Welcome to this stop on the Mental Shrillness Blog Tour! Just a few things about this amazing tour that Todd Russell has organized. There will be two different contests for you!
1. Visit every blog host stop and pick up all the Mental Shrillness Blog Tour factoids and score 75% or better on the quiz at the official website (there will be 6 winners of a Smashwords coupon) and/or
Check out the Mental Shrillness Blog Tour page for all the upcoming book reviews, guest posts and interviews!
Mental Shrillness
by Todd Russell
Publication Date: 3/27/2011
Format: E-book
Genre: Horror
Blurb from Smashwords:
The Mental Shrillness ward will shock you with six twist ending horror tales: a never blinking glass eye begging its host for extraction, a wife's flesh ghastly transformed by her husband's secrets, a misshapen creature unlocking the afterlife's gates, a sweet marriage vow becoming literally too gruesome to describe plus two award winning stories best read when you aren't alone.
My Review:
Russell offers us a glimpse into what he calls the Mental Shrillness ward. He has spun six eerie tales that really give your mind a workout and sends tingles up your spine.
Memorial Day Descent a soldier is promised that all his demons will be vanquished if he descends the basement stairs of a vacant mansion. This all but screams as not the thing to do! But for a soldier struggling to live with memories of war, he will do anything to exorcise them.
Pains in the Glass was my favorite. Russell crafts an intriguing tale of how betrayal is like shards of glass piercing the victim. Only this glass is real and has a tragic consequence to which the abuser will see.
Dead Warmed Over was creepy. Necrophilia in its prime is prominent in this chilling story.
Falling the Bobbitt Way is classic! Sometimes loving someone to death is not a good thing. The title says it all!
Dueling Eyes is well written but I didn’t find it as creepy as the others. If you have a fear of glass eyes then Dueling Eyes will creep you out.
The Illusion is the last story of the collection and the longest. The moral is that sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
All in all, I enjoyed these six short stories. Russell does have a knack for writing in a creative way and spins such tale that your mind reels with hidden meanings. I will be sharing these while we are camping this summer. Perfect for the traditional storytelling over the campfire!
My Rating: 3 STARS
About the Author (from Goodreads)Todd Russell started writing at eight years old and has honed his bizarre style along the likes of Rod Serling, Robert R. McCammon, and Stephen King. Mental Shrillness, a collection of horror twist ending short stories, is his first book.
What are some things that scare Russell? Broken shards of glass, rock music after the 80s, cliches, Sunday night, predictability, stalemate chess matches, who really shot JFK, the iceberg that downed the Titanic, asteroids hitting earth, the insatiable beast known as ET Cetera.
AUTHOR LINKS
PURCHASE
*Book received from author for an honest review
1 comments:
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Mental Shrillness Factoid #9
There is a real city named Medina in Washington State (see factoid #5) but it is not geographically located where Todd Russell describes the fictional town referenced in several stories, including some in the stories in Mental Shrillness. The real city of Medina is located near Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, Washington.
Medina is also a real city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia, the second holiest city in Islam and its translated name means "the radiant city." There is also a Medina, Ohio and a Medina, Minnesota. How many other cities named Medina are there?
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