Short Story Review - The Pram by Joe Hill

Name -  The Pram

Writer - Joe Hill

Series - Creature Feature 

Published By - Amazon Original Stories 

Despite meaning to check out his works for a while, this is my first foray into the writing of Joe Hill. And I am quite glad that I did read this one and am thankful that Amazon Original Stories for publishing these short stories that can read in a single or few sittings. 

The Pram deals with the story of Willy and his desire to have a son. It begins with a saddened atmosphere as we come to know the circumstances leading to Willy's anguish and resentment and then slowly builds into the horror of what it might finally lead him to. 

The character of Willy is the main focus and Hill does an admirable job of letting readers ease into his psyche and personality. None of the other characters were much fleshed out due to the shirt scope of the story, but Hill's uncanny ability to create relatable and realistic characters are clearly visible through the small glimpses on offer. 

The story progresses gradually and almost effortlessly into a crescendo and ends in a veritably shocking and explosive ending. And the aftertaste left made me immediately interested to check out more from the author and also from other stories in the series. 

A job well done, 4.5 out of 5 stars from me. 

New Book Review - 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

Name - 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

Writer - Sadie Hartmann

Published By - Page Street Publishing

Well, if you are like me and have gotten into the intriguing world of horror fiction in the last few years after traversing through other branches of genre fiction, this book is specifically curated for the likes of you. If you are like me, you have often wondered if it was possible to ignore the vast richness of the past works of horror fiction and check out the good stuff from the last decade this book is for you. If you just want to test out the different sub-genres of the immensely versatile world of horror for the first time, well, what do you know, this book is also for you. 

'Sadie Hartmann' did a brilliant job of just taking post 2000 books and making a huge list putting in varied tastes of modern readers into consideration. There are also some delightful author spotlights focusing on some lesser known yet highly imaginative authors who are emerging into the genre as future giants. Also some short non-fiction pieces from some of these authors. 

I really loved the way Sadie arranged her recommendations into various sub-genres (would have loved a few more like space horror, medieval horror, etc. though) and then listed them with not only a synopsis type post but rather her take on the novel or collection. I loved her little at a glance feature below the review particularly. 

Overall, I would definitely recommend this to people like me who love books about books, and also to people looking for some solid modern horror recommendations and also to people who are trying to get into the genre. Solid and thoroughly enjoyable reading material. 

I'll give this one full marks, 5 out of 5 stars.