The Last Book You'll Ever Read by Scott Hughes

A mysterious book on your doorstep, a man trying to outrun an otherworldly horror, an elderly woman who creates strange concrete creatures, a computer that isn't what it seems, an enigmatic nothingness closing in on someone's house...
The Last Book You'll Ever Read is a collection of five macabre tales that you won't soon forget.





Scott Hughes invites us along for five ominous adventures and spooky good times. Roll down a "Dark Highway" with a murderer, watch what happens when a repo man pays a visit to "Evelelyn's Counrty Depot," and learn the real cost of a free computer from the good folks at "eHhaurio, Inc."
Say good-bye to your troubles (and everything else) as The Color of Nothing" creeps into your home, and finally accept your fate as you become part of The Last Book You'll Ever Read"
I enjoyed these clever and curious tales.
I received a complimentary copy for review.



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About the author
Scott Hughes is a Georgia writer who graduated from Mercer University and then received an MFA in creative writing from Georgia College & State University.

His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in such publications as Crazyhorse, One Sentence Poems, Entropy, Deep Magic, Carbon Culture Review, Redivider, Redheaded Stepchild, PopMatters, Strange Horizons, Odd Tales of Wonder, and Compaso: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology.

His collection of horror short stories, The Last Book You’ll Ever Read , is available from Sinister Stoat Press, an imprint of Weasel Press.

He is the Division Head of English at Central Georgia Technical College and is currently finishing a young adult novel, Red Twin. He lives in Macon, Georgia, with his two dogs Bacon and Pip. His poetry collection, The Universe You Swallowed Whole, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2020.

For more information, visit https://www.writescott.com

Midnight in the Graveyard Edited by Kenneth W.Cain

Midnight. Some call it the witching hour. Others call it the devil’s hour. Here in the graveyard, midnight is a very special time. It is a time when ghostly spirits are at their strongest, when the veil between our world and theirs is at its thinnest. Legend has it, that while most of the world is asleep, the lack of prayers allow the spirits to communicate under the cover of darkness, among the headstones, their whispers rustling in the leaves of the old oak trees. But if you’re here in the graveyard, you can tell yourself it’s just the wind, that the moonlight is playing tricks on your eyes, that it's only the swirling mist you see. But when you hear the graveyard gate clang shut, the dead have something to say. Here are their stories…


This book contains stories by some of my favorite authors but they know who they are and so do you. For that reason I'm not going to talk about them (this time)
 From the first story "Devil's Dip" by new (to me) author Shannon Felton I felt like this anthology was going to be something special. By the time I got to "The Glimmer Girls" by Kenneth McKinley I knew I was right. I loved that this story was based on the real life Radium Girls! A symphony of macabre tales are perfectly arranged in this delightfully dark anthology. I have now been introduced to several voices in horror that I may not have discovered if not for this book. If you are looking for something spooky to read this Halloween season I highly recommend you grab a copy now.

I received an advance copy for review.


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Kenneth W. Cain first got the itch for storytelling during his formative years in the suburbs of Chicago, where he got to listen to his grandfather spin tales by the glow of a barrel fire. But it was a reading of Baba Yaga that grew his desire for dark fiction. Shows like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and One Step Beyond furthered that sense of wonder for the unknown, and he’s been writing ever since.

Cain is the author of The Saga of I trilogy, United States of the Dead, the short story collections These Old Tales and Fresh Cut Tales, and the forthcoming Embers: A Collection of Dark Fiction. Writing, reading, fine art, graphic design, and Cardinals baseball are but a few of his passions. Cain now resides in Chester County, Pennsylvania with his wife and two children

Dreams Of Lake Drukka & Exhumation by Mike Thorn

"Dreams of Lake Drukka" and "Exhumation" explore the unearthing of horrific, long-buried family secrets. Journeying into the darkest recesses of the past, these stories depict the dire consequences of discovering the truth.

Writing about this duology, author Mike Thorn says: “It was only in retrospect that I could see the connections between these two stories. When I revisited them for publication, it struck me that they work well as companion pieces. Both plots depict unfulfilled pacts with supernatural undercurrents, both include journeys to uncover unresolved familial trauma, and both pivot around the revelation of repressed memories. I wanted to explore the relationship between setting and atmosphere in these pieces, and to depict horror within internal and physical ‘sites of trauma.’ The characters are grappling with painful memories / experiences that have held them back, consciously or unconsciously. One story focuses on a character who is the agent of her own revelations, whereas the other story sees someone whose agency is quickly and brutally taken away.”

(Cover by Adrian Baldwin)

These two freaky stories share a theme of unusual death and estranged families.
In Dreams of Lake Drukka, a daughter is alienated from her father after her mother's death. She and her reluctant sister take a road trip and discover a dangerous truth. In Exhumation, a man arrives at his cousin's funeral to find something otherworldly waiting to welcome him home. Both stories had a fun creature feature kind of vibe and were quick and creepy reads.
I received a complimentary copy for review.
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About the author
Mike Thorn is the author of Darkest Hours and Dreams of Lake Drukka & Exhumation. His fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies and podcasts, including Dark Moon Digest, The NoSleep Podcast, Turn to Ash and Tales to Terrify. His film criticism has been published in MUBI Notebook, The Film Stage, The Seventh Row, Bright Lights Film Journal and Vague Visages. He completed his M.A. with a major in English literature at the University of Calgary, where he wrote a thesis on epistemophobia in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with Christopher at her side. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out.

At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six awful days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a tree house in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.

Soon Kate and Christopher find themselves in the fight of their lives, caught in the middle of a war playing out between good and evil, with their small town as the battleground.

 

 

At it's heart this is an epic tale of good versus evil.

"Make me hit a deer"

Something lies dormant in Mills Grove until Christopher and his mother arrive. Years ago, a terrified child went missing from his own home. Nobody believed him that the monsters were real. Now Christopher has gone missing too, but he is returned.. changed...seeing more...knowing more... wise beyond his years and paying the price for his new abilities.

"We'll all die on Christmas day!"

 

As Christopher becomes more aware of what's happening, something insidious is also aware of Christopher and it's infecting the town with evil. I loved the spooky atmosphere in this book, the way the characters were fleshed out and brought to life. I even at certain points had sympathy for the bullies.

4 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review.

 

 

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About the author

Stephen Chbosky grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win Best Narrative Feature honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.

He is the recipient of the Abraham Polonsky Screenwriting Award for his screenplay Everything Divided as well as a participant in the Sundance Institute's filmmakers' lab for his current project, Fingernails and Smooth Skin. Chbosky lives in New York.