Genre: Horror Anthology
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Publication Date: 4th Oct 2016
Pages: 435
REVIEWED BY NEV
A copy of 13: An
Anthology of Horror and Dark Fiction, was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer
by one of the contributors in exchange for an honest review. This is said
review. This book is published by Limitless Press.
Anthologies. Love em or hate em, there have been a tonne
of them out this year. To be honest I have probably already read my fill of
anthologies and collections for the year so 13
is sort of up against it from the outset. It will need to be a good one to keep
me reading.
On the other hand, I have read a few books from Limitless
and they normally produce some really good stuff so I am hoping this is the
same.
I won’t say which contributor sent the copy to me. If you
know me though it shouldn’t be too hard to guess.
Anyway, this is what I thought of 13.
MECHANTE REINE BY SAVANNAH BLEVINS
The
year is 1802. Lake and Abram are on a mission to try and defeat The Mechante
Reine, a witch that has terrorised their village for years. Both Lake and Abram
are keeping secrets from each other. Secrets that could mean the difference
between life and death.
This
started with so much promise but slowly turned into a story that, to be honest,
I don’t think fits in an anthology of horror and dark fiction.
Yes,
there is a witch involved and yes she is evil but the story is more of a love
story about the lives of Lake and Abram.
They
do confront the witch and evil things do happen but I didn’t find much of it to
be horror or dark.
It
gets scored for the general writing but nothing scary about it for me.
General Rating: ★★.5
Horror Rating: 0
ROOM 313 BY THOMAS S FLOWERS
Will Fenning is washed up. His marriage is failed. His
business is lost. Now his car has packed up.
Stopping at a hotel for the night, he has one thing on
his mind. If he has the guts to follow through.
This is a tale of a man with a troubled mind. A guilty
mind. A mind full of demons just screaming to get out. It's a tale of regret.
One man facing up to all of his problems.
You can guess what is going to happen quite early in
the story but there is a twist coming that you will never have seen in a
million years. A twist that turns it from a story of regret to a story of
unbridled fear.
Creepy stuff.
General Rating: ★★★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★★
THE DEVILS DAUGHTER BY MARISSA FARRAR
Erika is a journalist. She is on her way to Peru to meet
with an old photographer colleague to team up and investigate a strange series
of disappearances of members of one particular tribe.
When she arrives, she discovers a little girl being
shunned by the rest of the tribe. They call her the devils daughter. Erika cannot understand why. Maybe she should not
interfere with things she does not understand.
This is great. A tale of adventure in a foreign land
where modern world feelings clash with ancient world cultures and traditions.
There is something very creepy about this one. The
atmosphere is set up perfectly to give you that skin crawling feeling when you
are in an unfamiliar setting.
I love stories like this. Crosses a few genres but is
still scary.
General Rating: ★★★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★★
HAVERLY INSANE ASYLUM BY TAYLOR HENDERSON
Lacey and her boyfriend Jace, along with their friends
Corey, Debra and Quincy, are on a mission in the Haverly Insane Asylum.
They are determined to see as much of the building as
they can to brag to their school friends and make themselves even more popular.
When they get split up, the fear factor starts creeping in and things start to
go incredibly wrong.
Yeah it's a rehashed scenario of teenagers breaking into
an asylum and things start to go wrong and danger is around every corner.
This one though has a couple of very clever twists in it
that make that rehashed story sort of fresh.
You will think you know how this is going to go. You will
be wrong.
General Rating: ★★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★
ANESTHESIA BY D.A. ROACH
Mary works as a bartender in a respectable club while she
gets through college. The tips are good and her boss looks after her well. When
it is time for her to move on her boss doesn’t want her to leave. He doesn’t
want her to have some surgery she has planned either.
He seems to be rather over protective.
This story had so much promise until about half way
through. It was building the tension perfectly and then just sort of fell flat
for me.
Disappointing.
