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Shadow Dreams
This collection of short stories offers a glimpse into the myriad worlds of Elizabeth Massie’s characters. These folks are normal, everyday people, living mostly in small towns, growing up or growing old and handling life’s problems like you and me. Except for one thing — these people are about to be touched by the cold shadow of fear, enveloped by a dark nightmare laced with dread. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award twice, Massie gives us a chilling collection of some of her best stories from the past ten years. In these stories we can see the terror lurking in the familiar, and the darkness waiting in our dreams.
337 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Elizabeth Massie
179 books161 followersElizabeth (Beth) Massie is a 2-time Bram Stoker Award and Scribe Award-winning author of horror/suspense, historical fiction, media tie-ins, nonfiction, and short fiction for adults. She also writes novels for teens and middle grade readers. Her series, Ameri-Scares, is currently in development for television by Warner Horizon (Warner Brothers), LuckyChap, and Assemble Media. Stay tuned! She lives in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband, illustrator Cortney Skinner.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 14, 2025
Nice collection of stories by Massie that range from very good (mostly) to the ok. These really demonstrate her range, from 'folk' inspired tales to modern tales of woe. If you dig Massie, you should dig these.
January 24, 2013
On the darkest of days, Morality and compassion take a holiday.
You’ll find no comfort here, Massie simply hands you a flashlight, so you may bear witness to her fears. Do not struggle; hold no hope to fight. Here lies the true face of humanity, Here…. lies insanity. I Loved It!!!!!!
Massie’s style of writing is poetic, enthralling and profound. Her work screams of the injustice shown to the innocent and the immense damage that occurs within ties that bind. Never choosing to take sides on any of the issues she presents, Massie simply tells the tale and let’s you judge what you would do. The author’s biggest talent is the ability to attack the safety of your perception with the caress of a mother and a bite even Tyson would envy.
In this seventeen short-story collection, Massie manages to create characters that appear normal upon first glance. Exploring the uncomfortable with each peek into the player’s lives, you get a glimpse of destruction, torment and absolute terror. In “Fisherman Joe” and “Sanctuary of The Shrinking Soul”, we find two souls who are trying to cope with the loss of a child and find peace in ways that may never leave you. Quite simply, Massie creates players that are brief but haunting. The pace in the book is swift and fluid. Each story flows into the next with delicacy and adeptness.
The atmosphere is filled with traces of madness and pain with a tinge of depraved indifference. Never has an ambiance been so filled with a sense of bitter abandonment as in these three stories: “Learning to Give”, “What happened when Mosby Paulsen Had Her Painting Reproduced on The Cover of the Phone Book” and “I Am Not My Smell”. The most heartrending for me was “Snow Day”, a tale about a child who fears, unlike most, the approach of snow and what a day at home may demand.
My rating? I’m giving this book a 5!! Elizabeth Massie is morbidly fabulous - The Queen of the Macabre. Buy it New.. Now!!
-As reviewed for Horror-Web.com
You’ll find no comfort here, Massie simply hands you a flashlight, so you may bear witness to her fears. Do not struggle; hold no hope to fight. Here lies the true face of humanity, Here…. lies insanity. I Loved It!!!!!!
Massie’s style of writing is poetic, enthralling and profound. Her work screams of the injustice shown to the innocent and the immense damage that occurs within ties that bind. Never choosing to take sides on any of the issues she presents, Massie simply tells the tale and let’s you judge what you would do. The author’s biggest talent is the ability to attack the safety of your perception with the caress of a mother and a bite even Tyson would envy.
In this seventeen short-story collection, Massie manages to create characters that appear normal upon first glance. Exploring the uncomfortable with each peek into the player’s lives, you get a glimpse of destruction, torment and absolute terror. In “Fisherman Joe” and “Sanctuary of The Shrinking Soul”, we find two souls who are trying to cope with the loss of a child and find peace in ways that may never leave you. Quite simply, Massie creates players that are brief but haunting. The pace in the book is swift and fluid. Each story flows into the next with delicacy and adeptness.
The atmosphere is filled with traces of madness and pain with a tinge of depraved indifference. Never has an ambiance been so filled with a sense of bitter abandonment as in these three stories: “Learning to Give”, “What happened when Mosby Paulsen Had Her Painting Reproduced on The Cover of the Phone Book” and “I Am Not My Smell”. The most heartrending for me was “Snow Day”, a tale about a child who fears, unlike most, the approach of snow and what a day at home may demand.
My rating? I’m giving this book a 5!! Elizabeth Massie is morbidly fabulous - The Queen of the Macabre. Buy it New.. Now!!
-As reviewed for Horror-Web.com
May 21, 2010
This is a visceral collection of stories, all of which are very well-written in a no-holds-barred style with occasional large dollops of somewhat graphic sex and extreme violence. Definitely not for the squeamish, but a fine sampling of some of the best in modern dark fiction.
November 12, 2010
Terrific short story collection.
