charshorrorcorner's review

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4.0

WICKED WEIRD is a fun anthology of weird tales, all written by authors from New England. I enjoyed the hell out of it!

I can't go into each and every story, so here I'm going to stick to the ones that I thought were wicked good. (Here in the northeast, when we use the word WICKED we mean extraordinary. For example: Dunkin' Donuts coffee is wicked good. Dunkin'? I'll be waiting for my check!) With no further ado:

A STRANGE HAZE by Matthew Bartlett. For those of you that can identify with feeling like an outsider, always saying the wrong thing, and often saying it in the wrong tone of voice. 4*

A SONG OF WAR AND DEATH by Errick A. Nunnally. My notes say "Reads like a Twilight Zone episode." 4*

(The above two authors I've heard of and I was happy to find that I own books by both of them already! I need to get some reading done!)

SALT CAVE by Morgan Sylvia.
Here's one line from the story:
"The spiders sing madness into my thoughts."

I was not previously aware of this author and now I just want to hunt down everything they wrote. 5*

THE SWEETNESS AND THE PSYCHIC by LL Soares. Two words: Basement. Cockroaches. 4*

A FEAST OF FLIES by Steve Van Samson. A stranger visits the camp of starving men. 4*

THE MASS OF THE GREATEST SIN by Trisha J. Wooldridge. I really dug the narrative voice in this one, and I definitely could relate to a lot of the protagonist's feelings. 4* (I'll be searching out more work from this author as well.) 4.*

THE PAINTED GIRL by Paul McNamee. Native American Cosmic horror. How could it not be good? 4*

RECLAIMED by William D Carl. I feel like this story could have been written by Lovecraft himself, but I like this author's writing style better. 4.5*

STARRY NIGHT by Jason Parent. Features Merle Haggard, (no lie), AND it has creatures. 4*

SANGUISUGA by Kate Moulton. I'm not saying anything to ruin this, but it kicked all kinds of ass. 5*

THE LOST MINE OF ST. ELOI by J. Edwin Buja. Intense tunnel action in WWI. 4*

THE PROMISED DEATH OF ZEBEDIAH DEWEY by John Goodrich. When even the devil doesn't want you, you're in trouble! 4*

THE PERFECT PARENT by Peter N Dudar. Twisted and a little hilarious all at once. 4*

YOUR EMERGENCY RESPONSE GUIDE by Jeffrey Thomas. This was an excellent little tale, well told and left me wondering for long after. 5* (I am already a fan of Thomas' work and own several of his book that I haven't read yet. Story of my life!)

I found WICKED WEIRD to be an above average collection and I have no reservations about saying:

Highly recommended!

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2NZAtrv

*Thanks to Scott Goudsward for providing an e-copy of this anthology in exchange for my honest review. This is it!*
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