Rating: 3 Stars
Headline: These four short stories are sure to send a chill down your spine, even if the tone of voice is a bit repetitive
Review:
Buckhead Road and Other Horror Shorts is a collection of four short stories by the author Adam B. Nestor. Full of suspense and gore, they sit within the horror genre and not for the faint hearted.
“Skin”, the first and my favourite of the four short stories, plays on the idea of illusion when Corey discovers one day a mysterious lump growing on his abdomen that seemingly no one else can see.
“Jack-‘O’-Lantern” utilises the well-trodden backdrop of Halloween to set the scene. The arrival of a mysterious group of men at Jessica’s fancy-dress party set off a chain reaction of events. As the situation worsens and the bodies pile up, Erika is drawn into violent consequences of which there can be no victors.
“Buckhead Road” follows the story of Hanna and Jeremy Barnes, a newly married couple move out of the city to a house on the ominously named street Buckhead Road, where the locals are just as spooky as the goings on within the neighbourhood itself.
“Stephen’s Cabin” is written in the style of increasingly disturbed diary extracts. Penned by a former occupant, the journal details the diarist’s decent into insanity as an isolated figure in “Uncle Stephen’s” cabin with only a stray dog for company and a dwindling supply of food.
These short stories are good to a point, the stories are separate and the use of description and metaphors were well-placed for bringing the horror and gore to life. Where the writing does falter however is in some of the basics; all four stories are written in first person narrative and while this alone would not be a reason to discredit the writing, across the board there is limited distinction in the tone of voice. It feels like each tale is being recounted by the same protagonist, an image fuelled by the constant (and excessive) use of expletive language. I am no prude, but on more than one occasion it feels like the use of the ‘F’ word is deployed as a lazy get-around to express character emotion in place of better writing. The grammatical and spelling errors are also distracting, it is a disappointment that Nestor failed to employ the services of an experienced proof reader to remove some of the glaring mistakes.
This book is the perfect company to anyone who enjoys horror, just maybe not those who are horrified by grammatical mistakes and swear words.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: Buckhead Road and Other Horror Shorts (AEB Reviews)
Purchase Link: Buckhead Road and Other Horror Shorts (Amazon)
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