51 Sleepless Nights by Tobias Wade

51 Sleepless Nights Reviews

• 
  P. Lundburg

  The Substance is Solid
  
  3.5 stars, rounded up to 4
  
  Tobias’ Wade’s “51 Sleepless Nights” is a collection of short horror stories that has a few downsides and a lot of upsides. First of all, that cover pulled me right in. That is one fantastic cover! And the concept behind the book looked solid. So when I sat down to read the first two stories, I was looking forward to what promised to be an interesting read. Unfortunately, I was completely frustrated after the first two stories. It wasn’t because of the story ideas—those are very creative and remain so throughout the book. I love the imaginative approach to some ordinary things in life, and how Wade twists them into engaging and intriguing stories. On that point, this collection of stories rivals anything I’ve seen in the genre. No, the reason I was frustrated was due to the endings of the first two stories. Both were rushed, summing up what should have been shown in pages rather than told in a paragraph or two. Which is my biggest criticism in several stories: far too much “telling” where “showing” is what should be driving the stories.
  
  There are quite a few grammatical and typo issues strewn through the book, but I doubt the average reader will see enough to be a distraction. The book could use an editor in formatting and content presentation in a number of places.
  
  One more criticism before going on to the good stuff: narrative voice. I suspect Wade is most comfortable with the first person narrative, but many of the story concepts would work just as well—and a few of them better—if told in third person. It would also provide more variety. Additionally, 3rd person would provide a narrative distance that would add to the stories. The worst problem with the overuse of first person in the collection is that the narrative voice sounds pretty much the same in every story. The entire collection’s voice sounds like one person telling all of them.
  
  Enough of the critical, now on to the praise.
  
  Every story is engaging—yes, even those first two. The premises for the stories are outstanding. There are surprises everywhere, and I was repeatedly smiling and thinking, “nicely done!” This happens because the plotting (except where rushed) is well-paced and there is no unnecessary meandering about; the stories stay on task. Further, the sheer variety of the stories is excellent. Each time I ended one story, I wondered what would happen in the next. This is incredibly important for a collection of short stories, where readers usually get used to a similar thread or type to continue throughout the collection.
  
  My favorites of the stories:
  “Don’t Let Him Steal My Child” – I had no idea where the story was going, and the author kept me there until the end. Not easy to do, and well done!
  “The Organ Harvesting Club” – a twist on a somewhat common theme. This one shows great protagonist change throughout the story.
  “The Solution to Prison Overcrowding” – another reviewer quoted some lines from the beginning of this story that I agree are truly memorable, and a nice commentary on human nature. The theme is humankind slowly and methodically tearing down a person’s own good humanity until none of the hopeful good remains. There’s an element of Flannery O’Connor’s character, The Misfit, here that I really liked.
  “My Family Tradition to Feed the Spirit” – This may be the only place I use this word for this and many reviews: Awesome. Just a really good story concept that is well executed.
  “My Face Will Be the Last Thing You See” – another one that reminds me of a classic, this time by William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily.” After you read it, you’ll know why.
  
  On the whole, a really solid collection of stories. Taking away what I view as the downsides, this book would easily make a 4.5 to 5 star. That’s a comment on the story-telling itself. My 3.5 star rounded up to a 4 is the result of some areas needed attention to the craft of writing and story-telling. The strength of the upsides of this book pull significantly upward.
  
• 
  Stewart Tame

  Fair warning: I won a free Kindle copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I like to think that this hasn’t affected my opinion of it, but you never know ...
  
  I’ve been struggling to get through this one for a while. It's not that it's a difficult read so much as that I just plain don't care about it. At the 30% mark, I'm officially calling it quits, because if Mr. Wade hasn’t brought his “A” game by this point, it's way too late.
  
  There's a curious flatness to these stories. Supernatural things happen. People who are generally good wind up better off by the end, and people who are generally bad don't. None of the characters really seem to have personalities. They're just marionettes at the author’s beck and call. There's no suspense, no tension, no sense of real jeopardy.
  
