Deadfall Lane (REVIEW)

Deadfall Lane

Author: Israel Finn
Category: Horror Short Story

Suitable for: Adults only

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Format Read for Review: Kindle

Pages: 10

Description: Pete is pushed over the edge and commits a heinous crime with unforeseen consequences for him and his family. A hundred year old tree is now dying, leaning, and pointing accusing branches at his haunted soul.    

In Short: A dark, chilling, gruesome, and tragic short story. If you love gory horror, don't mind adult content, and are looking for a really quick read check this book out.

This book is $0.99 on Amazon for the kindle edition. 

Pros: This book is really well written, edited, and descriptive yet concise. The story is definitely easy to imagine and a very haunting tale. It is complicated and made me feel conflicting emotions. The story is very creepy and even though Pete, the star of the book has committed some awful sins I feared for his safety and sanity while portents of revenge began to cast a dark shadow in his direction. I was on the edge of my seat enjoying the thrilling suspense and was sad to see it end. I really enjoyed the author's writing style and would definitely read more books by Israel Finn.

Cons: At about 10 pages this story was just too short. Although the ending was chilling it came too quickly after the climax and as a result left me feeling like I wasn't getting to know what happens next. The main character gets left in limbo. I would have liked to see him either meet his fate or escape the darkness in the end. I know part of the fear is in the not knowing. However, with how short and quick the conclusion was, that didn't work for me. There was also some adult content that I feel limited the audience pool. There was an imagined-rape scene that didn't add anything to the story but makes it a no-go and potential trigger for some readers.      

Parent's Guide and Trigger Warnings: This book contains themes of violence, gore, murder and rape. 

Macabre Menagerie (Horror Short Story Collection) (REVIEW)

Macabre Menagerie

(Horror Short Story Collection)

Author:  C.L. Clark
Category: Psychological, Thriller, Horror - Short Stories

Suitable for: teens+

My Rating: 4 Stars

Format Read for Review: Kindle

Pages: 161

Description: This book is a compilation of I believe 12 short stories of the Horror genre. Each story is completely unique from the last and the book has a great variety.    

In Short: Grab this book and gather around the campfire! These tales would make absolutely wonderful short reads for anytime you want to creep out yourself and those around you. So, be sure to pick this one up before your next camping trip.

Pros: This book contains some really unique, eerie stories; there are monsters from supernatural to science fiction genres. I labeled this as a psychological thriller because some of the stories are very thoughtful or play on common human fears (like the Dentist for example). The stories range in degrees of scariness with some being more exciting or thought provoking than scary. A lot of the stories have shocking endings, and I am nothing if not a true fanatic of amazing endings. This book is well written and contains a lot of great details to help draw you in, in the limited amount of time short stories have to work with.

My two favorite stories from this book were: 'Coffee and a Slice', and 'The Sound of Nothing'. Coffee and a Slice: not one of the scary ones but quite mind blowing and had a wonderful ending. The Sound of Nothing, total psychological thriller. It was tense from the start and full of twists.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would suggest this book to a very wide audience. I would certainly read more by this author. 

Cons: Overall this book was great, there were only a couple stories that I didn't find very thrilling and/or scary.

Parent's Guide:  This book has some violence, and suggestive themes. I don't remember anything being very graphic.

$0.99 Kindle version on Amazon. 

I was given a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. 

The Doll (REVIEW)

The Doll

Author:  J. C. Martin
Category: Paranormal

Suitable for: Teens and up

My Rating: 5 Stars

Format Read for Review: Kindle

Pages: 30

Description: This short story is about a woman that takes her daughter on a vacation. They took a tour to the Island of the Dolls which was creepy to the mother but the seven year old daughter loved it. The daughter loved one of the dolls and wanted to take it but the mother wouldn't let her. When they got back home creepy things started to happen.

In Short: This is a great short story with great and believable characters. I was surprised at the ending.

Pros: Believable characters and interested setting. An ending that takes me by surprise is always a plus as well.

Cons:  I had no notable issues with this book. 

This book is currently free for kindle on Amazon. 

The People Who Came From Nowhere: A True Novel of Paranormal Events (REVIEW)

The People Who Came From Nowhere: A True Novel of Paranormal Events

Author: Shilo Morlang
Category: Paranormal

Suitable for: Young teens and up.

My Rating: 4 Stars

Format Read for Review: Kindle

Pages: 276

Description: Runyon is a man with abilities to see and communicate with ghosts.  A producer talks him into doing a TV show with a paranormal investigating team. They travel to haunted sites and experience a variety of dangerous ghost. The producer informs them of the interesting and tragic histories of the sites they visit and Runyon finds out from the ghosts what really happened. Unfortunately, most of the ghosts are as dangerous in death as they were in life.

In Short: This book was very interesting. It was scary and exciting. I wanted to be there with them investigating the sites. A must read for fans of ghost stories.

Pros: There is a lot of content in this book! A lot of ghostly characters and scary locations.

Cons: Some of the stories were a little drug out. 

No Way Out (Scary Short Stories) Free Children's Book for Kindle

 No Way Out  

And Other Scary Short Stories 

By MJ Ware

            If you are looking for some spooky stories for children that are not too scary you should check out this book. You can find it on amazon here. It is currently free. Put this on your kindle to keep your kids entertained on long car rides and during other boring times.

            It is a total of about 60 pages and is comprised of various spooky stories featuring monsters, zombies, aliens and more. Below I will give a spoiler free description of the stories and my general impression of them. 

No Way Out

            This is the first short story in the book and my least favorite. I don't know how much children would enjoy it. The characters are pretty annoying, the story was irritating and I didn't like the ending. I really didn't like the bit about the cat. I think if you read this story to your child they will bug you to find out how it ends because what happens to the characters in the end isn't clear. I'm sure the ending was designed to be scary and dramatic but I don't think kids will see it that way. They'll just want to know what happens next. This story was definitely skip-able but the rest of the book was actually really good. 

The Price of Friendship

            This is one of my favorite short stories in this collection. Its a pretty interesting twist on making deals with demons that I think kids would find entertaining. It makes for a fun quick read and isn't scary so it could be told as a bedtime story. 

Hobgoblin Horror

            This story was one of the scarier of the collection. Being a monster story this probably wouldn't be the best one to read to a small child before bed. It's about a creature that will kill you if you see it. It's slightly gory. This is a pretty entertaining read that I think many kids would like. 

Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb (Extended Preview)

            This is a 5 chapter sample of a full length book. This was definitely my favorite story. As a child I LOVED goosebumps books and I know I would have loved reading this zombie book. Its about a couple kids that find themselves the sole survivors of a zombie outbreak in their town. Its full of action, danger and humor. It's scary but not too scary. After reading this your child will probably want the full book which is currently $2.99 for the kindle edition and can be found here. 

Zack & Zoey's Alien Apocalypse (Preview)

            This is another preview of a full length book. This story is about aliens that like to eat fat people. Its pretty humorous and I think small children will really love that it also has pictures in it. Out of all the stories included in the book No Way Out - And Other Scary Short Stories this one is probably geared for the youngest age group. I think children would find this story a little scary and exciting to read. The full length version of this book is currently only $0.99 for the kindle version at Amazon and can be found here.