Abnormal Statistics by Max Booth III

 

Suburban decay, familial horror, bleak lullabies. Abnormal Statistics is the debut story collection from Max Booth III.
Bad times are waiting for you.

Featuring 10 reprints and 3 stories original to this collection (including a brand-new novella called "Indiana Death Song")

Based on the author's own experiences and also fictionalized news stories this book can turn your stomach and break your heart. 

Most revolve around family in some form of suffering or other, be it from addiction, abuse, neglect, or loss. The supernatural aspects are secondary to the evil perpetrated by humans. I was floored by Scraps, a story that I thought was going to be about spooky creepy children but turned into a gut-wrenching tale of devastating horror.

Every Breath Is A Choice was another story that shocked me as it veered off into the unexpected and ugly, leaving me shaken and perhaps traumatized. 

All of the stories are well written but though I don't consider myself to be a person who needs trigger warnings I struggled towards the end with a story called Video Nasties because I knew almost immediately that it was based on a real-life horrifying case of child torture and murder that I remember from the news. If you like your fiction very dark this may be for you. This collection is full of deeply disturbing stories that I don't think everyone could handle so don't say I didn't warn you.

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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Nightmare Abbey 2 Edited by Tom English

 Nightmare Abbey 2 features a dozen terror tales by today's greatest horror writers:

Tons of photos and illustrations by World Fantasy Award-winner Allen Koszowski; and a look at Boris Karloff's Thriller by screenwriter and film historian Gary Gerani, and much more.
Chilling, thrilling, perhaps even terrifying tales calculated to give you sleepless nights!

It's no secret that I am addicted to short horror stories. Having loved the first volume of Nightmare Abbey I was thrilled to receive volume 2.

Like it's predecessor, volume 2 is loaded with spooky atmosphere, gorgeous illustrations, notes about each story and author, and a bit of education on the history of horror. I loved learning more about Boris Karloff's Thriller. The show was a bit before my time and although it did appear briefly in reruns during my childhood I didn't pay it a lot of attention at the time. When it came out on DVD I bought the series but never finished watching it because I thought they were all crime drama/mysteries. Now I have learned that there are some darker scarier episodes and plan to watch the rest. I also learned where Swamp Thing came from. 

Of course, the stars of Nightmare Abbey are the stories, and I had multiple favorites which I will mention briefly here, the first of which was IT by Theodore Sturgeon. This was a new to me story even though it was first published in 1940. IT is a being in the woods. It is not dead, and it is not alive, and it bears you no ill will but it will probably kill you anyway so don't hang around if you see it.

These Things That Walk Behind Me by David Surface is an unsettling bit of supernatural weirdness in which a man has reasons to fear going to sleep. Aside from the spine chilling moments of this story it also portrays what happens when you are vulnerable to the person you love and find out they aren't worthy of confiding in.

That Which Overcomes by John Lewellyn Probert begins with looking through a book and ends in sheer terror.

Tableau For Two by Gregory L. Norris finds brothers clearing out their deceased mother's belongings and stirring up memories that will leave them forever changed.

La Nina Atardecer by Steve Duffy is a vanishing hitchhiker story and though it at times felt familiar it still kicked up my anxiety and I enjoyed it immensely.

All the stories were good but those were my favorites.

If you're looking for something strange and frightening this book is for you.

My thanks to Dead Letter Press.

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Wasps in the Ice Cream by Tim McGregor

What happens when you fall for the girl everyone hates?

Summer 1987: Mark Prewitt's only priority is to avoid his dad's new wife and waste time with his friends, but idle nights are the devil's handiwork. When his friends decide to pull a cruel prank on the reclusive and strange Farrow sisters, Mark regrets caving in to peer pressure.

Wanting to make amends, Mark is drawn into the mysterious world of the Farrow girls, finding a kindred spirit in the middle sister, George. She is unlike anyone he's ever known; a practicing witch who uses folk magic to protect her family. They bond over books, loneliness, and homemade spells. She even invites Mark to join a séance to contact her dead sister, who died under mysterious circumstances.

Keeping their relationship secret, Mark learns that living a double life in a town this small is impossible. When the secret is exposed, and his friends plot to punish the witch sisters for stealing one of their own, Mark is forced to choose between these two worlds. 
 

Teen angst, witchcraft, and mob mentality feature heavily in the coming-of-age novel Wasps in The Ice Cream by Tim McGregor.

Set in the late 80s we find Mark and his friends growing bored with summer and occasionally with each other. Mark is maturing while his pals seem to be stagnating. In the back of his mind he knows this, but peer pressure can be a dangerous thing, as can the desire to fit in.

I'm not going to say anything else about the plot. I'm just going to say it was about loneliness and waiting to fit in, growing up and growing out of friendships. It was ugly and beautiful.  I was alternately angry with Mark and sympathetic to his fear of being ostracized like the Farrow sisters. 

As for the sisters, I loved George. She is both innocent yet worldly, shy but adventurous, sheltered yet terrorized in the town and in her own home. I can't say I understand the parents, or their actions but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story.

4 out of 5 stars

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The Suffering by M.J. Mars

 

“It was a suffering like no other. And, oh, how they suffered.” 
Recreating the séance that led to the infamous Victorian Suffering massacre seems like a good idea at the time. But Kyle Birbeck soon discovers that the ghosts his distant ancestor banished into the walls of Brackenby House in 1876 have been lurking, waiting for a chance to come out.

One by one the 5 terrifying ghosts latch onto each of the students who reside at Brackenby, preying on their deepest fears: A 3-eyed Incan giant. A member of the Hellfire Club who struck a deal with the devil to keep his fortune in the afterlife. A thieving factory hand who fell to his death, torturing them with endless footsteps. An oracle with a horde of dead sailors to do her bidding, and a 17th century axe-wielding executioner with a murderous hobby.

It’s up to Kyle and his friends to uncover the real secrets of the séance and banish the ghosts for good. But they soon come to realise it isn’t Brackenby House that’s haunted. They are. And the ghosts will stop at nothing to continue The Suffering…

I was first attracted by this gorgeous cover, and the synopsis intrigued me.

Starting off with a séance in a haunted house on Halloween is right up my reading alley! I was all in from the start, but for me, things moved way too slowly after the spooky beginning. It felt like a long time before things really picked up again. I think this could have been shortened by 15 pages.

I enjoyed the ghosts and their backstories more than I cared for the living characters.

The writing style wasn't always engaging and often pulled me out of the story because of it.

Example-

"He'd sat up stiffly in bed, thinking about the creepy laugh that sounded as though it had come from his pillow area."  "Torturously, he hadn't been able to stop imagining what it would be like to hear again."

You may enjoy it more than I did but this one was just not for me.

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