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curiosityboughtthebook's review against another edition
5.0
I usually start my reviews with a summary, but I’m going to dive straight into my review of “The Gulp” instead. I really don’t want to spoil anything.
“The Gulp” is the story of a small town in Australia invented by author Alan Baxter. The book contains five stories about the “charming” place, and they all go hand in hand. Baxter did an excellent job setting the tone with the first story for the collection, and plunges us into further madness and plain weirdness with each subsequent story. Just like the protagonist in the first story, we are new arrivals to Gulpepper and know nothing about it. When we slowly get to meet the other people calling it their home, we are given an insight into how off this place really is. Yet, nothing prepared me for the final story, which is so out there it followed me into my dreams last night!
I have never read anything by Baxter, but he is an amazing story teller and I crave more of The Gulp. All of it’s odd freaky inhabitants, the violence, the mystery, just all of it.
Thanks to the author for the review copy!
“The Gulp” is the story of a small town in Australia invented by author Alan Baxter. The book contains five stories about the “charming” place, and they all go hand in hand. Baxter did an excellent job setting the tone with the first story for the collection, and plunges us into further madness and plain weirdness with each subsequent story. Just like the protagonist in the first story, we are new arrivals to Gulpepper and know nothing about it. When we slowly get to meet the other people calling it their home, we are given an insight into how off this place really is. Yet, nothing prepared me for the final story, which is so out there it followed me into my dreams last night!
I have never read anything by Baxter, but he is an amazing story teller and I crave more of The Gulp. All of it’s odd freaky inhabitants, the violence, the mystery, just all of it.
Thanks to the author for the review copy!
readbydusk's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up! I was really excited to read The Gulp as I have enjoyed the author’s previous work. Anything to do with creepy small towns, I’m in! The fictional Australian harbour town of Gulpepper, known as “the Gulp” by the locals, is not a place you want to visit. People are disappearing. Houses are filled with strange things. The ocean is a source of nightmares. Strange creatures roam. I was captivated by how weird the Gulp is and I wanted to know everything about it.
The book absolutely delivers the scares and the uncanny. The body horror and sharp violence made me shiver! The relationships and slices of humour make the characters feel relatable. I liked that there are also some terrible people in the book. It gives the town a claustrophobic, sinister feeling. The characters have nightmares of things falling from the skies into the ocean, and I loved how disorienting and terrifying these visions are. The stories suggest something big is about to happen, but the book ends before it’s revealed. I’m dying to know more! I really hope there are more stories from the Gulp because I have a feeling this is only just the beginning.
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The book absolutely delivers the scares and the uncanny. The body horror and sharp violence made me shiver! The relationships and slices of humour make the characters feel relatable. I liked that there are also some terrible people in the book. It gives the town a claustrophobic, sinister feeling. The characters have nightmares of things falling from the skies into the ocean, and I loved how disorienting and terrifying these visions are. The stories suggest something big is about to happen, but the book ends before it’s revealed. I’m dying to know more! I really hope there are more stories from the Gulp because I have a feeling this is only just the beginning.
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enchantressreads's review
5.0
“Strange things happen in the Gulp. The residents have grown used to it.”
The Gulp contains 5 short stories all surrounding Gulpepper, a small coastal town in Australia.
We begin in Out on a Rim, where a veteran truck driver advises his trainee to stay out of The Gulp as much as possible. Get in, get out. Rich doesn’t believe him, however, and begins to believe this quirky small town actually has some secrets.
Next is Mother In Bloom. Maddy and Zack are taking care of their dying mother when she finally passes away. Due to monetary reasons, as well as trauma, they don’t immediately dispose of her body. Something else has taken over...
In The Band Plays On, we finally meet Blind Eye Moon, The Gulp’s legendary rock band. They’re always in costume... no matter what.
48 to Go, where Dace has 48 hours to repay money to his boss. A robbery gone wrong, or has Dace walked into something completely unexpected?
Lastly, everything comes to a head in Rock Fisher. Troy discovers a sort of egg that he can’t keep his mind off of. Just another bit of strangeness from The Gulp, or is there something stronger at play here?
The Gulp was an easy 5 star read. Usually I don’t rate short story collections this high, but every story was amazing and added just the right amount of suspense for the entirety of the collection.
Thank you to the publisher, Alan Baxter, and Night Worms for my first Night Worms book party!
The Gulp contains 5 short stories all surrounding Gulpepper, a small coastal town in Australia.
We begin in Out on a Rim, where a veteran truck driver advises his trainee to stay out of The Gulp as much as possible. Get in, get out. Rich doesn’t believe him, however, and begins to believe this quirky small town actually has some secrets.
Next is Mother In Bloom. Maddy and Zack are taking care of their dying mother when she finally passes away. Due to monetary reasons, as well as trauma, they don’t immediately dispose of her body. Something else has taken over...
In The Band Plays On, we finally meet Blind Eye Moon, The Gulp’s legendary rock band. They’re always in costume... no matter what.
48 to Go, where Dace has 48 hours to repay money to his boss. A robbery gone wrong, or has Dace walked into something completely unexpected?
Lastly, everything comes to a head in Rock Fisher. Troy discovers a sort of egg that he can’t keep his mind off of. Just another bit of strangeness from The Gulp, or is there something stronger at play here?
The Gulp was an easy 5 star read. Usually I don’t rate short story collections this high, but every story was amazing and added just the right amount of suspense for the entirety of the collection.
Thank you to the publisher, Alan Baxter, and Night Worms for my first Night Worms book party!
roxiethebookslayer's review against another edition
4.0
TITLE: The Gulp
AUTHOR: Alan Baxter
SYNOPSIS: Strange things happen in The Gulp. The residents have grown used to it. The isolated Australian harbour town of Gulpepper is not like other places. Some maps don’t even show it. And only outsiders use the full name. Everyone who lives there calls it The Gulp. The place has a habit of swallowing people.
A truck driver thinks the stories about The Gulp are made up to scare him. Until he gets there. Teenage siblings try to cover up the death of their mother, but their plans go drastically awry. A rock band invites four backpackers to a party at their house, where things get dangerously out of hand. A young man loses a drug shipment and his boss gives him 48 hours to make good on his mistake. Under the blinking eye of the old lighthouse, a rock fisher makes the strangest catch of his life.
Five novellas. Five descents into darkness. Welcome to The Gulp, where nothing is as it seems.
PUBLISHER: 13th Dragon Books
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Welcome to The Gulp, the Hotel California of Aussie harbor towns.
Out on a Rim
Two truck drivers get stuck in The Gulp. One decides to wander the town and finds more adventure than he bargained for.
Mother in Bloom
Mother dies. She wasn’t a very good mom and the teens decide to keep her death a secret. Then they find mom covered in a fungus...and it's hungry.
The Band Plays On
A new spin on an old trope. Four young adults find happiness in music, partying with a band after a show, but when weird stuff begins to happen, Patrick can’t believe he is the only sane one.
48 to Go
If a crime boss gave you 48 hours to come up with an obscene amount of money, how would you get it? Dace has a very simple way--steal, but when the couple he is robbing turns out to be more than he bargained for, Dace is forced to decide whose life is worth losing. (Hint: it isn’t his family’s)
Rock Fisher
Alan saved the best for last. This creepy tale gives us life, literally. A sinister egg is found by a fisherman and things begin to change for all of The Gulp.
“The Gulp has a habit of swallowing people. But sometimes it spits one out.”
And just like that, The Gulp has spit me out. I survived. I enjoyed my stay, everything cleaned up very nicely in the end and the ending gives us home to a return trip. I would definitely visit The Gulp again.
Alan gave us five distinct stories, some more brutal than others (seriously what is up with the guinea pigs?), but all high in creep factor. There is certainly a weird force around The Gulp and it leads us all to one thing-- the fall.
Thank you to Alan Baxter for a gifted copy of THE GULP in exchange for an honest review.
rosehip's review against another edition
4.0
A good collection of short stories, albeit I know there has to be a certain air of mystery around the town I felt like we weren't given enough information to at least sort of understand what's going on. I thought that the stories would culminate together at the end to give a pay off, and while there was a gathering it wasn't satisfying at all. Other than that I really enjoyed the stories with the ones being about the outsiders the best.
dale1997's review
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Incest, Murder, Torture, and Violence
crystal_staley's review
4.0
Let’s travel to The Gulp, a seaside town where dark and strange things occur. This is a fantastic collection of five stories set in the town of Gulpepper, a place where at first glance everything seems idyllic until you scratch the surface to see things aren’t quite what they seem. Each story introduces us to the town in a new way through characters that are each dealing with their own set of circumstances. The town really comes to life with Baxter’s writing and gives me Twin Peaks vibes. Many of the stories had a supernatural element which I really enjoyed. I liked all five of the stories. Though they were all different, there were some references to other stories and the final story connected some of the dots. I really enjoyed this and hope to read more set in The Gulp in the future.
terriaminute's review
DNF at 18%.
The first story, which is as far as I got, is very well written. But, when it didn't resolve so much as set up the town's character, I read enough reviews to understand that I should have read reviews before buying this series of stories, even on sale. Horror is not my favorite genre, so I want resolutions. I didn't get one, and apparently endings aren't the point. My bad.
