M is for Monster [Kindle Edition]

John Prescott's monster-horror anthology `M is for Monster' delivers twenty-six varied tales from a veritable spectrum of up-and-coming authors from across the continents. Sporting impressive attention grabbing cover artwork by Ron Spencer, this lovingly presented book delivers a whole host of horror tales, each one representing a different letter of the alphabet. Indeed, each tale is merely titled with the letter it represents. But for review purposes, the `monster' that each letter represents is given below...

[A is for Asrai - Ash Krafton - 7 Pages]
When callous developer Victor Hill has his eyes set on a piece of land, no matter how environmentally protected it may be - he always gets his way. And now he has his sights on an uninhabited forest in rural Pennsylvania. But one beautiful petite young woman will do whatever it takes to save the forest. The forest that is so much a part of her life...

For the opening story, Ash Krafton's short plays around with a mysterious suspense which is the mainstay for the majority of the tale, until finally the short, sharp, shock of the twist crashes in at the very end. Not the most exciting or unexpected of tales, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

[B is for Banshee - Andrew Taylor - 5 Pages]
When Shaun discovers what he believes to be a banshee washing a particular piece of clothing that is loved by his wife, he knows from the many whisperings of the locals, that this is a very bad omen. If folklore is to be believed, his wife is to die very soon. And Shaun will do his very best to protect her from the deadly wrath of the banshee...

Chilling and atmospheric to the very core, this swift paced slice of haunting banshee action throws in a wealth of tension, fear and nail-biting suspense. Fifty-percent chill-factor; fifty-percent full-blown fight-for-your-life action. This fast paced horror short bursts with excitement from the outset to the always-just-around-the-corner ending. Great stuff indeed!

[C is for Camulus - D. M. Youngquist - 11 Pages]
Plagued by nightmares from when he was wounded fighting as a solider in Fallujah, Stephen Colemain's vivid recollections of the moments that ran up to the time when he almost died still haunt him even today. Memories of a man, clad in armour, striding through the thick of the battle, impervious to bullets, slaughtering every man that comes within reach of his mighty sword. Surely this was just a hallucination. Surely...

The tale hits the ground running, with violent disorientating action assaulting the reader from the very outset. From this literary explosion, Youngquist suddenly slams on the breaks, dramatically slowing down the pace of the tale and setting the somewhat bizarrely epic premise for short story. The outcome is a surreally constricted read for what transformed into a bravely ambitious story of classic Greek mythology proportions.

[D is for Demon - John Prescott - 11 Pages]
Billy Blackwater and his parents have just moved house. However, the first night that Billy spends in his new bedroom is spent tormented by the whispered threats of a beast lurking within the shadowy depths of his closet. The next day Billy's father, Steve, has a visit from one of their new neighbours. The old man warns Billy's father of the tragic past that their new property has suffered. "Keep an eye on ya boy. A good eye, ya hear?"...

Written in a very Stephen King-esque manner, Prescott's contribution to his monster anthology throbs with an underlying dark tension from the somewhat subdued outset. Mixed in with a surprisingly dark tale is a slightly risqué attempt at relighting a classic childhood fear, as well as playing around with the time-tested horror premise of a `new house with a horrific history'. Chilling...not really. Compelling...most definitely. And with a finale like this, you can't help but grin from ear to ear with the sheer love of the monstrous horror magnificence of it all.

[E is for Elephant - Paul Freeman - 4 Pages]
Nzou is a legendary 70+ year old albino elephant residing in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Local shamans believe that Nzou is the embodiment of their ancestor's spirits, who will unleash their revenge on anyone who harms the "white elephant". However, this warning does not deter businessman Randolph Gaviston from employing the services of the criminal exotic animal dealer, Joshua Chirumba, to acquire the mighty tusks from the elephant. Nzou's death will be avenged...

The tale is delivered by way of snippets in dialogue, newspaper articles and inquest hearings; which together paint a very suggestive picture of the events that took place. The unsurprising outcome is pretty much given from the start, with no real surprise twists or any real degree of suspense injected into the storyline. As flat as it may be, the manner in which it is delivered, almost like putting pieces of a puzzle together to form the full picture, keeps the tale interesting and reasonably captivating.

[F is for Fatback No Neck - Stuart Neild - 6 Pages]
Seven-year-old Hank has a very active imagination. As he tries to convince his friend Carter of the cruel existence of the dreaded child-killing Fatback No Neck, his excitement for the story snowballs. His plan is to follow a Fatback No Neck back to its lair. Such a vivid story for such a befitting beast...

As surreal as it is enchanting, Neild's chaotically bizarre story of childhood misadventure and imagination gone wild soon takes on a much sourer note that plunges this comical tale into a suggestive and suddenly much more real horror story. Laced with black comedy, Neild clearly had a grin on his face as he rattled off this magically strange concoction of ideas.

[G is for Goliath - Geoff Nelder - 9 Pages]
Standing tall in front of his army, with Saul's men before him, Goliath watches in amused shock as the small shepherd boy David walks forward with his slingshot. A small pebble is all it takes to bring down the biblical giant. But what of the Goliath and his life before this historical moment? Was David truly thwarting a towering monster that we have come to believe?

Nelder's short is born from an intriguing simplistic idea that blossoms early on, transforming this well known biblical story into an elaborate tapestry of somewhat surreal side-stories, all of which are ultimately bookended with the torturous death of the mighty Goliath. Sadly, the tale becomes a little too bizarre and meandering to be totally engaging.

