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Anthology I: The Other Side

by Hamidah Gul (Goodreads Author)

3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 · rating details · 34 ratings · 22 reviews

A collection of stories about things that go bump in the night. Stories about the end of the world, what happens when your wishes come true, and when your emotions become your darkest enemy.

1. The Suicide Case – A story about how three lives are intertwined to balance the scales between good and evil.

2. Come Home with Me – Never invite her to come home with you. She will...more

Paperback, First Edition, 122 pages

Published April 20th 2012 by Ninety Twenty Publishing

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Aug 31, 2012 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: hey-shorty

this is a conceptually creepy collection of short stories, like twisted little twilight zone episodes that never got made. there is something familiar about them, while at the same time completely original. and that's what i liked best about them: their almost classic simplicity. they are short and to the point; they are twisted little scenarios i have not encountered anywhere else, but after reading them, you are pleased at their elegance.

this is my favorite synopsis: come home with me - do no...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Cham Cuartero rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've always been very fond of reading. ALWAYS. And I will probably be an avid reader forever. Fiction, non-fiction, love stories, scary novels, shampoo and conditioner bottle labels... name it! Good books, bad books, I've had my fair share of those over the years. But of course, to say that a book is good or bad is very relative. We all have varying tastes after all. And of course, the mere act of actually finishing a story is already a great accomplishment for a writer. So now, I'd like to shar...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Chris Thompson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Hamidal Gul certainly isn't lacking in imagination. Many of her stories would find a welcome home in something like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. However, her self-published collection of short stories, Anthology 1: The Other Side, is lacking in polish and her stories fail to deliver, great as some of her ideas may be. They play out as cheesy camp, the so bad they're good kind of stories, which is okay as long as the bad is able to transform into the good. In this case they don't. And b...more Hamidal Gul certainly isn't lacking in imagination. Many of her stories would find a welcome home in something like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. However, her self-published collection of short stories, Anthology 1: The Other Side, is lacking in polish and her stories fail to deliver, great as some of her ideas may be. They play out as cheesy camp, the so bad they're good kind of stories, which is okay as long as the bad is able to transform into the good. In this case they don't. And believe me, I was rooting for Gul along the way.

Gul just might find a decent line of work in marketing. Her book has a great cover and is an attractive package overall. To read the premise of each story is enough to fall in love. I mean, who wouldn't want to read a story titled "Come Home with Me," and advertised like this: "Do not invite her to come home with you." Or: "The Best Friend - Ever wondered what your best friend is thinking when she smiles at you." The irony and simplicity of the first is borderline genius, and the ambiguity of the last is sinister: is she smiling at you lustily, or is she smiling at you because she wants to kill you? The problem is the stories just don't measure up to their descriptions. "The Best Friend" has a clever twist end to be sure, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense. And "Come Home with Me" suffers from a lack of development. In fact that's the problem with most of the stories. In these kinds of stories I'm not looking for in-depth character analysis, but something like a powerful atmosphere would have done wonders.

One of the problems is the language. Gul is from Singapore, it turns out, and she could not have gotten this published in the U.S. if not for the help of Lulu.com. That English is her second language is obvious, sometimes painfully so, and there were many parts that were unintentionally funny. For example, Gul writes in one story, "...she was smiling as if it pleasured her." What Gul means is "pleased," but this is exactly the kind of mistake a foreigner would make, out of innocence. There are also tense problems; it's not rare to find that one sentence contains both a present tense and a past tense verb. These kinds of things just serve to detract from the reading experience as a whole.

In all there are ten short stories of varying lengths. Some make very little sense, such as "The Death Star," which is not so much about Star Wars as it is about a young star that decides to destroy the Earth. Others are boring, such as the companion stories "The Other Side" and "Mission of Mercy," stories about the end of humanity first from the perspective of humans and then from the perspective of "peace-loving" aliens who see destroying humans as the only way to save the planet. Gul is a utilitarian - she seems to believe it's okay for the life of one person or one species to end in order to save that of another. This is also seen in her story "The Suicide Case," where a man's suicide blocks traffic and redirects a would-be killer into a deadly earthquake. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is sickening, about a woman who kills her loved ones to prevent her own death. The stories with the most promise, other than her flash fiction piece mentioned in the next paragraph, are "Children of the Mist" and "The Lonely Heart." "The Lonely Heart" has a nice twist and a great idea, but its execution is lacking, both in character development and an appropriate atmosphere. "Children of the Mist" has promise in setting up a scenario where five people could choose either their memories or a promising future, but Gul fails to set up compelling consequences for choosing one over the other, and so the story ends in disappointment.

