This was the twisted little tale I was expecting and I wasn’t disappointed. Mark Matthews is the editor and a contributor to the addiction horror anthology Garden of Fiends where I first ran into his work and was impressed with the anthology as a whole.

Keagan, a young boy who recently lost his father violently, has some interesting ideas about the power of the Communion wafer. What started off as a simple fascination with the wafer and it’s transmutative properties turns into a rough plan to raise his father from his final rest. If you’re squeamish about dead human flesh, this will make you squirm!

Meanwhile, young Faith has recently come of an age with her first menstrual cycle. She volunteers in the cemetery looking over all the graves of aborted fetuses and such. Seems like a droll task for a young lady, doesn’t it? I think it’s totally logical that she gets stuck on the idea of all these baby fetus angels and that obviously gets carried over to her monthly egg loss. If you’re squeamish about menstruation, then this will make you squirm.

Eventually, Keagan and Faith get together and what they birth upon the world is more than a little terrifying! Cue evil laughter! Throughout this entire tale I kept imagining the smell. Yep. The smell! Keagan as a little bit of rotting human flesh and Faith has her stored period. Ugh! I can’t recall where this story takes place but I hope it was a low humidity place to keep things as dry (and scent-free) as possible.

All told, it’s a fun twisted little story for your commute or lunch break. I will never look at Communion wafers the same again. 5/5 stars.

 

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Rick Gregory gave a very good performance on this narration. He has a great voice for young Keagan and blossoming Faith. All his character voices were distinct and he did well with the various emotions in this story. There were no recording issues. 5/5 stars.

 * The reality of addiction is darker than any fiction. *

"Drinking and drugging provide the height of human experience.

It's the promise of heaven on earth,

but the hell that follows is a constant hunger, a cold emptiness."

 Before I read even one story in this 'reality horror' anthology - Mark Matthews had me crying so hard that I could barely see. He presents an addiction anthology with compassion, casting no aspersions on anyone. I wan't to meet Mark Matthews, and give him the tightest hug ever.

 

"Imagine yourself drowning and being told not to swim to the surface for air. Obsessions should be so mild."

 

 

I'll have the full review posted soon - I was going over my notes for this review, and I'm bawling again. 

 

shortlink: https://goo.gl/HGRbsX

 

This should be good for at least a few squares on your Halloween Bingo cards.

  

Available now in Kindle and paperback editions.

 

I've got a story in this called "The Uncle Taffy's Girl." I hope you like it.

 

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon AU



Paperback Editions also available at: Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million

The perfect sequel to Mark Matthews urban horror tale of drug addiction and extreme dysfunction, “Milk-Blood”.

I didn’t think it could get much bleaker than MB. I was wrong. Lilly is back. So is the heartbreak, tragedy and shear brutality. There are no rainbows and unicorns in this one and there shouldn’t be. It’s not that kind of tale. There is redemption here, but don’t expect to go tiptoeing thru the tulips after reading this one. Under the desk, curled up in a ball, sucking your thumb, is more like it.

It’s easy to get terrified by the urban inner city horror fiction that Mark brings to life with All Smoke Rises while I sit on my couch in a middle class neighborhood with my 2.5 kids and company car in the driveway. It’s easy to ignore the mental illnesses and addictions, the dilapidated living conditions and brutal realities kids born of addiction face every day. It’s easy to be desensitized and look away from the horrific living conditions and circumstance 40 minutes down the road from my little American dream. Mark shatters all that shit. Shatters it. That’s what Milk-Blood and All Smoke Rises do. That’s their job and they do it very well.

A Solid 4.5 Stars and Highly Recommended!

*I was given a review copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review and this was it.

P.S. I failed to mention the excellent quality of the audiobook of this one. Lori Faiella killed it. I sometimes struggle with women narrators and I don’t know why, but Lori was absolutely fantastic.

This being the third book I've read by Mark Matthews, I can only venture to say that his head must be a very, very frightening place. It is obviously a place where people live in caves, want to you eat you, and have incredibly creepy children. It's a place where your greatest fears become reality and everything you love can be taken from you.

 

In movies and real life, joggers are always getting attacked and/or killed on running trails, which is disconcerting enough. I have never wanted to be a runner but if I had ever so much as entertained that idea, Mark just guaranteed that I wouldn't ever be able to do it without looking over my shoulder, constantly, and suspiciously at anyone who looked even remotely homeless. Mark Matthews has a special talent of making even the most mundane of things, absolutely terrifying.

 

If you haven't read Mark's other books, Milk-Blood (my favorite) and All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux, his brilliant sequel, you should rectify that immediately. His latter receiving praise from Kealan Patrick Burke, for which there isn't much better of a seal of approval you can ask for in the horror genre. Urban horror has met its master in Mark Matthews and I can't wait to read what he comes up with next.

 

I received a copy of this book directly from the author without any obligation to review it but I'm putting my two cents in anyway.

 

 

© 2016 by Andi Rawson of Andreya's Asylum