Within these pages…
A man afraid of losing his son ends up losing his mind instead. And then finds himself trapped in a waking nightmare of his own making.A frustrated man curses life for passing him by but discovers how it feels to be truly forsaken when the universe chooses to teach him a horrifying lesson.
An outcast must decide between vengeance and forgiveness in a world turned upside down by war and famine.
A woman is put on trial in a world where telling the truth is a crime.
A boy lives in constant terror of someone who is supposed to love and protect him but who has betrayed that trust. A horror story that reminds us of the real-life monsters walking among us every day.
And eight other dark tales…
I quite enjoyed this collection.
I’d never heard of Israel Finn, nor read any of his writing. I can’t find him on social media, other than his website, so I have to assume I saw this book listed somewhere on a bookstagrammer’s page (I’m quite far behind on my TBR, so I can’t even remember when I ordered this).
Anyway, with the exception of a couple of the stories around the middle of the collection that didn’t seem to be quite as good as the other eleven, this is a solid collection. And, don’t get me wrong, even those two aren’t bad, it’s just that the others around them are just that good.
The only grumble—and it’s a very minor grumble at that—that I might have is, the first five stories all start with either “I” or the characters’ names. But, from then on, the next seven ultimately step away from that predictable opening somewhat. Like I said, minor grumble.
I’ve got to point out, in fact, that Finn did something that’s actually quite rare…in at least one of the stories, “The Pipe” he actually had me both very uncomfortable and squirming. He’d hit on one of the very few phobias I have. No, I won’t reveal it, because it’s a bit of a spoiler for the story, but you’ll know when you read it.
And you should read it. And the all the other stories in this collection. I see this collection has received a lot of praise from a lot of very good authors and reviewers, and all are well deserved.
I will not hesitate to get any other Israel Finn works.