  Some of the premises are fun. “I Met the Devil On Tinder,” is a lovely title, for instance. If I just cared enough about the main character … “Vicarious,” has some potential to work better at greater length; if the characters were better developed and the ending set up better--as it is, it has a distinctly deus ex machina feel to it. “The Power of A Small City,” is another intriguing premise that would probably be better off as a longer story. There's potential in this book, but as it is … not recommended.
• 
  Jamie (The Kansan Reader)

  I received this copy for an honest review from the author.
  
  Normally I wait till October to read horror/thriller, but I am a mood reader and my mood has been in a horror mood. This came at the perfect time. I am just getting over a horrible book slump that has lasted 3 months. (July has been the worst.) Coming out of this slump I have been in the mood for horror.
  
  While I was reading Dracula, there were times I need a break from Stoker so I would pick this up and read about one or two stories.
  
  "Don't let him steal my child", "Unborn Doll", and "Virtual Terror" are right up my alley. I love stories like these. I did laugh at some of the titles because they weren't what I would expect such as "I met the Devil on Tinder, and I swiped Right".
  
  One thing I didn't like were some of the political marks. I know some people, okay a lot of people, don't like our president but at least be respectful. After reading those remarks it put a bit of a bad taste in my mouth which I tried to get rid of to finish the book.  I don't want to rate the whole book due to a couple remarks.
  
  Some of the stories were weird. I didn't get scared by any of the stories. Some were a bit bland. I did like the psychology that went along with a few stories such as the "Unborn Doll". I love stories like that. A story that I wanted a little more background on would be "Breaking and Entering for Dummies" which left me with more questions than ever.
  
  As of right now this hit a spot with me. What that spot is I don't know but it helped me get out of my book funk along with a few other books. 
• 
  Jessica Jesinghaus

  Check out this review, and many more, on my blog
  https://jessjesinghaus.wordpress.com
  
  51 Sleepless Nights is a veritable buffet of horror / thriller short stories. Packed with fifty-two (I thought for sure there would be 51, but I counted three times... it's fifty two) bite sized stories, it is a quick & entertaining read. Highly entertaining, each story holds a unique theme, primal fears, and interesting twists to keep readers on their toes. Some of my favorites...
  
  Vicarious: When a father, driven to see is young son succeed and 'be the best,' faces the prospect of a tragic loss, can he accept reality or will he allow fantasy to offer a replacement for his dead child? And what, really, is the thing masquerading as his boy?
  
  The Angel Doll: Doll's are creepy. Especially when passed down from generation to generation and portending death.
  
  My Mother the Spider Queen: Spiders. 'Nuff said.
  
  Dreaming Without Sleep: As an insomniac myself, the creepiness of this story lingered long after it was over.
  
  124 Terabyte Virus: A sinister artificial intelligence hitches a ride home with an unsuspecting IT support guy.
  
  Like Father Like Son: The idea that abuse, alcoholism, and other "issues" can be passed from one member of a family to the next in an endless loop is frightening indeed!
  
  I Loved Her in Winter: When you lose someone close to you, is it so wrong to keep a piece of them alive with you always?
  
  Painting the Roses Red: To what lengths will an old man go to pay tribute to his dead wife, and entice her spirit to return?
  
  My Face Will be the Last Thing You See: When a sexy fortune teller in a bar tells you her face will be the last thing you see before you die, what lengths will you go to to ensure a long life?
  
  I read this while immersed in a longer, heavier book and found the punchy stories to be a welcome diversion. Suitably creepy!
• 
  Cheryl

  This is a 3.5 star read.
• 
  Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V.

  Since these are more flash fiction pieces, this is a great collection for quick reads during breaks at work and when trying to go to sleep at night. Each story takes roughly 5-15 minutes to get through, so you don’t feel like you have to commit to a long story when you’re just looking for something quick. However, because they are so quick, you’re not going to get a very involved cast of characters or background on the events that are taking place. You’re just kind of dropped into something for a moment and then it’s over. Another unfortunately aspect of this collection is that there are just so many stories that you eventually start forgetting some of the earlier stories you read. Which really is a shame. I think maybe this could’ve been two different collections since this anthology is actually 350 pages long. It would give the reader an opportunity to get done with the collection and really get to think on those that were favorites. For me, I can’t really remember any of the stories. I know I enjoyed them as I read them but then they all just kind of merged together in a mind.
  
