Title: Nightmare Asylum and other Deadly Delights
Author: Sonia Kilvington
Publisher: Close To The Bone
Publication Date: February 28, 2020
Genres: Horror
Shelves: Female-fronted, Female-authored
Horror, more than any other genre, lends itself to short stories so perfectly. There’s no dragging things on and overstaying the welcome. Instead, we’re intrigued, hooked, surprised, and satisfied in short measure, ensuring maximum impact.
Nightmare Asylum and other Deadly Delights collects 18 stories, some as short as just a few pages, that pick at the scabs and scars of all-too-human horror.
Nightmare Asylum and Spectral Warning, the two creepy asylum stories, were far-and-away my favorites in the collection. There’s so much atmosphere to them both, born as much of architecture as of history, with a sense of unrealness . . . doubt . . . and impending doom. Women’s Work was a largely straightforward tale of cruelty and captivity, one that offers its twist early, but I like the connection between the two women, and the fight for survival is fantastic. Skin Deep was less horror and more sorrow, but I quite liked its original take on an old theme.
Deadly Desire was one of the few stories I wished was longer, a deceptive, melancholy tale of love and lust and has more than a few surprises. Every Move you Make and Every Smile You Fake are two stories that really impressed me, involving a stalker, a victim, and private investigator . . . but not necessarily who you think or how you think . . . that turns the entire concept inside-out by the end. Paranoid was one of those stories that are absolutely perfect in tone, content, and length.
Sonia Kilvington offers up plenty of chills and thrills, some very dark twists, and even some darkly humorous surprise endings. Well done!
Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀
My sincere thanks to Blackthorn Book Tours for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Sonia Kilvington is a journalist and fiction writer from the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus. She has published many articles, travel features, short stories and interviews in glossy magazines. She loves to write dark and disturbing short stories in genres such as noir, crime, ghost and Sci-fi. Her online writing credits include Out of the Gutter Online, Spelk fiction, Pulp Metal Magazine & Near to the Knuckle. Her new short story collection, Nightmare Asylum & Other Deadly Delights – published by Close To The Bone, is available on Amazon.
Website: https://soniakilvingtonwriter.com/
Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2MxnzPA
FB writer’s page: https://www.facebook.com/soniafiction/
Twitter: @Soniacyprus
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-kilvington-26b2b721/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soniakilvington/?hl=en
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898959.Sonia_Kilvington
Contact email: soniawriter@hotmail.co.uk
Beauty in Ruins 