Pantomine by Robert Essig Review

Panic Press
ISBN: 978-446768457
Review posted 04/13/2011

Pantomime contains 4 stories by known author Robert Essig. Each story has its own creative flow and its own horror.

Pantomime tells the story of a man who has rented a house for years. A Science major in college, Clyde, wants to rent the house by himself. Thomas the owner is not sure just someone by themselves should rent the house, but goes along with it anyways after telling Clyde about the secrets within.

The story is one full of old time horror, things creeping in the night and a twist at the end that makes you think twice about renting any place that you don't research first.

A Step towards Redemption has a man trying to seek redemption for something his brother Hank and he did when they were children, killing a woman. Then a situation brings the character back to memories of his childhood with Hank and a realization that some things don't stay in the past.

This particular story shows the inner core of what a person can go through, knowing what they have done and knowing what could be ahead for them. It takes you down the road of this main character as he struggles through what life has to offer him now and how the past creeps up on you when you least expect it.

In the The Old Man, Benny does his gardening everyday because his wife just loves roses, or did. She's dead. In the meantime, an old man keeps coming up and bothering him. Getting annoyed, he tries to ignore the old man's constant bothering. Then Benny realizes there is something really familiar about this old man, something that may make him take a second look.

Benny is a character we can all relate to. Someone who feels sorrow, pain, from loosing a loved one and just trying to cope everyday with those feelings. He is a strong character that shows just what we would do in our everyday lives once a person that was always there to us is gone and what we would do to try and get them back.

A Crack in the Silver Lining is the last of the tales in this collection. A man who had a lost childhood and very disruptive one, used to look at a crack on his ceiling when his parents would fight. Both parents now dead, he lives with his wife and kids in a new house, but the crack reappears in his own bedroom.

This story was an intense look at hiding things from our past so that we can move on with our lives. It shows a deep look into someone's mind when the realization of what they were hiding comes back to the surface.

Pantomime is a compelling collection of stories that leave you with a thought of what you might be doing in your own life, or what is lurking in your past you maybe trying to forget. It is a collection of tales that make you think, make you fear what you may not know about yourself.

Werehouse by Ryan Hunter Review

By Ryan Hunter
Panic Press
ISBN: 978-1446612651
Review by: Terry Morgan
Review posted 04/02/2011

Lewis through a suggestion of his friend Spencer, decides to rush a fraternity. But what he didn't know is what the pledges would be asked to do, or what secrets were part of this college group.

Werehouse has its twists and turns throughout the story. The one thing that was lacking was the action wasn't more severe. The center of the story dealt with this fraternity that didn't seem right, something not totally there, but in the same sense the story didn't grab my attention with this idea.

I was a bit disappointed that even with the twists and turns in the story, it was too predictable and lacked the enjoyment of being really surprised. The title was a good one for the story, but overall I felt that this particular theme could have expanded its setting, characters and not left me feeling like I was reading another typical horror story.

DEADication An Anthology dedicated to all things Zombies Review

Panic Press
ISBN: 978-1446621066
Review posted 03/31/2011


Zombies, Zombies and more Zombies, what is a person to do? How's about picking up a new collection of zombie short stories by Panic Press called DEADication An Anthology dedicated to all things Zombies.

I love reading zombie tales and I could not be more thrilled when this collection of new stories came about. It is jam-packed with zombie outbreaks, people killing zombies and even a few stories with a different take on zombies.

One of the stories that stuck out to me was just that, a different take on the zombie tale. Zombie Holiday by Neil E. Leckman is just that. It deals with a family who had a horrible car accident. A year later, like the rest of the dead population, they come back. But this story is not just another walking around undead crunch and munch, it has heart. It shows that just because they are zombies doesn't mean they don't feel hardship or don't have things said about them, even though they live in the same community as others. It is a story worth seeing that in any society, some of the same woes and ridicule occur.

This collection is worth not only a second read, but it is a thrilling experience for any zombie fan. The stories in DEADication fill you with gore, excitement, thought and a good filling that perhaps zombies aren't that bad after all.

Shadows & Light (Volume II) Edited by Alva J. Roberts Review

Edited by Alva J. Roberts
Pill Hill Press
ISBN: 978-1617060038
Review by: Rob Walter
Review posted 03/28/2011


Shadows & Light Volume II, published January 2011 by Pill Hill Press, is the follow on to the critically acclaimed Shadows & Light: Tales of Lost Kingdoms. It is a collection of thirteen fantasy short stories. The following is a list of the stories and their authors:

Choices in the Dark by Ray Tabler
Master Race by Gerald Costlow
The Hand of Fate by David J. West
Azieran: The Secret in the Mist by Christopher Heath
Mania's Children by Gustavo Bondoni
Champion by Marc Sorondo
Night Ambush by Scott Harper & Diane Smith
The Tithe of Hell by Edward McKeown
The King of Sorango by John M. Whalen
Zhea by Gregory L. Norris
Spread Your Wings and Die by Lydia Sharp
Sons of Odin by John Richard Albers
Aquila's Ring by Cat Rambo

If you like dragons, magic, gods and other worlds you will enjoy reading this collection. Choices in the Dark begins the collection with a tale of a Norseman on a quest to retrieve his kidnapped wife from a dark lord. Mania’s Children is about a people trying to survive the Romans from darkness. Aquila’s Ring brings the collection to a close with a cautionary tale that tells of similarities to life.

I enjoyed this collection and recommend it to any fan of the fantasy genre.

Clickers II by J.F Gonzalez and Brian Keene Review

By J.F Gonzalez and Brian Keene
Deadite Press
ISBN: 978-1936383436
Review posted 03/25/2011

Clickers II starts out with Robert, a old man that watches other couples have sex in the hotel rooms. He then moves his binoculars over to the water where people are screaming and something like crabs or lobsters are attacking them. The story then moves on to Jerry Barker who was taking a lunch break, when looking out the window sees people screaming and running out of the water. We have the return of what was called 'The Clickers.'

Clickers II is the follow-up to Clickers. With Clickers II we come across the creatures that look like lobsters or crabs, but are sea monsters not afraid of anything a human may do. Unlike Clickers, Clickers II takes on a different tone to the chaos. The monsters are still there, but the humans are more present with the attacks and the attacks are more in the open.

Clickers II did not have the same feeling as Clickers with the monsters stepping out of a B movie, but instead a more modernized version of what seems to be Jaws. I was a bit disappointed with Clickers II because I was hoping for the same feeling I got when I had read Clickers, which was rooting for every character to either get it, or let the monster win, in this book, as in Jaws, you waited to see what the monster would do, but there were no surprises, no thrilling moments to allow you to ponder what would be next. It left a dryness that needed to be filled.

There were also, several clips of news articles featured in this book to bring what I assume a certain feeling to the reader of the terror going on with the current situation in the book. With all these articles present, it became a quick reading of them and a fast turn of the page to get to the meat of the story.

Clickers II left me feeling like I was missing out on something, that this was a only part of a book and where was the rest?

Casting Shadows By Joleen Kuyper, E.J. Tett and Jo Robertson Review

by Joleen Kuyper, E.J. Tett and Jo Robertson
Lulu Press
ISBN: 978-1409284154
Review by: Rob Walter
Review posted 03/17/2011

Casting Shadows is a collection of dark poetry and short stories written by three authors, Joleen Kuyper, E.J. Tett and Jo Robertson and published by Lulu Press. Each of the authors contributes four short stories and four poems and it is organized in a unique way. The twelve short stories and twelve poems alternate throughout the collection, starting with the short story, Just the Dust and ending with the poem Under the Lake.

The mix of the short stories and the poetry take the reader on a bit of a dark emotional roller coaster starting with the apocalyptic Just the Dust by Joleen Kuyper. In the story a woman awakens in the dark, alone, trying to understand who she is, what she is doing, when it is, where she is laying and why she is there. Monsters, by E.J. Tett, is a dark poem about a 15 year old girl coping with the darkness and the very real monsters in her life the only way she can. Roses by Jo Robertson, tells a cautionary tale that one should listen and be aware to the warnings of Déjà vu for they may save your life.

I am not a big fan of poetry, but the poetry in this collection works for the most part because of the way it is interspersed with the short stories and helps to twist the emotion of the reader into different directions improving the reading experience.

Wretched Moments Edited by T.L. Perry and Jessy Marie Roberts Review

Edited by T.L. Perry and Jessy Marie Roberts
Pill Hill Press
ISBN: 978-1617060458
Review by: Gina Desory
Review posted 03/15/2011



Wretched Moments is a collection of 22 stories that are strange and yet want to make you at least take a look.

The collection was what I thought to be stories on the bizarre or even more extreme horror. What I ended up finding out, at least for myself, was some confusion and some stories lacking the pull to want me to read more, leaving me disappointed.

Out of the 22 stories that filtered this anthology, the best of the 22 was Carly is Dead by Shane McKenzie. The story brought some of the bizarre into it by having Carly dead in the forest and her friend a fly who lays eggs in her tear ducks so that she can see them when they hatch. McKenzie wowed me with just the idea of something of this situation. The telling of the story was intriguing and with a certain darkness I did not feel while reading the other stories in this collection.

Wretched Moments is a collection for a certain acquired taste. I would not give up on it to try it at least once, you may feel differently than I did.