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Review by:
Jess C Scott
on Aug. 26, 2009 :
To be quite honest, I found the two stories to be more entertaining/interesting/stimulating, than most modern-day bestsellers.
Andy draws his inspiration from a sordid, brutal and horrific Scottish history, where there is an abundance of fables, folklore, murders and superstitions. This is evident in the book, SHORT SHOCKS. There is an eerie mood (and setting) which wraps you in and keeps your attention.
A word about the dialogue – I felt that the lines of conversation, could have been more carefully edited. For example:
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“You do what you want.” John shouted. (“You do what you want,”)
“It’s getting colder these nights” (missing full-stop)
“Mr. Bastion,” Said the Lord. (said > Said)
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Perhaps it’s because I am naturally extremely attentive to such details (I also edit some short stories for publications, on the side)...and to just harp on this, and overlook the loveliness of everything else of the two stories, would be my loss/an error on my part.
I also thought the dialogue in the first story could have sounded a bit more “old-worldly”, because the story takes place in the year 1834. I must emphasize “a bit”, in my previous sentence, because dialog that’s lengthy and difficult to decode (how I feel when reading Shakespeare sometimes, even though I truly love The Bard lots!)...can get in the way of the forward motion of a story/book.
‘Minion’ and ‘A Night With Frost’ are two incredibly imaginative, original, and well-crafted stories. Horror is not the usual genre I peruse material in, so I was initially wondering if it’d be too “gory” for this reader’s tastes, but nope, the descriptions added very nicely to the stories [“the eyes weeping bloody streams of fear and panic”, oh and the part about John “(returning) to his room, to lick the bad taste from his conscience” – I thought that was very nicely phrased].
‘Minion’ has a whole gothic and terrors-of-the-soul mojo going on (the journal format/gothic mix of ‘Minion’ was reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula) – ‘A Night With Frost’ was/is very aptly titled – it’s gripping and chilling (how fitting!) and keeps you hooked to the story till the end.
One gripe (more so than my comments on the dialogue): I wish there would have been more stories!!
(reviewed long after purchase)