Journals of Horror: Found Fiction by Terry M. West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review copy provided by Terry M. West in return for an honest review.
I used to spend many a sleepless night on Reddit reading the horror case files and found footage horror stories. Journals of Horror is much the same but in book format, so I was looking forwards to this one. There are so many stories in this collection that if I were to say a little about each like I usually do with anthologies, my review would be too long. Instead I've given them each a rating and will say a little about my favourite and my least favourite in the collection.
"If you have an arse you're as good as buggered already" Hole By Joseph Ramshaw is by far my favourite and it's so aptly named! I kinda cottoned on roughly where this story was going, enough to know there was a huge cringe factor ahead of me. It was so wrong in so many ways but I just had to keep reading.
My least favourite was Vermilion A Traveller's Account By Stuart Keane. I don't like zombie stories. I'm sick of them, they are everywhere and most are rehashed and done to death in my opinion, so I wasn't far into the story before I knew it wasn't one for me. I also didn't like the homophobic tone used by the MC or his use of the word "fags" or the way the guy with a stutter was classed as a retard. That kind of stuff honestly sets off my moral compass and I don't want to read it.
1. Bagged, Tagged & Buried by Terry M. West - (4 stars)
2. Turn Me On, Dead Man By Robin Dover - (2.5 stars)
3. Truant By D.S. Ullery - (5 stars)
4. The Book of Flesh and Blood By Jeff O’Brien - (4 stars)
5. Beyond Castle Frankenstein By Paula Cappa - (1 stars)
6. Dying Scrawl by DJ Tyrer - (1 stars)
7. Girl in the Woods By Evan Purcell - (3 stars)
8. Going Home By Michael McGlade - (2 stars)
9. Hamburger Lady By Darryl Dawson - (3 stars)
10. Hole By Joseph Ramshaw - (5 stars)
11. Human Resources By Todd Keisling - (1 stars)
12. In the Woods, We Wait By Matt Hayward - (3 stars)
13. “Killing Jessica” By Glenn Rolfe - (5 stars)
14. Letter to Grandma By Crystal Leflar - (3 stars)
15. Look Up By Michael Seese - (3 stars)
16. Lucca By John Ledger - (2 stars)
17. Night Terrors: Journal By Michael Thomas-Knight - (5 stars)
18. Finders Keepers By Paul D. Marks - (3 stars)
19. The Anniversary By Sonja Thomas - (3 stars)
20. The Breath Within The Darkness By Essel Pratt - (3 stars)
21. The Devil’s Irony By Lori R. Lopez - (2 stars)
22. The Note By P. D. Cacek - (3 stars)
23. The Seahorse Speaks By Erik Gustafson - (4 stars)
24. Vermilion A Traveler’s Account By Stuart Keane - (1 stars)
25. Whispers on the Wind By Robert McGough - (4 stars)
26. There's something in my house By Wesley Thomas - (2.5 stars)
27. Tweets of Terror By Robert Holt - (1 stars)
28. Self-Consumed By Terry M. West & Regina West - (4 stars)
29. Note-To-Self By Christopher Alan Broadstone - (3 stars)
Reviews also posted to my blog: Scarlet's Web
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That's a lot of stories for such a short collection, but it's encouraging to see how many 4 and 5 star reads you've tagged. I completely agree with you on homophobic content and 'retard' comments, so I think I'll trust your judgement and avoid the 1 star reviews if I end up giving it a read.
ReplyDeleteIt was such an easy collection to read and was nice to see a different take on an anthology. I very rarely give so many 5 stars to individual stories in an anthology but this collection had some really good ones. I hope you enjoy it if you decide to read it :)
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