Rating: 4/5, good
I really enjoyed this book! It’s comprised of four short horror stories with plenty of blood, guts, and chaos.
In the first one, “Emma”, a group of “party girls” get terrorized by a haunted virtual assistant.
In the second, “A Grave Situation”, an abusive executive is dogged by undead unfortunates he took advantage of.
In the third, “Slime Dwellers”… if I say what the premise is, it’ll spoil it, so I’ll just say that it’s as sexy as it is scary.
In the fourth, “Gnome More, Gnome More”… I also won’t spoil that one, but it does literally involve garden gnomes and it’s equal parts humor and carnage. It also involves an abusive boyfriend getting his just deserts.
I met George Adamczyk at Las Vegas Comic Con and he described this installment of the Lost Minds, Wandering Souls anthology series as similar to Tales of the Crypt, but while I was reading it I thought of it as “adult Goosebumps” because that was the horror anthology series of my generation (though I do want to watch Tales of the Crypt someday based on how much I liked this book!). He also took care to spell my name correctly when he signed my copy even though Sayre is a bit hard to hear or spell, so points for that!
These stories are pretty simple thematically. Most of them are tales of karmic justice being delivered via supernatural means. The morality is mostly clear (especially in “A Grave Situation”), with evil people getting what they deserve, so it’s more comforting than challenging.
The only part where I raise an eyebrow is where the “party girls” have bad things happen to them, but I’m not sure if that was intended to be a moralistic thing because they liked to party or if it was just mixing horror and sex appeal for maximum interest. I liked the female characters because they were pretty realistic, reasonable, and relatable. There is a bit of sexualization, but they are firmly subjects (as opposed to objects) in their narratives. “Slime Dwellers” and “Gnome More, Gnome More” have a bit of moral ambiguity as well, but I can’t discuss them without spoiling.
Most of these stories are about people who are down-on-their-luck, so it has that everyday person in extraordinary circumstances vibe/class consciousness that reminds me of many of Steven King’s characters. I also get the impression that most of the characters are Latin from the use of words like “chica”, but it’s not explicitly stated.
I felt like the writing was very good, especially for an indie book. The stories read smoothly, there was a good amount of wit, and there was just enough imagery to paint sufficiently gruesome pictures while maintaining the fast pace. The cheesy cover promises a silly, scary, sexy good time and it delivers!
Here’s a snippet to give you a taste of the writing style:
(context: Clair, the protagonist of “Emma”, is moving to her first apartment with help from her friends)
They overstuffed Sherry’s ride and jammed the rest into Clair’s pink electric coupe. After finally escaping her mom, who hugged and kissed her goodbye so many times it became ludicrous, the princess took off and led the path to her tiny new castle.
When they arrived, the sight of the place made all three wince. This was not a fixer-upper, this was a skipper-over. Shrek would refuse to live there. Even after extensive remodeling, the only way they could flip this house was with a crane.
I would recommend this book to people who like horror and entertaining books you don’t have to think too hard about. It makes a great airplane read because it’s a slim volume that’s easy to pack and livens up a dull flight. If you’re in the mood for some old-school thrills and chills, go ahead and treat yourself!
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