The Behrg

This is an eclectic collection of dark tales that run the gamut from supernatural horror to fantasy/sci fi.
Some of these stories were better than others, a few I felt were a bit vague when it came to the ending. My favorites all involved children, as I'm sure I have told you more than once kids creep me out anyway! From the horror that befalls those who take in an abandoned baby in "Reborn" to the complete and utter devastation of coming home from the maternity ward in need of a tiny coffin instead of a crib in "Still Born", those were the tales in this collection that most resonated with me. "Amado" also involved children as an attempted rescue goes awry. I just can't say that I enjoyed the rest of the book as much as those three stories.

I received an advance copy for review.… (meer)

This book is a collection of fifteen horror short stories. This collection is an exploration of the author's own mental health, and at the end of the book the author goes into detail explaining each of the stories. My thoughts and ratings come from my experience of the book before I read the notes at the end, because I find that the actual text is more important than later explanations, but the notes at the end do provide interesting context. These stories cover many different topics, but I noticed that horror to do with writers and writing stories showed up several times. Ghosts, loss of control, and battling with suicide are also common topics.

A lot of the ideas explored in this collection are very clever and interesting. Lots of the stories really make you think, and make you look at things in a different way. There are also plenty of twists and turns, many that took me completely by surprise. Sometimes the horror is in the twist of the story but often it is in the gruesome details. There are lots of graphic descriptions, some of which are pretty gross. As a horror fan I really liked that. There are also some seriously creepy stories in this collection. There's something for every different kind of horror fan.

The main issue I had with this collection is that most of the stories just feel too short. Some are so short that I felt like I didn't have time to really get into them, to really care about the characters and the outcomes. I would prefer a lot of the stories if they were longer, with more time to build suspense and develop the ideas. There were also some heavy handed metaphors in a few of the stories that pulled me out of the immersion.

Here are my ratings for each of the stories in this collection:

Driven 2/5

One Star 4/5

Every House Is Haunted 3/5

The Trophy Thief 3/5

Kill Your Darlings 4/5

Patterns 2/5

Reborn 3/5

An Ugly Resurrection 2/5

Scabs 4/5

The Lines 2/5

These Concrete Walls 3/5

Still Born 4/5

Amado 2/5

Happiness Is A Commodity 4/5

Reluctance 3/5

Overall, this collection is a bit of a mixed bag, with some real gems and others that just fall a little flat. My favourite story overall is Happiness Is A Commodity, which was the longest story in the collection. I found the dystopian/speculative approach really intriguing, and I liked the way it was written in blog entries.

As an exploration of mental health, this collection ends on a positive note, whilst still keeping the horror aspect. It's worth a read, if you're a fan of horror short stories. I'm definitely interested in reading some of The Behrg's full length novels, because as I said, my main issue with this was feeling like I wasn't getting quite enough from the very short stories.… (meer)

Well, I would give this book 3.5 to be precise. This is the first time I am reading a work of this author. 'The passengers you cannot see' is a collection of 15 horror stories. While some of them were bone-chilling gems, others were not so captivating and flat. My favorite stories are One Star, Scabs, Still Born and Happiness is a Commodity. Especially, happiness is a commodity which is the longest story in this collection. I mostly tend to not like collection of stories but this book was above average for me. Themes included in this book are dystopia, horror, mental health etc. The book ends in a happy and positive note while also retaining the horror factor of it.… (meer)