The first story, which is as far as I got, is very well written. But, when it didn't resolve so much as set up the town's character, I read enough reviews to understand that I should have read reviews before buying this series of stories, even on sale. Horror is not my favorite genre, so I want resolutions. I didn't get one, and apparently endings aren't the point. My bad.
errantdreams's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I love Alan Baxter’s work–especially his horror–and The Gulp: Tales From The Gulp 1 is a collection of five stories about a remote Australian town with a whole lot of secrets. The town of Gulpepper is known by the locals as “the Gulp.” It’s quaint and beautiful, and sometimes outsiders wonder why it isn’t a tourist destination. But if you go there, you’ll be lucky to get out again.
I do have to warn you: there’s an arc-plot that wends its way through the five stories, and it’s a semi-cliffhanger at the end. (AGH!) It just brings us to the brink of understanding the arc plot, then leaves us hanging. Thank goodness it looks like there’ll be at least one more book after this one.
In “Out On a Rim,” a trucker (George) is so desperate to get out of the Gulp by nightfall that he ends up with a flat tire. His replacement-to-be, Rich, ignores George’s warnings to stay away from the town and decides to go drinking, get some food, and sleep in a real bed. As predicted by George, Richard doesn’t make it back before George leaves town. I found this one quite interesting and unexpected.
In “Mother In Bloom,” teenaged siblings Maddy and Zack have to cope not only with their horrible mother’s death, but also with the strange growth that takes over her body. Soon Zack starts to hear his mother’s voice whispering, telling him to bring people to her. The events of this story definitely come back later in the book.
In “The Band Plays On,” four backpackers stay in town for a performance by a band they’ve never heard of: Blind Eye Moon. By the time the first song is over, they’re wondering why the group isn’t world-famous! When the band suggests they come to an afterparty, and afterwards convinces them to stay a while, one backpacker, Patrick, notices some worrying changes in his three friends. My favorite part is that the band is “always in character.” The backpackers never see them without their, umm, makeup.
“48 To Go” introduces us to Dace, who gets robbed of something very expensive that doesn’t belong to him. Carter, who seems to be something of a crime boss in town, gives him 48 hours to come up with $60k. When Dace hears that a particular couple in town supposedly has a big stash of money in their house, he’s desperate enough to try robbing them. Yeah, things aren’t exactly going to go to plan.
“Rock Fisher” has hobby-fisherman Troy pull up something very weird from the sea: an egg, perhaps, with something moving inside of it. As he becomes more and more obsessed with the egg, it starts to change him. Things from each of the other stories drift into this one as the plots collide.
This is a wonderful cosmic horror book, and I love interconnected stories like this. I just wish the ending had gone a bit further!
Content note: minor amount of torture and mutilation. Off-the-page incest and sex.
I do have to warn you: there’s an arc-plot that wends its way through the five stories, and it’s a semi-cliffhanger at the end. (AGH!) It just brings us to the brink of understanding the arc plot, then leaves us hanging. Thank goodness it looks like there’ll be at least one more book after this one.
In “Out On a Rim,” a trucker (George) is so desperate to get out of the Gulp by nightfall that he ends up with a flat tire. His replacement-to-be, Rich, ignores George’s warnings to stay away from the town and decides to go drinking, get some food, and sleep in a real bed. As predicted by George, Richard doesn’t make it back before George leaves town. I found this one quite interesting and unexpected.
In “Mother In Bloom,” teenaged siblings Maddy and Zack have to cope not only with their horrible mother’s death, but also with the strange growth that takes over her body. Soon Zack starts to hear his mother’s voice whispering, telling him to bring people to her. The events of this story definitely come back later in the book.
In “The Band Plays On,” four backpackers stay in town for a performance by a band they’ve never heard of: Blind Eye Moon. By the time the first song is over, they’re wondering why the group isn’t world-famous! When the band suggests they come to an afterparty, and afterwards convinces them to stay a while, one backpacker, Patrick, notices some worrying changes in his three friends. My favorite part is that the band is “always in character.” The backpackers never see them without their, umm, makeup.
“48 To Go” introduces us to Dace, who gets robbed of something very expensive that doesn’t belong to him. Carter, who seems to be something of a crime boss in town, gives him 48 hours to come up with $60k. When Dace hears that a particular couple in town supposedly has a big stash of money in their house, he’s desperate enough to try robbing them. Yeah, things aren’t exactly going to go to plan.
“Rock Fisher” has hobby-fisherman Troy pull up something very weird from the sea: an egg, perhaps, with something moving inside of it. As he becomes more and more obsessed with the egg, it starts to change him. Things from each of the other stories drift into this one as the plots collide.
This is a wonderful cosmic horror book, and I love interconnected stories like this. I just wish the ending had gone a bit further!
