Tag Archives: Horror

June 19, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Anatomy of a Violin

Title: Anatomy of a Violin Book cover for Anatomy of a Violin by J.M. Taylor. Image on cover shows a drawing of someone - possibly the Statue of Liberty? - wearing a blindfold and a long, loose garment. They are standing in front of a yellow background and leaning back as they play the violin. The person looks like they are made of metal and painted with a shimmery metallic paint that looks blue, green, purple, and red depending on which portion of the body you’re looking at.

Author: J.M. Taylor

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 8, 2025

Genres: Horror, LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 37 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A musician finds the ultimate prize in Prague – an instrument that can make anyone sound like a virtuoso. But his obsession with the violin threatens not only his relationship but his sanity.

Content Warning: Murder.

Review:

Everything  can be fixed with a little elbow grease and patience.

The unnamed protagonist was a complex and fascinating man. I liked the fact that his flaws weren’t superficial but instead had real effects on both his life and the plot. That was exactly the right choice for this piece, and I commend the author for being willing to take the risk that readers might not like this character. This is something I wish happened more often in fiction as it really adds depth to a character, especially in cases like this one when the reader is supposed to be weirded out by what is happening.

I would have liked to see a little more world building in this piece. Specifically, I’m thinking about the origins of the violin and how it was passed around among various owners over the centuries. The explanation for how this all happened made sense, but having more details would have helped those scene come alive in my imagination as I read. There was so much more that could have been done with them to accelerate the horror elements of the plot, and I would have gone for a full five star rating if that had happened. This is something I’m saying as someone who otherwise loved this tale.

Honestly, it was easy to see where the plot was headed early on, but this wasn’t the sort of tale that needs to surprise a reader in order to entertain them. What made it so interesting was taking note of what the protagonist had and hadn’t figured out about his incredible new violin. He was so enamoured with the workmanship and beauty of it that nothing else could grab his attention. I’ll leave it up to other readers to discover what he was missing in those moments as they ponder whether they, too, might have made the same choices he did.

Anatomy of a Violin was delightfully scary.

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May 15, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Jade Cargo

Book cover for Jade Cargo by Rudolph Kohn. Image on cover shows blue, green, and yellow Northern Lights dancing in the sky at dusk. Title: Jade Cargo

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 18, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

Length: 14 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

A security officer on a routine patrol finds a small lone ship floating in the middle of nowhere. The ship’s systems tell him that it’s dead–a derelict, fated to float aimlessly until it is pulled into the gravity well of some heavenly body. However, the officer’s investigation turns up strange facts one after another, until he discovers the one fact that explains it all–perhaps too well.

Content Warning: Death.

Review:

Anything can happen in space.

I loved the foreshadowing in this short story. It struck the perfect balance between hinting at what was to come without giving the reader too many clues about why this ship is floating alone in the middle of nowhere. I had a rough idea formed in my mind of what might be going on, but even there I had plenty of  opportunities for surprise as the unnamed narrator continued to search the abandoned vessel for possible treasure.

This is one of those cases when readers don’t need to know much about the protagonist in order to empathize with them. Their sex, race, age, and other identifying characteristics were never mentioned because their expertise in this field was what made their observations so valuable. Readers from any demographic group could imagine themselves in this character…and they just might be right! The protagonist knew something was wrong but didn’t have any concrete proof to back up their gut feeling. I both understood why they wanted to gather more information and kept hoping they’d listen to their urge to run away and never come back.

The ending was what convinced me to give this a perfect five star rating. No, of course I won’t spoil it for anyone reading my review. All I can say is that it tied up the loose ends from earlier beautifully while also making me wish for a sequel so I could see how things played out from that point. The horror themes popped out nicely here without ever needing to describe the visceral details of it in order to show the audience why we should be so scared. Now that’s the kind of horror I like to read when I do indulge in the genre!

Jade Cargo was utterly perfect.