  If you’re looking for an anthology where you only intend to read a couple stories at a time, this would be good one. I wouldn’t recommend doing what I did and just reading them back to back to back without taking longer breaks in between stories.
  
  Received via Goodreads giveaway
  
• 
  Emily Ross

  Disclaimer: I was gifted the book by the author for an honest review.
  
  I really enjoyed this book. While not a great fan of short stories, these managed to have enough differences and enough characterisation to be really memorable. I particularly liked 'My Family Tradition To Feed The Spirit' which is the penultimate story of the book. This covers every type of fear, from spiders to death to politics, and it really made you use your imagination. Some were not altogether great, and some felt a bit repetitive, but the majority were really good. Well worth a read, even if you don't like horror!
• 
  Aly

  Short stories, for me, are great for when I want to read something different but don't want to start a whole new book. I just want a change for my brain. This book was just that for me. I enjoyed reading all the stories. These stories were also about things I enjoy reading about like Demons and mystery, and many more things that go bump in the scary world in my head. I was so excited to read this book and it was worth the wait. I didn't want to put it down. * I received this book from the author and this is my honest review*
• 
  Lör K.

  I was sent a free copy of this by the author in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my review or my view of the book.
  
  

  Why horror? Isn't there enough fear in the world?
  Yes there is, and that's exactly why horror entertainment is so important.

  
  
  When Tobias Wade reached out to me via email and offered me a copy of 51 Sleepless Nights I really wasn't expecting too much. I've had quite a few horror authors who don't have very good content reach out to me, and I was just expecting another wanna be horror author who didn't really understand quite how horror writing is supposed to work. After reading 12% of the book, I shelved it for a little while. It was good, but not good enough to compete with the other horror works I was reading at the time. After coming back to it after so long, and reading a couple of the stories, I found myself wondering why I had shelved this, considering it "not good enough" to the other horror content I was reading at the start.
  
  Before I continue this review, I do want to say there are two short stories in this that some people will be offended by, and these are the reason this isn't a five star review. One story is about a suicide bomber, who follows Allah and Mohammed, and of course this isn't quite going to be the cup of tea everyone is looking for. I definitely think that Wade could have done with a little more research on that subject and on the subject of Islamic State, but I'm also quite floored and impressed he decided to write about it. That takes some guts, even if it's just one short story in an anthology of 51. Definitely more research on that subject needed to be done. The second story is one referring to the classic rape culture line of "she was asking for it". Please note this is a highly triggering story for those that have dealt with sexual abuse, and it did leave me shaking a little bit, but the way Wade writes that short story was very well done, and very creepy. It was a good twist on it, and again, kudos for writing about something so tabooed and making it work into a horror anthology. Unfortunately, I did knock a star off for the suicide bomber story, just because it felt quite weak and in the media standpoint of the religion. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
  
  Other than that, I was completely floored. After leaving this book so long, I decided to sit and read some of it last night, expecting to read maybe 30% and then go to bed, read a few stories a day. The next thing I know, I'm turning the last page, signing up to his mailing list and it's nearly 5 in the morning. I never expected to be so taken aback and thrown by this collection. I sat reading it in the pitch black (thank you, Kindle, for making horror reading so much more atmospheric), and I could feel things watching me. I felt paranoid, I was scared to roll over. Getting out of bed to go to the toilet? There's going to be some horrific creature with a large smile and no face waiting at the end of the hallway. Going downstairs to get a drink? Footsteps following me the whole way down. I had goosebumps, my throat went dry, I was frightened. The topics that the stories follow all vary in large amount, so to have so many different horrors thrown at me in one sitting, really, really intensified the feelings of paranoia and anxiety.
  
