Daniel I. Russell

I was between horror group reads and looking for a short story to cleanse my palate. I found this one in my Short Story TBR and went with it.
It's hard to do a proper review for a short story without ruining everything. Plus if I try to describe it, it would sound silly. Suffice it to say, I just LOVED the imagination used to create this scary/gory short. I completely disagree with one of the other reviewers who saw nothing of Stephen King's early work in this story. This story was a bit gorier than King would get back in the day, but the imagination, creativity and writing chops are all there. We have the unreliable narrator and a sense of WTH is going on...is it real? Is this guy just insane? Is he drug addled?
You'll have to read it and see what you think.
I think it paid off for the author to offer this short for free because I'm excited to have found a new author and will gladly pay some money to see what else he has to offer.
If you like a short story with a punch and have an open enough mind to suspend your disbelief, you will have a great time with this story.… (mehr)

3.5 stars!
When I saw this book come up for review on Horror After Dark, I claimed it for my own. See, back in 2012 I read this short story titled "Fluffs" and I loved it. I immediately purchased another book by this author,"Samhane", but as so often happens these days, I haven't had time yet to read it. I was excited to sit down with this one.

This was a nasty tale...not nasty like porno nasty, but nasty like EWWWW nasty. It was not completely original, but there were some surprising turns, and that definitely had an effect on my rating.

Most horror lovers have encountered tales of mutant, scary, underground dwellers before and I dare say most of us have read plenty about psychopathic rapists and killers as well. The difference in this book is the reader is rooting for one of these groups. Which group? You will need to read this to find out.

Mr. Russell creates some interesting characters and a couple of cliche ones. A few of the underground scenes were not believable to my mind, however, the creativity of the author's imagination mostly made up for that. (Yeah, you will remember that baby pram for a long time!) The quality of the prose was okay and the pacing of this tale was rather quick. I wouldn't have minded a little more originality, but I did end up enjoying this book as a whole.
Recommended for fans of underground mutant horror!

There is currently a giveaway for Mother's Boys at Horror After Dark Giveaways! Don't miss your chance to read Mother's Boys for free!
… (mehr)