Ayahuasca by Jonathan Huls

January 2, 2017 By Leave a Comment


Ayahuasca by Jonathan Huls
Publisher: Duvinchi Media Group
Genre: Contemporary, horror
Length: Full Length (244 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Stargazer

Best friends since childhood, Damien and Paxton are going on a college graduation trip of a lifetime to the jungles of Peru. Their adventures along the way will culminate in a night of consuming the mind-altering drug ayahuasca – the most potent DMT based hallucinogen known to man. Will the experience expand their consciousness and change them into the men society beckons? Or will the young men’s shadowy backgrounds turn the trip so dark that it will consume them and everyone around them?

Ready for an adventure of a lifetime? How about a journey that will change your whole perception of the world?
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Ayahuasca is a horror story based on the human mind. While the story starts off with a bang, the reader begins to see the inner workings of the minds of Damien and Paxton. Quite quickly the reader realizes that something is not right. These two young men come from a world of affluence and influence where money is limitless. This all leads to a college graduation party of epic proportions.

Yet, the reader does not quite realize what is in store or what the two men have planned. Flashbacks along the way start to show how the two men, who became young friends many years ago, began to see the world in a much more dark and twisted manner than most. Stretching the limits of their own humanity, the two young boys begin a torturous journey towards adulthood. With little social regard for what makes us human, the boys manage to duck out of trouble but continue their dark ways. Even when the boys create the Firebox, the risk of getting caught was downplayed by the horrors that the boys learned that they could control.

Jonathan Huls writes a fascinating tale of lust, imperfection, psychosis and a wicked and wild drug called Ayahuasca. From the first encounter with the drug, visions and hallucinations of a talking jackalope haunt Paxton and warn him of a dangerous future. Flashbacks to the past show the reader just how deeply this psychosis and issues in both the lives of Damien and Paxton are woven.

Although Ayahuasca utilizes strong language, extremely graphic descriptions of violence and very graphic depictions of death, this is a fantastic of what happens in the minds of those who may have a predisposition to be mentally imbalanced and when that imbalance is fed directly with horrors and inhumanity-the result can be horrifying.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers and dark horror stories, I highly recommend Ayahuasca. This story will have you thinking twice about your own mental limits!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Corrosive by J. Kariuki

December 12, 2016 By Leave a Comment


Corrosive by J. Kariuki
Publisher: World Castle Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (78 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A former foster child now car washer, Stan, harbors dreams of professional photography. The baffling peeling of his flesh, however, magnified by dire poverty and a thieving lover, worsens the reticent twenty-seven-year-old’s situation: after a painful day at the car wash and later in the city taking photographs, Stan is overcome by the accruing pain in his flesh.

He rushes into an alley to hide his disgrace. But there, his seclusion proves fatal: after a chase and a brutal assault by the homeless of the alleys, Stan discovers mysteries held by his flesh, whereupon are two dead vagabonds, new flesh and a contract from a chummy photo agent.
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All indications now point to wealth, joy, and fulfillment; but instead, what follows Stan are revelations, heartbreak, death, absorbed flesh and a livid creature of fire.

The worst thing about feeling trapped is that it makes all kinds of everyday decisions much harder than they should be. If only Stan knew if there was a way out of the life he wished he could change.

The flashbacks to the main character’s childhood were some of my favorite scenes in this tale. While I can’t say anything about that part of his past without wandering into spoiler territory, I’m glad that the author spent as much time as he did showing how Stan had ended up with such a difficult life as an adult. That really helped me to get to know this character well.

There were certain aspects of Stan’s flesh disease that never quite made sense to me. I would have liked to know more about when and how it started. There were a couple of hints pointing to the idea that he’d been dealing with the problem for a long time, but there were other hints that this was possibly a new development in his life. Either explanation would have worked perfectly well for me. I simply wanted to know which theory was true as they would have changed how I interpreted at least one conversation he had with someone else in the storyline.

This was one of the goriest horror stories I’ve read in a long time. What I found most interesting about the sections that described the terrible condition of Stan’s skin was how much attention Mr. Kariuki paid to the smallest detail of what was happening to this character’s body. It was definitely strong at times, but it also pulled me into storyline in ways that wouldn’t have happened if any of it had been held back.

I’d recommend Corrosive to anyone who loves grisly science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

At the Cemetery Gates: Year One by John Brhel and J. Sullivan

December 6, 2016 By 1 Comment

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At the Cemetery Gates: Year One by John Brhel and J. Sullivan
Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Holiday, Contemporary, Historical
Length: Full Length (168 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Twin brothers enter a funeral parlor as a gag and end up uncovering a sinister operation.

