Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick by Steve Stred

Within this book, the author of Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery, Invisible, Yuri and Wagon Buddy returns to ensure you will be looking behind you frequently while reading.
Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick collects all new tales filled with depravity and retribution.  Brimming with horror, thrills and creepy chills, the reader is sure to find the hairs standing up on the back of their necks and the occult themes causing them to question the true nature of the lights flickering.
When all is said and done, when you finally finish reading this batch of stories, you will have found that at some point, you locked the doors, checked under the bed, and made sure all of the closet doors are closed.
You have been warned.
I was lucky enough to win this in a giveaway and to my shame it's taking me ages to finally get round to it! But now that I have, I'm so glad. There's a lot to love about this collection. It's dark, fun and full of surprises. 
I really liked how these stories all start off really normal, beginning with everyday situations we all find ourselves, but then of course it quickly descends into horror and mayhem. There's no chance to stop reading these gripping, fast paced stories. There's a great range of styles, subject matter and genres within, all untied by an underlying current of horror.  They're so original you never know which direction Steve Stred is going to take you in.
Stand out stories for me in this collection include; The Witch a great tale of powerful women being in total control. Wardrobe malfunction was brilliant, that story just keeps getting darker and darker! Tossers and Thunderstorm are also up there, I loved the mysterious ending of the latter. Head Case really stood out for me too and shows that technological advances aren't always to our advantage.
Stred also offers up fascinating author notes alongside his tales, explaining how he came up with the original ideas
This is a really good collection of tales and can't wait to see what he writes next!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Stone Road by G.R.Matthews

Image
I was introduced to this book as part of Fantasy Faction's Book Club where we all get together and discuss our favourite books. This time the administrator chose a title that had been self published. Out now via Amazon Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret, that yes of course there are a lot of really bad self published books out there, but there are also some really good ones. Since buying a kindle I've bought numerous self published titles for as little as 49p and have enjoyed most of them. Recently I read The Lady of the Helm by T.O.Munro and that was really very good. I'm going off track a bit here but if you love fantasy fiction and want to read really amazing self published fiction then head over to Mark Lawrence's site where he hosts the annual SPFBO - The Self Published Fantasy Blog-Off in which top bloggers read through the top 273 self published fantasy  novels to determine an overall winner. So back to  the Stone Road by G.R.Matthews.
Read more

Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

Image
For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature--from Lucy Westenra, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre--as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967. Reluctant Immortals  is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion,  Reluctant Immortals  is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they brave
Read more

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Image
This epic tale is a fictional memoir of Uhtred, son of Uhtred who's destiny was forged in battle between the pagan Viking warriors and the pious Christian Anglo-Saxons in 9th century Britain. "My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred. My father’s clerk, a priest called Beocca, spelt it Utred. I do not know if that was how my father would have written it, for he could neither read nor write, but I can do both and sometimes I take the old parchments from their wooden chest and I see the name spelled Uhtred or Utred or Ughtred or Ootred, and I look at the deeds which say that Uhtred, son of Uhtred, is the lawful and sole owner of the lands that are carefully marked by stones and by dykes, by oaks and by ash, by marsh and by sea, and I dream of those lands, wave-beaten and wild beneath the wind driven sky. I dream, and know that one day I will take back the land from those who stole it from me." (Taken from
Read more