[H is for Horseman - Zack Black - 11 Pages]
When Dave accidentally oversees a satanic ritual being performed during a midnight jaunt within the ruined Cannon Hill Castle of Scotland, he knows his night has taken a sudden turn for the worse. With the sacrifice of a drugged-up local girl, from out of the darkened shadows of the dungeon bursts forth a horseman from the very pits of hell itself. The Baron of Ardrossan is back...

Creeping with the occultist subject matter and over-the-top nature of the 70's and 80's pulp classics, such as found within much of Guy N Smith's work, Zack Black's contribution to the anthology throws in buckets of blood, gore, satanic rituals and horror-tastic suspense. There's no sitting around waiting for the plot to be painstakingly laid down here. Black launches the reader straight into the thick of the satanic mayhem that forms this action packed short. An explosion of horror delights!

[I is for Incubus - Jonathan Green - 7 Pages]
A young nun lies on the cold stone floor of the Abbey, fulfilling her sexual needs, alone and away from prying eyes. Or at least she think so. Later, the handsome young Bishop Afan comes to her in her solitary cell. The seduction is easy. But the deception is truly ungodly...

Erotic with a seductively blasphemous undertone from the very outset. Green's sexually charged short throbs with a thick and somewhat unsettling tone of darkness, even throughout what is quite a prolonged display of graphic sexual content. What gradually transpires is a powerfully unnerving tale of horror, with many unspoken questions left unanswered, creating an altogether more powerful tale. Certainly one of the most atmospheric and unsettling tales in the anthology - and for that, possibly one of the best additions.

[J is for Jabberwock - J.G. Andrijeski - 10 Pages]
After pissing off their Lieutenant with a prank involving pictures of his wife, the small squadron of men are sent out into the unbearably hot wilderness on a fool's errand. Taking shelter in one of the many caves that offer much needed relief from the sun, the band encounter a lonesome man speaking gibberish at them. When one of the soldiers shoots the rat man, all hell breaks loose...

Oddly erratic and disorientating from the beginning, the tale sets down an underlying tension as it meanders along with no real direction, until the horror hits the reader like a sledgehammer to the face. From that moment onwards, the shorts takes on a neck-braking pace, delivering monster-mayhem in abundance. Compelling, exciting, and truly fitting to the anthology.

[K is for Kul - Bec Zugor - 11 Pages]
Matt Durrant has almost given up on his faith. Almost, but not quite. After his wife died, he felt abandoned by his supposed God. Now, living with his sister, he sits around in a state of perpetual misery as everyone around them sweats out the soaring temperatures of the current heat wave. But people around Larston are turning up dead, apparently from drinking too much water. And with the Pastor James Carter somehow dying of suspected hypothermia in these temperatures, something very worrying is going on... Read more ›

M is for Monster, "an alphabetical anthology of abominations", is the first collection from American author John Prescott. In this book are 26 stories from 26 authors, where each author was given a letter of the alphabet and tasked with writing a short story about a monster based around that letter. Within these pages is a fine collection of authors, some more known than others, such as Simon Kurt Unsworth, Rakie Keig and Jonathan Green, to lesser known authors just starting out on their publishing journey such as Adrian Chamberlin, Ian Woodhead and Zach Black.

I've always found reviewing short story collections difficult, mainly because I don't like to talk to much about the plot in reviews. I don't like revealing too many spoilers. All in all this book is a worthy purchase for anyone who likes short stories. There is a lot to love about this book, the cover art is top notch and the ratio of hit to miss stories is very high. There is always an inherent problem with short story collections in that not every story will appeal to every reader, even in a single author collection. When for the most part a collection is made up of newbies, it becomes that little bit harder to keep the hit rate up. So it's all credit to John Prescott, for selecting 26 stories that all right, do vary in strength, but never dips below a good read. I've read anthologies that have been made up with some big hitting names, which didn't deliver as good a round up as this book.

If I had a complaint then maybe the editing could have been a bit tighter in places, however you could say that about books published by so called big house publishers.

So what were my favourite stories of this collection,

N - Simon Kurt Unsworth

H - Zach Black

P - Ian Woodhead

W - Adrian Chamberlin

V - Serenity J. Banks

X - John Palisano.

I highly recommend buying this book, there is enough monsters within these pages to satisfy even the most jaded horror fan. However you may never want to go out for a curry or stop off at a noodle bar again.

( Note for the UK rerader in no way is John Prescott John "Two Jags" Prescott")

I have just came back to books,after not reading a lot for a lot of years.I saw a piece in local paper about a new local author and his story in M is for Monster.
Zach Blacks story is set in town where i live,so i was at first only interested in reading his story.After reading it,I started on others and must admit enjoyed them.
There were a couple of them that I thought could have ended better,but that is just a personal point of view.
I felt that most reviews are professional ones.This one is just to say that for this reader this was a great read and well worth the time to find more from some of these authors.
I will get PUNK MONK Anthology as Mr BLACK has a story in it along with a few more of the writers that contributed to this one.
My favvorites,hard to say
H-Zach Black
A-Ash Krafton
L-A.J French
D-John Prescott
O-Jonathan Pinnock
Most of them,in fact.This is just a thank you to these authors for re-kindeling my interest in reading.Maybe not really a good review,but the thanks are genuine.