  Some of the stories weren't as scary or paranoia-inducing as the rest of the stories, and that was actually really nice to find. After about nine stories that heighten your senses and make you scared to roll over, or even reach down and stroke your dog, it's nice to have a few in a row that aren't horrifying; it's a nice break, but still with feelings there. There's still a sense of oh aliens? This story is quite horrifying, but scary in an interesting way. I don't know if this was intentional, to have some stories more based on a scary logic rather than inducing fear, but it was very well done.
  
  Even now, about 17 hours after finishing the book, there are stories in here playing on my mind. The Witch's Circle. The Eyeballs and Footsteps. The Smiling Creature with No Face. (Please note these are not the actual story titles, I cannot remember them for the life of me, but if you've read it, you likely know the ones I mean). Also notable are The Angel Doll, The Boy on the Bike and The Man with his Parents. Also The Anger Box. All of these short stories mentioned, especially the first three, are stories I would personally love to see some kind of continuation off. For the majority of these 51 stories, Wade could definitely write a short six chapter horror story for them, and I would very gladly buy each and every one.
  
  What makes this book most interesting, is the fact Wade used to be a neuroscience researcher. This has definitely helped in, in my opinion, with these stories. He knows how to strike in a way to induce the paranoia, to increase the feeling of anxiety, and I honestly felt thrilled and scared reading through this. This is definitely going to be a book I flick through again, because he truly is a Master at making us feel everything we watch horror movies for.
  
  This was a wild ride, and one I definitely want to take again. Tobias Wade, thank you for reaching out to me, thank you for giving me a free copy of 51 Sleepless Nights. I cannot wait to see what else you produce, and I will definitely be buying when you do.
• 
  Book Wyvern

  I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
  
  I don’t really know how I feel about this book. I wrote all the titles in my little journal to try and keep track of what the stories were but then I just couldn’t be bothered on those last few books.
  
  There were a few good stories in there, some that made my spine tingle and I wanted to read more of but, these are massively short stories. The ones I really enjoyed were very simple, just one little thing that was the focus and made very creepy.
  
  The bad outweighed the good here though. For every good story there seemed to be three or four bad ones. Some of them followed the same theme and that just got a little old and confusing.
  
  Would I recommend this to others? Hmm…not really. I did say in a few of my little reviews that I would read some of the good ones around a campfire but now, I don’t think so because I’d have to go digging.
  
  Thank you for reading my review.
  
  -Sam
• 
  Lisa Tetting

  Ok, so horror isn't really my thing. I am a scaredy cat to the core. I secretly like the thrill of being scared, but the after effects are what gets me. My mind can't help itself. It always contours dreams of the things that scare me causing the fear to linger.
  
  So when I was asked to review this book, you can understand my trepidation. I took my time reading this book because I didn't want to be overwhelmed by fear. I didn't have to worry. The book was full of odd stories that made my mind think, but the fear factor wasn't bad for me. The stories felt more like mysteries and my brain lives a good mystery.
  
  There were a few "scary" stories, but mostly they made me think. I enjoyed the book, much to my surprise.
• 
  Linda

  I received this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Personally, I stray away from horror books because I'd rather see the supernatural things created on a big screen than read about how it brutally murdered people in the room. But I decided to give this book a shot, 'cause what the heck. And after a certain point, I was forcing myself to read it, which I gave up on.
  
  I really never found anything scary being portrayed in the short stories. It mind-fucks you, yeah, but that's it. I didn't feel the tingling fear I generally feel in my nerves after watching a horror movie or reading something horrific. My mood throughout this book was just monotone, and just, plain bored...
  
  Definitely not my style of book, had higher expectations. I'm clearly disappointed.
• 
  Janet Pflum

  Disappointing
  
  I began reading the stories a few days ago. Most of them were weird and different. Just as I was beginning to get into the book, negative and uncalled for remarks were made (in several stories) about OUR POTUS!!! Was this necessary? I think not! Politics should stay within the realms of political books! I did not finish the book. The only plus is the awesome cover.
• 
  Grady

  ‘I’m going to tell you a secret that I don’t tell anyone. I’m a US veteran of the war in Afghanistan’
  
  Los Angeles author Tobias Wade is a former neuroscience researcher who discovered that despite the scientific exploration of the brain and its behavior that he could learn more about what it means to be human from reading stories than from textbooks. Hence, he became a writer. Now he is a full time novelist, publisher and horror blogger. He is with Haunted House Publishing: ‘We're passionate about publishing horror stories for adults, scary books for teens, and all sorts of dark fiction.’
  
