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aaronlindsey's review against another edition
4.0
A Horror Movie Marathon on paper! Three novelettes from Grindhouse Press.
I knew I was going to like this book from the moment I read the introduction. So don't skip the intro!
The first story is Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer. I think this was my favorite of all three. It had the true feel of a B movie and I really enjoyed it.
Next up is Primitive by Lucas Mangum. This one was good and reminded me of the more classic horror movies. I read it in black and white.
And finally, The Vessel by Matt Harvey. Scary, gross, and mysterious. All good.
I knew I was going to like this book from the moment I read the introduction. So don't skip the intro!
The first story is Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer. I think this was my favorite of all three. It had the true feel of a B movie and I really enjoyed it.
Next up is Primitive by Lucas Mangum. This one was good and reminded me of the more classic horror movies. I read it in black and white.
And finally, The Vessel by Matt Harvey. Scary, gross, and mysterious. All good.
lkkirk75's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
averymiller's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really fun read with 3 very solid stories. All of them read like a night at the movies. The first novelette was my favorite out of the three but the other two are absolutely worth the time. I’m excited to check out these three authors other works because they all left me wanting more!
southern_chime's review against another edition
2.0
Horrorama is a collection of 3 novellas. It is meant to be dark and campy like a b movie marathon. The cover of the book fits the theme perfectly. Even though I wasn’t especially fond of the book itself, I will keep my copy of the book because of how much I love the cover.
Let’s start with the positives: the third story The Vessel by Matt Harvey was great. It was dark, somewhat funny, and had really interesting characters. If this was a stand alone I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Now the negatives: The first story, Store-all-self-storage had an interesting enough premise and started well but it failed to really hold my attention. The characters weren’t compelling so it was impossible to get invested in the story. 2/5 stars
The second story, Primitive, was my least favorite of the three. Instead of feeling fun and campy, it was draining to read. I didn’t care for the characters and their actions often didn’t make a ton of sense. I also feel like the story could have been a fair bit shorter and still gotten the point across. 1/5 stars
Let’s start with the positives: the third story The Vessel by Matt Harvey was great. It was dark, somewhat funny, and had really interesting characters. If this was a stand alone I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Now the negatives: The first story, Store-all-self-storage had an interesting enough premise and started well but it failed to really hold my attention. The characters weren’t compelling so it was impossible to get invested in the story. 2/5 stars
The second story, Primitive, was my least favorite of the three. Instead of feeling fun and campy, it was draining to read. I didn’t care for the characters and their actions often didn’t make a ton of sense. I also feel like the story could have been a fair bit shorter and still gotten the point across. 1/5 stars
spestock's review against another edition
4.0
Before I started reading, I perused the reviews here. I saw mostly two categories. One or two stars, saying: "Gross! Extreme! Perverse! Disgusting!" Or four or five stars, saying: "Gross! Extreme! Perverse! Disgusting!"
I fall into the latter group. Horrorama is not for the shy of heart, for the squeamish. There's nothing wrong with being either. I'm a huge baby when it comes to horror movies. Horror on the page is a different story. This set of three novellas was a heck of a lot of fun, even as it often made me squeeze my eyes closed and try to think of something nice and pretty.
Each story, at least once, elicited a strong, visceral reaction. For me, this usually means I hold my place with a finger, close the book, shake my head, and whisper "No" out loud. That is high praise, the whispered "no." I also giggled "what the fuck" nervously when Mr. Dennison came upon a certain storage unit in the first story (no spoilers, but if you've read it, it's the one where the guy was dressed in the thing and filming himself doing this other thing).
I enjoyed all three stories, but the third was the best, in my opinion. A very satisfying conclusion, too.
I fall into the latter group. Horrorama is not for the shy of heart, for the squeamish. There's nothing wrong with being either. I'm a huge baby when it comes to horror movies. Horror on the page is a different story. This set of three novellas was a heck of a lot of fun, even as it often made me squeeze my eyes closed and try to think of something nice and pretty.
Each story, at least once, elicited a strong, visceral reaction. For me, this usually means I hold my place with a finger, close the book, shake my head, and whisper "No" out loud. That is high praise, the whispered "no." I also giggled "what the fuck" nervously when Mr. Dennison came upon a certain storage unit in the first story (no spoilers, but if you've read it, it's the one where the guy was dressed in the thing and filming himself doing this other thing).
I enjoyed all three stories, but the third was the best, in my opinion. A very satisfying conclusion, too.
gareth_alan's review against another edition
3.0
When we were kids, me and my brother used to set the VHS to record during the night while we were in bed. We had one of those long play video recorders that could put 8 hours worth of recording onto a 4 hour tape.
We'd skip through the tapes the next day to see if we'd captured any late-night gems. We discovered all kinds of wonderful crap. Dodgy late night talk shows, alternative music programs, campy action films...
The best stuff we recorded was the low budget horror films that were awfully produced, full of badly acted dumb characters, questionable story lines, cringey dialogue and laughable special effects, but overall lots of fun and laughs. And that's the best way to describe this book. Three random crappy horror films (I mean that in a good way) in book-form, full of silly fun and glorious gratuitous action.
Also, look at the cover, for Christ's sake. It's the reason I read this book in the first place.
We'd skip through the tapes the next day to see if we'd captured any late-night gems. We discovered all kinds of wonderful crap. Dodgy late night talk shows, alternative music programs, campy action films...
The best stuff we recorded was the low budget horror films that were awfully produced, full of badly acted dumb characters, questionable story lines, cringey dialogue and laughable special effects, but overall lots of fun and laughs. And that's the best way to describe this book. Three random crappy horror films (I mean that in a good way) in book-form, full of silly fun and glorious gratuitous action.
Also, look at the cover, for Christ's sake. It's the reason I read this book in the first place.
catra121's review
4.0
This was a fun collection of horror novellas...very reminiscent of 80s/90s horror movies. I really enjoyed the first and third stories...the middle one was just ok for me...but all in all I definitely recommend it to fans of horror novellas. Free on Kindle Unlimited.
a_chickletz's review against another edition
2.0
This was another one of my Night Worms subscription books!
Well, well, well. What an interesting trilogy of stories. The first one was something that had that goofy / creepy / British humor vibe to it. A guy who is hired to do the overnight shift at a storage rental is seeing some crazy stuff going on with the late night owners. This was probably my favorite story of the bunch.
The second story was a group of guys who go out camping in the woods and come across a woman whose son is a wolf and she has to find him and kill him. This story had some strange tangents from the men featured in it (like didn't have to do with the plot tangents but written to fill the pages) and wasn't really creepy at all.
Then lastly, some rip off Rosemary's Baby that ends up having some sort of alternate ending where the woman does not deliver the anti-christ.
I expected a bit better in terms of short-stories, something that really grabs you. Unfortunately these did not. :/
Well, well, well. What an interesting trilogy of stories. The first one was something that had that goofy / creepy / British humor vibe to it. A guy who is hired to do the overnight shift at a storage rental is seeing some crazy stuff going on with the late night owners. This was probably my favorite story of the bunch.
The second story was a group of guys who go out camping in the woods and come across a woman whose son is a wolf and she has to find him and kill him. This story had some strange tangents from the men featured in it (like didn't have to do with the plot tangents but written to fill the pages) and wasn't really creepy at all.
Then lastly, some rip off Rosemary's Baby that ends up having some sort of alternate ending where the woman does not deliver the anti-christ.
I expected a bit better in terms of short-stories, something that really grabs you. Unfortunately these did not. :/