort to be found in The Bad Book.
No comfort at all.

Including stories by
Philip Fracassi
Kristi DeMeester
John Langan
...and many more...

Includes story illustrations by Giuseppe Balestra.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies

310 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2021

About the author

John F.D. Taff is a multi-Bram Stoker Award short-listed dark fiction author with more than 30 years experience, and more than 100 short stories and seven novels in print.

He has appeared in Cemetery Dance, Eldritch Tales, Unnerving, Deathrealm, Big Pulp and One Buck Horror, as well as anthologies such as Hot Blood: Seeds of Fear, Hot Blood: Fear the Fever, Shock Rock II, Lullabies for Suffering, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Behold!, Shadows Over Main Street 2, Horror Library V, Best of Horror Library, Dark Visions Vol. 1, Ominous Realities, Death's Realm, I Can Taste the Blood and Savage Beasts. His work will appear soon in The Seven Deadliest and I Can Hear the Shadows.

His novels include The Bell Witch, Kill-Off and the serialized apocalyptic epic The Fearing. Thunderstorm Books and Grey Matter Press will release a one-volume version of The Fearing in 2021, in limited edition hardcover, soft cover and digital. Short fiction collections include Little Deaths: The Definitive Collection and Little Black Spots, both published by Grey Matter Press.

Taff's novella collection, The End in All Beginnings, was called one of the best novella collections by Jack Ketchum and was a Stoker Award Finalist. His short "A Winter's Tale" was also a Stoker Finalist.

His upcoming anthology Dark Stars, a tribute to that seminal '80s work Dark Forces, will be published by Tor/Nightfire 11/2/21.

His website is at johnfdtaff.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnfdtaff.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bad Book is The Best Book

I've read a number of anthologies now and this one is up there as amongst the best and for this year's releases, most definitely holds the number one slot. There are no bad stories here, only wonderful, unique, and occasionally twisted perspectives on stories from the Bible. Starting with Hailey Piper's Wife Beast of Eden, the bar is set high and all meet it. My favourites included Hailey's, Cindy O'Quinn's A Gathering on the Mountain, Todd Keisling's Gethsemene, Kristi DeMeester's To Dash Their Heads Against the Stones and the outstanding and brilliantly bleak Mark Matthews' Golgorth Street. All challenge you to think about what faith means, it's origins and effects on humanity. Good or bad, faith and religion is personal choice but this Bad Book is the best. If it could give it more stars, I would offer a constellation.

[John Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a time when anthologies like Splatterpunks, Dark Forces, Silver Scream and Book of the Dead were released to book stores and left indelible marks on the genre. Now considered classics of the format, the two common threads in these books were impeccable storytelling and crisp editing.
The Bad Book will remembered as one of the greats. There is simply, not a weak story in the bunch. Every story is worth curling up to. My personal favorites are by Cindy O’Brian, Samantha Kolesnik, and Phillip Fracassi.
If you aren’t familiar with some of the writers, be prepared to become instant fans. this was the first time I read Fracassi and Errick A. Nunnally and I will be seeking out more of their work.

[Alan Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should state from the outset that I have a story in this book so I'm biased, but I love being part of it because this anthology is fantastic. I'm proud to be in it. Well worth your time.

[Charlene (Char) ❤︎ ❀˖° ❤︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad Good Stories

This book got me through a plane ride and a trip to Salem, MA. I bought this book some time ago and I decided to give it a read this book was interesting to say the least. These authors took a chance on writing stories about the Bible but the bad/ evil version of it and they have succeeded. I enjoyed all the stories all though some were hard to get into than others. If you would like a good quick read where imaginations run wild and anything goes. Look no further than here.

[T.J. Tranchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book’s design is unique but makes the stories a bury harder to read for my old eyes.

The stories themselves: holy shit! Everything in here zings. If you are looking for religious horror, you can’t go wrong with any of the stories here.
Of particular note are Kristi DeMeester’s “To Dash Their Heads Against the Stones,” Cindy O’Quinn’s “A Gathering at the Mountain,” and Todd Keisling’s “Gethsemane.”

Editor John F.D. Taff exhibits an editorial nuance here that is commendable.

