Lena’s
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(group member since Nov 17, 2014)
Lena’s
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from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.
Showing 261-280 of 7,888

The home as a Venus Fly Trap. Cool idea.
Summons by Ally Wilkes ★★★½☆
I’m not sure if that was an alternate religion, a touch of the ol’mythos, or some straight up Satan. Interesting.
Green Magnetic Tape by Tim McGregor ★★★★☆
A man finds his wife’s dark past on old video tapes in the garage. She withers at his viewing them and makes him swear never to watch them again, she’s a different person now. When he breaks his promise it’s as if she never got the chance to reinvent herself.
Accidents, of a Sort by Kurt Fawyer ★★★★★
A short story with the horror of The Ring and the provocation of Crash (1996), loved it. I knew the ending and it was still spooky.
A Grave Issue by Bev Vincent ★★★½☆
A thread of fans is thrilled when a new book by their favorite author is found. It’s a manuscript the author was happy to have lost. As they each go mad from reading it they spread around the copies until the online group goes permanently dark.
The Novak Roadhouse Massacre by Alan Baxter ★★★½☆
A sort of an Australian big foot story mixed in with an open-and-shut murder investigation.

Doing a little dance. I need to finish rather a lot but each one deserves a little dance.

Amazing. I felt like I was watching this documentary (and I ❤️ a good documentary). A chip implant named CALLI adjusts the fusiform face area of the brain so that all faces look the same on a value scale. In other words, people with CALLI turned on cannot distinguish an ugly face from a beautiful one. The issue of lookism, patriarchy, advertising, individualism, etc - all sides of CALLI’s effects on our society are explored.

A esoteric steampunk story combing magical mechanics, socio-economic policy, and religion. It possible deserved a better rating but it took ages to get through.
The Evolution of Human Science ★★★½☆
A properly short story that was musings on the divide between those with enhanced human intelligence, those without, and how our culture has changed since.
Hell Is the Absence of God ★★★★½
I went back and forth with this story. The beginning felt off, it was weird seeing Christian mythology made into something like a Marvel movie. But the end made it a tight little tale, the story laid down a nice little train of logic in all the unknowable power.

The video would have been interesting but the story is too disjointed for entertainment.
Regular Saint by Donna Lynch ★★☆☆☆
A weird little chorus about religious suicide. Generally unpleasant.
Walls and Floor and Bricks and Stone by Georgia Cook ★★★½☆
The home as a Venus Fly Trap. Cool idea.

Ok, that took awhile to get going but was plenty spooky by the end!
The Veiled Lady by Angela Sylvaine ★★★★☆
“…but I’m stronger now. And he’s lucky. So lucky to still be alive.”
I know it’s wrong, but I laughed at that. Something about a man caught in a crazy of his own making and a smugly satisfied woman.
The Spew of News by Clay McLeod Chapman ★★★½☆
A retired couple falls prey to hours and hours of Fax News. When their son comes to check on them he sees the Eldritch pull of Fax News.

The anthology includes authors ranging from bestselling and established favorites to incandescent new talents including Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Catherynne M. Valente, John Scalzi, Jo Walton, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, and Peter Watts, and the stories selected include winners and nominees of all of the science fiction field's major awards.

A little like The Ring, a spooky tape has a monster finding another victim.

Obsession told through modern epistolary.
Face Down Volume VIII by Josh Roundtree ★★☆☆☆
A boy looking for meaning in his father’s sudden death watches Faces of Death style videos. He never contemplated what his mom did to find meaning. This could have been great but it wasn’t.

I will work on getting a photo of Derp Space Flowers up somewhere Fiona. Thanks for the interest.

I tried to get into this several times and couldn’t.
Enough For Hunger and Enough For Hate by John Langan ★★★★☆
A woman crosses the ice to confront the man who murdered her brother. She’s not ready to her everything he has to say, but she’s ready when it matters.

“Found footage horror exists and thrives… It’s horror without a safety net.”
I am a nervous twitchy little wreck after reading this. I will not be googling any part of this story. I was pulling at my hair faster and faster reading this. Too real, too close.

This took some time to read. It was a short story version of King’s It. An ambitious idea messily written.

Rare is the perfect short story; beginning, middle, end. A whole world, a whole story in but a few pages. Brava Gemma Files! I will have to look if she wrote more stories about the last Mirwani in London.

“I’m not sure what I’m afraid of more.
What I’ll have to tell him.
Or what he’ll have to tell me.”
Oh dear, sometimes dead is better. But Gus is not given a choice his wife. She’s died reaching for her son and there was power to that much love and rage.


That was the best black southern gothic I have ever read. I didn’t understand the ending but it was visually stunning.
That devil, that power, was written in a tempting way. Though I didn’t understand what more she was getting, just how much she enjoyed having it.
The Familiar’s Assistant by Alma Katsu ★★★★☆
Well, that was a new take on vampirism. Not often I say that. This was an addicts’ vampire, this was the monster craved by only the most devastated humans. People so broken they hunt for painful thrilling death. It was uncomfortable read.