The ramblings of a bibliophile.
Unlike every other short story in The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Stories collection, this one had an intriguing element of fantasy. Nothing too overt, but enough that I had a bit of a smile and a feeling of fantasy nostalgia hanging across my face when I turned the last page. And a few goose bumps, considering the fact that it had a kind of horror spin on it.
I absolutely adored the creepiness and spine-tingling evilness of this story. This might be in a collection of Urban Fantasy Villains stories, but there was something extra creepy about a girl chewing her own tongue to kill her father. A whole other level of darkness that hasn’t so far been portrayed in this collection – most villains use the sacrifice and blood of others. This woman starts off sacrificing parts of herself willingly.
This short story seriously sent goose bumps up by back. It was kind of horrible and truly uncomfortable. Not at the very beginning, in the beginning I was more than ready to feel sympathy for and love Laura Anne. But that quickly changed. And now I’m glad that she doesn’t really exist. She was a creepy, evil girl child.
I really thought that this story was going to have a much, much happier ending. I thought that Melanie would be able to find a new family, a world beyond her restraints. It didn’t end like that. And it didn’t make me think that she had a happily ever after. But I still completely loved this story. In a way, the not-so-happy ending made me love the story even more than I would have if Melanie got her happily-ever-after.
I picked up this book because I absolutely adored the movie. Just seeing the title makes me want to watch the movie again and again and again. Which meant that I was seriously hoping that the book would be just as good. I was a little wrong. For starters, the book is so much creepier and horrifying than the movie. For another thing. It was just better.
I haven’t read many stories about voodoo or hoodoo (I know there’s a difference, I just don’t know what that difference is…). Yet, it’s something that fascinates me. Which of course immediately drew me into this short story. Especially when the lead female voice was so strong and obviously unhappy with her trainer. Unhappy with the atrocities that she is committing over and over again because the elderly woman is asking her to.
This is my first collection of horror stories. Actually, it’s really my first ever horror novel. So reading this has been a very interesting journey. One that I was surprised to enjoy so much. And, although I didn’t really read any of these stories late at night, I also didn’t get any horrifying nightmares from the tales either. Unlike some of the crime, mystery and thriller novels that I’ve read.
This final story in the Black Feathers collection gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. It was a good story to end on, but it was definitely one that made me seriously uncomfortable. It had that open-ended finale that makes you think that the spawn of crows will continue off into the sunset without anyone to stop them.
I’ve never done acid. But I imagine that the tripped out experience is a lot like this story. Incredibly confusing, unreal and tangentially jumpy. With lots and lots of long, run on sentences.
This made me so damn uncomfortable that I just wanted to put the whole book down. Multiple times. Possibly set it on fire. And the reason that it made me so uncomfortable? It wasn’t fantasy. It wasn’t some far off time. It wasn’t something that I couldn’t quite conceive of. It was about men who take a twisted view on romance and attack us. It is something that happens to everyone. At any time. And it is so damn uncomfortable that I honestly don’t have the words for it. Disgustingly uncomfortable is the closest I can come.
