On Aug 19th, 2021, Rebecca Kolodziej reached out to Monster Thoughts on Twitter to review her short story collection.
This request and the gifting of the book does not warrant a positive review.
Step into the mind of madness that is the author Rebecca Kolodziej. A collection of Horror Short Stories crafted from a deviant mind. Blood, Gore, suspense and agony compiled into one collection of Horror shorts that have made their home in anthologies and magazines globally.
Little Spooks: A Collection of Scary Stories on Amazon
About the Author
Rebecca Kolodziej is a Horror Writer Hailing from Wales UK. She has a taste for all things macabre, grotesque and grim. The more gruesome the better. Her Work has been featured in Magazines and Anthologies around the world and has released her first collection of short stories this year.
Because it’s a collection I’ll be reviewing each story separately and then the book together as a whole.
The Burning Fury
The first story starts off with the event: a meteor falling from the sky. We never know why this is happening, we’re only privy to the main character, her daughter, and a man nearby with his son. A simple story with detailed descriptions of flesh peeling from bone, so if that’s not your cup of tea, you may not enjoy it. As for me, I found it a fun story, if quite short. I would have preferred more of an explanation, even if in passing, about what the meteor was and why it was falling, why everyone’s children burned up first and then the adults. 3/5 stars.
Nanna
A dread-inducing ghost story with an open ending, Nanna, is a story about grief, particularly the grief of losing one’s grandparents and how that can have an effect on one’s sanity. This story wasn’t as visceral as the previous, but there is some gore described at the tale end. This is more of a pseudo-ghost-story that’s not really about ghosts but what they’ve left behind and the affect it can have one the people left to see or deal with it.
The Devil’s Playground
A brother and sister venture into an old school their mother used to frequent to find answers regarding her death. A story heavy on gore, the occult, and the corruption of ‘the good (Nuns),’ this was psychological horror with flashbacks to what their mother went through that coincidence with what the siblings uncover in present day. Avoid if you don’t like gore or violence against children.
Lady of the Night
A vampire story that pits a vampire against a serial killer. Simple and short.
Demons’ Opus
A composer–friend of Beethoven–is haunted by a ghost of who possibly killed the famous composer. He must contend with the phantom’s continued presence, before giving into the madness that awaits he and his listeners. The more interesting story of this collection.
The Last Confession
A reporter visits a former prison-executioner-turned-killer for a confession as to why he killed his wife. A more human story than the others, this one is more about sympathy, jealous, rage, and guilt more than anything else.
The Subway
A monster story where neither the monster or main character are described in any great detail. A straight-up horror short with a simple chase.
Overall Review:
This collection of short stories was interesting, some stories thought-provoking, yet the slew of grammatical errors kept me from truly enjoying them as I had to stop and attempt to figure out what was meant to go in place of a missing word or whether or not a period was truly the end of the sentence. This is fine in consideration of this being a self-published work but when it’s stated that these stories were published elsewhere first, I question whether or not there was an editor to pick up on the strange sentence phrasings and repetition of an emotion or event with slightly different wording. The author also has a penchant for telling us something would be coming next rather than simply showing us. I found this took me out of the story more than anything else. For these reasons, I give this collection a 2 out of 5 stars.