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May 8, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Pain Is So Close To Pleasure

Book cover for Pain Is So Close to Pleasure by Jonathan Antony Strickland. Image on cover shows an orange octopus with all eight tentacles curling around its body. Title: Pain Is So Close to Pleasure

Author: Jonathan Antony Strickland

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 5, 2012

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

Length: 5 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

This is the story “Pain Is So Close To Pleasure”, a short comedy story I wrote several years ago. The story looks at an alien race who has recently come into contact with our own. To learn more about each other, ourselves and the aliens decide to send an exchange student to the others world to spend time there so each race can learn more about the other.

Content Warning: Swearing and death.

Review:

Cultural misunderstandings don’t even begin to cover what happened here.

Mr. Kolmortis truly felt like an alien to me which is not always something that happens when I read science fiction about creatures from other planets. His thought processes were so different from how a human would interpret the same situation that I understood why he was bewildered by our species. We were not at all what he expected to find when he agreed to this exchange student program on behalf of his school.

With that being said, I struggled to believe that either side would agree to this program without getting to know a lot more about each other first. Just because two species can communicate in some way doesn’t mean that what works for one of them will be a good idea for the other one, too. Yes, I know I’m being vague here, but the twist is something best left up to other readers to be surprised by just like I was. If only the protagonist had given more hints about why this decision was made and why the adults in the situation assumed they had all of the information they needed for such a massive step in interspecies relations.

I did appreciate Mr. Kolmortis’ closing paragraphs in his confused letter to Mr. Francis, the human headmaster who had chosen Peter as the representative of humanity for this cultural exchange. He genuinely wanted to get to the bottom of what had recently happened, and he had no idea how readers were going to react to the information he included that didn’t make sense to him. It’s not always easy to write characters like him, so kudos to Mr. Strickland for diving so deeply into this world and imagining what it might really be like to meet a sentient alien species.

Pain Is So Close to Pleasure was a wild ride.

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February 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Winter’s Chill

Book cover for Winter’s Chill by J D Savage. Image on cover shows a yellow late 1800s or early 1900s style house with a large porch on the right and a turret on the left. The house is covered in snow as it is the dead of winter.Title: Winter’s Chill

Author: J D Savage

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 18, 2025

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 61 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Melinda Wilson receives news that her mother has died by suicide. Not believing that her mother committed suicide, she returns to her childhood home along with her best friend Greg Creston. As she digs into her mother’s death, strange things to start happen. As Melinda digs deeper to find the truth she finds her father’s diary. Inside she finds information that would destroy the family name and rock the town to its core. As things get dangerous who will survive winter?

Content Warning: Death. Discussion of suicide as a possible cause of death. Murder. Brief references to blood.

Review:

Winter is full of frights.

The atmosphere was well done. There’s something about old houses that can be a little eerie even if they don’t have anything malevolent hiding in the corner, and this only becomes a stronger feeling when reading about homes that do have a paranormal presence. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the cold areas of the house as that could have easily been explained away by the fact that historical buildings can often be cold and drafty during the winter. To encourage the reader to continue to believe there was a less ordinary explanation for that was a smart decision and one that kept me reading.

This story would have benefited from another round of editing in my opinion. One of the characters was introduced with a last name but later referred to by a  completely different last name. Had he been earlier shown to be a liar, I would have assumed that this was yet another example of him misleading others.  He was always written as a truthful person, though, so I can only assume this was an error and not a hint about his moral character. There were some punctuation errors sprinkled through it as well that I found distracting. As much as I would have liked to choose a higher rating, I wasn’t able to do so due to these issues.

Not everyone is lucky enough to come from an upstanding family, especially when one digs more deeply into their heritage. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored Melinda’s feelings about the information she discovered about the past and how it could destroy the good name her family had in the community. No one should be held personally responsible for the actions of their ancestors, of course, but there is also something to be said for seeking out the truth and making amends as much as one possible can once they know what really happened.

