Review: Snow White's Shattered Coffin by Cynthia Pelayo

 

In her latest horror love letter to her beloved city of Chicago, Cynthia Pelayo shares with us the short story “Snow White’s Shattered Coffin.” This bite sized piece of horror fiction is loosely based on the story of young Inez Clarke, who is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

A young girl wanders off from her uncle’s funeral, entranced by a glass enclosed funereal sculpture of a young girl around her own age. A mishap at the site of the sculpture leads to an unimaginable curse that will have life altering consequences for the girl.

Once again, Pelayo has woven a tale that makes you feel like you are in her Chicago, again in a fairytale combined with urban legend. The story was deeply engrossing and ended in a way that has stuck in my mind ever since. Illustrator Vheto Gutierrez Vazquez’s beautiful monochromatic artwork is the perfect compliment to this story and adds to the eerie atmosphere created by Ms. Pelayo.

“Snow White’s Shattered Coffin” is available in a limited quantity of 200 copies, signed by both Cynthia Pelayo and Vheto Gutierrez Vazquez and will be a beautiful addition to any horror lover’s book collection.

Disclaimer: Thank you to It Came From Beyond Pulp for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5/5 Stars

Review: The Black Veldt by Michael Reyes

Jose Carvel is a dirtbag reprobate, but he wants to be a better person. Really, the guy can’t help what he has become. Abandoned at a very young age and abused in every respect, and without a name of his own, Jose struck out on his own as a young teen. He took the name Jose from a trucker, “who didn’t molest me,” and the last name Carvel from a man in Kansas, “who didn’t make much use of the name.” He has little to no memory of his early life and what he does come from nightmares and flashbacks. Jose has spent his life running from the unknown and the compulsion to commit violence.

In his broke down East Side neighborhood, he befriends street kids and feeds stray cats by day, scores cocaine for himself and heroin to sell to his manager and co-workers at the bookstore. At night, he tries to get some words down on paper as an aspiring writer. Drugs, strip clubs, and booze abound in Jose’s life in New York during the Summer of Sam.

Out on the town in New York City, he sees bewildering sights, runs into people who recognize him and call him by other names than his chosen one. On one of his nights of debauchery, Jose sees a familiar girl at the train station where he likes to hang out and watch people. He’s pretty sure he’s seen her before, and when he did, she was committing suicide and in possession of a bag full of photos of missing people from around the country.

When he and Javonka finally connect, he is shown a world of demons and learns that they have dominion over him. He also learns that Javonka is his soul mate, and he will do anything to be with her, even fighting Hell and darkness itself.

I loved this novella; it had the perfect mix of depravity and dirtiness that was the perfect setting and perfect for the time it is set in. Jose isn’t meant to be liked, he does a lot to prove this point, but you still feel for the lot in life he has drawn. I wouldn’t change anything about the length or content of the story, to take anything away would make the story less effective.

Disclaimer: Thanks to the author for providing me a copy of The Black Veldt for review. I also read this book through my own Kindle Unlimited subscription, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

5/5 Stars

 

Review: Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy by Hailey Piper

 

While I have read other works of Hailey Piper’s, this was my first collection of short stories written by her. Like her other work, I was not a bit disappointed. Hailey is famous for creating consistently excellent writing. This collection has 18 stories, a little something for every taste, be it body horror, queer horror, cosmic horror, dark fantasy, and more.

With it being a collection of short stories, I thought that I would be able to jump from story to story, but this was not the case. Some stories required deep thought and reflection.

As with all her writing that I have read, there are deep themes of trans rights and gay rights, of love, of isolation and loneliness, of longing for acceptance, and despair upon being rejected. Themes of tearing yourself apart and rebuilding yourself into the person you were born to be.

For me, the standout stories of this collection were “Feast for Small Pieces,” where a woman brings home a man who comes on to her sexually, only to use the best parts of him to heal others who are sick or broken, “The Law of Conservation of Death,” tells the story of a ghost who pursues the woman he claims to own him throughout her every reincarnation, and “Candyland”, my favorite in the collection, where teenage girls make themselves “sweet” to be valuable to aristocrats for whims until they are consumed by them.

I could go on and on about this book. I highlighted and copied so many quotes that spoke to me, but I will not add them here because this review would be nothing but quotes. You will get something from every story in this collection, some deeper truth that will strike you when you read Hailey’s words.

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5/5 Stars

Review: The Searching Dead (The Daoloth Trilogy Book 1 ) by Ramsey Campbell

 

In 1952, while on a school trip to France, Dominic Sheldrake believes something is not quite right with his teacher. When they return home to Liverpool, Christian Noble’s strange behavior continues and concerns not only Dominic and his best friends Jim and Bobby (Roberta), but also their parents and the headmaster of the boys’ Catholic school. There are also rumors that Mr. Noble is a Spiritualist and has begun leading a congregation to believe that he can help them communicate with their dead loved ones. And when the church tires of him, Noble announces his intention to begin a church of his own.

Dominic, Jim, and Bobby investigate Mr. Noble. They watch his house, follow his movements, and even fake a chance meeting in a park with his wife to try to get information from her. Once his church is established, Dominic makes a discovery more monstrous and dangerous than they ever dreamed possible.

The Searching Dead is my first Ramsey Campbell book, and I didn’t really know what to expect from his writing. When I chose it, I was not aware it was the first book in a series of three. Initially I had difficultly and even considered DNF-ing it because it felt very slow to me. Now I know that the story was so slow because he was building a world and a backstory that will carry over to the other books in the series.

There are some creepy and chilling moments that raised chill bumps as I read. It does not have loud, grotesque scares; instead, it relies on quiet horror to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. To me, those are my favorite kind of scares.

Mr. Campbell did an excellent job building his world, his descriptions of post-war Liverpool make you feel like you are their seeing the bombed-out buildings, dealing with the difficulties of rationing, and the excitement of new advancements in technology as they were in 1952. I love that he created characters that are easy to identify with, the relationship between Dominic and his parents, the strict structure of the priests at the all-boys Catholic school, and the sinister way Mr. Noble interacts with his own family, particularly his young daughter Tina. Above all, I love the camaraderie between Dominic, Jim, and Bobby, or as they refer to themselves, the Tremendous Three. I am hoping they are still close in the later books.

I was not the biggest fan of this book in the beginning, but now I am looking forward to seeing how Mr. Campbell carries this saga forward in the next two books.

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for providing me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4/5 Stars