Customer Reviews

Shock Totem 2: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted

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Great collection of stories you won't find anywhere else. Unknown, but good authors, with unique stories that take a left turn with no signal.

In July of 2009 a new twice-yearly magazine came out that excited me. It was called Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted. I purchased that little digest-sized publication, dove in, and loved the experience of reading the wicked stories within. In every way this new venture excited me; for too long, dark fiction has been under represented in the literary print market. This was a shining beacon in the perpetual darkness.

Months passed. Then a year. Finally, this past July, the second issue of Shock Totem came out. Sure, that's a long time between issues, but let me tell you, it was well worth the wait.

Issue two of Shock Totem just might be the best magazine I've ever had the opportunity to read. Unlike the first issue, in which I found there to be a couple duds, there were none such here. Every story tipped the scales upward towards fantastic. For my review of the first issue, I simply pointed out my favorite two stories, seeing as I didn't want to expose the ones I didn't like. For this issue, seeing as all were fantastic, I will give my quick-hit thoughts on each.

The Rat Burner by Ricardo Bare - A creepy tale of city slums, hidden doorways, and the price upon one's soul. The tone brought me in and wouldn't let me leave. Loved it.

Sole Survivor by Kurt Newton - A dark and strangely hilarious take on extreme game shows. In a way, it reminded me of a more concise version of Running Man's concept.

Sweepers by Leslianne Wilder - Wow. This one grabbed me. A short piece about the waters of the world rising. I'll never look down from a skyscraper the same way again.

The Rainbow Serpent by Vincent Pendergast - The tale of a man on a bus ride and an ancient creature who's adapted to the times. Definitely my favorite of all the entries. The tone and themes enclosed within are fantastic.

Hide the Sickness by Mercedes M. Yardley - This is a nonfiction essay by one of the magazine's editors, but it is such a brave and heartfelt piece of writing that I feel I must include it here. Ever wonder about juvenile sex offenders? Let's just say that the story of Mrs. Yardley's experience is one you won't soon forget.

Pretty Little Ghouls by Cate Gardner - Another quirky and fun little tale. I won't explain much, because the plot hinges on every word, which takes talent. It's quite good.

Messages from Valerie Polichar by Gra Linnaea and Sarah Dunn - This, for a while, was my least favorite story. The inclusion of technology and technological terms in a work of fiction has a tendency to turn me off because it can date the tale horribly. However, this one, by the end, I grew to appreciate, and it became my second-favorite. It's the story of a woman who obsesses with the dead and Facebook. Sound like an odd plot? It is. And it works.

Return from Dust by Nicholas D. Bronson - A man (soldier?) is blown to bits and is reconstructed. A good exploration what it means to be human and the point when we lose touch with that humanity.

Leave Me the Way I was Found by Christian A. Dumais - This short tale is very Ringu-like and eerie, about a video that causes sickness in the masses. There's a melancholy sense of doom that hangs over it like a cloud of acid.

Upon My Return by David Jack Bell - What would happen if a Christ figure were to appear in the present day? This depressing little story of a misunderstood carnival worker says it all.

That's it for stories. There is also a review section inside, an interview with James Newman, and Howling Through the Keyhole, a Shock Totem staple, where the authors give their thoughts on the creation of their stories. The editors, led by K. Allen Wood, have put together a master collection of the macabre. All in all, it is a rewarding literary experience.

I highly recommend this magazine, and those to come. The only problem I see with it is this: With the quality found within, the bar has been set, and set HIGH. It's a lot to live up to for issue #3, which I will be waiting for with bated breath.

Would you trade all that you are and will be for something? Find out how far people will go to get what they want in Rat-Burner. See how far reality Tv will take us in Sole-Survivor. Or watch the world end in Sweepers. Follow a beautiful and twisted folklore tale in The Rainbow Serpent. Live real life horror in Hide The Sickness. Observe a deadly little girl who just wants to pick a flower in Pretty Little Ghouls. Or follow the ghost in the machine in the odd tale Messages From Valerie Polichar. Travel the darkside on steampunk in Return From Dust. Read a powerful lovecraftian story that will have you searching Youtube against your better judgement in Leave Me The Way I Was Found. Or follow the second coming in Upon My Return. This collection is worth reading.

A lot of times an infant publication will pull out all the stops on issue one, leaving the subsequent issues yearning for something more, but the folks at Shock Totem continue to out do themselves with each issue. In this sophomore publication, what had been established in issue one has been expanded upon and refined. Where else can you find amazing original stories (most of which are published in this tome for the first time), all inclusive interviews and reviews in the genre? Sure, there are blogs and websites and all that jazz, but in an age of instant gratification, there is a sort of special feeling I get with each issue I receive. 'Zines are a dying breed and that's why I'm glad ST is more than just a 'zine: it's a work of collective art that is as varied as it is focused. I know that's a strange pill to swallow but just check out an issue and you'll see what I mean. There's plenty for everyone in ST, from fans of Lovecraft to King, and some more obscure (but no less relevant) scribes such as the legendary John Skipp! Well, maybe obscure to me, but that's what I love most about ST: the knowledge that, with every issue, I will find more new "favorite" authors to check out!

