Customer Reviews

Fifty-Two Stitches: Horror Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fantastic variety here. Little Problems by Patricia Russo was my favorite. Absolutely loved it. Cate Gardner's Nobody Smiling and The Homeless Situation by Felicity Dowker were highlights as well. Gardner's work is very surreal; I enjoyed both her entries. As an aspiring writer myself, White Paper by Rachel Green made me cringe (in a good way). Overall, a great collection. Highly recommended, especially for anyone who thinks they don't have time to read!

Fifty-Two Stitches is a short (about 150 pages) anthology of flash fiction. Every story in this anthology is only a page or two. They come at readers fast and furiously, and potentially forgettable. Flash fiction is very hard to write and too often flash stories depend on see-through twists or (groan) puns. The stories here are no exception. There are some gems, and even more good writing, but much of it is strangled by dependency on cliches, character short hand where there could be interesting writing and twists (like 'Oh, I see, they're BOTH serial killers.') The length of the stories, too, lend to the feeling of them blurring together into one halting whole.

Less a collection for public libraries ($10 for 150 pages is a little steep), Fifty-Two Stitches will sate the needs of classic and 'monsters popping out of the shadows' horror fans. I'd be able to recommend it more highly if there was a less expensive digital version available, or if there were more gems in the mix.

Contains: Sex, violence, gore, language

I love short stories, but these are 1-2 pages each. If you like that type of think than okay, but the stories could have been developed much more than what they were. I would have enjoyed this book much more if the stories were a little longer!

I loved this book! Short tales are becoming hard to come by lately, so it was refreshing to delve into such a nice collection as this.