Shadow On the Stairs

I usually don’t read books of short stories, but since I’ve been considering putting one together of my own... Shadow On the Stairs is a novel of the shortest shorts I’ve ever read. A while back I read stories like these and remember feeling let down. Is that what happened with this book as well? I guess we shall see, yes?
#element-d4f454b9-d381-4a63-9660-6341a65b4c09 .waddons-blog-image.hideImage { display: none;} Shadow On the Stairs is 326-pages of nightmares and monsters. It’s great that shorts can weave such intricate beginnings- because that’s what these are. They’re short story beginnings; they could also be novels but they’re not finished. The author, Blair Daniels, leaves the rest to you. Sometimes that’s cool but in a book of never ending tales, it’s not. At least not for me.

With that being said, I admit, I found a few highly intriguing. Honestly, more than a few but only because they lent promise to either a gruesome ending or one of escape. One told of a guy who’d overslept on his subway ride home and ended up face to face with a Reaper! Another promised something about to climb through a bedroom window to devour both child and parents. Another where death was most eminent but as previously stated, the ending doesn’t come. 

I believe that’s the only disappointment with Shadow On the Stairs. I don’t want to write the ending myself. I don’t want to have to sit and ponder what came next in a book of almosts. To me, it’s a sort of rip - especially with over three hundred pages. 

I’m not knocking th author because the beginnings of these tales are more than excellent. I simply need more. If you like short short stories, check out the book and see for yourself while I move on to the next read. Cheers!

Shadow On the Stairs
Blair Daniels
Haunted House Publishing LLC
August 2018
326 pages