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trdinkle's review against another edition
4.0
The whole collection is pretty funny with some parts among the funniest things I've read. What's especially striking is that some of the stories that made me laugh most also brought me closest to tears. "The Martyrs of Mountain Peak" and "Lazarus Dying" are clear standouts in this respect, with deft handling of religion that manages to point out what's absurd without being mocking.
moreadsbooks's review
3.0
If you've a hankering for chilling short stories that will linger in unpleasant ways in your head long after you've put the book down, be at peace & look no further. Egerton can write a pretty nasty little tale. Most of these are no more than three or so pages long, so you're automatically primed to keep telling yourself "Just one more!" and staying up way too late, feeling more and more deeply unsettled as you read. I particularly enjoyed his twist on religion - the lengths that camp counselors would go to in order to gain converts to a Jesus with black teeth who isn't actually the answer, what life was like for Lazarus after he stopped being a miracle & was just a guy who couldn't die (John Connolly wrote an excellent Lazarus story for a zombie anthology that I read back in the day & I figured I'd never read any take on that poor dude that I liked more than Connolly's - but, yeah, this one is pretty sweet too). This is pretty lame, but here goes: I don't always read short stories, but when I do, I prefer them to be by Owen Egerton.
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