Barry’s Reviews > Cold to the Touch > Status Update

"Here's To the Good Life" was frown-inducingly creepy. I love second-hand (or even third-hand) horror narratives like this.

"Fading Light" was a fascinating exploration of oblique horror.

"Writing On the Wall" was elegantly disquieting and enigmatically touching. "A Chorus of Yesterdays" was...almost too vague for me to form a solid opinion, yet no less fascinating. And "The Sweetest Song" was full of melancholy and unnerving tension, and although it ended somewhat viscerally, the subtleties were the most memorable aspects.

Woof. "A Seed On Barren Ground" was emotionally exhausting, and heartbreakingly weird. Reminded me a little of Aickman's "The Swords."

Whoah! "The Uninvited Guest" was reminiscent of a certain "Masque of the Read Death" and even LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," yet very much its own tale - and with a final sentence that knocked my mental teeth out.

Wow. I just finished reading "Under the Overpass." What a melancholy and unsettling story, as enigmatic at the end as it was in its formative scenes; I can see why Mr. Strantzas edited an Aickamn-themed anthology. More, please. :)