Fiona Dodwell

As you can see from my individual ratings I didn't love every story in the collection but that's usually the case with anthologies. I'm hard to please when it comes to short stories but as a whole I would give this one 4 stars. The concept is a great idea and even though some of them have a lower individual rating they were still pretty good stories, they just weren't of the same quality, in my opinion, as the higher rated ones.

1 - Night Terrors by Audrey E. L. Coots - 4 stars

That was a great start to the collection. A very well written creepy little tale. If they are all this good this is going to be a great collection of stories.

2 - Soul Seekers by Alice J. Black - 4 stars

That was certainly one kickass female! Me likey. Two really good stories in a row, this bodes well.

3 - The Dead Season by Fiona Dodwell - 2 stars

This is a decent and original little story but I found the dialogue to be repetitive in parts.

4 - Marion by Erica Chin - 3 stars

I was really enjoying this one until the ending, I'm not a fan of how it ends. I can't imagine that the outcome, if I am understanding correctly who the voice is, is one that the voice would have wanted for the boy.

5 - Commuting by Veronica Smith - 3 stars

I was not expecting that! However it felt like a rather abrupt and random way to finish.

6 - The Black Cat by Sharon Higa - 2 stars

While this was an OK story, the way the parents interacted with the MC like she was a young child rather than a 14 year old girl didn't match with how strong and mature she instantly became afterwards. You don't sit a 14 year old on your hip like they're a young child or carry them to bed, change them into their night clothes and tuck them in like a baby.

7 - Late Lunch by C.A. Viruet - 2.5 stars

Well that was weird but I'm left thinking why? What was the actual reasoning behind it? The writing was a bit choppy and there was repetitive use of words in places but it was original and rather bizarre.

8 - Prick by DA Chaney 4.5 Stars

This has to be my favourite of the collection. I really enjoyed the sarcasm and humour in this story.… (más)

I’m always on the hunt for another haunted house tale. Found a good one here.

Seeking independence, twenty year old Carla Bracken looks for a place of her own. She discovers Moorelands Close and an affordable new home. She quickly starts to make it her own

All is bright, until weird things start happening. What is that tap, tap, tapping in the night? Carla is scared. Something is in her house. Something is shouting in the night. She soldiers on despite her fears, determined to get through it.

She has a lot of other things to contend with too. Carla’s worried about the lay off at the company she works for and a boyfriend who won’t commit.

Determined to keep her independence, Carla must get help. It’s not just her independence that’s at risk.

This wasn’t a super scary story. It was a slow building, creepy one. We’ve all hear those unexplained noises in the night and shrugged them off as house noises. It must have been especially scary for Carla, as she’s in an unfamiliar house.

How she deals with it is what I liked most. She’s scared, sure. But she’s not moving out. Instead, she starts looking into the history of the house and previous occupants. What she discovers explains a lot.

Great ending. I should have seen it coming, but I didn’t.

A good one for a dark and stormy night.… (más)

***I received a free book in exchange for a book review***

I loved this 45 chapter book. The opening line in the prologue, He leaned forward pressing his face close to her mouth and listened, waiting for breath that would not come, had me hooked. My other favorite lines: 1) Time isn’t the healer it’s promised to be. 2) “God you’re infuriatingly naive, Michael. I can’t decide whether it’s cute or annoying.” 3) It all looked so…normal, so real. Yet the thoughts of what had happened to him were floating persistently in his mind, vying for his attention.

This story gave me chills from start to finish. It was very creepy and frightening. The author did a wonderful job with dialogue and description. I could definitely see this as a blockbuster hit. My favorite suspense moments occurred when a guy wearing a clown mask stalked Michael. He was haunted by a ghost, no matter if he was at home or work. He worked in Hill Wood House, which was a facility that took care of disabled folks. Even his patients could see the black shadow following him. Spooky!

This suspense thriller was written in Michael’s third person point of view. He’s very protective of his sister, Amber, not getting along with her arrogant boyfriend. After a divorce, he’s feeling in a funk, but decides to start dating Sarah. I loved how the mystery of what happened at his first job was a running theme. This is VERY important. There’s a double twist that I didn’t see coming! It reminded me of my favorite John Cusak movie.

I RECOMMEND this book to read.… (más)

James Barker is haunted by the death of a man who jumped in front of a train he was driving. Despite the urging of his wife Chloe, he finds himself increasingly drawn to investigate the man's life, and what possessed him to commit suicide. It's not long before he is seeing visions of the dead man, both in his nightmares and in the waking world, and is forced to choose between abandoning his search to save his sanity and his marriage, or to pursue the clues all the way down to the dark truth of that night.

Fiona Dodwell does compelling work in creating a feeling of compulsive need in Barker, and as he goes deeper into obsession, in keeping the supernatural suspense as to what is really happening and what is in Blake's fevered imaginings. The book relies more on atmosphere and suspense to draw readers in, all the way to its unflinching denouement. If you like your horror stories mixed with subtlety and suspense, I recommend trying this one.… (más)