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In the Walls and Other Stories
Friedrich Nietzsche’s prescient warning about gazing long into the abyss speaks to the very nature of the human condition. Whether we care to admit it or not, it’s instinctual to peer into the darkness from time to time—to question our mortality and the fabric of our world.
Stories are windows. Some open upon scenes of purity and goodness—on love and light. Others…well, others promise much darker environments, and horrific glimpses into the uncanny.
What voracious creature lurks in the waters beneath the Golden Gate Bridge? What dreadful apparitions revisit the Florida jungle, when the golden moon is high and the autumn grows ripe? What rough beast stares out from ancient walls, and deep into the souls of man?
In the Walls and Other Stories offers eleven explorations of uncanny imagination and spine-tingling dread. There are frightful things, dear readers, and unspeakable visions.
Go ahead! Take a look. Take a good, long look into the darkness…
From the author of Cold on the Mountain and The Reset comes In the Walls and Other Stories, a collection of eerie short stories sure to chill the heart and quicken the pulse.
Stories are windows. Some open upon scenes of purity and goodness—on love and light. Others…well, others promise much darker environments, and horrific glimpses into the uncanny.
What voracious creature lurks in the waters beneath the Golden Gate Bridge? What dreadful apparitions revisit the Florida jungle, when the golden moon is high and the autumn grows ripe? What rough beast stares out from ancient walls, and deep into the souls of man?
In the Walls and Other Stories offers eleven explorations of uncanny imagination and spine-tingling dread. There are frightful things, dear readers, and unspeakable visions.
Go ahead! Take a look. Take a good, long look into the darkness…
From the author of Cold on the Mountain and The Reset comes In the Walls and Other Stories, a collection of eerie short stories sure to chill the heart and quicken the pulse.
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
318 pages, Paperback
First published December 2, 2015
2 people are currently reading
338 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Powell
24 books44 followersDaniel teaches a variety of writing classes at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He has published numerous short stories and critical essays in journals, anthologies, and magazines, and his novellas have been recently collected in Maximum Dark Four Tales of Suspense. He recently completed his doctoral degree (emphasis on digital media studies) in the Texts and Technology program at the University of Central Florida.
He enjoys fishing the tidal creeks of Duval County and jogging the haunted shell mounds of the Timucuan Preserve. He shares a small home near Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway with his wife, son, and daughter.
Other works include:
Cold on the Mountain
The Reset
In the Walls and Other Stories
The Silver Coast and Other Stories
These Strange Worlds Fourteen Dark Tales
You can learn more about Daniel’s upcoming writing projects by visiting The Byproduct, his web journal on speculative storytelling.
He enjoys fishing the tidal creeks of Duval County and jogging the haunted shell mounds of the Timucuan Preserve. He shares a small home near Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway with his wife, son, and daughter.
Other works include:
Cold on the Mountain
The Reset
In the Walls and Other Stories
The Silver Coast and Other Stories
These Strange Worlds Fourteen Dark Tales
You can learn more about Daniel’s upcoming writing projects by visiting The Byproduct, his web journal on speculative storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 12, 2016
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Disconcerting tales and paranormal stories abound in this entertaining collection. In the Walls was fantastic! It featured a diverse set of spooky reads that had me finishing this in one setting. Recommended.
Disconcerting tales and paranormal stories abound in this entertaining collection. In the Walls was fantastic! It featured a diverse set of spooky reads that had me finishing this in one setting. Recommended.
December 19, 2015
I won this as a e-book from the author off a site called library thing. I enjoyed reading it. It was a good book of short stories. I hope to read more books by this author.
March 19, 2024
The guy’s a writing teacher, and it shows— and that, unfortunately, isn’t a good thing. Every story feels less written than assembled: here’s the framing conceit, here we’re introducing the problem for the protagonist to solve (or not), here are the details that denote character development. No spoilers, but a story about a third of the way in had me thinking “What the hell? Why don’t [these incredibly dangerous creatures] just do THIS?”, and a skim through to the end of the book had me wondering why an editor wasn’t on hand to spot the difference between “coup” and “coupe” or to ask what kindergarten would be assigning full-blown written reports. Frustrating and pedestrian. At least it was a free read through the Libby app.
November 27, 2015
(Note: I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.)
A collection of eerie/scary stories. Ghosts appear frequently, and sinister buildings; so do ancient, secret, hungry things lying in wait in the world around us (including a Cthulhu story). Nothing too unfamiliar, but these are solidly written stories. I liked the way "Bestsellers, By Proxy" incorporates the Internet into ; and I'm amused by how- in the story notes at the end of the book- Powell says that one story "depicts my personal version of hell: repetitive grocery shopping".
Powell, according to the "about the author" section, has a wife and daughter; several stories focus on men dealing with the loss of their wife, child, or both. I wonder how many of these stories, like the repetitive grocery shopping, are explorations of- even attempts to exorcise- the author's own fears.
The printing quality of this book, or perhaps just the proofreading quality, is poor. Many times, especially in the second half of the book, there are obviously words omitted (occasionally, also, words are printed doubly). In most cases it's easy enough to figure out what's missing; such as when, in "In the Murder House", the protagonist's daughter tells him, "But it's okay, Daddy. Everything is be okay." In a few cases, there's not an obvious way to fill the gap with just one or two words, and you wonder whether an entire line may have been omitted.
My favorite detail: the "A Note on the Font" section at the back of the book. When I saw two full pages about the book's font, I rolled my eyes, as I always do when I see something like that (I'm not a font connoisseur). But then I read it, and discovered that the author had turned it into, essentially, a bonus mini-story. Clever.
A collection of eerie/scary stories. Ghosts appear frequently, and sinister buildings; so do ancient, secret, hungry things lying in wait in the world around us (including a Cthulhu story). Nothing too unfamiliar, but these are solidly written stories. I liked the way "Bestsellers, By Proxy" incorporates the Internet into ; and I'm amused by how- in the story notes at the end of the book- Powell says that one story "depicts my personal version of hell: repetitive grocery shopping".
Powell, according to the "about the author" section, has a wife and daughter; several stories focus on men dealing with the loss of their wife, child, or both. I wonder how many of these stories, like the repetitive grocery shopping, are explorations of- even attempts to exorcise- the author's own fears.
The printing quality of this book, or perhaps just the proofreading quality, is poor. Many times, especially in the second half of the book, there are obviously words omitted (occasionally, also, words are printed doubly). In most cases it's easy enough to figure out what's missing; such as when, in "In the Murder House", the protagonist's daughter tells him, "But it's okay, Daddy. Everything is be okay." In a few cases, there's not an obvious way to fill the gap with just one or two words, and you wonder whether an entire line may have been omitted.
My favorite detail: the "A Note on the Font" section at the back of the book. When I saw two full pages about the book's font, I rolled my eyes, as I always do when I see something like that (I'm not a font connoisseur). But then I read it, and discovered that the author had turned it into, essentially, a bonus mini-story. Clever.
March 21, 2016
I received this book from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review. That being said, this was a fabulous collection of stories. There wasn't a single story in this collection that I didn't like. That being said, I think the best ones in this collection were The Call of the Golden Gate, In the Murder House, and Aisle 12.
The Call of the Golden Gate really spoke to the part of me that absolutely adores Lovecraftian writing, and the kinds of unknowable horrors that might lurk in the waters.
Aisle 12 contains my absolute favorite version of hell to ever be thought up. I mean, this seems like a perfectly reasonable view of it, and I'm honestly surprised I'd never thought of it because of course that's what hell is.
In the Murder House, being the final and longest story in the book, left me wanting more and more of Powell's writing. It questions what becomes of us after death, and gives me one more reason to never touch an ouija board.
One criticism I have for this is that a suspicious number of his characters across a majority of the stories in this collection use the phrase, "Criminy."
But, there's a story about vengeful frogs. Need I say more?
The Call of the Golden Gate really spoke to the part of me that absolutely adores Lovecraftian writing, and the kinds of unknowable horrors that might lurk in the waters.
Aisle 12 contains my absolute favorite version of hell to ever be thought up. I mean, this seems like a perfectly reasonable view of it, and I'm honestly surprised I'd never thought of it because of course that's what hell is.
In the Murder House, being the final and longest story in the book, left me wanting more and more of Powell's writing. It questions what becomes of us after death, and gives me one more reason to never touch an ouija board.
One criticism I have for this is that a suspicious number of his characters across a majority of the stories in this collection use the phrase, "Criminy."
But, there's a story about vengeful frogs. Need I say more?
March 23, 2016
Alright book, but some formatting issues. The stories were more kinda creepy and really scary, but the ones like "Homecoming" and "In the Murder House" were amazing. What drew me out of the stories were a number of formatting issues. Sometimes a word was obviously cut out, almost always at the end of a line near the top of the left-hand page. Not sure what was going on with that. There were also a few times when words were repeated. were repeated. (Like that.)
June 14, 2016
In the Walls and Other Stories by Daniel Powell is an excellent collection of short stories. There was not a poor story among them though my favorite may have been Aisle 12.
If you like chilling tales that can scare you but also make you think, I believe you will find this collection to your liking. The plots are interesting and maybe, just maybe, you will catch glimpses of yourself or someone you know in here.
Reviewed from a copy made available via LibraryThing.
If you like chilling tales that can scare you but also make you think, I believe you will find this collection to your liking. The plots are interesting and maybe, just maybe, you will catch glimpses of yourself or someone you know in here.
Reviewed from a copy made available via LibraryThing.
February 14, 2016
Really good short stories which leave a creepy feeling behind. To me, they weren't really -scary- but rather.... unsettling I'd say...
And I still don't get the "In the walls" story, so if anyone wants to enlighten me about the actual plot at the end of this story... please do so xD
Overall, I -really- enjoyed this book!
And I still don't get the "In the walls" story, so if anyone wants to enlighten me about the actual plot at the end of this story... please do so xD
Overall, I -really- enjoyed this book!
December 28, 2015
A unique collection of stories. The first story poses an interesting look at suicide and what drives us to take our own lives. The story Best Sellers by Proxy prompts one to ask, what exactly makes a sucessful author. In all a highly enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews