Served Cold - A Short Story Collection That Will Crawl Under Your Skin
Until now, I had only ever had the opportunity to read Alan Baxter’s longer work. I reviewed his novel Devouring Dark earlier this year (Check it out HERE). I loved that book and when his new collection Served Cold came out it immediately went to the top of my TBR pile. Going into this book, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect. Devouring Dark had been a gritty crime/horror mashup that worked really well, and I didn’t know if Baxter settled mainly in that comfort zone or if he branched out and gave readers a little bit of everything in his collections or not.
What I found from the moment I opened the cover of Served Cold until I finished the book only a day later was that Baxter more than just a one trick pony. There are times opening a collection when you realize the author knows exactly what they are doing from the very first word of the first story until the last word of the last story. Baxter has created a masterful collection that shows not just his ability to write horror, but to write it well and provoke feelings other than fear on a regular basis.
One final note before I get to some of these tremendous stories, I think that sometimes as a reader you find an author who writes the exact kind of stuff you want to read. I think this is where Baxter falls for me. So far, everything I’ve read that he’s written has been right up my alley. There was no need to skip any stories in this collection because they were all home runs and the exact kind of horror I love to read. He writes the kind of stories you hunt for when you’re at the book store, the kind of stories that make you sit up when you’re finished reading them and say, “holy shit, I need a minute before I start the next one.” I had that reaction a few times reading this collection and it’s that reaction that makes me want to keep reading to find a story that will do that to me again.
There are sixteen stories in Served Cold and they are all terrifying and unique in their own ways. I could write about all of them, but I want you to read them for yourself, trust me the time and money are well worth it. Instead of just listing out the table of contents, I’ll pull out a few that really stuck with me.
The first story is titled Served Cold and is the perfect way to start the collection. It tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy and the problems he has with bullies both at school with kids his age and with his mother’s boyfriend who is physically abusive. Baxter does an incredible job of making the reader hate Terry, the abusive boyfriend and it makes the rest of the story, evil as it is, feel that much better.
Exquisite sees Baxter return to the crime/horror mashup which is when I think he is at his best. Here we see a cat-burglar, and a very skilled one at that, enter and rob a house before seeing something he wishes he’d never seen. The story is uncomfortable, and the writing is, for lack of a better word, exquisite. This, for me is the second-best story in the collection.
The Goodbye Message is far and above the best story in this collection. I don’t want to give too much away, but this one drew emotions out of this very unemotional reader. You’ll need to take a minute after this one.
Crying Demon is the last story I want to point out because I’ve read many similar stories and novels revolving around this topic and this version is by far the most well done of them all. It revolves around a dark web video game and forces the characters to deal with emotions of right and wrong in a way that is both thought-provoking and sinister.
Again, there is not a bad story in this collection. You’d be doing yourself a favor if you picked it up and read it straight through, preferably as soon as possible. It’s a horror collection for the people who say that they love horror. It’s gritty and in your face straight up horror that gets into your mind and crawls under your skin.
Don’t want to miss anything on the site? Sign up for our newsletter HERE
Want more spooky reads? Just search below:
