A new employee works the overnight shift at a mattress store that sells beds full of monsters. A traveling student eats a fried tarantula only to find it bites back. A jogger is forced to use a kitchen knife and hammer to keep her neighbor’s skull and kneecap from fusing together. A young man running from his past gets wrapped up in a small fishing town’s bizarre ceremony for sacred beasts that lurk beneath the ocean’s surface.
In Austin Mooney’s debut short story collection, Midnight Mattress, horror and humor combine in 25 exciting tales that echo influences from Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Junji Ito, H.P. Lovecraft, and 80s horror movies.
I have mixed feelings about this collection.
There are some excellent ideas. Minor editing could streamline several of these stories into 5 star reads. Unfortunately, many of them are weighed down by the excessive use of adverbs and adjectives. For example, I would rather read that an evil scream filled the room, instead of "A blaring, sharp, agonizingly evil and terribly distressing expulsion of energy in the form of a scream filled the room."
Several stories held my attention, even if the writing style was not always to my liking. I will just briefly mention a few:
As children, we are warned against taking candy from strangers. It's a shame the women in Picnic have forgotten that lesson. They will regret accepting a sweet treat from the stranger who interrupts their fun.
Moss is another cautionary tale when it comes to accepting gifts from strangers. When a package is delivered with no return address, the recipient is at first intrigued but then horrified by the contents.
A strange malady is taking hold of anyone who hears about it in The Folding Man. When a woman tries to help her neighbor with his affliction she may be the next to suffer.
In the middle of a cold rainy night, 4 children in pajamas show up at a mountain inn begging for a room. The kindly owner provides shelter in One Night At Connor Inn.
Short stories are not easy to write. Every word needs to lead the reader through a concise beginning, middle, and end. The majority of these stories have a verbosity that distracted me from what would have been a good scare. If you can look past that you will see this is an author with an ability to come up with unique story lines. I hope he will continue to hone his craft because I see talent there.
My thanks to Austin Mooney.
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