Through a Mirror, Darkly by Kevin Lucia
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Paranormal, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (146 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Through a Mirror, Darkly is a Supernatural Thriller collection masked as a novel. With elements of mystery, suspense, and otherworldly horror, Through a Mirror, Darkly successfully delves into the worlds of Lovecraft, Grant, and the mysterious Carcosa.

“Arcane Delights. Clifton Heights’ premier rare and used bookstore. In it, new owner Kevin Ellison has inherited far more than a family legacy, for inside are tales that will amaze, astound, thrill…and terrify.

An ancient evil thirsty for lost souls. A very different kind of taxi service with destinations not on any known map. Three coins that grant the bearer’s fondest wish, and a father whose crippling grief gives birth to something dark and hungry.

Every town harbors secrets. Kevin Ellison is about to discover those that lurk in the shadows of Clifton Heights.”
Such a inflammation exists cialis levitra online in a wide range of severities. Things during this year were never the same which leads to heart attack as well. viagra cheap online Work from home, the beach, Starbucks or your workplace to finish your driver’s course necessities. viagra no prescription this page Muscle quality, sensation and reflexes are tried to determine that the nerve conduction to the arms is working admirably. deeprootsmag.org purchase levitra online
Through a Mirror, Darkly is a Supernatural Thriller collection masked as a novel. With elements of mystery, suspense, and otherworldly horror, Through a Mirror, Darkly successfully delves into the worlds of Lovecraft, Grant, and the mysterious Carcosa.

Have you ever wished you could peek into the corners of other people’s lives that they don’t want anyone to see? Not everyone is honest about what’s really going on with them, after all.

All of the stories in this anthology are set in the same small town. It was such a clever way to organize them. Because of this, though, I strongly recommend reading these tales in order. This isn’t the kind of collection that one should skip around in.

“Suffer the Children Come Unto Me” is about a priest name Bill Ward who is wrestling with a dark secret while also attempting to figure out who or what is threatening the students at the school where he works. One of the reasons why this story worked so incredibly well for me is that it took its time to reveal clues about what was going on. Slowly building up the tension like this was a smart choice for the subject matter. It made Bill’s dilemma much more frightening than it would have been otherwise.

It took me a while to get into “Yellow Cab.” The narrator is a cab driver who keeps experiencing hours of lost time while on the job, and his memory loss only seems to be getting worse as the plot progresses. While the premise was fascinating, the pacing was so slow in the beginning that I had trouble staying interested in what would happen to the main character next. It would have been helpful to have a few more hints about what was going on in the early scenes. The ending would have been even more fantastic than it already was if I had a few more hints of what was coming along the way.

I would have liked to see more character development in “Admit One.” Bobby Maskel’s thoughts about his working at a metal salvaging yard were interesting, but I never felt like I got to know him well enough to truly be intrigued by what was going on when he discovered something bizarre in the piles of junk that customers had dumped off at his job.

“And I Watered It, With Tears” shows what happened to a man named Andrew after his marriage disintegrated and his life fell apart. Something inexplicable happens while Andrew is waiting in line to pay a long-overdue bill. The plot twists were incredibly well done. While I enjoyed the whole book, “And I Watered It, With Tears” was definitely my favorite entry because of how much time the narrator spent showing the audience what was going on in Andrew’s mind.

Through a Mirror, Darkly made me shiver. This is a good choice for anyone who is in the mood for something chilling.