  Much can be gained from reading his Forward (aka Foreword): ‘Why horror? Isn’t there already enough fear in the world? Yes there is, and that’s exactly why horror entertainment is so important. Some people will try focus on “positive emotions” such as love and joy while repressing their fear, anger, jealousy, and other “negative” emotions. I think this is an extremely dangerous thing to do, because pretending they don’t exist doesn’t make the other emotions go away. It only inhibits our ability to understand and control them – and when we aren’t controlling them, they’re controlling us. Without control, we are easy victims for any politician to use our fears to manipulate our vote. We are helpless to the holy man who uses our fear of the afterlife to control our values. We are even inept to confess to the girl we love, or follow our dreams, or anything else where fear stands as a boundary between us and our goal. There is no such thing as a “positive” or “negative” emotion. Everything we feel contributes to making us human, and all emotions have an equal capacity to improve or destroy our lives and the lives of those around us. How many times has love been our justification for obsession and greed? Hasn’t the pursuit of joy caused some of us to waste our lives with selfish hedonism? Even empathy for your neighbor has been used as grounds to start wars or ostracize entire races and cultures that seem different from us. So do not judge fear as evil just because it can be used for evil means. It is silly to blame a knife for a murder that its wielder committed. By appreciating the beauty of fear – fear as an art-form – by accepting it is part of the human experience instead of trying to run from it, we’re able to better equip ourselves to handle the fear in our daily lives. That’s why I’ve decided to write horror. My goal is to dig down to all the nameless terrors rooted in your subconscious and rock you to the bottom of your psychology. I’m going to let all the monsters out from under your bed until you finally get a good look at them and realize that fear can’t hold you back anymore. That it can even be fun.’
  
  And with that send off Tobias launches us into a collection of fifty one horror stories guaranteed to keep you up at night – or at least leave a light on while you attempt to escape the fear of closing your eyes after reading these stories.
  
  A little ‘for instance’ in 'Killer Selfie' – ‘Okay there’s something weird going on. I don’t want to tell my friends or family – they’d probably just make fun of me for being scared. I have to post this somewhere though, because if something does happen to me, then I want there to be someone who knows. It started with these ‘selfies’ appearing on my phone. “Haha, right, so you accidentally clicked the camera button when you weren’t looking.” That’s what I thought at first too, until I found a photo of me sleeping, taken from across the room. I live alone in a one bedroom apartment. I charge my phone overnight on the night table beside my bed. There’s no reason the phone should have been across the room from me in the first place. I deleted the photo as soon as I found it. I just felt weird having it on my phone. The next night, there was another one – this time it was taken by someone standing right over my bed…etc.’
  
  As Tobias tells us in his promo, ‘This diverse collection of 51 short horror stories includes daemons, monsters, psychopaths, undead, mad experiments, and paranormal.’ And there you have it – masterfully written horror stories (but keep the light on….).
  
• 
  Saad Chaaban

  No Spoilers; don't worry.
  
  I translated this book to Arabic (awaiting publishing). Thus, my reading was actually multiple reading(s) under each phrase and sentence in order to deliver the most accurate Arabic translation.
  
  That said, I appreciate the first-person narrative and the background Tobias provides about each protagonist (or antagonist, if you will) because it is nice to have it all in your head. One thing that I really liked was that every scene was imaginable to me, partly because of the physical details he provided. Regarding poetry, Tobias did well.
  
  I didn't like how many stories ended similarly; with a phrase or a quote. That is a nice thing once or a couple of times, but not more. Some stories felt like he developed and developed then discovered he had to finish, e.g., "The Post Office Worker" although it started as a very intriguing thriller. Vicarious was the same, where it started as intriguing but ended in a hurry (fairy-tale style). Some stories lacked context and had no strong connection with the reader e.g., "The Final Question".
  
