Horror book 22 Tales Of Terror
“His narrative wit and smart analogies will both entertain and trouble you. The situations his characters find themselves in will be the worst you could possibly imagine, and just when you think a story’s coming to an end, Braun’s well-plotted words slap you through the face.”
This bold claim is an excerpt from the forward of “Horrorbook: Twenty-Two Tales of Terror” and after finishing the first few tales I could see this was a promise the book was not going to fulfill. The sense of horror seemed to max out at basic Halloween imagery. Black cats named Lucifer, the satanic apartment six, on the sixth floor, on Sixth Street.. you get the picture.
Let’s start with the first story in the book, Remember Me, to set the bar for what can be expected. This story follows metal head Rod Blaze. Apparently in the eighth grade Rod got a feel for the metal life and left behind his friend at the time, a redhead named… well, Red, who apparently bases his friendships off of what genre you associate yourself with. Red holds a grudge against Rod for changing his taste in music and leaving him behind. He holds this grudge for the next decade or so, when he decides to come to Rod’s show and pick a fight. After Rod rightfully kicks his ass Red declares all out warfare on Rod for “ruining his life”. (If this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, it couldn’t have been much of a life to begin with.) I don’t want to linger too long on this particular story, although it is a treasure trove of logic leaps and fallacies, with gems like Red’s father exclaiming “Now, you hold on. I’m not a criminal! I own my own garage. I’ve been banging on cars since before you were in diapers.” You know, because we all know that garage owners are wholly impervious to criminal activity.
Most of the characters seem to have these same petty reactions to the situations they are put in. One man almost kills himself because a ghost who he has been aware of for two days kills his cat. That’s all it took and he was ready to leave this world behind. Strength of a character comes from the ability to endure hardships and grow from the experience, and the characters are very one dimensional. Backstory is often forced into situations where it has no business revealing itself.
There was one story, The Interloper, that had a pretty decent set-up. I was willing to forgive some of the earlier stories if the author could have pulled off at least this one. The character had a little more depth than the wayward rebellious punk archetypes from previous stories, and I genuinely felt for him at parts. This story didn’t end though, it just stopped. In the ending he chose, he effectively undid all of the set up that he had done. I almost stopped reading the book after this happened but I trudged along.
After Never Meet Your Heroes I stuck it out for one more story, which was Nil Caveat. This was the story of a man who moved into Satan’s apartment where a spirit kills his cat. Perhaps he should have killed himself there because later on he gets a ghost head up his anal cavity and ends up becoming a haunt himself ready for the next tenant. This ending was too reminiscent of one of my favorite short stories, Other People by Neil Gaiman. I am in no way saying this was a rip-off, as it’s a common trope. I just couldn’t bear to see it pulled off this way and had to put the book down.
In short I’d say Braun’s content was not up my alley, but I encourage him to keep doing what he loves. He has some good sentence structure and he clearly has a passion for the hobby. I would also say that if this book catches your eye then by all means don’t let me discourage you from reading it yourself.
Latest posts by Sara Shine (see all)
- H.P LOVECRAFT In Film - July 3, 2014
- Review of EMERGENCE by William Vitka - July 1, 2014
- THE LAST HALLOWEEN by Abby Howard – Graphic Novel Review - June 17, 2014