After reading the first issue of Shock Totem,I had to get their second book, and this one was even better. I loved all the stories, interviews and special features inside. I look forward to getting issue 3 soon!!

Shock Totem's second issue was a long time coming. The supposedly biannual magazine didn't end up released until a full year after the original. Reading the issue, however, it's hard to be upset. Changes are immediately apparent. The issue's shorter (with more readable font), there's only one interview, there is a nonfiction article, and, more importantly, the more whimsical nature of many of the first issue's stories is gone, replaced by something darker and more relentless.

Ricardo Bare's The Rat Burner opens the collection, an oppressive and moody piece about life in a bizarre, run down, and infested future city that the reader can learn in the story's notes is a transformed Austin. Like many of the issue's pieces, this is more of a mood piece than one particularly concerned with plot. There's no traditional structure here, no true beginning middle or end. That's not to say that nothing happens, though; the populace's (and the neighborhood's) steady, inevitable disintegration is painful and intoxicating to watch.

The most haunting mood piece, however, is Leslianne Wilder's Sweepers, a flash story set in post-apocalypse New York City. The characters come through strongly, the imagery of the destroyed city is powerfully evocative, and her prose is mesmerizing:

"Some cried and wiped their eyes with hundred dollar ties. Some jumped. They dropped down into the soup of everything that had been, and where they hit they left little black holes where they dragged the bodies down with them. Then the holes closed up." (p. 27, Sweepers)

Some of the mood pieces are not as successful. None of them are outright bad, but a few fail to attain the necessary weight of atmosphere to make their stories more than passively interesting. Christian A. Dumais's Leave Me the Way I was Found shows a mind-destroying, Lovecraftian youtube video that savages the world as it goes viral. The concept is interesting, and the story is certainly amusing, but there's never enough of an idea of just what the video actually is for the story to be particularly affecting. Cate Gardner's Pretty Little Ghouls is also intriguing in its premise, and manages to make the reader desperately want to know more about the world it shows, but I felt I had far too many questions at the end of the brief piece to be satisfied.

Of the fuller stories, most are quite successful. In his introduction to The Exit to San Breta (in Dreamsongs), George R.R. Martin says that he wanted to update the ghost story, taking the traumatized undead from gothic mansions and putting them in the middle of where modern tragedy occurred: the expressways. Taking Martin's 1972 logic and bringing it to the 21st century, Grá Linnaea and Sarah Dunn explore death through facebook in Messages from Valerie Polichar. Over the course of the story, Valerie becomes a sympathetic character, and the way that she becomes obsessed and then is taken over by her obsession is chilling.

Vincent Pendergast's The Rainbow Serpent, too, intertwines invented mythology with the modern world and never loses the flow of either. The imagery is bizarre and fascinating here, and the multitude of threads make for a well done dreamlike feel. Though the story seems to be building to a predictable finale, Pendergast manages to avoid the obvious ending and manages to make all of his story's various strands end satisfyingly.

Kurt Newton's Sole Survivor and Nick Bronson's Return from Dust both suffer from being too familiar. Sole Survivor's immediate action is compelling, but the overall setup is overused and has lost its punch through repetition, leaving the story unable to compete with Newton's 32 Scenes from a Dead Hooker's Mouth from the first issue. Return from Dust is also interesting in its telling, but the tale is ultimately devoid of surprises. The final tale, David Jack Bell's Upon My Return, is a relatively familiar concept but told well. The gifted but strange carnival worker manages to evoke our sympathies quickly, though the conclusion feels rather obvious when it pretty much explicitly states the tale's core.

There are less interviews this time around, but Yardley's chilling nonfiction prose more than makes up for it. Like before, the reviews cover a wide array of horror releases, from books to games and music. They're generally good, though I did note a bizarre phrase in John Boden's review of the Road: "This is a PG book: No Swearing, very little violence, and sex free" (p. 44). Good to know that books don't impact people based on content, just language. After all, cannibalism and slow but inevitable starvation were my favorite middle grade reading material.

The first issue of Shock Totem was very good; almost every story in it was well worth reading. The second issue is even stronger. There are a few weaker tales here, but the strengths of those that do work make this magazine essential reading for horror fans.

Standouts: Sweepers, The Rat Burner, Messages from Valerie Polichar