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Exploring dark alleys. Discovering new nightmares. Revisiting the masters.

Monday, April 9, 2018

Powerful Imagery and Emotions

A peaceful weekend for four college students at the lake ends when the country is thrown into war. A woman is visited in her kitchen by an invisible man. A man wakes up and finds he is the last person left on the planet – because of faith. 
29 short stories about tears and scares, about watching horror movies with yourself in the movie, burning down houses and getting a message from your dead child via cell phone. 29 short stories about darkness and light, about love and death, about everything you might find in the borderland between being awake and dreaming...

Dreams and Awakenings by Claus Holm begins with a lengthy introduction from the author and would've been better placed at the end of the anthology as an "author's note." Holm's writing is so well-crafted, I recommend just skipping straight to the stories and read the intro afterwards.

Many of the stories are relationship dramas with supernatural twists. Some of the stories are flat-out terrifying. A few are filled with dark humor. All of them are exceptional storytelling.

I've read at least three of Holm's collections, and this is my favorite...definitely making my Top 2018 list for anthologies. I would love to see the author write another volume of Dreams and Awakenings.

As always,
AstraDaemon

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