“Riveting. Your worst nightmares realized.”–Scream Hard Reviews Twenty unforgettable tales of transgression and horror by the award-winning author of KIND NEPENTHE. In “Mine” a child hangs precariously between the isthmus of innocence and evil, shedding his humanity for the altar of a wolf pup. A horrifying and ancient legend reveals itself with a shocking new twist in “A Dirty Winter Moon.” … twist in “A Dirty Winter Moon.”
“Have a Heart” teaches us that nature always prevails over the follies of man, sometimes in an extremely gruesome manner.
In “Rumpelstiltskin” the troll under the bridge is very real, and wants your children for unspeakable deeds.
In “The Gym Teacher” a boy’s obsession with serial killers leads him to discover the true nature of a monster.
These twenty stories traverse the outskirts of society to reveal the brutality of humanity in all its gory glory.
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If one word summed this up gross would be it. Considering the constant drug use, weird sex stuff, and serial killers the sky isn’t the only thing rotting here…
So as always with a collection, you get the constant repeating themes. Here we get drugs, characters that are psychopaths, Charles Manson references, families trying to set up a life living off the land, fighting couples, and he likes to throw in people talking in french too. It’s full of violence and sex. Mostly this is just done to shock and gross you out, and I found it tiresome as I went through the stories. Once I saw how the author set these tales up the tension was gone, you know something awful is gonna happen but the shock of it had diminishing returns. I didn’t really care for the mostly druggies and generally weird psycho characters enough to feel for them either.
Also, The Lifeguard was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read. I’m sure someone can tell me there’s worse out there, and I’d believe them, but I don’t care, I’m not reading it. Yuck.
Now that out of the way, the author is an extremely great writer. The stories are well described and flow easily. The few stories he breaks out of the drugs/sex/serial killer stuff are creative and fun. There are two Cthulhu Mythos stories in here that were pretty good. The Number of Darkness was a great one as well, it had all his usual themes but he worked them in well around a possession story set in the 1860s. Honestly, it was only his great writing that kept me reading, most of the stories as I said became frustrating with constant bleakness for the sake of it.
Definitely a good collection to read if you’re in the mood for some extremely ugly and violent stories. The writing is great and the stories that break out of the usual mold of this collection are awesome.
UNDER ROTTING SKY: Stories, is a collection of twenty tales by Matthew V. Brockmeyer. These are not your light “campfire-style” stories, but rather they embrace the more extreme side of horror. Triggers? Oh yes–just about every major one you can think of!
I’m not one to shy away from extreme horror, but I will admit there was one tale that touched upon a subject that was off-limits to me. While I did find several stories that I enjoyed for their originality, I felt that the collection focused overwhelmingly upon the most bleak and depressing aspects of life you could envision. The abrupt endings worked for some, but I felt that others could have used a bit more “depth”. Perhaps if some “different” themes had been interspersed throughout, I would have enjoyed it more, as a whole.
As it stands, some of the tales I enjoyed were:
–“Lifeguard”: There was no shortage of extreme images in this story! Its originality, and the thoughts left in my mind after its conclusion, made it one that won’t soon be forgotten.
–“A New Man”: This was one of my favorite selections in this collection. While the story was fairly predictable (I believe it was designed to be), it was the tone and little comments throughout that made it so spellbinding. The very first sentence began: “Bartholomew had the internet to thank for everything. Without the internet, he wouldn’t have know anything about transorbital lobotomies . . .” If THAT doesn’t grasp you attention, I’m not sure what would!
–“The Gym Teacher”: This one deals with a young man obsessed with the macabre and serial killers, in general. “What makes a man a monster?”
–“Mine”: This was the first story of the collection. The way individuals deal with grief in their own ways was a powerful statement. “. . . Max decided he was no longer a little boy, but a wolf pup . . . ”
–“Nightingale”: was my number one choice for favorite story here. A historical fiction piece, told in interview style, the descriptions and emotions were so potent throughout this one. “. . . A bunch of misfits, losers, and orphans, sure, but we were bound to each other like a family might be . . . ”
Overall, a mixed bag of extreme horror. Some I identified with, but many that I personally found too “bleak” to be entertaining. Opinions always vary, and fans of more extreme horror may find this to their liking.
This entire collection of stories is right up my alley – dark, gory, creepy horror. I highly recommend that you read this!