Literary Horror discussion

We only had one nomination for our April monthly read: the anthology Places We Fear to Tread, ed. John Brhel. Since a few members expressed interest, that will be our April group book.

I'm having trouble locating reviews on the usual book review sites. But here's one (there are others on goodreads):
https://robinknabel.squarespace.com/r...

The anthology is available on paper and as an ebook. We're ready to go whenever!

The ISBN is 9798686259751 if that helps anyone track down a copy. It is put out by Cemetery Gates Media, which has a website with other cool looking horror books: https://cemeterygatesmedia.com/

Lost girls don't cry

I really liked this first story. And I was fully expecting (view spoiler)[the sister be one of the missing girls. Also I thought the MC would run away in the end. I liked it that things turned out to be different than how I expected them to be. <\spoiler>

Puppet show

I couldn't keep track of what is going on in this story, so I have nothing to say about it (-:

The wrong turn

This was a very simple story, but sometimes that's all I need. I enjoyed this one quite a lot. Especially because it had some nice creepy scenes in it. (hide spoiler)]

I loved Gwendolyn Kiste's collection And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, but didn't care for her later novels. "Lost Girls Don't Cry" is more like her short fiction. I really like the narrator's voice, that "trapped in a small town" vibe, and the eerie open-endedness. Like Schalka, I was surprised by how the story developed.

Can't say the next few stories did much for me. Is "The Deer God" supposed to be funny? (I'm obviously eyeing the J.A.W. McCarthy story further down in the contents...)

Coincidentally, the book starts off with a location I'm familiar with, so I enjoyed that. I don't know about the choice to put it before the introduction. I was on board to read this when I saw it was on Kindle Unlimited and didn't remember anything else about it, so it was weird to be reading a poem telling the story of a real place without knowing what the theme was.

I also liked "Lost Girls Don't Cry" and agree that the story surprised me. The narrator was probably my favorite part.

"Puppet Show" didn't entirely work for me. I like the concept and some elements of the story. I think I would have liked the bits that were narrated by the other character to start later in the story. They gave things away a bit too early.

"The Wrong Turn" had first season of Supernatural vibes. I think it will be a bit forgettable, but a story like this is kind of a necessity for the theme of the collection.

@Bill: I don't think Deer God is supposed to be funny. To me it felt like it took itself very serious. Especially because of the ending. If that was dark humor, it didn't work for me (-:

Here in this place

I really love some of Chad Lutzkes novellas. But I am not a huge fan of his short fiction so far. This one here was fine, but also absurdly predictable in my opinion. I could see this ending coming from miles away. What I liked about it was the narrative style it was told in. It was kind of a 'stream of consciousness' way of storytelling, which I appreciated very much.

I don't think "Deer God" is supposed to be funny either. It looks to me like a story of a cult that developed at some point in the past the beliefs of which were taken to the extreme by Gary. I thought it was a decent telling of how actions can (not necessarily "will") grow "bizarre" when belief systems are significantly outside the "mainstream". I was, however, confused, by the cigarette in the last paragraph. Was that the Deer God's cigarette--- intended to show us Gary wasn't as crazy as he seemed to be?

I thought quite a few details in "The Deer God" were pretty cheesy (the g*d tracing the letters g+o+d with its fingers, the cigarettes, etc). If it's not supposed to be funny...

I had a lot of trouble with the Chad Lutzke as well. Especially the over-the-top moments like "She'd forget her own ass if it wasn't so hard to miss." I'm not a fan of this kind of cliched caricature, especially coming from a male author about a female character.

Jude Reid's "Bare Bones": I did like how the author resisted spelling out what happened with the (absent) husband. But overall I don't think the treatment or the ending worked for me.

This is our third straight monthly read with Laurel Hightower! I can't say her story here is comparable to "Every Woman Knows This", but that's a high bar.

I thought Michael Moore's "Cellophane" was light, but enjoyable.

We had a great recent monthly read with J.A.W. McCarthy's collection Sometimes We're Cruel and Other Stories. In "Cold-blooded Old Times", McCarthy is as usual so good at portraying young girls dealing with stressful situations. We're kept guessing what happened to Nate, and the change in tone before the final scene surprised me. Maybe not at the level of my favorite stories in the collection, but pretty enjoyable.

I can't say the same for "Laughter in the Night"; didn't care for the cliches or the writing.

Hmm, is anyone still reading this? How is it going?

I'm about 70 pages from the end.

I am very slow because of lots of headaches. Yesterday I finished the Laurel Hightower story. I liked that it was really unpredictable. But I still think she's much stronger with Novellas (-:

Sorry to hear about the headaches, Schalka. Hope you feel better soon.

Thank you Bill!

Cold-blooded old times

Yesterday I finished the J. A. W. McCarthy story. I agree with Bill, this is a very enjoyable story. I liked how she combined believable characters and realistic lifelong friendship problems with this supernatural elements in the lake. One of the best stories in this collection so far. Maybe even the best.

Nominations for May's monthly book?
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'm done. The last batch of stories seemed rather predictable, and I'm not a fan of a lot of the writing.

I've been reading this one really slowly, and I read more than I had without feeling like I had much to say about any of the stories.

I agree with Bill that The Deer God wasn't intended to be taken entirely seriously. Instead of funny, I'd probably describe it as wry.

I also thought the Chad Lutzke story was a bit much, especially coming from a male author.

"The Sand Knows" stands out a bit for the narrator and the family dynamics. It's a really accurate depiction of an abusive dad.

I liked the stories by Hailey Piper and Laurel Hightower. I think I would be a bit more into the collection if it contained more stories like Muhammed Awal Ahmed's. More geographic variety would be nice.

May poll (hoho) is up:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Please vote by May 1! If you vote for a book and it wins, you are committing to participate in the conversations, by posting at least one comment to the discussion forum.

My favorite from the collection is probably "Ho'okaulike." The collection's theme had me expecting stories with a lot of emphasis on setting, and I think this one did that the best. (view spoiler)[I espescially liked the ending. (hide spoiler)]

The J.A.W. McCarthy story was good. I don't think it would be a standout if it makes it into her next collection, but it's one of my favorites in this.

"Teke Teke Teke" was fun. "Devil's Elbow" was also pretty good. "The Bone Man of Sanatorium Lake" was very Reddit horror, but I don't mind that style and think it was executed well. (view spoiler)[The monster was also interesting. (hide spoiler)]

"The Sad Museum" didn't entirely work for me, but I did like the writing style. "Laughter in the Night" was the opposite. I thought it had one of the better concepts, but I didn't like the author's style much and I think a bit more could have been done with it.