Winter’s Chill was a scary read for a snowy night.

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February 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Wish, I Wish

Book cover for I Wish, I Wish by C M Weller. Image on cover shows a wooden African mask whose dreadlocked-hair is actually made of spent bullet casings. It’s a cool and unsettling piece of art! Title: I Wish, I Wish

Author: C. M. Weller

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 4, 2016

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 10 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

They always say, “be careful what you wish for”, and Shannon knew that better than anyone. Yet, when the need is great, temptation looms. What would you do, if you had the chance for one wish to come true?

Content Warning: Bullying, destruction of property, and an unknown viral illness.

Review:

Justice comes in many forms.

Shannon was a likeable protagonist I immediately began rooting for. Not only was she significantly physically disabled, she was being raised by a low-income single mother who had limited help. There were so many things stacked against this family that I desperately wanted them to finally catch a break and have something go their way for one.  They needed a chance to thrive after all they’d been through together.

The paranormal elements of the storyline were subtle at first but grew stronger over time which was the perfect decision for this piece. I enjoyed seeing how Sharon slowly came to the realization that her wish might actually have been granted and that the plot twists were not a coincidence but were building up to something that both the protagonist and the audience would need to think about.

This tale had one of those glorious endings that made me say, “wait, what just happened?” I mean that in a good way as I immediately flipped back a couple of pages to see if my understanding was correct and if the final scene had really been wrapped up the way it had. In retrospect, it made perfect sense given everything that had happened before, but it also caught me off-guard a little due to how some of the earlier scenes played around with the audience’s expectations about what might happen next. It’s delightful to be surprised like that.

I Wish, I Wish made me question my assumptions about what I’d do to make the world a better place with just one wish.

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January 30, 2025 · 1:00 am

Winter Gloom: A Review of The Revenge

Book cover for The Revenge by Benjamin Parsons. Image on cover shows a black and white drawing of a pale-skinned and possibly white woman who has long, black dreadlocks that would drag on the floor if she’d let it do so. She is snarling and looking just up to the right of the viewer. She’s holding a folded-up rope in her left hand and some sort of weapon in her right hand. I shuddered when I looked at her. Very intimidating! Title: The Revenge

Author: Benjamin Parsons

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 20, 2023

Genres: Horror, Paranormal

Length: 32 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 4 stars

Blurb:

Who haunts the third floor of that shabby seaside hotel – and why? Do the dead thirst for revenge? And if they do – can they ever be satisfied?
In a run-down seaside hotel out of season, a ghost is seen haunting the third floor – a tempting treat for any idle supernatural enthusiast. But what drives the spirit to stalk through the night? What sort of tragedy has brought it back from the dead, hell-bent on revenge? Part of the collection The Green Lady and Other Stories.

Content Warning:

Review:

Gloomy days are perfect for a haunting.

The skeptical tone of this tale was one of my favorite things about it. The protagonist was intrigued by the rumours of a haunting that were being passed around the hotel, but he also had some understandable suspicions about what was going on. No, I’m not going to spoil anything by sharing whether or not his questions were valid or what various people might have actually witnessed. You’ll have to read this for yourself if you’d like to form your own opinions. What I can say is that it’s refreshing to read a ghost story – or maybe a “ghost” story – written about a character who think critically and doesn’t take much at face value.

While I believe I understand the chilling point the author was making, it would have been helpful to have more time to digest and comprehend the ending. Suddenly dropping off like that made me wonder if I’d missed something earlier. After reflecting upon it, I wonder if this was done intentionally to help the reader feel just as shocked as the narrator did, but I would have liked to have some confirmation that this was the impression I was supposed to walk away with. Understanding a storyteller’s perspective is so important, after all.

With that being said, I loved the way this piece captured the monotony of winter. Even though it was technically set in October, the dark, cloudy skies had already formed over the beach and seaside hotel. This could have easily occurred in January instead and it would have had the same damp and dark tone to it when every day like the one before it and there are months to go before its warm and sunny outside again.