Content note: minor amount of torture and mutilation. Off-the-page incest and sex.
ericarobyn's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
The Gulp by Alan Baxter is a collection of five eerie and brutal horror shorts that are all set in the same small coastal town. Prepare yourself before diving into this one… Hopefully The Gulp will spit you out on the other side.
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.
Each story is set in The Gulp, a small coastal town that we learn in the first story, is rumored to be a bit cursed.
At first, readers may side with the first character we meet that thinks his leg is being pulled, but with each story, we get deeper and deeper into the unsettling and dangerous town.
Each story stands alone just fine, but they each build upon the other with a ton of cross over. Take one small example, in the first story we see a man meet his end. In other stories, we see missing posters for that man. I loved seeing each of these tie ins when they happened and there were more and more of them as it went on!
Alan Baxter has created such a vivid town here. From the coast line to the shops, and even the many characters, this world building is incredible.
Here are my quick notes and thoughts on each story. If you’d like to avoid any slight spoilers, please stop here.
Out on a Rim – 5/5
When a man named Rich goes on a delivery run with an older man who is about to retire, things go a bit awry. Not heeding the old man’s warning, Rich goes out on the town while the old man stays in the truck. The old man warned Rich that this town is dangerous, but Rich chalked it up to new employee hazing. After dark, Rich is about to learn just what this town holds.
When a man named Rich goes on a delivery run with an older man who is about to retire, things go a bit awry. Not heeding the old man’s warning, Rich goes out on the town while the old man stays in the truck. The old man warned Rich that this town is dangerous, but Rich chalked it up to new employee hazing. After dark, Rich is about to learn just what this town holds.
This story was very unsettling! There was one scene with an eyeball that’s going to stick with me for a very long time. Phew!
Mother in Bloom- 5/5
Two teenagers that had been taking care of their sick mother for years suddenly don’t know what to do when she passes away. Neither sibling is particularly broken up about it as things had been rough for awhile. Instead of reporting the death to anyone and risking losing the house, the keep quiet. But something is happening to the body, and they need to move quickly.
Two teenagers that had been taking care of their sick mother for years suddenly don’t know what to do when she passes away. Neither sibling is particularly broken up about it as things had been rough for awhile. Instead of reporting the death to anyone and risking losing the house, the keep quiet. But something is happening to the body, and they need to move quickly.
This story was equally heartbreaking and terrifying. My goodness the mental picture a lot of the description in this story caused. Eek! I would have so been out of there.
The Band Plays On – 4/5
When a group of four on a backpacking trip stop into a local bar to see a band play, they are immediately mesmerized by the music. When the show is over and the lead singer invites them all to an after party in The Gulp, they can’t say no. Soon, one of the group realizes something is wrong but it’s already too late.
When a group of four on a backpacking trip stop into a local bar to see a band play, they are immediately mesmerized by the music. When the show is over and the lead singer invites them all to an after party in The Gulp, they can’t say no. Soon, one of the group realizes something is wrong but it’s already too late.
This was so eerie. All the red flags were there but they were so easy for the others to overlook.
48 To Go – 5/5
When a drug deal goes wrong, Dace has forty-eight hours to somehow get the money to repay the buyer before his boss offs his entire family. With a rumor that a rather eccentric couple is sitting on a ton of cash, Dace decides robbery is his best bet. But he has no idea what he’s about to find behind the walls of the home with cages and cages of guinea pigs in the yard.
When a drug deal goes wrong, Dace has forty-eight hours to somehow get the money to repay the buyer before his boss offs his entire family. With a rumor that a rather eccentric couple is sitting on a ton of cash, Dace decides robbery is his best bet. But he has no idea what he’s about to find behind the walls of the home with cages and cages of guinea pigs in the yard.
This one was so disturbing! Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse after the kitchen… it did. This was another one that made me cringe a lot! Especially the living room scene, my god.
Rock Fisher – 4/5
When a rock fisher snags his line on something, a little voice inside his head tells him to reel in in carefully rather than cutting the line and taking a loss. What he pulls in, he decides to take home. But something is very off here…
When a rock fisher snags his line on something, a little voice inside his head tells him to reel in in carefully rather than cutting the line and taking a loss. What he pulls in, he decides to take home. But something is very off here…
Right from the first instance of the burning sensation here, I was out. Touching something and having a reaction absolutely terrifies me, forget touching something unknown! And that ending!!!
My Favorite Passage
The heat grew in Patrick, spreading through his body like ink dipped in water.
My Final Thoughts
These stories were so much fun! I would love to see more in the future. I loved that there were so many additional characters that popped in and out, Alan Baxter could certainly cover a lot more ground here. I also really need to know what was up with the egg…
If you enjoy horror shorts, this is a must read! Enjoy!