By Nate Southard
Deadite Press
Review by: Ronnie Tucker
Review posted 11/24/2011
Just Like Hell is a short anthology of five stories from Nate Southard. The first is called Just Like Hell, runs for 70+ pages, and is your stereotypical kidnapped man against several protagonists, but it's very well done since the protagonists really are quite despicable and deserve their gory comeuppance. A Team Building Exercise is like a modern day episode of Outer Limits. A bit more sci-fi than the other shorts, but has a nice twist ending that was quite humorous. Miss Kenner And Me is written in first person and is about a boy who seems just a bit too attached to his teacher, Miss Kenner, to the point where it's creepy, and who latches onto another unfortunate girl who meets an untimely demise. Senorita is a bit of an odd one. Is it horror? Maybe sci-fi? I'm not sure, but it's another one of those stories where its man meets woman, and within minutes he's so obsessed with her he's mowing people down left, right, and centre. No idea why authors seem to keep using the kills-through-obsession scenario. Finally we hit Work Pit Four. It reads like a sci-fi story, but it too has an Outer Limits feel to it. But without the cool twist ending.
Just Like Hell is a nice little book of shorts. There's really only one horror story, the title track, with the others being a bit more sci-fi, but that's OK with me since the horror story takes up almost half of the book anyway. Your a sick man, Mr. Southard. Keep up the good work!
