Title: The Mansion of Imperatives
Author: James Grady
In: Home Improvement (Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Horror
Dates read: 11th August 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: We could clean it up.

Five people enter the house. Who will be allowed to leave?

So this is a super dark and powerful and uncomfortable story. It’s kind of awesome. But definitely give you the heebie jeebies as you read it. It’s pretty obvious that it’s going to be like that from the very beginning though. There is no misleading from that first sentence that this is likely to be a fun or light-hearted story. Actually, from the first sentence I kind of just assumed that they would all die…

Although I was expecting a lot of death throughout this story. I still wasn’t expecting the depth of insanity and craziness throughout this story. It was somewhat surprising and a little confronting in some places. A little bit about hidden desires. But also the First Imperative… the Will to Survive.

After finishing this story, I had a bit of a mad urge to jump up and go sit out in my backyard. The only thing that quite honestly stopped me was the fact that it was dark, raining and cold. Otherwise, something about this story would most likely have led me to sit outside and just stare at my house and wonder about it for a little while before getting the guts to come back inside…

<- Blood on the Wall

The Strength Inside ->

Image source: Hachette Australia