[Brennan LaFaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bad Book serves as the first project from D. Alexander Ward's Bleeding Edge Books, and an ambitious one at that. Turning familiar bible stories on their heads, bringing out the horror buried (though not too deep) in the best known Bible stories.
Diversity proves a strength for The Bad Book. I went in expecting more straightforward retellings of well-known stories, and when those are done well, they shine. Great examples here are Hailey Piper's "Wife-Beast of Eden" and Todd Keisling's "Gethsemane". Truth be told, these are probably my two favorite stories in the whole collection. Piper's was the only conceivable choice for an opener and Keisling's is the meanest thing I've read in a while.
Other stories contained within take parables and well-trodden storylines, bringing them into modern day. Samantha Kolesnik's "Shrewd" and Philip Fracassi's "Marmalade" pull this off exactly right, fitting the theme to a T, but standing out as stories that could appear at home in many a collection.
Some other standout stories include John Langan's "El", Alan Baxter's "Nurturing His Nature", and Doungjai Gam and Ed Kurtz's joint effort, "Son of Man".
An extra nod of appreciation to the formatting of the book, which I believe falls at the feet of Todd Keisling. From the distressed pages to the inclusion of interior artwork, catered to each story, Bleeding Edge put a lot of care into making this debut anthology the best it could be. And for that, I anticipate the next work even more.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Ward from Bleeding Edge Books sent me a digital ARC of this gloriously blasphemous little fella, and I offer my most gracious thank you for that.

I am amazed that this idea was not done before, although John F.D. Taff did sum it up at the end of the anthology: lots of people might rather not be struck down by lightning by taking stories from the Bible and devilishly inverting them. That being said, I am so glad this book was delivered unto me by Bleeding Edge Books because, well, it's fun as hell and I loved it. The fact that there are 13 stories written by 13 Apostles (authors) and they get their own 'Books' is the greatest gimmick of all time. How could one not be tempted to pick it up and see what these authors could make of biblical parables and faith in general?

I can say with conviction that all of these stories were wickedly entertaining. Of course, I have some favourites though, and those I will list in order of most blasphemous to only mildly offensive to God:

1) "Gethsemane" by Todd Keisling - I was grimacing the whole time with how much Keisling took the bull (Jesus) by the horns (the cross), but it was reaaaally well done.
2) "Golgorth Street" by Mark Matthews - This one's a close second and paints a picture of Jesus being born to a heroin-addled couple.
3) "Wife Beast of Eden" by Hailey Piper - I just loved this one. It presented Eve, in the Garden of Eden with Adam, as a woman trying to learn to think for herself long before the apple, and Adam as another man who just wants to blow his load.
4) "Seeing Stones" by Sarah Read - A tale of witchy, cunning women getting revenge on a religious zealot who can't see past their twisted interpretation of the Bible.
5) "The House that Demons Built" by V. Castro - A wonderfully dark story about the White House, its demonic history, and a future foretold.

Despite me not listing more, do not take that as a sign that the others were lesser. They were all GREAT. But I won't list every story. I want you to go get this book, put aside any Christianity you have for a bit, and let the Devil tempt you from a safe distance. It's worth it to make you think, to make you question, and to refresh your view on the stories you may have heard in Church (or that you've never heard at all). Buy this book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bad Book is an anthology curated by John F.D. Taff that takes as its premise: what if biblical stories, but horror? The result is intriguing.

Hailey Piper is up to her usual hijinks with “Wife-Beast of Eden,” a story about Adam as the spoiled golden child and woman as nothing more than a gift for him. Eve finds out things she’d rather not know and comes across Lilith in the outskirts of the garden. Kristi DeMeester’s “To Dash Their Heads Against the Stones” is about a young woman who is possessed by the ghosts of infants. It’s a very sad and difficult read.

Alan Baxter’s “Nurturing His Nature” is a creepy serial killer tale in which one experienced killer finds a budding killer who could use a few pointers. As you might guess from this, some tales fit the theme in more roundabout ways than others. Mark Matthews brings us “Golgorth Street,” in which a pair of junkies raise a Christ-like child while dealing heroin for a terrifying man. I didn’t feel like the growing child had much personality beyond his purpose in the story, but otherwise the tale was interesting.

V. Castro brings us “The House that Demons Built,” which roams from the Thomas Jefferson days of the White House to a future in which the world may end. A woman named Luisa Aguila is wide-open to calls from the dead, and she’s afraid of what she’ll see when she takes her son Lorenzo to the White House on a school trip. I had trouble getting into this one, but the ending is really interesting. Errick Nunnally’s “Tooth and Axe” is an unusual story in which a slave learns what freedom could be, after watching his Master take Rasa’s mother’s teeth to replace his own. There is a chunk of missing time in this one that I wanted to know more about, but it’s still a complete story.