  My major objections on Tobias are Donald Trump stuff (why lose politics audience when you're not writing in politics?) and stuff that touches religious people (also, why, man?). Sorry for the long review, but I felt like I had something to say about each story. I do, but I won't' bore you more.
  
  Would I read other stuff by Wade? If in a good mood.
• 
  LauraBlueberry

  This was great!
  
  I've never read anything from Wade before and found his short story collection on Amazon (Kindle Unlimited). I've read my fair share of "horror" which often was thrilling but the actual kind of "I can't sleep when reading this before bed and get nightsmares if I do it nontheless" was really rare.
  Furthermore in my opinion really good written short stories are hard to come by because the author can't explain a great deal beforehand. And I can't argue that I had "starting problems" with this one. But the further I read the better it got!
  
  This short story collection is full of creepy, weird, thrilling stories and if you're a true horror fan you shouldn't miss out!
  I'm now blazing straight through his other short stories!
• 
  Charles Ray

  If you like stories that chill your blood and make you afraid to turn out the lights at night when you go to bed, you’ll love 51 Sleepless Nights by Tobias Wade. A collection of spin-tingling horror stories that explore all the things that go bump in the night and make the hairs on our arms stand on end.
  The entire book can be read in about an hour, two if you’re really into being scared silly. I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. If you’re the impressionable type, you might not want to be alone when you read this book.
  
• 
  Mcf1nder_sk

  I enjoy reading short story collections, because you never know where the next hidden gem of a story will appear. This collection was a quick read (most stories only 5-10 minutes long), but a few of these tales were fun to dive into. Some of the stories were only meh, but overall, this book was a fun way to pass the time.
  My Rating: 3.5/5 stars
• 
  Bill Purkayastha

  A few of the stories are not bad (particularly the one where a man apparently sees his mother come back to life, but the fact that this was about the third time this basic plot had been rehashed in the book made it not particularly compelling). Most are utterly predictable from the start. The protagonists are invariably extremely unpleasant and/or extraordinarily uninteresting. Also, the author keeps making the assumption that crude physical violence is horrifying instead of just disgusting.
  
  Also, he does not know the difference between "exacerbate" and "exasperate". I submit to you that if you want to write a book you probably should use a dictionary to find out what words mean.
• 
  Charlotte

  This was a GoodReads giveaway win.
  51 stories doesn't sound like much, but its pretty long. This isn't something I could read in one sitting, I don't like the constant switch of characters. This is good for in betweens books, commercial breaks, or appointment waiting rooms. These stories give you the full menu, you have blah, odd, strange, gross, creepy, and there was 1 in there that didn't make sense to me at all. For the most part I think the author did a good job with the variety of the stories.
• 
  Jacques Coulardeau

  THERE NO FEAR THAT DOES NOT KILL HOPE
  
  Fifty-one does not have the ambition of one-thousand-and-one but in a way it seems to be the same project except that the size of the stories may vary a lot from two pages to twenty. They all are united by some element of fear and horror, at times fright and terror, but the themes are changing a lot with some kind of a pattern. Let’s take some examples.
  
  These stories are centered on characters who have something negative going on with their family circle when they have one, with themselves all the time especially when they are alone, and they are often alone, with their inner self as opposed to their outer self, and often their inner self takes its own life in its own hands and then the character is doubled-up and each half is autonomous with the ex-inner self taking over and creating some kind of havoc.
  
  Don’t believe this author does not know his horror classics and particularly the rule Stephen King edicted a long time ago: a horror author has to try to horrify his audience at first. If he can’t then he can try to terrify his audience. And if he can’t even do that he can try to gross out his audience. The author here, like Stephen King uses the three options in the book, but most of the time each story only has one dimension. Gross-out is common, terror is more difficult to reach and horror is a reward to the patient reader.
  
