Frankenstein's Confessional by J. Stephen Howard

It feels like ages since I read a short story anthology and with Halloween coming up this looked like the ideal book. This is a collection of stories about people whose lives have taken a wrong turn for various reasons. Whether it stems from human emotions like jealousy or revenge, or something in the realm of the supernatural, but all of the characters have chilling stories to tell.  These tales are their confessions, the confessions of a parade of "monsters"

The writing is fluid and the stories varied. Many of them leave elements open to the reader's interpretation which, in this case, I appreciated. Often the unknown is far more unnerving than things that are explained. There were definitely some I enjoyed more than others. I make no bones about not being a great fan of vampires and werewolves, and while the vampire story didn't do much for me I like the story about the werewolf with regrets. Some stories shone out above the rest, like the tale of the guitar pick with strange powers about it.

This isn't an out and out gorefest, although there are some blood and guts to be found. Generally the stories provided more psychological thrills which I appreciated. None of them were quite in the league that I found myself getting tense or scared reading them though. There is a real mix, some of the individual stories would probably only get 2* from me while others were a definite 4*. Overall this is a good collection and got me more in the mood for Halloween. Just one hint, if you get this book, would be skip the intro - I found it gave away too many of the stories.

Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 3*