Never Will I See The Sun Again

From author Andrew Lennon comes a new collection of eighteen titles, including short stories, drabbles and poetry. This versatile collection will have you fearing those noises coming from the attic, questioning whether you should enter that haunted house at the fairground, thinking twice before you stay in a motel on a desert-stricken highway. It will touch you emotionally when you witness a person’s struggles, their discovery of new friends, how they can triumph and live to see another day, raising their heads to create their own Ode to Death.

ODE TO DEATH by Andrew Lennon is an interesting mix of horror, in various forms:

MY ODE TO DEATH is a poem.

HOUSE OF ILLUSION is a carnival nightmare.

LUNCHTIME is a flash fiction piece...literally.

GHOST STORY had a ghost, but not much story.

NO SLEEP is another poem.

CARAVAN seems like a headline turned into a story.

BURIED is a flash fiction funeral gone wrong.

SANTA CLAUS COMES AT NIGHT is one of the most horrific stories in the collection.

DOG RACE is a tribute to Stephen King's Cujo.

TRYING TO WRITE A HORROR STORY is a tribute to Stephen King's Misery.

HIDE BEHIND A SMILE: poem.

VISITING TIME is a zombie story.

STRESS BLANKET is a soup for the soul moment. Not sure how it fits in with the rest.

RED SHOES is extremely sick and twisted, but very well-written, with a superb ending. The best story in the anthology.

NEW BEGINNING...more poetry.

THE SECRET LIFE OF MY IMAGINARY FRIEND would make a fantastic crime-thriller movie.

LOVER is brutal.

ONE NIGHT IN HOTEL is a chilling combination of the supernatural and crime drama.

House of Illusion, Santa Claus Comes At Night, Red Shoes and The Secret Life of My Imaginary Friend are all such fantastic horror stories, the four of them make this collection worth getting. However, I'm not really impressed with the anthology as a whole, but I still plan on reading more of Lennon's work in the following months.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Throwback Thursday: Psychic vs. Infected

Mute by Jeffrey Hale, released by Grand Mal Press, is very unusual. Both the story and the format are something very different for the zombie genre, although it’s up for debate whether or not the Mutes/Mimes qualify as zombies. They are definitely infected, bloodthirsty and a threat to mankind.

What I like about the format is the memory flashes provided by Leo, an empath with psychic abilities. His flashes of other people’s memories are like short stories within the main novel. Also, as the story progresses, readers will see that these are not just random memories, but pieces in the puzzle that Leo is trying to put together after being institutionalized for five years while the world fell apart.

It appears to be the first in a series. With the cliffhanger at the end, I am dying to find out what happens next (no pun intended). If you’re looking for something that stands out from the rest of the horror genre, pick up this book.

As always,
AstraDaemon