General Rating: ★★★
Horror Rating: ★★
THIS ONE’S BROKEN BY BRADON NAVE
Savannah is a quiet shy girl. She spends her days selling
lemonade to try and make pennies to get her broken bike fixed. Billy watches
her all the time. She has seen trauma after trauma. Billy intends to keep
showing her the trauma.
This, this is just brilliant. I wish I could tell you
more about it but it would just give it away. This is brutal, but sort of
satisfying at the same time due to what’s happening.
As well as being horrific, in an ironic sort of way, it
shows the different side of people with obvious mental imbalances and what they
see as good and what they perceive as evil.
Brilliant stuff. I will definitely be picking up more of
Mr Nave’s work.
General Rating: ★★★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★★
RICOCHET BY CARISSA ANN LYNCH
Regan, and her brother Toby, live with their alcoholic
Dad. Things haven’t been the same since their mother disappeared after the
incident at Adventure Town theme park many years earlier.
The stories still go around town how Regan’s mum was
responsible for the deaths.
When Adventure Town re-opens. Regan gets a job there.
Just like her mom.
A theme park and mysterious deaths. An old plot line,
done many times before. There is something rather haunting about it though.
Especially when it is written like this. This is suspenseful and tense with
flashes of horror the whole way through.
I did think at one point it was going a bit stale until
the twists kicked in and it totally turned on its head again.
Really good stuff.
General Rating: ★★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★
REST IN PIECE? BY ERIN LEE
Lisa and Jeff are in a motel room. The end is in sight
for Jeff. Everyone knows this. The room they are in is supposedly haunted.
Maybe the ghost might have other plans for Lisa and Jeff.
A bit hard to tell you about this one without giving
anything away about the story. It is creepy but to be honest a bit weird as
well. The idea behind the initial storyline is excellent. A man and woman who
are married but always keeping massive secrets from each other and seeing it
through their eyes is very effective.
It just loses itself as the story progresses and becomes
a bit confusing.
General Rating: ★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★
THE VIRUS: PREQUEL TO AM13 OUTBREAK SERIES BY SAMIE SANDS
It starts in a school. It spreads so quickly no one
stands a chance of getting out of its way. Until the town is completely closed
off. And the dead begin to rise.
You know what? Zombie stories have been through the
ringer a bit for a while now and just don’t seem to be getting any fresh ideas.
Until this.
Each chapter in this one is told through the eyes of a
different person running from the threat. It is punchy and fresh and has
definitely put me in the mood to go and pick up the rest of the books in this
series!
This is excellent stuff.
General Rating: ★★★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★★
THE SIX-FOOT LADDER BY LUKE SWANSON
Ramona Price is running away. She has her worldly
possessions in her car with her. She is running from the spectres she sees
everywhere. Forced to stop in the small town of Crawford after her car breaks down,
she soon discovers all is not as it may seem.
Hmmm. Not sure about this one. This is set in the 50’s
and it definitely gives off a feeling of that era. It is creepy and is very
well written but the problem I had with it was the fact I figured it out very
early in the story and it sort of dragged from there on in.
Good but predictable for me.
General Rating: ★★★
Horror Rating: ★★★★
THE FIRST OF THIRTEEN BY SARA SCHOEN
Kelly is days away from graduation when her friend, Steve kidnaps her. She thinks
she can get away in a matter of days. She better think again because she is in
for the long haul.
This is another that had so much promise but just didn’t
get there. The idea was good; in that it did not pan out like a normal
kidnapping would. However, it just dragged on too long without anything to grab
me and keep me seriously interested.
General Rating: ★★.5
Horror Rating: ★★.5
THE CHALLENGE BY SOPHIA VALENTINE
Carla is looking forward to taking her little brother
Cody to the circus. It hasn’t been to their town for years after the rumours of
the people going missing. They should have paid attention to the rumours.
This, I’m sorry to say, did nothing for me. It’s a story
full of so many clichés I wouldn’t know where to start. I mean a circus that
has something to do with people going missing that hasn’t been around for years
and you still go to it? Knowingly?