Cindy O’Quinn’s “A Gathering on the Mountain” is one of my favorites. A young woman named Hobeth Freeborn has the sight, and she can tell that a traveling faith healer is evil. She isn’t the only one who’s noticed, however, and the mountain people have their own ways of handling con artists. Samantha Kolesnik’s “Shrewd” is another of my favorites. Marge lives in a sleepy town, working a dead-end job, married to a man she doesn’t love. When she finds herself attracted to the new stock boy, Harper, her life takes a very unexpected turn. This story did not go anywhere that I could have anticipated, but I absolutely loved it. Another favorite? Sarah Read’s “Seeing Stones.” A religious zealot is killing practicing psychics, and a psychic detective is brought in on the case. This is absolutely beautiful in how it’s handled. Todd Keisling does an excellent job with “Gethsemane,” in which we get a very different look at why Judas might have betrayed Jesus. There are some wonderful cosmic horror hints here that totally made this piece for me. Philip Fracassi’s “Marmalade” tells the story of a big orange cat who seems to work miracles on the sick–and the horrors that follow.

“Son of Man,” by doungjai gam and Ed Kurtz, is a creepy story about a former felon who finds an unusual form of salvation. It does raise some interesting questions about how to handle the urge to sin. John Langan’s “El” is an interesting tale that hints at older truths than what we see in the Bible.

My favorite stories were almost all (except for Keisling’s entry) not explicitly and overtly biblical in nature, but rather dealt with modern-day issues surrounding religion. All of them depicted rich worlds in quick strokes with intriguing characters at the core. The more religious/explicitly biblical stories are also quite good, but which you prefer will depend on your likes and dislikes as a reader.

Content note: miscarriage, animal death, drug use, dismemberment/disfigurement, removal of teeth, murder, child death.


Original review posted on my blog: https://www.errantdreams.com/2021/08/...

[Jordan Whitlock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of shocking that this hasn't been done before, turning THE GOOD BOOK (aka the Bible) onto it's head into The Bad Book full of twisted bible stories, but alas John FD Taff came along and finally thought to do it. Aside from that cleverness, the 13 stories were listed as THE BOOK OF with the 13 authors names listed as if given their own book of the bible. Very cool.
Now to the stories. A few (1 or 2) I didn't really care for, one that I didn't think even related to the bible at all, but mostly really good stories. And to boot, there were 6 stories I found to be outstanding and worth your time and money alone. I will list them here in order with my favorite at the top.
1. GETHSEMANE by Todd Keisling. The back cover claims Blasphemous and Heretical stories but this may be the only story to truly deliver on that. I find the story of Judas interesting already, but Keisling gives you a possible backstory to why he did what he did, and man oh man, you'll feel like you need to go church for a month straight after reading this one. Just a hunch, but it seems this author is the most biblically knowledgeable of this group of authors. Either that, or did his research for this story.
2. WIFE-BEAST OF EDEN by Hailey Piper. So well written and such a great spin on what happened at the beginning of time. I loved this story and will be looking for more from this author now.
3. MARMALADE by Philip Fracassi. Incredible story. Felt to me a bit like a mix of THE TWILIGHT ZONE meets THE GREEN MILE. Anytime I get TZ vibes and King-like writing, it's gonna be a great time. Who knew a story about a cat could be so entertaining.
4.. SHREWD by Samantha Kolesnik. Another really well written story. One of those rare ones where the writing is so fluid, you hate when it ends.
5. EL by John Langan. Who doesn't wonder about the Behomoth and Leviathian mentioned briefly in the book of JOB. I'm always fascinated by that verse and very much enjoyed this take on it.
6. GOLGORTH STREET by Mark Matthews. The best thing I've read by this author so far. Such a dark tale, I felt gritty and sweaty while reading.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this collection and my rating of it is kind of where it falls averaging across all stories. None were bad, but there were some that I didn't enjoy as much as others. The good ones in here were quite good though. My faves were:

Marmalade By Philip Fracassi (that damn cat! so weird, so dark, so good)
Nurturing His Nature Alan Baxter (nurturing a killer, yikes)
To Dash Their Heads Against the Stones by Kristi Demeester (a very interesting haunting)
Seeing Stones by Sarah Read (Psychic hunting serial killer, i'm in)
Gethsemane by Todd Keisling (umm, this one could offend the most religious of us, but thought it was brilliant)

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was such a blast to read!! Every author killed it with the concept, some twisting familiar bible tales, others taking ideas and running with them. Some of the stories were fun while others broke me.

[Tasha Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

So disappointed when I ran out of stories!!!

This is easily one of the best anthologies I've ever read. Each author brought stories and concepts from the Bible to life, in a wholly terrifying way, and I wanted there to be an endless list of stories to read! Loved every bit of it!

[Alicia Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite stories: Kristi DeMeester's "To Dash Their Heads Against The Stones," Sarah Read's "Seeing Stones," John Langan's "El," and Philip Fracassi's "Marmalade.”

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

overall it was a great anthology, there were some in there I enjoyed a lot more than others specifically golgorth street, gethsemane and marmalade