Her best is her shortest, a flash fiction piece called "Mother and the Birds." It reflects Gul's sinister sense of humor, all punctuated in the last paragraph by a rather brilliant twist. One thing going for Gul is that she isn't trying to be too serious. That's a problem I have with many authors that work in the paranormal. Stephanie Meier is too serious, and Suzanne Collins, though perhaps not paranormal, is even more serious. Gul is not. She tells impossible things, like a story from the point of view of somebody who has just died, without skipping a beat. Some of her dialogue is fun, and so are her setups. It's the execution that's lacking. (less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Fran rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anthology: The Other Side
Hamidah Gul
Life is precious and how we view it depends on our own perspective and how we think others view us. One three voices are heard in this first story titled The Suicide Case in this Anthology called The Other Side beginning with one young man who feels despondent, alone and has decided that his life is worthless. The second faces his feelings about a woman and why he feels he would like to end her life the final about a coma patient. The Walking Dead is how the...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Edwin Stark rated it 3 of 5 stars

I started reading this book with interest, as I love a well-written short stories anthology, especially if it's about horror and scary stuff. However, the moment I set my eyes on the first page, I knew I was in for a challenge. The writer seems bent on making us read stuff that seems way too experimental and that will scare away any casual reader. Not me; I like to use my brain to figure out things in complex albeit short stories... but this one was a bit too much.
The first story was an absolut...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Mallory Anne-Marie by: BookRooster

Shelves: 2013-authors-new-to-me-challenge, 2013-eclectic-reader-challenge, january_2013_reads, 2013_reads

I reviewed a complimentary copy provided by this author.

Review of Anthology 1: The Other Side by Hamidah Gul
4 stars

A fine collection of stories by author Hamidah Gul, there’s a wide variety of sub-genres represented here. The book is listed as Science Fiction/Horror, and I would like to expand that to include Speculative Fiction, because Ms. Gul delves into such concepts as The End of the World, and Life After Life, which of course most of us haven’t yet experienced. She has a vivid and creative...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Erleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

You can also find this review on Books For YA!

This is the first time I read an anthology, so I don't have any expectation whatsoever in this book, which is good because when you have expectation there is a risk of being disappointed. But fortunately, no disappointment occurred because I find this book quite entertaining.

My favorite story in this book is the Children f the Mist. It is about five people who can't remember their past but when they were reunited after 2 years they remembered everyt...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

PDF version free via author for honest review

This was a unique collection of short stories. I think my favorite one was Children of the Mist by far. All of these stories may have been short, but all were very wonderfully written and gave the sense of being complete. I loved how they were written to be short, but still very entertaining and with great characters. I found myself getting in to the story and wanting to read on, not only in the short story I was reading, but also in the book because...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Malak rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-books

This review might surprise most of those who know me, because I usually do not like horror stories but I accepted to read and review this self published work of fiction because I thought it had a similar feeling to Edgar Allan Poe's stories which are awesome even though they are dark and gloomy. So, I said to myself why not read this book.

I was a bit disappointed to be honest. It did not scare me at all. Plus, I felt disgusted at some gory scenes.
There was also two related stories of science-fic...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Kevin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I was rather excited when I received this book in the mail, and was even more intrigued as I skimmed through the blurb, which I must say was rather enticing:-

"A collection of stories about things that go bump in the night".

Beautiful isn't it? The words just seem leap at you.

Sadly, the contents of Anthology 1 failed to tickle my fancy. The central ideas in some (not all) of the stories were praise-worthy and the twists in some (again, not all) were interesting, but these didn't outweigh the fac...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's your standard collection of freaky and frightening tales- some macabre, some hopeful, but each with a unique twist. The stories are very short, making this an ideal book for a quick creepy read. It could use some editing to fix grammatical errors, and some of the stories could definitely be fleshed out into longer and more developed tales. Most of the stories reminded me of ones I'd heard as a kid, but a couple of them truly stuck with me as I read this anthology. The Best Friend, in partic...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Lianne (The Towering Pile) Lavoie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, horror, review-copy, short-stories, read-in-2012, own-the-ebook

Note: I didn't finish this book, so this review covers only the first few stories.

Anthology I is a collection of short stories that are meant to be horror, but on the light and funny side.

The first story (in my copy; it seems to vary, judging by other reviews) was Come Home With Me. This story was really short, just a few pages. There seemed to be a ghost involved, who killed people. That's about all I could gather, because it was one of those short stories that has no explanation, just things h...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Josie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Disclosure: The author of this anthology invited me to review this collection of short fiction. Instead of describing the book as falling into the science fiction or horror genre, I’d prefer to say that it more properly falls into the genre Margaret Atwood calls speculative fiction. As for the stories themselves, many are loosely connected via geography or theme and can be read independently or in the context of the whole collection. The stories invited reflection on the different points of view...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Karielle Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: blog

Anthology I: The Other Side by Hamidah Gul
Page Count: 121
Release Date: 9 August 2012
Publisher: Lulu (self-published)
Source: Complimentary copy provided by author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!)

A collection of stories about things that go bump in the night. Stories about the end of the world, what happens when your wishes come true, and when your emotions become your darkest enemy.

1. "The Suicide Case"—A story about how three lives are intertwined to balance the scales...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Melissa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 12x12-challenge, 2012-challenges, author-review-requests, ebooks, horror, i-own, short-stories

This review was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on November 7, 2012.

I read this on Halloween, not purposefully, just because it happened to be the next book in my review request list. I was hoping that it would be a perfect fit, being that it's an anthology of horror stories. I thought it would be the perfect way to be a little spooked on Halloween.

Sadly, I wasn't at all scared by these stories.

The main issue that I have with these stories is really twofold. One, the stories see...more This review was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on November 7, 2012.

I read this on Halloween, not purposefully, just because it happened to be the next book in my review request list. I was hoping that it would be a perfect fit, being that it's an anthology of horror stories. I thought it would be the perfect way to be a little spooked on Halloween.

Sadly, I wasn't at all scared by these stories.

The main issue that I have with these stories is really twofold. One, the stories seem aimless. They lack clear direction. It felt to me as though the author just tried free writing their way through each story without having a clear beginning, middle and end in mind. There's absolutely nothing wrong with free writing to brainstorm, but trying to use it throughout a story just leads to confusion. There's also not enough details, or story building to keep readers invested. I found myself trying to fill in a lot of details as I read, and asking a lot of questions as to what the real point of the stories is. Sometimes the characters didn't even have names, when having them would have really helped me to feel some sort of connection to them, especially when the rest of the story seems to meander so much. They seem to focus more on the action and not enough on small, binding details, which, no matter the length of the story, are necessary to make it work.

Of the small details that were included, one was extremely overused. The author set several of the stories in the same place, "Murberry Town". On the whole, the name itself is rather plain, and seeing it pop up again and again in these stories pulled me out of them even further.

Secondly, the writing is poor. There are many instances where the tense switches from past to present and back again within the same sentence. There are a lot of sentences where words are missing in very opportune places. These gaps are enough of a hiccup to make the reader stop to try and figure out what is being said. There are also many spots of confusion regarding common sayings. For example, the author wrote: "she was beautiful as always, not a hair in place" when what I think they meant to write, "she was beautiful as always, not a hair out of place"

Some of these stories are more on the grisly/disturbing side. One for example, tells the story from the perspective of a dog, watching his owner sleep. He talks about how he wants to touch her, (in a sexual way,) and then he's thinking of eating her for dinner, like some strange kind of animal vs.human, predator-prey battle or something. But again, there was a strong lack of details that left me feeling slightly grossed out, but otherwise non-plussed.

The author puts brief taglines at the top of the first page of every story, so you can tell by those that the good intentions were present, but the ideas just weren't executed all that well. I think that these stories do have potential, but they need a lot more work and polish before they become truly creepy.

While I didn't enjoy this collection, it's worth noting that 3 of the 10 selections focus on space and aliens, so it's possible that readers who like those types of stories would enjoy this, or at least those particular stories.

*I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review* (less)

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Dec 14, 2012 Robin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: requested-reviews

The author gave me a copy of this book to review.

I think the book had some really great plot lines and ideas going on. Some of the stories were pretty creepy and I really enjoyed them. However, there were a lot of mistakes in the text and areas where either the wrong pronoun was used or the point of view changed suddenly. Whichever it is, it took away from the stories and caused some confusion where I had to go back and reread to see if I could make sense of it. The stories were really interest...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Georgeanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I flew through this anthology.Some of the stories were of the same event, but from different points of view. These were my favorites. There were errors that a decent proofreader would be all over, but not so many as to take away from the whole package. It's listed as sci-fi/horror, but I'd give it a 'thought provoking' and 'mildly disturbing' at best. This author has promise- she just needs a little more polish. I received a free copy of this book for review.

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Mar 30, 2013 Pat rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Hamidah Gul presents some unusual viewpoints in this volume of short stories. Frequently there is a twist at the end. I found her writing style to be difficult, however, to the point of being confusing. Some of the stories read almost as if they had been translated into English by a computer. The only story that will stay with me is the last one, "Children of the Mist". It was quite well done. I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it.

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Nov 04, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

In some ways this collection of stories reminded me of The Twilight Zone. They were creepy, in a good way.

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Jun 06, 2012 Cathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-books

Group of short stories that were very good. Some better than others but overall worth reading.

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Sep 09, 2012 Samantha Penrose rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-ebooks, fiction

3.5 stars
As with any collection, some stories were more to my liking than others. The author has clearly studied up on a variety of conspiracy & doomsday theories.

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Feb 05, 2013 Dawn Uselman rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2013 Ambika marked it as to-read

Mar 03, 2013 Carrie Ardoin marked it as to-read

Shelves: i-own-this

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Nov 07, 2012 anonymous marked it as to-read

Shelves: 100-200, na

Oct 31, 2012 Morrigan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-read

Sep 25, 2012 Craig marked it as giveaways-entered

Sep 17, 2012 Laurie marked it as to-read

Shelves: bits-n-pieces, horror, library, tier-2

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About Hamidah Gul

Writing is therapeutic for me. I only write fiction because it takes me away from my real life. Just writing horror feels too straight so I do it with a little humor. Life's too short to tell a story without a smile.

My favorite moment each day is not when I'm typing a story. It's when its bedtime and I'm holding my 4 year old girl in my arms.

Only recently my daughter started telling me stories. A...more

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