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Welcome to the Graveyard: And Other Stories
The stories you have in this book show a wide range. Some are very short, almost vignettes, some longer. Some are supernatural and some are based in our reality. Some have surprises while others lead us through an expected series of events. No matter what the differences among them, though, they all have one thing in the wonderfully fresh narrative voice that Gunnells gives us… I envy people who have not yet read Mark Allan Gunnells, for they have a real treat ahead of them, and this book is the perfect place to start. —From the introduction by John R. Little
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 4, 2015
Firstly, if a book has been endorsed by one of the greatest story-tellers of our time, John R. Little, then you just know that it's going to be worth reading.
I started following Mark Gunnell's work after reading A Laymon Kind of Night, which was obviously heavily influenced by the horror master, Richard Laymon. However this collection shows that Mark actually takes his influences from a variety of places, and not all within the horror genre. I enjoyed every story for different reasons, each one managed to provoke a different feeling to the last. My particular favourites included Top of the World, which was a nod to Stephen King but I actually enjoyed this far more than anything King has ever written. Sunday Bath was another noteworthy story, which reminded me of an episode of The Twilight Zone.
All in all, perhaps not as 'horrific' as Gunnell's readers may be expecting, but a nice little collection of thought-provoking and highly entertaining little tales.
I started following Mark Gunnell's work after reading A Laymon Kind of Night, which was obviously heavily influenced by the horror master, Richard Laymon. However this collection shows that Mark actually takes his influences from a variety of places, and not all within the horror genre. I enjoyed every story for different reasons, each one managed to provoke a different feeling to the last. My particular favourites included Top of the World, which was a nod to Stephen King but I actually enjoyed this far more than anything King has ever written. Sunday Bath was another noteworthy story, which reminded me of an episode of The Twilight Zone.
All in all, perhaps not as 'horrific' as Gunnell's readers may be expecting, but a nice little collection of thought-provoking and highly entertaining little tales.
January 13, 2015
I received a copy of this book direct from the author Mark Alan Gunnells in exchange for an honest review.
The only other thing I have read by Mark was his contribution to “Widowmakers”, “Santa’s Little Spy”. I loved that story. It had a touch of the supernatural to it and was very very creepy.
I was expecting the same from this book and given the title, I was expecting a collection of stories to do with the macabre and to be equally as creepy. Sadly I didn’t get it from this book. It’s quite a collection of stories, flash fiction and vignettes covering a wide range of subjects but I didn’t find too many of them spooky, creepy or pertinent to the graveyard.
I have many pros and cons with this book. Pros would begin with Mark’s writing style. His words flow very easily across the page and they do suck you right into the story and sort of blinker you to see only the page in front of you when you read it. He has also added a little paragraph at the beginning of each story with a brief outline as to how it progressed from a thought in his head to words on a page. Cons for me were again firstly the lack of, in my opinion, “dark” or creepy stories. I also found some of the subjects for a few of the stories a bit disturbing. In the paragraphs before these stories Mark acknowledges some have a disturbing nature and these in particular were not to my liking. I’m also not a big fan of sexual content of any variety in stories no matter how explicit or suggestive it might be. Scary is best for me.
This book gets a low score from me purely because the negatives, for me, outweighed the positives. This certainly won’t stop me from supporting Mark or reading his work again. It just didn’t work for me on this occasion.
2.5 stars
The only other thing I have read by Mark was his contribution to “Widowmakers”, “Santa’s Little Spy”. I loved that story. It had a touch of the supernatural to it and was very very creepy.
I was expecting the same from this book and given the title, I was expecting a collection of stories to do with the macabre and to be equally as creepy. Sadly I didn’t get it from this book. It’s quite a collection of stories, flash fiction and vignettes covering a wide range of subjects but I didn’t find too many of them spooky, creepy or pertinent to the graveyard.
I have many pros and cons with this book. Pros would begin with Mark’s writing style. His words flow very easily across the page and they do suck you right into the story and sort of blinker you to see only the page in front of you when you read it. He has also added a little paragraph at the beginning of each story with a brief outline as to how it progressed from a thought in his head to words on a page. Cons for me were again firstly the lack of, in my opinion, “dark” or creepy stories. I also found some of the subjects for a few of the stories a bit disturbing. In the paragraphs before these stories Mark acknowledges some have a disturbing nature and these in particular were not to my liking. I’m also not a big fan of sexual content of any variety in stories no matter how explicit or suggestive it might be. Scary is best for me.
This book gets a low score from me purely because the negatives, for me, outweighed the positives. This certainly won’t stop me from supporting Mark or reading his work again. It just didn’t work for me on this occasion.
2.5 stars
February 26, 2015
After reading the short story collection Tales from the Midnight Shift by Mark Allan Gunnells, I immediately jumped into this collection. These are my kind of dastardly tales, with devilish twists and a mix of horror subgenres—sometimes gory and violent, other times scary and supernatural, occasionally sexual.
This time around, the stories inject horrific circumstances into familiar situations, including karaoke, threesomes, cockroaches, a radio station giveaway, clowns, amusement park rides, and more. Some of the tales in Welcome to the Graveyard aren’t “horror” stories, but just like his the straight up horror tales here, they always manage to explore the darker side of life—at times very dark and very disturbing—and make you think about how w treat one another in life.
This time around, the stories inject horrific circumstances into familiar situations, including karaoke, threesomes, cockroaches, a radio station giveaway, clowns, amusement park rides, and more. Some of the tales in Welcome to the Graveyard aren’t “horror” stories, but just like his the straight up horror tales here, they always manage to explore the darker side of life—at times very dark and very disturbing—and make you think about how w treat one another in life.
March 3, 2015
This is a wonderful collection from Gunnells. Each story is unique, most with a nice twist.
I found that even the order in which the stories were placed within the book worked well, especially the last tale.
If you enjoy short stories with a darker flavour, you really can't go wrong with Mark's work.
Recommended reading.
I found that even the order in which the stories were placed within the book worked well, especially the last tale.
If you enjoy short stories with a darker flavour, you really can't go wrong with Mark's work.
Recommended reading.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews