In the Heart of the Fire (Nameless #1) by Dean Koontz

Synopsis

A bloodthirsty sheriff is terrorizing a small Texas town where justice has been buried with his victims. Until Nameless arrives—a vigilante whose past is a mystery and whose future is written in blood.

Anyone who crosses Sheriff Russell Soakes is dead, missing, or warned. One of them is a single mother trying to protect her children but bracing herself for the worst. Nameless fears the outcome. He’s seen it in his visions. Now it’s time to teach the depraved Soakes a lesson in fear. But in turning predators into prey, will Nameless unearth a few secrets of his own?

This read sure was . . . something. 

‘In the Heart of Fire’ is the first in a series of short stories about a character who is nameless and is sent on jobs to act as a vigilante of sorts. I am all about this. 

But . . .

The plot in this first story just made me feel ill. It’s about pedophilia, and some of the things the horrible people say made me want to throw up. 

Nameless is an intriguing character, and it was easy to read. I was certainly happy when I was done with this one though. I look forward to reading the rest of them and hope they are less vomit-inducing. 

4/5 Stars

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Asbury Dark: Haunting Tales From the Jersey Shore by Lori Bonfitto

Synopsis:

A telekinetic teenager. A doomed ocean liner. A haunted bed & breakfast. A zombie-fighting real estate developer. These are but a few of the eerie people, places and things that go bump in the pages of Asbury Dark: Haunting Tales from the Jersey Shore.

Spanning six decades, Asbury Dark will thrill and delight anyone who’s ever ridden the rides on the fabled boardwalk, searched for Bruce at The Stone Pony, or shambled along in the Zombie March.

Mystery and suspense author Lori Bonfitto delivers seven unforgettable tales of fright and fantasy, transforming Asbury Park from a nostalgic playland into a world fraught with obsession, reincarnation, and the paranormal.

This was a very, very entertaining read with eerie twists and turns woven into each story.

What made this collection unique to me was that every story was centered around the same town and most of them took place there. It was easy to imagine that somehow all of the different stories were woven together. It was like meeting a bunch of different neighbors that live on the same street and hearing their stories. That made it super cool for me.

There was also never a time where I felt like I had to skip a story. When I am reading a collection, I sometimes find that a story in the middle of it is less interesting than the rest, and I will skip it to get to the better ones. That wasn’t the case here. I genuinely enjoyed all of the stories that were a part of this collection in their own way.

They were all different, but as I stated before, they all seemed wove together, and they fit together well.

For short story lovers who want a hint of creepy, spine-tingling fun, I would definitely suggest you grab a copy.

4/5 Stars

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Writings on the Wall by D.G. Sutter

Synopsis:

Somewhere deep within, cradled in flesh and blood, our demons dwell. They feed on our darkest secrets and desires in an ill-fated world, craving only freedom. They tear through and reign upon us. Writings On the Wall features twenty gruesome, transgressive tales of loneliness, heartbreak, and self-destruction. Where the real horrors surrounding us are each other.

This is a perfect collection to pick up for the season. Just the right combination of creepy and messed up for Halloween coming up.

You can tell short stories are good when you feel like you have read a whole novel in only a small number of pages. That is what this collection provided.  Instead of the stories feeling like they ended abruptly or that something was missing, these provide a full and engaging story. They surely keep you turning the page.

Some of them were a little out there and weird, others dealt with demons that people face everyday.

These stories were marked with insanity, horror, and disturbing images. The writing throughout was really solid. Despite having all different authors, the stories didn’t seem to have many different feels to them. They flowed together well as a collection and kept you waiting to see what you would get to read next. With any collection, some stories were better than others, but as a whole they were all good.

I really enjoyed reading this. Anyone who enjoys horror or books that are a bit off (think Chuck Palahniuk-esque) will enjoy this.

The last story in the collection had me gagging as I was reading it. It was so descriptive and disturbing.

4/5 stars

Memorable Quote: It’s no longer cool and dangerous, because you realize you’ve never seen he world through anyone else’s eyes, and soon those eyes will disappear. You begin to doubt the reality of the world around you, begin to feel the moment you go, the world goes, but that’s not true. It will exist without you and you will be what you once were: nothing.  –First Assisted Suicide, Leonora Stein

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Wolf Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny Edited by Hannah Kate

Synopsis:

Feral, vicious, fierce and lost... the she-wolf is a strange creature of the night. Attractive to some; repulsive to others, she stalks the fringes of our world as though it were her prey. She is the baddest of girls, the fatalest of femmes - but she is also the excluded, the abject, the monster.

The Wolf-Girls within these pages are mad, bad and dangerous to know. But they are also rejected and tortured, loving and loyal, avenging and triumphant. Some of them are even human...

Wolf-Girls is a collection of short stories about she-wolves. No two are the same. They range in writing style, emotion, and themes. But one thing remains the same – bloodlust.

I am not a big reader of werewolf (or she-wolf) tales, so I had to go into this one with an open mind and no expectations.

By doing so, I actually started to enjoy the stories as I got through more and more of them.

The writing in each of the stories was decent. Some of them seemed to drag on more than others, and some seemed to go really quick. It is definitely a grab bag of stories which made it a bit more exciting. I never felt like I was reading the same thing twice.

I never really felt attached to any on character or story, but they were super short so there wasn’t much time for that to happen and grow. This made it easy to set it to the side and pick up another book instead of just finishing it all at one time since it is relatively short.

For those interested in this genre of books, I would say give it a try.

3/5 stars.