A mysterious illness plagues a small town and a college student seems to be the only one trying to stop it.
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A girl’s time-lapse photo project reveals an intruder from the cemetery that shares a fence with her backyard.

The world is full of strange things that we’re only beginning to understand.

What I liked the most about “A Tale of Palpable Violence” was that it was full of intrigue. Sherry and Bram, the main characters, were driving down the road after a night that got their blood pumping. I couldn’t figure out if I was more curious to know what they’d done or where they were going to go next. Both questions were at the forefront of my mind as I searched for clues and answers. The clever twist at the end only made me enjoy this one even more.

All of the stories in this collection had great premises, although there were a handful of them that could have used a little more development. “New Year’s Eve, What a Gas” was one example of this. The storyline followed a young couple, James and Claire, who invited several other couples over for a New Year’s party. While working in the kitchen, Claire suffered a terrible and mysterious injury. The ending to their tale was a bit confusing to me because there weren’t many details about how she was able to get into that predicament in the first place. Her injuries were something that I’d never expect to happen to any reasonably intelligent adult, so I would have liked to spend more time exploring why they happened to her. If not for minor issues like these, I would have chosen a much higher rating for this collection as it was otherwise really good.

In “The Hermit of Russian Lake,” Keith and Becky Lane tried to rekindle their struggling marriage during a family vacation. While on their trip, Keith accidentally stumbled across a hermit who has been illegally squatting in the area for decades. All of the plot twists that happened after that scene were what made me love this tale. I didn’t see any of them coming, so it was a lot of fun to discover them. They constantly kept me wondering what would happen to Keith next and the hermit next.

At the Cemetery Gates: Year One should be read by anyone who enjoys surprises. This anthology is full of them!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Cat O’Nine Tales by Krystal Lawrence

November 23, 2016 By Leave a Comment

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Cat O’Nine Tales by Krystal Lawrence
Publisher: Telemachus Press
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (240 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What evil dwells within the pretty lady next door or the ordinary house cat?

What happens when you pursue your dreams into the desert after dark?

Beware the man borne of your imagination. He could seek vengeance on the one who created him.
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Visit a bookstore offering a most alluring and sinister service.

Journey to the dark side with ten twisted tales of horror, malevolence, and the truly uncanny.

The world is full of strange things that we’re only beginning to understand.

My favorite story by far was “As the Crow Flies.” Brianna, the main character, had just gotten out of an abusive relationship when she noticed that the crows she’d been feeding were beginning to do increasingly unexpected things. The character development for both Brianna and the birds she doted on was really good. I also enjoyed seeing how she reacted once she realized that her feathery friends understood far more about her predicament than she would have ever guessed.

There were a few tales that could have used some more polishing, and “The Perfect Crime” was one of them. It followed a man named Claude who had been planning his wife’s murder for years. He took the time to meticulously go through every detail before the night of her death. While I really enjoyed the premise, I knew exactly how it was going to end by the time I’d finished the first scene. The twist at the end was something that would have worked great in a much shorter format. Dragging it out didn’t make sense to this reader because of how easy it was to guess how it would end.

In “The Wife Next Door,” Kate’s friendship with Tom and Penny, her next-door neighbours, develops in an unusual way. She was a fascinating and complex character. What I enjoyed the most about Kate was how much time she spent holding back certain details of her life from the audience. There was a lot more going on with the plot than I would have originally guessed, and that made it a pleasure to read.

I’d recommend Cat O’Nine Tales to anyone who likes the dark side of science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Charity and Sacrifice by Gloria Oliver

September 30, 2016 By Leave a Comment


Charity and Sacrifice by Gloria Oliver
Publisher: Uncial Press
Genre: Historical, Horror
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Trapped in a loveless marriage, will Elizabeth’s sacrifice to regain Robert’s love be in vain?

All Elizabeth hoped to do was to rekindle the love in her marriage. Yet despite ignoring her social obligations and immersing herself in her husband’s important work, somehow this only made things worse.

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Her doctor avoids her. Her husband berates her. And there are whispers — whispers telling of things that cannot be.

Yet the more Elizabeth ignores the rumors, the more they press on her to seek the truth, so she concocts a plan to find it. To find it and hopefully exonerate both Robert and herself. To discover the reason she’s lost all that’s dear to her. And she will do it, even if she must venture into Whitechapel to do it.

Secrets can destroy a life that someone has spent years building. They can also transform it.

This was one of the most deliciously chilling tales that I’ve read in a long time. The horror was mixed in with Elizabeth’s quiet worries about the fragile state of her marriage and her grief over her terrible loss. I genuinely wasn’t sure what genre I was reading in the beginning because there was so much going on. The scenes were written so that they could fit into several different genres, and that made me insatiably curious to know what the author was going to do with all of the themes she’d introduced in the beginning. While I can’t say much else about this without giving away spoilers, I was quite pleased with how Ms. Oliver tied everything together. To me, the best kind of scary story is one that can be found in the last place I’d ever think to look for it.

With that being said, I would have liked to see a little more foreshadowing in the storyline. I had to reread the ending a couple of times to figure out what the author was hinting at. The clues that were shared earlier on were so subtle that I didn’t pick up on enough of them to understand the final scene the first time I read it even though I had really loved the plot up until that point. If this section had been easier to comprehend, I would have chosen a much higher rating.

The character development was nicely done, especially when it came to Elizabeth. Even though she grew quite a bit, my first impression of her was so strong that I could completely understand why her personality matured the way it did. She remained true to her original self even while she evolved into an entirely new version of herself. I deeply enjoyed watching her make that change.

Charity and Sacrifice is full of the kind of horror that slowly sneaks up on a reader. Give it a chance if you’re a fan of psychological frights.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Defragmenting Daniel: The Organ Scrubber by Jason Werbeloff

September 5, 2016 By 29 Comments

MediaKit_BookCover_DefragmentingDaniel
Defragmenting Daniel: The Organ Scrubber by Jason Werbeloff
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi Thriller
Length: Short Story (145 pgs)
Rated: 4.5 stars
Review by Poppy

7 stolen organs. 1 vengeful victim. A gruesome sci-fi thriller.

Organ scrubbing was a bloody job, but somebody had to do it. Daniel, an orphan from the Gutter, was put to work scrubbing kidneys at aged twelve. The job had its perks: a warm bed, Law and Order reruns, and an all-you-can-eat Mopane worm buffet.

Until the Orphanage stole Daniel’s parts, and sold them on the organ market.

Now Daniel has grown up, and yearns to become whole again. The cybernetic organ replacements just aren’t the same – he needs his parts back. But the new owners of his organs won’t give them up. Not without a fight.
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Just how far will Daniel go to regain his missing pieces? And how much more of himself will he lose along the way?

Defragmenting Daniel is a cyberpunk crime thriller that will unnerve you. Every part of you.

Disturbing, intriguing, and well-written, Defragmenting Daniel is not a book for the faint of heart.

I wasn’t sure what to expect while reading this book. And while I did have to suspend reality a bit in order to believe that organ transplantation surgery could be done and the patient up and a around in a couple of hours with little pain or indication of major surgery, the ramifications and possibilities of this story were a bit terrifying.

The gutter is where Daniel is from and it’s not a nice place. The Orphanage where Daniel lives exacts payment for services by both making him work as an organ scrubber and by taking body parts and replacing them with cybernetic parts. The Bubble is where the beautiful people live. They are those privileged enough to be able to afford real organs to prolong life (the reference to Cher cracked me up!). When Daniel turns eighteen, he’s allowed to leave the orphanage, and a search for his biological family leads him to develop an interesting set of beliefs, which include the need to be once again whole … and so the search for his taken body parts begins.

The story moves fast and world-building is a bit vague, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story. Be warned, however, the story is bloody and violent and graphic and Daniel’s apparent disregard for humanity was a little difficult to handle. However, he is also oddly attractive and I found myself rooting for his cause, even while being rather disgusted by it.

Kage was an interesting addition as well. He (or she…) works for the police department and is determined to find the person behind a particularly gruesome murder. Apparently, s/he always gets his/her man.

The story surprised me by ending in a cliffhanger… Daniel has only just started his mission. That was frustrating, but I would certainly be interested in reading further to see how things end up for him. I’m still not sure if I want him to succeed or not. Honestly, my ambivalence is an indicator of the author’s skill. Being able to make Daniel sympathetic definitely takes some doing!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Marvelry’s Curiosity Shop by John Brhel and J. Sullivan

August 22, 2016 By Leave a Comment

SHOP
Marvelry’s Curiosity Shop by John Brhel and J. Sullivan
Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (156 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Retired stage magician Dr. Marvelry prefers to stock his antique store with strange and occult items. He has always enjoyed meeting odd people and hearing their stories, the legends attached to mysterious objects. A phonograph that seemingly replays a tragedy. Fertility dolls that are more than decoration. A bedeviled mannequin. These are just some of the relics this eccentric shopkeeper has collected over the years.

No two customers will have the same experience in his curiosity shop — some walk away satisfied, others are never heard from again. But one thing is certain – when you purchase an item at this store, you often get more than what you paid for.
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Follow Marvelry and his hexed objects through twelve tales of suspense, magic, terror, and transformation. Meet his new assistant, fellow illusionists, and some irregular characters along the way. Whatever macabre artifact of the human psyche you’re seeking – you’ll find something special in Marvelry’s Curiosity Shop.

Every antique has a story to tell if you know how to listen to it.

Brent and Kevin Buckley’s experiences in “The Victor Talking Machine” was a wonderful introduction to this collection. Their happy relationship contrasted sharply with the strange phonograph they’d just brought home. I enjoyed seeing how they reacted to all of the weird things going on around them. It made me curious to find out what would happen next, especially once both characters agreed that something needed to be done about their situation.

There were a few tales that would have benefited from having a little more attention paid to their endings. “The Letterbox” was one of them. Josh, the main character in it, accidentally found an antique letterbox that used to belong to his grandparents while browsing Marvelry’s shop. Since Josh had just purchased his grandparents’ old home, he was thrilled to begin outfitting the house with some of its former possessions. I was completely fascinated by what happened after the letterbox was installed in the same spot where it used to hang when the main character’s grandparents lived there. With that being said, I was a bit thrown off by how quickly the storyline ended. There was so much tension being built up that never had a chance to be fully resolved. If not for these missed moments in some scenes, I would have given this book a five star rating as it was otherwise a thrill to read.

In “The Painter’s Premonition,” an artist named Justin got more than he bargained for when he brought home an old easel. The foreshadowing was fantastic in this one. While I did have a pretty good guess about what the twist ending might be ahead of time, it was still a lot of fun to see the main character slowly move closer and closer to the conclusion. I also appreciated how much effort the author put into describing the paintings that Justin was making. Those details made me eager to know what he would paint next and if my guess about the meaning of his work was correct.

Marvelry’s Curiosity Shop was delightfully eerie. Give it a try if you’re in the mood for something spooky.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tales from Valleyview Cemetery by John Brhel and J. Sullivan

August 19, 2016 By Leave a Comment

TALES
Tales from Valleyview Cemetery by John Brhel and J. Sullivan
Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Paranormal, Horror, Holiday, Contemporary, Historical
Length: Full Length (184 pages)
Heat Level: Sensual
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Welcome to Valleyview, where bodies lie buried but an ancient curse never sleeps. A father hears strange voices on his daughter’s baby monitor. A trio of gravediggers faces a swarm of supernatural creatures. A group of teenagers puts a mausoleum legend to the test. A husband and wife take a stroll through a corn maze that they’ll never forget.

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Death doesn’t always bring peace.

This isn’t your typical anthology. It was fascinating to see how all of the short stories were connected to each other. I liked the fact that I got to experience the same places and people from different points of view. Sometimes my opinions of them completely changed once they popped up in a new tale and showed me a new side of their personality or history, so it was really interesting to guess who I might meet again as I kept reading.

I would have liked to see more details included in this book. There were times when I had trouble imagining what the characters were experiencing because everything was described so quickly and sparsely. This was especially true when it came to what the ghosts and other supernatural creatures looked like. While I could picture some of them quite well, many others were harder to bring to mind because I had so few clues about how they looked or what they sounded like.

Some of the plot twists were extremely well done. “All Hallows Eve” was by far my favorite example of a great surprise from these authors. The characters in were a snooty, young couple who decided to mock everything they saw at a rural Halloween carnival. When they were invited to find their way through a corn maze, I was sure I knew how their night would end. The fact that I was wrong about what happened next only made me more curious to know their fate. If you’re planning to read this collection out of order, this would be a wonderful place to start.

Give Tales from Valleyview Cemetery if you’re in the mood for something spooky.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Drawing in the Dark by Jeremy Baker

June 2, 2016 By Leave a Comment

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Drawing in the Dark by Jeremy Baker
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (148 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

On a lonely mountain, deep in the high desert country of the American Southwest, a rifle-toting nun faces an unexpected test. A scientist makes an incredible discovery at the heart of a melting European glacier, and nine years later finds himself inexorably drawn back to the site. During the Siege of Bastogne, while facing overwhelming odds in the frozen forests of Belgium, a pragmatic young medic encounters a war he never could have imagined. The Florida Everglades exert an irresistible, supernatural pull on a dying man, the last descendant of a great Seminole shaman. A young girl, trapped in a waking nightmare and seemingly without hope, devises her ultimate escape using the most unexpected tools. A group of desperate men, almost out of luck and on the run, find themselves in an eerie Badlands town. Jeremy Baker delivers these tales and more, in a collection of twelve haunting short stories and one novella.

