Status Updates From The Horror Zine's Book of M...

Och, du heilige Scheiße…! :S

The Golem by Jeani Rector - I found this story quite interesting, including the author's note at the end about the inspiration behind their story. Also, ah yes, the typical religion against religion prejudice and wars. Fun times. 4 stars!

Where The Water Flows by Dean H. Wild - One of those stories where I was rooting for the monster, and also begs the question: are monsters the actual monsters, or are people? I quite enjoyed it, though there were some confusing sentences here or there. 4 stars!

The Monster Who Bled Memories by Bruce Memblatt - This needed a ton of polishing. I think I understand the story, but it was very hard to follow and quite disjointed because of the writing style. I almost DNFed this a few times, but ended up finishing it instead. 1 star.

The Terror of Swede Town by Trish Wilson - The was a fun little story. It reminded me of a certain movie, but I won't say the title as that'd give away the monster in this one. It could use with some polishing as far as writing is concerned. 3 stars.

Night of the Spider by Dan Allen - The writing wasn't strong in this one, and after so many other spider stories in this anthology, it also didn't creep me out. It was short and to the point. 2 stars.

The Scarecrow by Keiran Meeks - I truly loved this story, and it has become my new favorite of the anthology! So spooky and I loved the monster. 5 stars!

His Majesty's Revenge by Donna J. W. Munro - This needed quite a bit of editing, but the concept itself was very interesting. Bizarre, but interesting! 3 stars.

A Mother's Love by Chris McAuley - I quite enjoyed this one! The pacing was a bit off to me, personally, but otherwise the monster and the story around the monster was both extremely horrifying, grotesque (I felt sick at moments), but also...wholesome? HOW?! 4.5 stars.

The Gruger by Christopher Sweet - This was oddly cute as well as spooky, and it kind of reminded me of a more intense Goosebumps. Kids were the main characters, along with their grandpa, so I guess that's why I think of Goosebumps. I enjoyed it! Short, but it didn't need to be any longer. 5 stars!

Red Spider by Chris Allen - My phobia come to life. Apparently the author also has this phobia and I shudder to think what he had to be put through to think up this tale. I enjoyed it! 4 stars.

A Strange Occurrence At A Football Game by Gabriel White - Another story where it serves them right. Pretty good, though I felt a bit disappointed at the choice in monster after the lead up to it. 3 stars.

The Parasite by Theresa Jacobs - Oh man, I've got the chills. I was grossed out and thoroughly invested in this one, and what an ending! 5 stars!

The Cadence of Decay by Lee Andrew Forman and Elaine Pascale - This is one where my morally gray self wars with my logical self on how to feel about this outcome. Should I just say 'serves them BOTH right' and enjoy the monster horror version of "what comes around goes around"? Or shout at the monster for what it did? Either way, I enjoyed this! 4.5 stars.