Skip to main content

Peel Back and See by Mike Thorn

 

Title: Peel Back and See

Author: Mike Thorn

Genre: Horror

Published: October 29,2021 by Journalstone

Thank you to the author for providing a copy for review.

Overall

Mike Thorn's new collection of short stories is dark, melancholy, and downright depraved at times. Every story was excellent and varied. Some stories had gothic elements, and others had science fiction elements and technologies. Some of these stories will leave you wondering what is real, and what is imagined. These stories tackle anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, loss, and treatment of different classes. 

 

Individual Stories 

Havok- 4 stars- Unknown world with nightmarish creatures live feed on the internet. A great use of technology to create a obsessive dread that is very effective.

Mini McDonagh Manor- 5 stars- A grief stricken woman becomes obsessed with her childhood home. Gothic elements add a certain ambiance to this story.

Mr. Mucata's Final Requests- 5 stars- An overbearing boss leaves the strangest list of final requests for his employee in his final days. I loved the use of white and dark magic in this one.

@GORGOYAMA2013-5 stars- A musician meets his biggest online fan. This one tackles the trepidation and dangers of meeting online friends IRL. 

Dreams of Lake Drukka-5 stars- Sisters go to a lake after a dream of their mother's death. Loss and familial strain are heavy themes in this one.

Exhumation- 3 stars- This story built a good sense of grief and dread, but I was left wondering what exactly was going on. 

Vomitus Bacchanalus- 4 stars- The ultimate excess and debauchery story that takes a look at treatment of classes. This one has science fiction elements and it is really disgusting. In a good way!

The Finger Collectors-5 stars- A couple offers shelter to the desperate for a high price.

This is the World-5 stars- Nightmare educing metaphor for the nature of the world. 

Deprimer-5 stars- Dark journey to beat your demons. Deals with anxiety and depression.

Offer to the Adversary-5 stars- An art scholar becomes obsessed with a horrifying picture. 

The Furnace Room Mutant-5 stars- Coming of age tale involving high school boys and a local legend.

Virus- 5 stars- Teenage girls torrent a very trippy video.

The Voiding-5 stars- What does it cost to make it big in writing?

Entropy Major-5 stars- Another great story with science fiction elements about a prisoner in space.

Fade to White-4 stars- A man is suicidal after his marriage ends. 

I highly recommend this collection for those that like the dark side of literature. The stories were all very well written and entertaining. 

My average rating for the stories is 4.68 stars out of 5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Swarm: Replugged Book Review by James Flynn

  Title: Swarm: Replugged Author: James Flynn Genre: Science Fiction Published Originally 2/1/2021 by the author, now with an new revised edition. Thank you to the author for providing a copy for review. In the second edition of Swarm, the city of Rachton is riddled with crime. A victim of crime, Eric Trammel, has turned to a life in the GLC to help fight against the criminals ruining his city. The answer the GLC comes up with is a new prison where prisoners can by connected to a hive mind to harvest their consciences to create answers to their hardest questions.  Swarm: Replugged is a great science fiction thought experiment of the possibilities of the human mind as well as the consequences of harvesting it. I read both editions of this book at the same time to compare. There are a lot of revisions that make the prose tighter though I really enjoyed both versions. Eric Trammel is a great sympathetic character to follow the story of best intentions gone wrong. I really enjoyed...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen

Book Title: The Light of the Fireflies Author: Paul Pen Translator: Simon Bruni Genre: Fiction, Thriller Rating: 4.5/5 stars Goodreads A haunting and hopeful tale of discovering light in even the darkest of places. For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns. He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away. A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alt Vegas: Nuclear Dreams by Wren Cavanagh Book Review

   Title: Alt Vegas: Nuclear Dreams Author: Wren Cavanagh Genre: Horror Published: September 28, 2024 I received a copy for review from the author.    Kyle and Mandy have dreams making a profit by developing when they purchase land in Esperville, Oregon. Soon they find out the land is home to a portal to another dimension stuck in 1950s Las Vegas. It is a hard place with unforgiving desert and fiendish creatures. This a fantastic creature feature horror novel with an alternate dimension flair. The characters, Kyle and Mandy, did not seem sympathetic at first as foolhardy newlyweds taking on more than they can chew. However, throughout the story they become more and more endearing. They are great underdog characters to root for. The portal to Alt Vegas allows for such contrasting settings. The lush and overgrown Oregon with the desert landscape outside 1950s Vegas. The last fourth of the book could have used another round of line editing, but overall this was a fantas...
Post a Comment
Read more