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“The Standing Cave” was a thrilling introduction to Mr. Baker’s writing style. I couldn’t imagine what a hunter-gatherer could have to do with the science fiction genre, much less how Mrukk’s quest to hunt down the deer he desperately needed to take down to feed his tribe would be so important later on. When he discovered something extremely unusual on his hunt, I was more fascinated than ever. While I can’t say anything else about the plot without giving away spoilers, I can say that this was my favorite story in the entire book.

Some of this tales in this collection could have used more details. “Bumps War at Bastogne” was a good example of this. It was about a platoon of soldiers who struggled to survive in a particularly bloody battle with the Nazis. The main character had such a matter of fact way of describing even the most harrowing scenes that I was mesmerized by his recollection of what happened that day. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to these soldiers, so it was disappointing to see how briefly the last few scenes were described. There were so many more explanations that could have been added to them about what was going on, especially when it came to the ending.

In “Drawing in the Dark,” a young girl named Kara had the ability to make anything she drew actually happen. The government discovered her talent, kidnapped her, and forced her to draw all kinds of terrible things. What I found most interesting about this character is how maturely she was able to process what had happened to her. She was a child being forced to experience stuff that no child should ever have to think about, much less actually live through. The author captured her loss of innocence so heartbreakingly that I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next to Kara.

I’d recommend Drawing in the Dark to anyone who is in the mood for something creative.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tales from the Lake Vol. 2 by Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Edward Lee, Tim Lebbon, Lisa Morton, etc.

May 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment

LAKE
Tales from the Lake Vol. 2 by Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Edward Lee, Tim Lebbon, Lisa Morton, etc.
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical
Length: Full Length (382 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

If you came here to read short stories about tranquil lakes, run to the nearest exit. Run as far away as you can from Ramsey Campbell, Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, and our array of international voices:
Lisa Morton
Tim Lebbon
Richard Chizmar
Jim Goforth
Ben Eads
Jan Edwards
Hal Bodner
Raven Dane
Rocky Alexander
Glen Johnson
Aaron Dries
Mark West

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1st: Descending by John Whalen
2nd: Forever Dark by Jonathan Winn
3rd: Ripperscape by Vincenzo Bilof

Beneath this lake you’ll find nothing but mystery and suspense, horror and dread. Not to mention death and misery – tales to share around the campfire or living room floor. Dive beneath a frozen lake with Rena Mason’s “Winter’s Dollhouse”; allow Tim Lebbon to introduce you to “The God of Rain”; don’t go into the lake when Jim Goforth takes you to the haunting sit of “Lago de los Perdidos”; and never get in an elevator again with John Whalen’s award-winning “Descending.”

Cover by Ben Baldwin, and edited by Joe Mynhardt, Emma Audsley and R.J. Cavender, you can’t afford to spend another minute away from The Lake.

So dive on in.

The water’s just…right.

Even the most deeply buried secrets can eventually see the light of day.

In “Damned If You Do,” a man named John has started seeing a therapist in order to untangle his troubled home life. The problem is that he really doesn’t seem to want to revisit the past and figure out why he’s ended up in such a difficult situation with his wife. I was fascinated by the idea of a protagonist who is incredibly reluctant to allow the audience into even the smallest corner of his mind, and I only became more intrigued by John’s backstory as the plot progressed. The ending caught me by surprise in a good way!

While I enjoyed all of the stories in this anthology, there were a few that could have used little more polishing before being published. “St. Thomas of El Paso” was a good example of this. The plot followed a young man named Thomas who was kicked out of the orphanage where he was being raised when the priest running it discovered that the boy was gay. I was enthralled with the main character’s struggle to survive on his own as a teenager and young adult, especially once strange things began to happen in the small towns near his home. The ending felt rushed when I compared it to the beginning and middle, though. I would have really liked to see the narrator slow down and dig into the conflicts that had originally drawn me into the plot. There was a lot of material in there that wasn’t given as much room to grow as it needed.

What I appreciated the most about “Bone Wary” was how much time the narrator, Henry, took to describe his art studio and home to the audience. All of those details not only made me curious to find out why Henry spent so much time explaining them, they also paid off handsomely once I realized what his dark secret to all of his success was. This is the kind of tale that requires some legwork from the audience in order to understand what’s going on, but it’s well worth the effort.

Tales from the Lake Vol. 2 was a rewarding read. I’d heartily recommend it to any fellow fans of scary science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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