After Shocks : An Anthology of So-Cal Horror [Hardcover]

James Van Pelt (Author), Denise Dumars (Author), Christa Faust (Author), Michael Frounfelter (Author), Robert Guffey (Author), Brian Hodge (Author), Nancy Holder (Author), Lisa Morton (Author), Jak Koke (Author), Dana Vander Els (Author), Stephen Woodworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2000

An anthology of horror tales set in the geologically unstable LA area. 12 stories of terror and magic realism by: * Michael Scott Bricker * Denise Dumars * Lisa Morton * Dana Vander Els * Jak Koke * James Van Pelt * Brian Hodge * Nancy Holder * Christa Faust * Stephen Woodworth * Robert Guffey * Michael Frounfelter "Modern horror is almost always informed by place and setting. Lovecraft's New England was more memorable than any of his characters. King's small towns... Campbell's aging, industrial England... Brite's decadent South... Sallee's nightmare visions of Chicago... Lansdale's twisted Texas... The list is endless. As disparate as the above writers are, they all manage to create a recognizable place and time. Places that their real life denizens recognize - places that are both comfortingly familiar and terrifyingly unique. King's New England will never be mistaken for Lovecraft's. This is the magic of modern horror. It creates worlds that we recognize. At the same time these worlds are horribly and terrifyingly different from the one we choose to interact with on a daily basis. Horrible because they speak truths we rarely acknowledge. Terrifying because just maybe they are more real than the artificially constructed realities we choose to live in each day..." "...highly charged, bizarre, a bit fractured, and unsettling in the right kind of way. After Shocks is a solid anthology with a well-executed sense of the locale." - Fiona Webster, Horror Garage

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Does a region of immigrants and transplants have a distinct set of dreams and desires?" asks the editor of this "Anthology of So-Cal Horror." Though he poses the question rhetorically, readers may find his story selections too geographically generic. It's not for lack of the 12 contributors inflecting their tales with California settings and situations. Lisa Morton's "El Cazador" and Stephen Woodworth's "Street Runes" both decode dark truths encrypted in the tags of Los Angeles graffiti artists. In Dana Vander Els's "A Flock of Drunk Witches," a runaway Valley Girl type is menaced by a stalker. But little beneath the surface of these stories is specific to their locale, and like Nancy Holder's "The Heart in Darkness" and Robert Guffey's "The Infant Kiss," both of which feature protagonists haunted by discarnate manifestations of cancer, they could just as effectively be set in another urban or suburban milieu. The few stories that conjure a unique spirit for Southern California are gems, including Christa Faust's "Bodywork," which finds a bizarre intersection between California car culture and the cosmetic makeover industry, and James van Pelt's "Parallel Highways," about a Flying Dutchman of the freeway. Brian Hodge's "Driving the Last Spike" is the book's best, a melancholy dirge for a disillusioned couple who find that the West Coast's sunny exteriors are like a mortician's makeup on "a place where dreams come to die." Though all well written, the stories fit the anthology's theme so loosely as to suggest that their horror is more a universal idiom than a regional dialect.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The 12 stories in this original anthology share a knowledge of the landscape of fear. A young woman encounters a new kind of auto show in Christa Faust's macabre "Bodywork," while Nancy Holder relates a run-in with the world of shadows in "The Heart of Darkness." Set in Southern California and featuring contributions by Brian Hodge, Lisa Morton, James Van Pelt and other dark fantasy authors, this volume will mostly appeal to regional horror fans.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 221 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books; 1st edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970009704
• ISBN-13: 978-0970009708
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,407,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nawww, September 24, 2007

By 

Rachel Dean "Rachel Dean- nightbookworm" (Poway, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Shocks : An Anthology of So-Cal Horror (Hardcover)

NOt Really any "horror" - like I'm used to, anyway. I prefer rough, fast and hard horror. These are more like disturbing stories. A few might be classified as horror, but not what you'd expect.