February 11, 2017
I can't vouch for E. Massie's skill with Southern Gothic Horror... the repetitive themes may well be part and parcel, and therefore not the handicap they hint at in this collection. Child sexual abuse, self mutilation, poverty, neglect, loss of potential, auto accidents, corrupt Christianity, mental and physical disability, torture, abuse of power, and turkey factories are the building blocks of each of these stories.
The language is middle school level, but this seems in keeping with the genre. At first it was a turn off - but the consistency hints more at intention than capability. The font size on my paperback copy was larger than I've ever seen in a book not printed for people with vision impairment - which makes "page turner" into a funny little given... but even that was endearing. Endearing in that way that cheesy predictable horror movies can really hit the spot sometimes, especially when the dialog and story logic are sparse (something you can pretty easily suspend disbelief over when the stories are so bite-sized).
Think Twilight Zone produced almost strictly for an audience in a home for survivors of abuse. It's bound to make you feel like a great parent, and make your problems at work or with your spouse seem like very small potatoes - which strikes me as the probable beauty and draw of the style. Also some demon exorcising. If you don't catch yourself consciously wondering "Why am I reading this?" a few times (during the myriad children in snuff porn plots, for instance) you should probably speak to a professional.
There are little glowing morality bits (see Twilight Zone reference) which elevate it above grotesque for grotesque's sake - but not by enough to keep me from looking forward to the book ending, or to have me wanting to jump into more Elizabeth Massie anytime real soon. This isn't meant as an insult to the author - it seems like a natural extension of the work, something that may indicate it's success. I grew a bit, determined to see my greys more clearly, and to have my "don't judge, you don't know what they are going through at home" moral judgement sharpened.
My next crack at Southern Gothic will likely be Flannery O'Conner.
The language is middle school level, but this seems in keeping with the genre. At first it was a turn off - but the consistency hints more at intention than capability. The font size on my paperback copy was larger than I've ever seen in a book not printed for people with vision impairment - which makes "page turner" into a funny little given... but even that was endearing. Endearing in that way that cheesy predictable horror movies can really hit the spot sometimes, especially when the dialog and story logic are sparse (something you can pretty easily suspend disbelief over when the stories are so bite-sized).
Think Twilight Zone produced almost strictly for an audience in a home for survivors of abuse. It's bound to make you feel like a great parent, and make your problems at work or with your spouse seem like very small potatoes - which strikes me as the probable beauty and draw of the style. Also some demon exorcising. If you don't catch yourself consciously wondering "Why am I reading this?" a few times (during the myriad children in snuff porn plots, for instance) you should probably speak to a professional.
There are little glowing morality bits (see Twilight Zone reference) which elevate it above grotesque for grotesque's sake - but not by enough to keep me from looking forward to the book ending, or to have me wanting to jump into more Elizabeth Massie anytime real soon. This isn't meant as an insult to the author - it seems like a natural extension of the work, something that may indicate it's success. I grew a bit, determined to see my greys more clearly, and to have my "don't judge, you don't know what they are going through at home" moral judgement sharpened.
My next crack at Southern Gothic will likely be Flannery O'Conner.
December 30, 2016
Dark, dark horror … graphic, disturbingly delicious and addictive.
Elizabeth Massie’s collection of short stories Shadow Dreams is a wicked feast of southern gothic horror, visceral and unsettling, and crawling with things that lurk at the end of back country roads, within the rotting hulks of dilapidated trailers, and in the scummy shadows beneath seaside piers. And while few of Massie’s monsters may have supernatural powers, they are no less the grotesque … damaged, delusional and outright deranged in body and mind … made perhaps all the more repulsive because they are so easy to believe in.
In less capable hands, this would be grindhouse fiction – graphic depictions of sex, violence and perversity -- but Massie is such a damn fine writer, mashing character, setting and language into a wonderfully rich weave, that it is simply a literary “more.” Massie’s stories may be morbid, but thematically, it is the terrible ache of loneliness that she conjures to pervade the tales that gives these horror stories their emotional punch.
Runners-up for my favorite tales in the collection have to be Assault and Damaged Goods; the first made me shiver, the other my skin crawl. But the blue ribbon belongs to No Solicitors, Curious A Quarter, a horror classic that will not only churn your stomach with Saw-like intensity but also ‘knock-you-on-your-ass’ with its roller-coaster plot twist. In fact, Massie relies heavily on the final plot twist to slam her short stories home like a knife through a kidney. When this works, it’s magic – like hitting blackjack at the poker table – but (and this is my one criticism), it can be an 'all-or-nothing' thing. Even if the rest of story has been artfully crafted, a predictable twist is a bit of fizzle ... as in Fisherman Joe, for example, where the twist was pretty easy to guess.
But bottom line … I don’t generally like short story collections (… and even less collections by a single author) but Shadow Dreams is a notable exception. Massie’s macabre story-telling and gritty prose had me devouring these little nightmares. And No Solicitors, Curious A Quarter may just rank up there as one my favorite short horror tales of all time.
October 4, 2019
I was liking the stories until she started hurting and killing off animals in a bunch of the stories. Some of the stories were disturbing and gross.
November 7, 2015
I liked some of the stories but if I really wanted to read about children and people being treated horribly I would read the news.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews