A Perfect Nightstand Collection - Disturbing Works: Volume Two Review
Right off the bat I have to say that one of my favorite things to read is anthology collections. I think short stories have an appeal in being a great nighttime read to relax against your pillows with. The best short stories are the ones that you can complete reading and they linger in your mind afterward. The stories that you can read before bed, and find they’ve followed you in sleep, are the ones that earn that nightstand placement. That perfect spot, right beside your bed so you have it with you each night. Disturbing Works: Volume Two is a collection of that has earned that place. A great part about Jon Richter’s stories is that you may know you’re setting yourself up for a specific vibe, but you don’t know where that vibe will take you. Each story has its own unique spin within its tale, and you’ll get drawn into them very easily. Right from the start, the stories within hold nothing back, and you’re just thrown into the madness and you’re going to love every minute of it.
One of my favorite stories within the collection is only the second one within its pages, and so I feel comfortable assuring you that you’ll find favorites very easily in here. The story in particular that caught me so quickly was the tale The Truth, which leads us deeper and deeper into questioning if we really want to know everything we can know. We start the story with our protagonist leaving his pregnant wife, Ellen, to head to his missing father’s house under the false pretense of going to work for the day. His wife is unaware that he actually left the job much earlier, and she also has no idea that there is a strange mechanical creature living in the basement. The best part is, nothing I've told you so far is a spoiler. This is all information that becomes fairly basic within the story, because there is so much more going on with it than just that base idea. This story really stuck with me, and it almost felt reminiscent of a ‘monkeys' paw’ tale. However, instead of wishes being dangerous, it’s information and whether or not you really want to know the answers you’re asking for.
Another story in particular I want to highlight from Disturbing Works: Volume Two reaches a much more personal fear of mine. I want to open up on this because I think it illustrates how much talent lies in Richter’s writing. I personally have spent over fifteen years suffering from a lovely combination of insomnia and frequent sleep paralysis which, in addition to giving me lovely little perma-circles on my eyes, has given me a love for sleep related horror. Dream demons, and Freddy Krueger, and nightmares come true are always a favorite of mine. So, when I came across Source inside this collection, it had my interest immediately. This short story gives us the eerie tale of Alex and how he’s handling his wife's increasingly troubling behavior, which started with some eerie and violent episodes of sleepwalking. We dive into a dark tunnel of their struggle to cope, and his attempts to find her legitimate help that don’t lay at the bottom of a bottle. It’s a very strongly written story, that I know held me up far past my bedtime to finish.
Disturbing Works: Volume Two is a collection that will probably make you stay up late on more than one occasion. Your new mantra will quickly become ‘just one more story, just one more...’ and you will not want to close the pages. Or perhaps the story will be so disturbing that you find you can’t close the book, even if part of you wants to. Jon Richter presents us with ten, dark tales, that I think will hit a spectrum of emotions for everyone who reads it. This was one of my favorite short story collections that I’ve gotten to read in a long time, and I highly recommend that you pick up your own copy to keep on the nightstand.
This book was sent to us by Blackthorn Book Tours
You can purchase your own copy HERE
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