Nerve Endings by Kealan Patrick Burke

 

From the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE TURTLE BOY, KIN, and SOUR CANDY, comes a collection of eleven stories designed to shred your nerves.

You can tell yourself that sound you heard outside the house on Halloween night was nothing. You can pretend you didn’t see that awful thing in the middle of the road while you were jogging. You can even ignore the old man sitting in the yard who claims he must keep watch on a door that nobody else can see. And you can act like you don’t know what lurks in that long-forgotten pool hidden away behind your neighborhood.

But true horror cannot be ignored.

From the nightmare of addiction and the throes of grief-induced insanity, to an app designed to cure your phobias, and a musician who can cast you into hell by simply playing a song, herein you’ll find a menagerie of malevolent tales to chill the blood and expose the kind of terrors that will strip away your comfort and drag their splintered nails along your NERVE ENDINGS.

Featuring an introduction and story notes by the author.

This is a creepy collection, and aptly titled since these dark and distressing stories fried my nerves. In the best ways of course. Some of my favorites were :

Distinguishing Features- After a breakup, a man suffers a series of bizarre experiences that he hopes are merely an elaborate hoax. This was a tense and chilling tale.

The Second Hand- A man recounts the summer of 1989 when his childhood friend disappeared. What feels almost like a charming coming of age tale set in my favorite decade, turns terrifying.

Attaboy- This story is heavy with grief, regret, loss and loneliness. Maybe a touch of the Tell-Tale Heart too.

Reclamation- The day in the life of a hard working housekeeper takes a deadly turn.

I used to live here- On a cold winter day in 1981 an act of kindness proves the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished.

The App- in which a woman tries to cure herself of anxiety and crippling fears by way of a helpful app on her phone. We've all seen them. Free or low cost apps that promise weight loss, relaxation, or a better night's sleep. Maybe you've wondered what there is to lose by giving it a try. Here's the answer.

Let The Dark Do The Rest-It's an hour before midnight on Halloween and a man spends a terrifying evening alone while waiting for his wife to come home. What's really out there waiting for us all in the dark?

All the stories were excellent! These are just the ones that stick in my mind the most.

 There is nothing I enjoy more than a well-crafted horror story, except for an entire collection full of them, and that is what I found here in Nerve Endings.

5 out of 5 stars

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A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters by Eric J. Guignard

From hauntings and oblivion to monsters, murder, and anthropomorphism, A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters, by award-winning author Eric J. Guignard, explores the literary odd and macabre that reside in the vast shadows of our existence.

In "A Kingdom of Skulls and Marigolds," a gay Hispanic teen in 1950s Los Angeles, mourning the loss of a friend, has a chance to make amends during Day of the Dead.

In "Bummin' to the Beat of the Road," a Beat-era youth leaves home to travel the land, only to find madness, murder, and the teeth of a new generation.

In "The Ascending Lights of Yu Lan," an embittered sailor in 1917's San Francisco Wharf encounters an immigrant from China who offers peace from ghosts.

In "Perchance to Dream in Voices of a Fiend," an intimate epilogue is suggested to the famous novel Frankenstein, offering a more hopeful closure to the characters' lives.

...and fifteen masterful others.

Visit Eric J. Guignard's second collection and behold that which is captivating, startling, and darkly enriching.

 A Graveside Gallery holds an eclectic mix of stories including historical horror, supernatural creatures, ghosts and more in this broad-ranging collection.

It kicks off with a good old fashioned ghost story before moving on to the darker and more macabre tales.  In a few of my favorites, a man tries to make his way home in a self-driving car, A murderer has a strange encounter when he hitches a ride after killing his parents, and an early morning phone call shatters a woman's very existence. Two friends take an unfortunate shortcut on their road trip to purchase antiques. A blind man is suddenly plagued with the miracle of sight, A fortune teller stops for gas at a run-down tourist attraction, and a church full of serpent handlers are introduced to a new kind of snake to worship.

There is something for everyone in this collection whether you are in the mood for a futuristic tale, modern horror, or a trip into the past. A Graveside Gallery offers up a smorgasbord of unnerving and unsettling tales that belong on every horror lover's shelf.

My thanks to Eric Guignard

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The Night Birds by Christopher Golden

 Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak years ago, they never expected to see each other again.

Now, as part of his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book lives aboard the Christabel, a 19th century freighter half-sunken off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest. As a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, he intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And she’s not alone. With her are a mysterious woman and her infant child, asking Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they're on the run. Only it isn’t the police who are after them, it’s a coven of witches the woman, Mae, has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom the coven had hideous plans…or so Mae claims.

It’s lunacy and Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, there are shadowed figures looming back in Galveston, waiting out the storm. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline for their prey.

The Night Birds is a supernatural thriller set in a raging storm on a half-sunken 19th-century freighter. Top that for atmosphere! 

Ruby is home alone when a strange woman carrying a baby practically bursts through her door with an incredible story and a plea for help. She finds it all beyond belief until she is confronted with the terrifying proof.

Charlie is preparing to ride out the storm alone when Ruby shows up. He has not seen or spoken to her since their painful break-up, but even though she won't answer his questions he doesn't turn her away when she needs a place to hide. Hide from what, you ask? The coven that wants to sacrifice the baby so that the Ur-witch (the original witch who is the reason stories of witchcraft are told) can be permanently resurrected.

I love folklore and folk horror so resurrecting some old world legends in the modern day was a hit with me. True love, fractured family bonds, partial revelations and broken hearts ratcheted up the tension in between the terror and kept me engaged with the characters.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC.

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Senseless by Ronald Malfi

What do you see...?

When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in the desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the detective assigned to the case can't deny the similarities between this murder and one that occurred a year prior. Media outlets are quick to surmise this is the work of a budding serial killer, but Detective Bill Renney is struggling with an altogether different a secret that keeps him tethered to the husband of the first victim.

What do you hear...?

Maureen Park, newly engaged to Hollywood producer Greg Dawson, finds her engagement party crashed by the arrival of Landon, Greg’s son. A darkly unsettling young man, Landon invades Maureen’s new existence, and the longer he stays, the more convinced she becomes that he may have something to do with the recent murder in the high desert.

What do you feel...?

Toby Kampen, the self-proclaimed Human Fly, begins an obsession over a woman who is unlike anyone he has ever met. A woman with rattlesnake teeth and a penchant for biting. A woman who has trapped him in her spell. A woman who may or may not be completely human. 

In Ronald Malfi's brand-new thriller, these three storylines converge to create a tapestry of deceit, distrust, and unapologetic horror. A brand-new novel of dark suspense set in the City of Angels, as only “horror’s Faulkner” can tell it.

I have been a Malfi fan for years. This is the sixth book I have read by this author, but it is also the first that I didn't love. This was just an ok read for me.

There is a lot going on here. There's the cop who is called to the scene of a mutilated body, hacked up in much the same way as a previous case that he thought was solved. There's the newly engaged writer who is meeting her future creepy stepson for the first time, and there is the man who considers himself a human fly, who thinks he has met a vampire and hopes she will turn him. Each of these back stories had an intriguing premise on their own but somehow just didn't work for me when put together.

It's more of a mystery/crime than the horror I was expecting. I enjoyed the parts about Toby (the fly guy) more than the rest. I would recommend this more for readers who like detective/crime novels than horror. This is more a case of it's not you, it's me. I tend to avoid books that are more about the investigation than the victims. 

3 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Titan Books

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