I am hoping to review more of Mr. Parsons work in the future, so stay tuned.

The Revenge expects some audience participation…and I think that’s a good thing!

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October 24, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

Title: I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment WallsBook cover for I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing. Image on cover is an AI-generated image of a blue puppet peeking out at the viewer from a wooden closet. There is an ominous tone to this scene even though puppets aren’t scary to me!

Author: Ben Farthing

Publisher: Self-Published (I think?)

Publication Date: August 1, 2023

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 160 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

Johnny awakes. A puppet looms over his bed.

He recognizes the furry Grandpa was its puppeteer on the children’s television show R-City Street. But Grandpa went missing a year ago. He disappeared from this very apartment building, which was converted from the old R-City Street studio.

Desperate to see Grandpa again, Johnny follows the puppet inside the building’s walls, ever deeper into a puppet-infested labyrinth…

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls is a horror tale from the “darkly inventive” purveyor of uncanny places and wondrous evils, Ben Farthing.

Each book in the I Found Horror series is a STANDALONE. They can be read in any order.

Content Warning: Puppets

Review:

We need more weird fiction in the world.

I’m going to be perfectly honest in this review and say that I don’t find puppets scary at all. They’re such an uncommon choice for antagonists in the horror genre – well, unless you’re counting dolls and puppets in the same category – that I was quite curious to discover how Mr. Farthing was going to make such cute and cuddly toys into something that fits into this genre. He had a few tricks up his sleeves that made them scarier than they at first appeared to be, and I thought he did a good job with his unusual subject matter. Bravo to him for taking risks and writing something off of the beaten path! (Needless to say, people who are terrified of puppets may have completely difference experiences with this story, so reader beware if that is the case for you).

Once again, there was a lot of repetition in this tale. I believe it would have worked better as a short story or novella as I simply didn’t see enough plot or character development to justify making this a full-length piece. This is something I’m saying as someone who loves short stories and novellas and think they should be much more commonly used than they currently are in modern fiction. I’d much rather read something short, sweet, and powerful than see that same concept stretched out into a longer work, and I would have given this a higher rating for its originality had it either been trimmed back or included more lore to give this world and these characters additional depth.

One of the strengths of Mr. Farthing’s writing style has to do with the motivations his characters have and how well they’re explained. Normally, I’d be suspicious of protagonists who found a giant crack in their bedroom wall and immediately decided to squeeze into it to see what was behind the wall. Wouldn’t they be worried about getting stuck back there or accidentally being exposed to toxic mold or any other number of harmful substances like most of us would be in that situation? The beauty of this story was partially related to the deep grief Johnny and Brittany were experiencing after their grandfather’s mysterious disappearance and their determination to figure out what happened to him. Grief can encourage people to make all sorts of choices they might otherwise think twice about, so diving so deeply into their family relationships made their later decision to go searching for him feel much more reasonable.

While I never share any spoilers in my reviews, I can say that the ending was fabulous and well worth the wait. If you pause in the first chapter or two and wonder if it will be worth it to keep reading, count this as a vote to push forward and see what wonders await you. As I mentioned in my review of the first book in this series, be sure to read the author’s explanation of where his ideas come from after the final scene as well.

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls was a wild and creative ride.

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October 10, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House

Title: I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My HouseBook cover for I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House by Ben Farthing. Image on cover is a probably Ai-generated image of a large red and white striped circus tent that has been set up beside a dark and foreboding forest. You can see a few branches of an evergreen tree poking out in front of the tent almost as if the tree is about to touch this strange invader. There is light illuminating the tent that probably comes from the upper right corner of the image. Weirdly enough, though, the sky itself is grey and overcast. So this light almost appears to be emanating from the tent fabric itself because there’s no other logical place for it to originate from.

Author: Ben Farthing

Publisher: Self-Published (I think?)

