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burghbooksandbrews's review
4.0
This was my first experience with Chad Lutzke’s writing, and I was just immediately hooked.This short story collection offers a selection of 14 stories with very different tones, themes, and levels of horror. Some of these deal with very difficult concepts like trauma, aging, and abuse.
I have seen many people refer to these stories as quiet horror which I think is accurate for many of these stories that may not be the kind of outright horror one would expect. These stories are very psychological and engaging.
Some of my favorites included:
Predisposition and a Box of Crayons - A woman dealing with her husband’s abandonment of their family takes solace in her child’s imaginary friend at the expense of her son.
A Season for Pruning - This is definitely one of the more extreme horror stories in the book, and I loved it. It deals with a man living on a farm who decides to rid himself of some “unnecessary parts.”
Culling the Pigs - An abused woman murders her husband and flees to a neighbor’s treehouse where she meets a teenage boy who may be another prideful, egotistical man in the mold of her husband.
Vigil - A group of neighbors basically throws a block party while corpses are disinterred in the local spooky, abandoned house. This really takes a look at our profound fascination with crime and the sometimes disrespectful way we engage with victims as a society.
I really enjoyed this collection overall!
I have seen many people refer to these stories as quiet horror which I think is accurate for many of these stories that may not be the kind of outright horror one would expect. These stories are very psychological and engaging.
Some of my favorites included:
Predisposition and a Box of Crayons - A woman dealing with her husband’s abandonment of their family takes solace in her child’s imaginary friend at the expense of her son.
A Season for Pruning - This is definitely one of the more extreme horror stories in the book, and I loved it. It deals with a man living on a farm who decides to rid himself of some “unnecessary parts.”
Culling the Pigs - An abused woman murders her husband and flees to a neighbor’s treehouse where she meets a teenage boy who may be another prideful, egotistical man in the mold of her husband.
Vigil - A group of neighbors basically throws a block party while corpses are disinterred in the local spooky, abandoned house. This really takes a look at our profound fascination with crime and the sometimes disrespectful way we engage with victims as a society.
I really enjoyed this collection overall!
bookwyrm55's review
5.0
Spinal Remains by Chad Lutzke, Cemetery Gates Media; 1st edition (August 9, 2022)
Review by David Niall Wilson
This collection is a not-so-friendly neighborhood of stories. Lutzke has crafted all the pieces in this collection around ordinary, everyday people, places, neighborhoods, relationships, and then taken them to strange, and at times very dark places. Often, it’s the matter-of-fact reactions, the unexpected ways the characters play off one another and interact, that are most disturbing.
As in all collections and anthologies, some of the stories made a deeper connection than others. The very first story, “Predisposition and a Box of Crayons,” caught me with the ending. It’s a serious drop into mental illness and parenthood that, if you have children, will leave a chill.
Another stand-out for me was “I Gave Them the Finger,” which introduces another theme that runs throughout the book – body parts. As mentioned above, it’s the very odd ways that those involved in the story react to the horrifying, absurd and chilling turns the stories take that is the key. These are not vivid, pencil in the eye horror stories. They are much more subtle and can catch you off guard. (There is at least one that goes extreme… just to see if you are paying attention).
My favorite story in the collection is “He Wears the Lake.” It’s strange, and more surreal than many of the others. It deals with aging, and dementia. It deals with “dealing” in ways that feel strange and at the same time very real.
“Better than October” is a reminder that teenage boys in coming-of-age stories very often do stupid things. They also, often, find themselves mixed up in ways that they did not expect, and can never escape.
“Baby Steps” is an almost humorous take on a modern day Renfield that is (at the same time) close to the bone for those suffering from addiction.
The final story, Vigil, was well-placed. An entire neighborhood, confronted with an unexpected horror, reacting one-one one, and as a group. Finding a way through something bad while, at the same time, continuing to be neighborly, to tell stories and share food. It felt at first as if all the neighborhoods of the book might be from one place, and that many of them were present for that vigil, even though it is not the case.
This is a very solid collection. Unlike most, it has themes that tie it together, and, with few exceptions, a style that does the same, giving it a solid form as a single book, rather than a patchwork. Highly recommended.
Review by David Niall Wilson
This collection is a not-so-friendly neighborhood of stories. Lutzke has crafted all the pieces in this collection around ordinary, everyday people, places, neighborhoods, relationships, and then taken them to strange, and at times very dark places. Often, it’s the matter-of-fact reactions, the unexpected ways the characters play off one another and interact, that are most disturbing.
As in all collections and anthologies, some of the stories made a deeper connection than others. The very first story, “Predisposition and a Box of Crayons,” caught me with the ending. It’s a serious drop into mental illness and parenthood that, if you have children, will leave a chill.
Another stand-out for me was “I Gave Them the Finger,” which introduces another theme that runs throughout the book – body parts. As mentioned above, it’s the very odd ways that those involved in the story react to the horrifying, absurd and chilling turns the stories take that is the key. These are not vivid, pencil in the eye horror stories. They are much more subtle and can catch you off guard. (There is at least one that goes extreme… just to see if you are paying attention).
My favorite story in the collection is “He Wears the Lake.” It’s strange, and more surreal than many of the others. It deals with aging, and dementia. It deals with “dealing” in ways that feel strange and at the same time very real.
“Better than October” is a reminder that teenage boys in coming-of-age stories very often do stupid things. They also, often, find themselves mixed up in ways that they did not expect, and can never escape.
“Baby Steps” is an almost humorous take on a modern day Renfield that is (at the same time) close to the bone for those suffering from addiction.
The final story, Vigil, was well-placed. An entire neighborhood, confronted with an unexpected horror, reacting one-one one, and as a group. Finding a way through something bad while, at the same time, continuing to be neighborly, to tell stories and share food. It felt at first as if all the neighborhoods of the book might be from one place, and that many of them were present for that vigil, even though it is not the case.
This is a very solid collection. Unlike most, it has themes that tie it together, and, with few exceptions, a style that does the same, giving it a solid form as a single book, rather than a patchwork. Highly recommended.
pbanditp's review
4.0
“And I felt if Grandpa poked him too hard the skin would split and he might explode, covering us in death juice.”- from the story Cycles
Chad Lutzke writes vivid stories of morbid curiosities that nestle into your subconscious leaving you thinking about it days later and wondering if it was a nightmare that you are recalling or is it a flashback to one of Lutzke’s tales.
The thing with these stories is that the main character could be any of us. They are just regular people until they get put in extraordinary circumstances and things get…odd.
There is sorrow, humor, a nod to the classics, and kids being kids in this collection of horror tales but most of all, no matter what is happening, you feel a connection to the story, one that isn’t going to release you anytime soon.
Chad Lutzke writes vivid stories of morbid curiosities that nestle into your subconscious leaving you thinking about it days later and wondering if it was a nightmare that you are recalling or is it a flashback to one of Lutzke’s tales.
The thing with these stories is that the main character could be any of us. They are just regular people until they get put in extraordinary circumstances and things get…odd.
There is sorrow, humor, a nod to the classics, and kids being kids in this collection of horror tales but most of all, no matter what is happening, you feel a connection to the story, one that isn’t going to release you anytime soon.
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