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The Forsaken: Stories of Abandoned Places
We’ve all seen them.
The abandoned gas station, its pumps gone to rust. The once popular diner, now boarded up, its bright colors fading. A luxury yacht, adrift and alluring. An amusement park, once filled with the laughter of children, now a place of eerie silence.
A church, a factory, a drive-in. Once hives of activity, now they stand mute, each one containing its share of memories…and secrets.
In this collection, editors Joe McKinney and Mark Onspaugh select twenty-two guides who take you to those places of barely glimpsed phantoms and uneasy mysteries, including contributions by Deborah LeBlanc, Harvey Jacobs, Gene O'Neill, Piers Anthony, Lisa Morton, and many others!
The abandoned gas station, its pumps gone to rust. The once popular diner, now boarded up, its bright colors fading. A luxury yacht, adrift and alluring. An amusement park, once filled with the laughter of children, now a place of eerie silence.
A church, a factory, a drive-in. Once hives of activity, now they stand mute, each one containing its share of memories…and secrets.
In this collection, editors Joe McKinney and Mark Onspaugh select twenty-two guides who take you to those places of barely glimpsed phantoms and uneasy mysteries, including contributions by Deborah LeBlanc, Harvey Jacobs, Gene O'Neill, Piers Anthony, Lisa Morton, and many others!
- GenresHorror
344 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 29, 2017
About the author
Joe McKinney
111 books672 followersJoe McKinney has been a patrol officer for the San Antonio Police Department, a homicide detective, a disaster mitigation specialist, a patrol commander, and a successful novelist. His books include the four part Dead World series, Quarantined and Dodging Bullets. His short fiction has been collected in The Red Empire and Other Stories and Dating in Dead World and Other Stories. For more information go to http://joemckinney.wordpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 20, 2018
I love short horror stories and these 22 dark tales will make you wonder whether abandoned places are really as empty as they appear.
My favorites were The Storybook Forest by Norman Prentiss in which a small group of friends gather in an abandoned children's theme park for a few beers and a night of terror. Along that same theme was Lullaby Land by Mark Onspaugh. A once crowded theme park long since closed after a tragedy... but children still manage to find their way there as kidnappers Mitch and Del are about to discover. The Theater by Dennis Copelan finds Leonard Brown, taking a bittersweet final walk through of his movie theater before signing the final sale papers.
Drive-In of the Damned by Michael Arruda was another of my favorites. Three paranormal investigators stake out a haunted drive in hoping to gain enough popularity on their YouTube channel to get a tv show. Bodies Without Souls by L.L. Soares finds Michael about to give a beach party while his parents are away, when an empty yacht mysteriously floats into easy reach. What's the worst that could happen if he turns his beach party into a boat party? Emily by JW Schnarr is the story of a missing girl and what happens to two friends who joined her search party in the woods.
High Desert by Lisa Morton finds Kara seeking shelter from the heat when Tadd goes off for help after they have car trouble in the desert while checking out an area where a religious cult mysteriously disappeared. Dream Home by D.L. Snell is not exactly about a haunted house, but a house that will haunt you. The Pressboard Factory by Peter N. Dudar was my absolute favorite. Billy and Ryan grew up together, but were not much alike. Ryan was picked on, belittled and bullied not just at school but abused at home right up until the day he just couldn't take it anymore.
All of the above, for me were the 5 star stories in this collection.
I received a complimentary copy for review.
My favorites were The Storybook Forest by Norman Prentiss in which a small group of friends gather in an abandoned children's theme park for a few beers and a night of terror. Along that same theme was Lullaby Land by Mark Onspaugh. A once crowded theme park long since closed after a tragedy... but children still manage to find their way there as kidnappers Mitch and Del are about to discover. The Theater by Dennis Copelan finds Leonard Brown, taking a bittersweet final walk through of his movie theater before signing the final sale papers.
Drive-In of the Damned by Michael Arruda was another of my favorites. Three paranormal investigators stake out a haunted drive in hoping to gain enough popularity on their YouTube channel to get a tv show. Bodies Without Souls by L.L. Soares finds Michael about to give a beach party while his parents are away, when an empty yacht mysteriously floats into easy reach. What's the worst that could happen if he turns his beach party into a boat party? Emily by JW Schnarr is the story of a missing girl and what happens to two friends who joined her search party in the woods.
High Desert by Lisa Morton finds Kara seeking shelter from the heat when Tadd goes off for help after they have car trouble in the desert while checking out an area where a religious cult mysteriously disappeared. Dream Home by D.L. Snell is not exactly about a haunted house, but a house that will haunt you. The Pressboard Factory by Peter N. Dudar was my absolute favorite. Billy and Ryan grew up together, but were not much alike. Ryan was picked on, belittled and bullied not just at school but abused at home right up until the day he just couldn't take it anymore.
All of the above, for me were the 5 star stories in this collection.
I received a complimentary copy for review.
February 20, 2018
"Are you ready to visit the forsaken, to learn their secrets, to find out why?"
The Forsaken includes 22 stories of practically every place that can be abandoned, and some you didn't think could be. There is an abandoned factory with a bloody, mysterious past ("The Pressboard Factory"); an abandoned Mom & Pop corner store "(Hard Candy, Soft Centers"); an abandoned church complete with graveyard ("Mr. Churchmouse"); and an abandoned cult settlement in the desert ("High Desert"). There is even an abandoned section of The Great Wall of China ("Of Earth and Bone")!
I particularly favored "The Black Room" by Michael M. Hughes about an abandoned Army research facility with a creepy past beyond the classified biochemical warfare tests conducted there in the past. I also really enjoyed "Lullaby Land" by Mark Onspaugh, a tale of a dilapidated amusement park that isn't quite as abandoned as it appears.
I found most of these quite entertaining, although I must admit that I do have a fascination with abandoned places. As it says in the introduction: "Why is it empty? Better still, is it empty?" Hmmm...
The Forsaken includes 22 stories of practically every place that can be abandoned, and some you didn't think could be. There is an abandoned factory with a bloody, mysterious past ("The Pressboard Factory"); an abandoned Mom & Pop corner store "(Hard Candy, Soft Centers"); an abandoned church complete with graveyard ("Mr. Churchmouse"); and an abandoned cult settlement in the desert ("High Desert"). There is even an abandoned section of The Great Wall of China ("Of Earth and Bone")!
I particularly favored "The Black Room" by Michael M. Hughes about an abandoned Army research facility with a creepy past beyond the classified biochemical warfare tests conducted there in the past. I also really enjoyed "Lullaby Land" by Mark Onspaugh, a tale of a dilapidated amusement park that isn't quite as abandoned as it appears.
I found most of these quite entertaining, although I must admit that I do have a fascination with abandoned places. As it says in the introduction: "Why is it empty? Better still, is it empty?" Hmmm...
April 7, 2018
This collection of short stories focuses on abandoned places, like closed down factories or abandoned amusement parks in the middle of nowhere or old diners. Places that have a natural creepy factor since they were once alive and active locations but now are dead or dying, ignored. The ghosts that are hiding behind the flipped table or the noises that you can't figure out while standing in a pitch dark room. The potential seems massive. Unfortunately I don't think the collection lived up to it. By no means were the stories or the collection bad; I just wasn't scared or creeped out or given chills like I hoped that I would be. Most of the stories had good concepts. And only a few had flat characters that made bad decisions solely to move the story forward. It might have been me. Lately I've been craving stories with length and depth and characters that change. All of those are hard to provide in 20-30 pages. It meant instead that I had to find that elusive "something" to connect to the story. Anyway I've listed my favorites below and why I liked them. You should be able to find some that you connect to also.
"The Storybook Forest" by Norman Prentiss - The first of two abandoned amusement park stories. I could easily see the events happening. And the ending of not quite knowing if something or nothing happened was great.
"And Then There Were None" by Deborah LeBlanc - A woman helps senior citizens abandoned in a hospital during the middle of Hurricane Katrina. The twist comes with the introduction of the other group of people.
"The Privy" by Piers Anthony - A hilarious story about a young man who inherits from his uncle an outhouse in the middle of nowhere.
"The Pressboard Factory" by Peter N. Dudar - This story was one of the scarier ones from the perspective of what a person might do to himself. It also had characters that I identified with but also disliked. It was a weird dichotomy to accept while reading a story about someone who can't accept who he is. There were more levels to it than I expected.
"Ghost Town" by Joe McKinney - This story benefits from being the longest in the book. It centers on two detectives who must deal with the results of a third detective being drunk at the wrong time. The story involves guilt, responsibility, and examining yourself. A nice way to end the book.
"The Storybook Forest" by Norman Prentiss - The first of two abandoned amusement park stories. I could easily see the events happening. And the ending of not quite knowing if something or nothing happened was great.
"And Then There Were None" by Deborah LeBlanc - A woman helps senior citizens abandoned in a hospital during the middle of Hurricane Katrina. The twist comes with the introduction of the other group of people.
"The Privy" by Piers Anthony - A hilarious story about a young man who inherits from his uncle an outhouse in the middle of nowhere.
"The Pressboard Factory" by Peter N. Dudar - This story was one of the scarier ones from the perspective of what a person might do to himself. It also had characters that I identified with but also disliked. It was a weird dichotomy to accept while reading a story about someone who can't accept who he is. There were more levels to it than I expected.
"Ghost Town" by Joe McKinney - This story benefits from being the longest in the book. It centers on two detectives who must deal with the results of a third detective being drunk at the wrong time. The story involves guilt, responsibility, and examining yourself. A nice way to end the book.
February 26, 2018
**I was provided with a free review copy of this book**
I really wanted to like this book. The concept was very intriguing: stories of abandoned places. Unfortunately, most of the stories failed to really offer much of a scare. And a couple inexplicably don't seem to even fit the theme. Finally, many of the stories had weird anachronisms or continuity errors that should have been caught in the editing process.
There were a couple of stories that stand out, most notably Lullaby Land by Mark Onspaugh (although this one is guilty of one of the biggest errors cited above) and The Theater by Dennis Copelan.
It's not that the collection is bad. It's just disappointing, because the potential was there.
I really wanted to like this book. The concept was very intriguing: stories of abandoned places. Unfortunately, most of the stories failed to really offer much of a scare. And a couple inexplicably don't seem to even fit the theme. Finally, many of the stories had weird anachronisms or continuity errors that should have been caught in the editing process.
There were a couple of stories that stand out, most notably Lullaby Land by Mark Onspaugh (although this one is guilty of one of the biggest errors cited above) and The Theater by Dennis Copelan.
It's not that the collection is bad. It's just disappointing, because the potential was there.
March 2, 2018
I received an advance copy for submitting an honest review of this book.
The Forsaken: Stories of Abandoned Places offers a range of stories based on the premise of being centered around the titled 'Abandoned Places'. The mix of authors is a good one. A number of stories in the book hit the mark, and others fall a little short. Although I fully enjoyed the range of the varied 'places' the authors have chosen to set their stories in, some did not put a scare into me as I had hoped. This is the reason for the 4 of 5 stars. This is still an enjoyable read, so give it a go.
The Forsaken: Stories of Abandoned Places offers a range of stories based on the premise of being centered around the titled 'Abandoned Places'. The mix of authors is a good one. A number of stories in the book hit the mark, and others fall a little short. Although I fully enjoyed the range of the varied 'places' the authors have chosen to set their stories in, some did not put a scare into me as I had hoped. This is the reason for the 4 of 5 stars. This is still an enjoyable read, so give it a go.
March 4, 2018
Fabulous Collection
From Terran gas stations to haunted drive-ins, this anthology takes you to otherworldly places, some of them right here on Earth.
Standouts include JW Schnarr’s “Emily,” LL Soares’s “Bodies Without Souls,” Peter N. Dudar’s “The Pressboard Factory,” “Ghost Town” by Joe McKinney, and “Love Thy Neighbor” by Nick Cato. But this anthology is full of solid stories, and you’ll be hard pressed to find one that didn’t stand out!
From Terran gas stations to haunted drive-ins, this anthology takes you to otherworldly places, some of them right here on Earth.
Standouts include JW Schnarr’s “Emily,” LL Soares’s “Bodies Without Souls,” Peter N. Dudar’s “The Pressboard Factory,” “Ghost Town” by Joe McKinney, and “Love Thy Neighbor” by Nick Cato. But this anthology is full of solid stories, and you’ll be hard pressed to find one that didn’t stand out!
March 5, 2018
I consider myself a deep thinker and this book has made me consider that there may be more going on than what we know or can see. This is an overall good collection of stories have been well thought out and deserve a good read. For me there were a couple of stories I thought were a little slow getting into but by the end these stories didn't disappoint.
Read
March 28, 2018Was given advance copy of this book for a honest review. Ok read, this book took me longer than normal to read. A handful of the stories were written well, keeping your interest and even surprising you at the end. Most unfortunately were predictable and unimaginative. A few I had to power through thinking, hoping that they would get better spoiler alert they didn’t. There are 4 stories out of the book I found I really enjoyed reading. The rest mediocre. I’m Glad I read it for the 4 stories and it was a free read. I think I would have been disappointed had I purchased it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews