Grappling with Your Worst Fears: Wrapped in Plastic is a collection of spine-tingling and horrifying stories

 

Wrapped in Plastic and Other Sweet Nothings

By Robert P. Ottone

Journalstone, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-68510-113-8 (trade paper)

978-1-68510-114-5 (ebook)

192 pages

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Journalstone

 

I am currently on a “short story collection” reading binge, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to review Robert P. Ottone’s latest book, Wrapped in Plastic and Other Sweet Nothings, a wickedly good collection of horror stories. These stories were just so damn amazing! And there’s a werewolf story, too! What a treat!

 

I am a big fan of the Sleepy Hollow story – heck, anything Sleepy Hollow – so I was greatly interested in reading THAT particular story. And it was so good. A nice twist on an old tale. I loved it!

 

“The Girl in the Floor” was a bizarre kind of spooky story. I mean, you try to understand HOW this can happen – but sometimes with horror, there is no “how.” Sometimes with horror, things happen that we cannot and often should not understand (and, yes, some things should NOT be known or understood). The thing about horror, though, is that, unlike with other genres, it is allowed to go beyond the bounds of reality and stretch our sense of belief. Sure, there’s no possible way that something can happen, but it does. It did. And we don’t know how or why.

 

Horror takes us to the darkest depths of reality and to places that we never knew existed or could exist. There are no laws of physics in horror – only a very strong sense of disbelief. And that’s exactly what happens with the story “The Girl in the Floor.” We try to figure it out—hell, the characters wrack their brains trying to figure it out—but sometimes, we just can’t. The unbelievable, the unthinkable, just happens whether we get it or not. That’s not lazy writing; it’s horror.

 

Although I must say, that particular story was more sad than horrific.

 

What was REALLY horrific was the story “A Year of Bloody Gums.” If you have always dreaded an appointment with the dentist, THIS story will definitely give you nightmares – and cradling your mouth! This story had me cringing many times and the part where the character really tears into her teeth was very hard to read. Yikes!

 

The story “The Aluxes” was also very dark. It was difficult to read because of what happens to the baby. But the bad guys in this story were real terrifying. I love reading culture horror stories and this one did not disappoint. It was so good with a very satisfying ending!

 

This whole collection of stories does not disappoint. The author lures you in with a tale as old as time – the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow – but he keeps you there with spine-tingling, nerve-biting and earth-shattering stories that will have you looking over your shoulder as they did me. He saves the best for last, the title story capping it all off with a haunting tale with the kind of surprise ending you won’t see coming.

 

Wrapped in Plastic is a collection of scary, horrific and creepy stories that will take readers through the darkest reaches of the author’s imagination. These are the kind of stories that explore our fears and bring us face to face with our greatest nightmares. These stories have the power of lasting long after we finish reading them, haunting our own lives with their terrifying twists and hellish torments. Reading this book with the lights on is recommended!

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A Tale of Two Screams: The Screaming Child is a haunting account of one mother's obsession to find her missing child

 

The Screaming Child

By Scott Adlerberg

Ghoulish Books, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-943720-87-3

176 ppg.

Buylink

 

Brace yourself. You are about to be pulled into a mother’s grief. No, her son is not dead – at least, we think he is not dead. But he is missing, and the not knowing of where he is, if he is safe, if he is cared for or even if he is alive eats away at the mother in this book. This story is told from the mother’s point-of-view, so readers get a very raw and very emotional grasp of what she is going through.

 

In the beginning, we are introduced to the child who will eventually go missing. The story begins just as it does for many parents of missing children: One day, their child is there, then they are not. They are gone, almost erased from the world.

 

Coping with her child missing is just too much for the mother, Eleanor. She can’t handle it, as I’m sure many parents with missing children cannot. The pain, uncertainty and anger gets to be so bad between her and her husband that they often argue with each other. There’s the blame, the confusion and the regret.

 

So, she decides to spend some time somewhere else for a while. Somewhere she can be alone and just try to PROCESS everything.

 

Plus, being at home, a place she shared with her child, is too much for her. "On Grahame’s bed, at the kitchen table, in the closet with his sneakers and shoes—everywhere in the house, through every square foot—a void existed where my son had been. My husband could not fill that void." (Page 55)

 

Eleanor tries to throw herself into the writing of a nonfiction book she was working on before her child disappeared. Even then, though, she struggles with it, wondering if she is focusing her energy on the wrong thing. But then, while she is at her “shack,” something happens: She hears a scream. At first, she is not sure if she heard this sound right, but then she hears it again. And again. And she is convinced it is a child screaming. A thought enters her head: ‘That could be MY child who is screaming.’

 

This, I feel, is what ultimately keeps her rooted to the spot. She is extremely against leaving the shack and returning home to civilization. Perhaps she thinks she is close to wherever her child is being held captive. Maybe it’s a sign that he is alive and she must not give up hope. Whatever she feels about it, she refuses to leave her spot, instead staying and hoping to keep hearing that scream again.

 

This takes Eleanor through a world where she’s not sure which is which. On one hand, she hangs on to this mystery of the scream, wondering if it really is her child. And on the other hand, she tries to focus on the tangible things she can work with: Talking with people who knew her son, who know the area better or have more knowledge about the case. She tries to stay grounded even as the lingering mystery of that screaming child keeps trying to pull her back into a world of “what if’s” that she knows will cause her to lose the last grip of her sanity.

 

This is not just a story about a mother dealing with the pain of her child missing; in a way, it’s also a mystery to be solved. So, appropriately, this is a mystery horror novel. Eleanor gets all these different clues and all this misdirection happens, and while I was reading it, I was trying to think ahead. I was right there with her trying to solve that mystery and trying to find out where her son had been snatched away to.

 

One thing I noticed about this story that really stood out for me is the scream itself. Before Eleanor hears the scream of a child, she hears the anguished scream of a mother who has lost a child. This parallelism made me wonder how it seemed to symbolize the meaning of the story itself. The whole message behind the story. There is the mother who lost her child screaming and there is a child, possibly taken from a mother, screaming. It’s a thought I entertained until I got to the real horrors of this story, a horror which I was not prepared for.

 

The Screaming Child is a gripping story of loss and isolationism, as well as a raw look into the stories we try telling ourselves to alleviate the harsh realities of the world. For some, mysteries may never be solved, and we must cope with them in our own ways. Where to go from there are roads we all must eventually travel on our own.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Beware the Demon Chompers Lurking Within the Ocean: Her Teeth, Like Waves tells a chilling tale of an urban legend with some truth to it

 

 

Her Teeth, Like Waves

By Nikki R. Leigh

Spooky House Press, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-959946-12-7 (ebook)

97 ppg.

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Kat and Mitch are twin siblings who grew up diving with their parents through various bodies of water. But there was one body of water their parents had warned them about, where something evil lurked.

 

Kat grew up shrugging the whole thing off, eventually losing her love for the water. Her twin, meanwhile, was captivated by the tales, and when he has the opportunity to lead a group of explorers on a deep dive expedition in those same waters – well, let’s just say that the opportunity to actually find the evil thing strikes, but not in a good way. Worried about her brother after he is reported missing, Kat sets out with her girlfriend, Jules, to find him.

 

Even though Kat and Mitch are twins, they are different in their own ways. Mitch loves exploring the ocean long into adulthood, whereas Kat does not. And while Kat is more cautious in life, Mitch has a strong sense of daring and mischief.

 

When a sea-hardy woman named Pauline offers to give Kat and Jules a ride out onto the ocean to help them find Mitch, they take her up on the offer. Kat is wary of some kind of “demon teeth” lurking in the waters, but Pauline assures her that there is likely a logical explanation to her brother’s disappearance. All the same, Pauline reminds Kat that the sea can be unforgiving. She also points out that, when it comes to the sea, “shit lives in it. And that shit gets hungry.”

 

It does indeed get hungry, and in this case, something evil is waiting in the ocean, literally starving and ready for its next meal.

 

The stories about the demon teeth are nothing but the stuff of urban legends – or are they?

 

Her Teeth, Like Waves is a dark tale of things better left unearthed, especially the things that can be said to be buried in the ocean. Those who ignore the warnings of what lay in the sea do so at their own peril. The next time you are out on the ocean, tread carefully, for you never know what sort of monster hides within those waves.

 

 

Five stars.

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a free contributor copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.