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A review by horrorbutch
Split Scream Volume Six by Ryan T. Jenkins, David Corse
5.0
Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy by the publisher.
While this is the first of the Split Scream Volumes I’ve read, I absolutely adore it! It takes a fascinating genre of literature (the humble novelette), pairs two of them together with a similar theme and creates an incredible enjoyable reading experience for fans of short horror. These novelettes also manage to take what makes horror short stories so good and removes the fact that many horror short-stories are sadly too short, instead straddling the line between underdeveloped and dragging out perfectly. The pacing in both stories was outstanding and I never found myself bored. Both stories manage to built the worlds we are exploring well, give deep (and personal) insights into the main characters and their struggles and create a deeply uncomfortable dread running through it all.
If you are interested in stories exploring fraught family relationships, hauntings, creepy portals, dissociation and trauma and to do so in an afternoon (or in my case two, one for each novelette), I would really recommend you read these collections and I will certainly check out the other Volumes now.
Mother is Coming Home
A son taking care of his aging ailing mother. There is more than some bad blood between them and as resentments rise a strange glowing orb in the barn is the last thing they need. Or is it?
This story explores the horrors of family, how being forced into a caretaking position can cause resentment and how far some sons might go to finally be free. It is written in an utterly haunting fashion and I especially adored the inescapable dread throughout it.
Tw: domestic abuse, parental abuse, murder
Come to Daddy
Featuring a very unreliable narrator, this story follows a recently divorced dad, who dwells in his punk past and excessive drug use after his family life dissolved. And then there’s also this creepy Elijah Wood horror movie poster that the previous owners left up, that he somehow can’t get off the wall (or off his mind) either. Very intriguing look into a completely disassociated life and a gruesome, heartbreaking ending.
Tw: drug use, self-injury, gore, unsanitary
While this is the first of the Split Scream Volumes I’ve read, I absolutely adore it! It takes a fascinating genre of literature (the humble novelette), pairs two of them together with a similar theme and creates an incredible enjoyable reading experience for fans of short horror. These novelettes also manage to take what makes horror short stories so good and removes the fact that many horror short-stories are sadly too short, instead straddling the line between underdeveloped and dragging out perfectly. The pacing in both stories was outstanding and I never found myself bored. Both stories manage to built the worlds we are exploring well, give deep (and personal) insights into the main characters and their struggles and create a deeply uncomfortable dread running through it all.
If you are interested in stories exploring fraught family relationships, hauntings, creepy portals, dissociation and trauma and to do so in an afternoon (or in my case two, one for each novelette), I would really recommend you read these collections and I will certainly check out the other Volumes now.
Mother is Coming Home
A son taking care of his aging ailing mother. There is more than some bad blood between them and as resentments rise a strange glowing orb in the barn is the last thing they need. Or is it?
This story explores the horrors of family, how being forced into a caretaking position can cause resentment and how far some sons might go to finally be free. It is written in an utterly haunting fashion and I especially adored the inescapable dread throughout it.
Tw: domestic abuse, parental abuse, murder
Come to Daddy
Featuring a very unreliable narrator, this story follows a recently divorced dad, who dwells in his punk past and excessive drug use after his family life dissolved. And then there’s also this creepy Elijah Wood horror movie poster that the previous owners left up, that he somehow can’t get off the wall (or off his mind) either. Very intriguing look into a completely disassociated life and a gruesome, heartbreaking ending.
Tw: drug use, self-injury, gore, unsanitary