Publication Date: January 23, 2023

Genres: Horror, Paranormal,  Halloween, Contemporary

Length: 106 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Lost in a labyrinth of circus tents…

Dave and his four-year-old, Jacob, find a circus tent in the woods behind their house. A strange voice invites them through the dark doorway.

When they refuse, the tent swallows them.

What follows is a nightmare fleeing through a maze of circus tents. Strange performers lurk inside. They want Dave and his little boy to put on a show. The a shifting figure on a platform high above the trapeze wires.

With Jacob perched in the crook of his arm, Dave determines to outsmart the boss of this dark circus, and escape this horrifying tent.

Content Warning: Clowns. Blood. Murder.

Review:

The woods aren’t as safe as one might think.

It was interesting to see how parenthood had changed Dave. He gave several examples of what he used to do on the weekends before becoming a dad and how he had to give those hobbies and volunteer hours up due to having two young children to raise. Most of the fiction I read focuses on mothers, so I liked seeing what parenthood can feel like from a father’s perspective. Despite his other flaws, Dave seemed like an attentive and loving dad who was genuinely trying to give his children the best childhoods he could.

I struggled with the repetitive nature of this novella. Dave kept sharing the same thoughts with the audience over and over again, and he didn’t always make the most logical decisions. While I wouldn’t expect a character in his situation to be eloquent by any means, I did find myself wishing that he’d spend less time talking to the audience and more time either getting himself and his son out of that creepy circus tent or figuring out why the circus performers were so keen on luring humans into their world.  As much as I wanted to give this one a higher rating, this issue prevented me from feeling comfortable to do so.

With that being said, I did appreciate the writing style of this piece. It reminded me of an adult version of  the old television show Are You Afraid of the Dark. That is to say, it was a little cheesy in a good way and gave the characters plenty of opportunities to escape. The scenes that included scary moments were not emphasized the same way they probably would have been in, say, a Stephen King story. Honestly, I could see a preteen reader who loved horror being into this just as much as the adult audience it was written for, so it could be a good stepping stone into the horror genre for people who don’t mind brief references to blood but mostly want to be scared by imagining what might happen next.

This is the first instalment of a series that can be read in any order. If you do decide to read any of the books in it, though, be sure to check out the author’s explanations of where his ideas come from after the final chapter. The two I have read so far helped me to see their storylines in a new light and were well worth my time. (I will be reviewing I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls in a few weeks, so stay tuned).

I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House was a fun Halloween read.

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October 3, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion

Book cover for The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy. Image on cover shows a drawing of a deer standing in a shallow pool of blue-green water. You can see the reflection of it’s antlers and face in the water, but the ripples in the water do not make specific features of it’s face, antlers, or upper body easy to figure out. Title: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion

Author: Margaret Killjoy

Publisher: Tor Books

Publication Date: August 15, 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, LGBTQ, Contemporary

Length: 120 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy pits utopian anarchists against rogue demon deer in this dropkick-in-the-mouth punk fantasy that Alan Moore calls “scary and energetic.”

Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious suicide, Danielle ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa, and witnesses a protector spirit — in the form of a blood-red, three-antlered deer — begin to turn on its summoners. She and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town — or get out alive.

Content Warning: Brief reference to a previous suicide and a death by drug overdose. Dead and dying animals (livestock and wild animals, not pets). Blood. A demon. Murder.

Review:

Good intentions aren’t everything.

Some of the most memorable scenes to me were the ones that described how the residents of Freedom lived their lives. They were squatters who had banded together to create an ecologically-friendly commune where nothing was wasted and everyone’s basic needs were met thanks to a combination of gardening, gathering wild plants, visiting food banks, dumpster diving, and occasionally dipping into less legal forms of procuring  food and supplies.  Honestly, I would have read another hundred pages that described how their community worked and how they dealt with members who took more than they gave.