General Rating: ★
Horror Rating: ★
MIRROR MAN BY JACKIE SONNENBERG
Jean and August are a married couple with a young
daughter, Avery. Their life is pretty normal until Avery starts to talk with
her imaginary friend. He is called CJ and he lives in their mirrors.
This one again had huge potential. The writing style just
didn’t do it for me at all. It was quite stop, start during the narrative and
read more like someone reading a statement than telling a story.
Another disappointment for me because it certainly had
some creeps.
General Rating: ★★.5
Horror Rating: ★★★
So, there are my thoughts on 13: An Anthology of Horror and Dark Fiction. All in all, this one
didn’t float my boat as much as I had hoped. There are some fantastically
strong stories between the covers such as Room
313, The Devils Daughter, The Virus
and, my personal favourite This One’s
Broken. I just think as an anthology, there were more weak stories than
strong ones for me.
I have, however, discovered some more new authors that I
will be checking out with great interest.
Also, if I can give you one piece of good advice, buy the
paperback version of the book. It is beautifully presented inside and would
look beautiful on your shelf.
As usual, the overall rating is done the scientific way
of adding the average scores and dividing by 13.
It comes out like this:
General Rating: ★★★.5
Horror Rating: ★★★
If you would like to help support Confessions of a
Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy 13 or any other books from Limitless. This
not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy
books after reading my reviews.
Thanks.
Book Synopsis:
13 has always been unlucky. But now it’s turned deadly…
Darkness has fallen. Real and unseen, evil is out there.
Waiting. Watching. Biding its time. It might be your neighbor, your best
friend—or something much, much worse. It might be the shadow itself. It will
hunt you down when you least expect it. It will talk to you in the quiet hours
of the morning and follow your footsteps when you’re alone. It’s chosen you…and
it always gets what it wants.
13 dark tales await you. Ready to bring your worst
childhood nightmares to life, to push you to the brink, and make you question
your every decision…
The circus. Your beloved carnival rides. That mom and pop
motel you pass every day on your way to work. They’ll never look innocent
again. Because they’re not. No one and nothing can be trusted. Not even
yourself.
Are you ready to take the ultimate dare? To spin the
devil’s wheel?
Be careful…
13 will get you every time.
The Authors
Savannah Blevins
Savannah Blevins is an author of Fantasy and Contemporary
Romance from Corbin, Kentucky. The
Méchante Reine is a legend told in her Witches
of Sanctuary Series. She was born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains
that inspired her series and still lives there with her husband John and her
two wonderful daughters, Delilah and Gracie.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vannajodee
Website: http://www.savannahblevins.com/
Thomas S. Flowers
Thomas S. Flowers is the author of several character
driven stories of terror, including The
Subdue Series, and Reinheit,
among others. He grew up in the small town of Vinton, Virginia, but in 2001
left home to enlist in the U.S. Army. Following his third tour in Iraq, Thomas
moved to Houston, Texas, where he now lives with his beautiful bride and
amazing daughter. Thomas attended night school, with a focus on creative
writing and history. In 2014, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History
from UHCL. Thomas blogs at machinemean.org, where he reviews movies, books, and
other horror-related topics.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/machinemeannow
Goodreads: http://machinemean.org/
Marissa Farrar
Marissa Farrar is a British author who has penned more
than twenty novels. She predominantly writes paranormal romance and horror but
has branched into contemporary fiction as well. When she’s not writing, she’s
fighting off the sticky fingers of her three young daughters and looking
forward to a glass of wine.
If you want to know more about Marissa, please visit her
blog at www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com
You can also find her at her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/marissa.farrar.author
To stay updated on all new releases and sales, sign up
for her newsletter! http://forms.aweber.com/form/61/19822861.htm
Taylor Henderson
Taylor Henderson is a psychology major at the University
of Mary Washington who was born and raised in Northern Virginia. She has been
an avid reader and writer since she was young and has always found solace in
the worlds and characters other authors have brought to life in their works.
Taylor plans to continue writing and hopes to expand to different genres in the
future.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TayMHenderson
Goodreads:
D.A. Roach
D.A. Roach has been telling stories since she was a young
girl in the suburbs of Chicago. In college she met the man of her dreams, her
happily ever after, and married him two weeks after graduating. They have three
children together and two pet cockatiels named Gimli & Poppy. D.A.
discovered her love of reading and writing after college. Her preferred genres
are YA/NA drama, romance, or paranormal. D.A. has a treasured collection of
fiction that includes works by Rebecca Donovan, Larissa Ione, Jojo Moyes,
Sylvia Day, Nicole Williams, Stephanie Meyer, Richelle Mead, and E.L. James.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DARoachDA
Website: http://daroachbooks.blogspot.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/juozupaitis
Bradon Nave
Bradon Nave was born and raised in rural Oklahoma. He
attended a small country school during junior high and high school and graduated
with only three people in his class. After graduate school, he decided to
devote his spare time to his passion of writing. Bradon currently lives in
Piedmont, Oklahoma, with his wife and two young children.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bradonnavebooks
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BradonNave
Website: http://www.bradonnave.com/
Carissa Ann Lynch
Besides her family, Carissa’s greatest love in life is
books. She’s always loved to read and never considered herself a “writer” until
a few years ago when she couldn't find a book to read and decided to try
writing her own story. With a background in psychology, she’s always been a
little obsessed with the darker areas of the human mind and social problems, so
she tried to channel all of that into her writing. She is the author of The
Flocksdale Files, Grayson’s Ridge, This Is Not About Love, and the upcoming
Horror High series. She resides in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carissaannlynch
Erin Lee
Erin Lee is a freelance writer and therapist living with
her family in southern New Hampshire. She is the author of Crazy Like Me, a
novel published in 2015 by Savant Books and Publications, Wave to Papa, 2015,
Nine Lives, and Alters, 2016 with Limitless Publishing LLC. She holds a master’s
degree in psychology and works with at-risk families and as a court appointed
special children’s advocate. When she’s not busy writing about the human mind,
she’s obsessively taking pictures of her rescue dog and muse, Milo.
Her work can be found at www.authorerinlee.com
Samie Sands
Samie Sands is the author of the AM13 Outbreak
series–Lockdown, Forgotten and Extinct. She’s also had a number of short stories
published in very successful anthologies.
To find out more about her and her
work, check out her website at http://samiesands.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SamieSands
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/SamieSands
Luke Swanson
Luke Swanson was born and raised in Yukon, Oklahoma. He
loves nothing more than a good story. He currently attends Oklahoma Christian
University, studying English writing, history, and international studies. The
Ten, his debut novel, combines elements of mystery, thriller, and comedy.
Sara Schoen
Sara Schoen is a college student studying Biology, who
writes in her free time. She has published numerous titles and hopes to
continue writing throughout her life.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaraNSchoen
S. Valentine
S. Valentine grew up in England. Studying English
language and literature as well as law, she worked in a law firm for many years
before moving to Spain. She does, however, still visit the UK which, in a way,
will always be home. She writes contemporary fiction, including erotica,
thrillers and romance.
For more information, please visit: www.svalentine.wix.com/books
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SophiaVAuthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/SophiaValentine
Jackie Sonnenberg
Jackie Sonnenberg is the author of the YRESRUN SEMYHR
book series, telling the dark side of Nursery Rhymes. The first novel, My Soul
to Keep, is the story of a boarding school cult with paranormal activity…and
deathly secrets. Jackie lives in Orlando as a writer and actor for Zombie Outbreak,
a year-round haunted attraction.
Website: http://www.jackiesonnenberg.com/
The Publisher
Limitless Publishing started in 2012 and has sky rocketed
to one of the most highly talked about publishing companies around. If you have
enjoyed this anthology and would like to see more from our wonderful team of
authors, please visit our website, or would like to submit submissions of your own
and join our team of authors:
Limitless Publishing http://www.limitlesspublishing.net/
Submissions Department submissions@limitlesspublishing.com
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