Reviews

American Morons by Glen Hirshberg

jsilber42's review

4.0

American Morons is a very solid collection of horror short stories. Hirshberg's stories take time to draw you in, with a slowly building atmosphere of menace and chill and "wrongness", often capped with a creepy or twist. The titular piece features a bickering young American couple on vacation in Italy who find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation when their car breaks down along the highway. "Flowers on their Bridles, Hooves in the Air" has a vaguely Stephen King-like feel to it, where a married couple and their friend encounter a mysterious boardwalk carnival. "Devil's Smile" follows a lighthouse inspector to a remote outpost with a lone inhabitant with a disturbing story. "The Muldoon" is a classically styled ghost story where the two children learn some dark secrets about their family. If you prefer slow-burn, atmospheric horror over gore and action, you'll probably enjoy this collection.

lkeipp's review

5.0

Non scary horror - until you sit back and think about what he actually said. Subtle, odd, all around good read.

hollowbook's review

2.0

Has its moments, but tries too hard, and after the first story I only had to read the first half of every subsequent story.