I struggled with the plot holes, especially the ones that protected Danielle and the other protagonists even when they were playing around with dangerous ideas that had gotten other characters killed off. Of course I wanted them to live happily ever after, but by protecting them from things the plot had repeatedly hammered home were terrible choices to make it watered down the message of it and left this reader feeling confused.

It was cool to realize how many of the characters in this tale were part of the LGBTQ+ community in part because of how it inverted the assumption that most characters should be cisgendered and heterosexual with only the occasional side character who breaks that rule. Representation is important, and I loved the fact that the characters identities were shared in ways that didn’t make a big deal out of any of them and quickly moved on to furthering the plot. That, too, makes a difference to those of us who are not cisgendered heterosexuals. Not everything needs to be announced with bells and whistles. Sometimes we just exist and go about our normal lives…albeit hopefully without seeing any supernatural deer causing havoc in the real world.

The themes in this novella were interesting but undeveloped. There was so much more the author could have done with ideas like the corruptive side effects of having power over others and how people who seek out positions that give them more power over others should be viewed with suspicion. I didn’t always agree with their thoughts on those topics, but I was intrigued and wanted to learn much more than I did about why the narrator – and maybe the author, too – feels this way.

After reading the last few pages, I wondered where this new series is going next. While I can’t go into a lot of detail about those scenes for spoiler reasons, there was obviously time spent setting up the characters for what was to come for them. While I thought some of the directions the end was hinting at didn’t mesh well with the themes that had been already established, I’m very open to being proven wrong about that. You never know what twists and turns might be ahead for a character, so it will be interesting to see what the author has up their sleeves.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion was creepy.

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September 12, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Into the Weeping Waters

Book cover for Into the Weeping Waters by Lee Murray. Image on cover shows a young, pale woman with long, straight dark hair standing up and looking down at her feet. She’s wearing a flowing white nightdress and appears to be standing on the bed of a river or lake. She is submerged in the dark, murky water and is standing near what appears to be wreckage from a crash of some sort. It looks more like a large machine than a boat, though, so maybe it was dumped in the water? You can see a few large wires coming out of this device whatever it is as well as a piece on it that looks like a wagon wheel or possibly a motor of some sort. Title: Into the Weeping Waters

Author: Lee Murray

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 21, 2024

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 36 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Taking the train home for Christmas eve, McKenna’s mentor, the Māori prophet Rawiri Temera, is plunged headlong into a ghostly adventure.

Content Warning: Death, emotional and physical trauma, a train accident, and a few brief descriptions of severe injuries. I will not share any gory details, but I will need to discuss these topics in my review.

Review:

Not all tragedies can be avoided.

The rules for how ghosts behave in this world intrigued me. Somehow they knew exactly what they could and couldn’t do from the beginning without anyone explaining it to them. There were a few logical hints about how they came to this knowledge, but I think it’s best to leave the logistics of it for other readers to figure out for themselves. Not every paranormal tale spends much time thinking about what it might be like to be a ghost or how clearly the recall their previous lives, so I appreciated the fact that this one did.

I would have liked to see more plot development in this short story. There simply wasn’t much of it, and what was shared wasn’t explained like it  could have been even in a piece of this brief length. It almost felt like reading a few pages of a full-length novel instead of something that was intended to be a standalone work. That is to say, I liked what I read, but it ended too quickly for me to feel satisfied with what the narrator had to say about what happened.

Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that described the aftermath of the crash. It was chaotic, of course, but the author also took the time to describe the little moments that could be seared into a person’s brain forever after experiencing such an event. Trauma can be like that sometimes, and I appreciated the way this was written. It was a little gory in a few places, but I could tell that was done to paint a vivid pictures of the horrors Rawiri was witnessing instead of to simply shock the readers.

As a quick aside before I finish off this review, this was set on Christmas Eve but it did not have a Christmas feeling to it at all. If anything, choosing such a typically festive time of the year for it only made the accident more heartbreaking.

Into the Weeping Waters made me shudder. 

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