{"id":1828,"date":"2017-09-07T19:33:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T23:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/?p=1828"},"modified":"2017-09-07T19:33:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T23:33:53","slug":"review-ugly-little-things-collected-horrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/review-ugly-little-things-collected-horrors\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors"},"content":{"rendered":"

4.5 stars out of 5<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewer\u2019s Note: I was provided with an Advance Release Copy (ARC) of \u201cUgly Little Things\u201d by Crystal Lake Publishing<\/a> in return for a fair and honest review.<\/p>\n

The Basics:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Todd Keisling is a nice, unassuming, generous, funny, and talented author. He is a delight to interact with and\u2014as forward writer Mercedes M. Yardley says\u2014\u201cHe\u2019s somehow privy to more than we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is younger than I, yet so much wiser.<\/p>\n

This collection is delightfully evil. I enjoyed each story between the covers, and have noted my favorites below. These characters creations of Keisling\u2019s are amazingly real. As real as you, me, your coworkers\u2026<\/p>\n

Or your grandmother.<\/p>\n

You will fear for them, cheer them on\u2026wish them well or ill. And that is all by the author\u2019s grand design. Pick this one up and enjoy the nightmares from the mind of an author who knows how to send old-fashioned chills rocketing up and down your spine.<\/p>\n

The Details:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA Man In Your Garden\u201d is the perfect overture piece for this anthology. Keisling, in one brush stroke, shows us to expect the unexpected and reminds us that we can be our own worst enemy.<\/p>\n

\u201cShow Me Where the Waters Fill Your Grave\u201d both surprised and horrified me. I\u2019ve seen those videos of caskets floating down streets after Katrina. This was one of my favorites from this collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cRadio Free Nowhere\u201d preys on your worst fears if you\u2019ve ever traveled lonely roads without radio reception. Imagine: no cell signal, your ipod is out of juice and Sirius isn\u2019t syncing up. It\u2019s just you, the road, and a haunting tune sung by an unseen \u201cwoman\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Next is \u201cThe Otherland Express,\u201d about a teenager caught between unrequited love and an abusive father. The seventeen-year-old is met on the bus by one of many nobodies in the world and a choice is made. This one will leave your skin crawling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaving Granny From The Devil\u201d is a modern take on the Devil and Daniel Webster. Keisling\u2019s delightful character development in the exploration of an age-old trope makes this one fresh and unexpected. Decisions made for the right reasons sometimes have unintended and horrific consequences.<\/p>\n

Next was my least favorite story\u2014\u201cThe Darkness Between Dead Stars.\u201d Told in a \u201cThis is really what happened\u201d style from the viewpoint of an engineer for a doomed Mars mission, I really didn\u2019t sympathize with either the narrator or the \u201cMVP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman Resources\u201d made me laugh out loud, and I so do enjoy Keisling\u2019s dry sense of humor. In the form of an e-mail resignation letter from a newly converted Human Resource Manager, this Lovecraftian note brings back for an encore performance Charles Boid (Praise His Glory).<\/p>\n

Still chuckling over the last story, the horrific college boy\/lust piece, \u201cHouse of Nettle and Thorn,\u201d is disturbing for many reasons, not the least of which is the depiction of the main character\u2019s roommate: \u201cNick Edgleman\u2019s contribution to the great human identity would be equal to a crusted stain on a pair of boxer shorts with the reek of Axe body spray.\u201d We ALL knew somebody like him\u2026<\/p>\n

My second of three favorites was \u201cWhen Karen Met Her Mountain.\u201d Once again, Keisling\u2019s deep character work creates a believable protagonist, whose own past horrors are reignited and amplified when a cult kidnaps her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Final Reconciliation,\u201d a novella I\u2019d just recently read, completes the Ugly Little Things collection. It is the story of The Yellow Kings (delicious Lovecraft and \u201cTrue Detective\u201d reference), a heavy-metal band of four youngsters from Kentucky who set out on their first tour–told historically through an interview with the metal band\u2019s now aged guitarist, Aiden Cross.<\/p>\n

Keisling\u2019s knowledge of Heavy Metal and his meticulous description of \u201cband life\u201d makes this piece my top pick of my favorite three.<\/p>\n

Beware the groupies and preorder a copy today<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong>!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4.5 stars out of 5 Reviewer\u2019s Note: I was provided with an Advance Release Copy (ARC) of \u201cUgly Little Things\u201d by Crystal Lake Publishing in return for a fair and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-s6-myblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1830,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions\/1830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}