  Gross-out is for me best represented by the story “Unborn Doll” in which a deranged teenage mother reveals her derangement is her pregnancy, and her family does not help who wants to get the child away, hence to abort it. The child has no father at all, never mentioned. The pregnant mother and later teenage mother has a mother and a father and both are absolutely hostile to her. The teenage mother will deliver a stillborn child that she will keep with her, dress up, pamper with make up now and then perfume to cover up the rotting smell and the punchline is the most disgusting idea a mother can have: to sew up the mouth of this baby that cries at night. That punchline punches your good taste right in its stomach and down to its heels. But it reveals something. It seems to express the fright of society in front of such teenage pregnancies and at the same time their desire to solve the problem with stillborn babies for all of them, not abortion but a God-given or nature-provided form of abortion, but then all these mothers would get berserk and would have to be locked up sooner or later. That's the worst part of it. And that grosses you out completely and you are then terrified because in real politics some may actually think of that as a solution to teenage pregnancies: stillborn births and the commitment of the mothers after birth.
  
  In the same line we could quote “Confessions of a Serial Killer” that explains how a father confessed, out of love for his daughter, having committed a long series of crimes perpetrated by his daughter. He is in prison probably under a death penalty sentence. He writes his confessions to his daughter and the letter is captured and confiscated when it was attempted to deliver it out of the prison. We learn from the cop taking care of the case that the daughter has disappeared. The crime of this daughter was a serial killing of young children. She captured them one by one and one after the other. She tortured them one after the other and one at a time and the main torture was to starve them to death or nearly so that the next one captured will have to eat what is still available on the body of the previous one who is not necessarily completely dead. Once again that is grossness more than terror. And that daughter is still running free.
  
  The story reveals once again there is a strange desire in girls, the future life giving mothers. They want to capture children and torture them to death through hunger and cannibalism to punish them for having been born and having become a burden to their mothers, to women enslaved by that phenomenon. You find this theme of the enslaved mother over and over again.
  
  The story “Vicarious” deals with a father but this time in his relation to his son. The story has a pattern. The father is too harsh with his son; too ambitious as for what he wants his son to accomplish; too reckless about his son and letting him try anything he wants with his bike; too self-satisfied with the son he produces with his own attitude and the good result he gets in his competition. Till one day it goes berserk when the son fails to get a victory. The son will go back to training, even harder and more recklessly, till one day there will be an accident. A big bad great fall into a ravine and like Humpty Dumpty the son is killed and yet a supernatural doppelganger survives who will take the full control of the father by satisfying the father’s desire for the son to get victories.
  
  The pattern then is clear: to replace the "dead" son with some creature from hell who takes the son's body and deemed the son to be and stay in hell. Like that there is no hope and the father lives in terror since this fake son will be able to get from him anything for him not to be obliged to admit publicly that his son is dead, and how could he prove and explain it?
  
  Till, with no explanation, the son comes back one day as a monster from hell and saves the situation: he expels the fake son and he himself goes back to hell to fight against these demons, Irosancts, who take over dead people to have a second life in the world. Their name is pure Latin, maybe, and may mean the saints born from angry greed if not greedy anger, stepping directly out from the medieval book of Christian exorcism.
  
  How many father do this mistake of projecting their dreams into their sons? It fails most of the time and then the sons are forced by this failure to do what they, the sons, want to do, or rather what the circumstances the sons are in make them do, and that is not always very nice. Though there is one gram of hope here since this son back from the dead saves the father he should hate to the last minute of his eternal damnation. That’s the softening touch: supernatural, like a famous TV series, but in a mild version. The Winchester brothers would have destroyed the real son too since he is a monster from hell too: two monster-killing brothers destroying two monstrous brothers. Whoa!
  
  The last example I will consider is “Virtual Terror.” It is the story of two brothers. One went to Afghanistan where he did bad things in his military missions. One day he questioned a man and tortured him to get the information he wanted by torturing the man’s son in front of him of course. No details possible here. In the end he will get some information, good or bad does not matter, and the man and his son will be of course executed, disposed of like some waste. Torturing is a game as is well-known, a game with humans who have to be alive and it is all the more joyful if they are reactive in that lively game of torture. But this soldier ends badly due to an accident and he is in a wheel chair paralyzed the waist up. God’s punishment if you want.
  
  His brother takes him to a Virtual Reality arcade and he has an adventure that ends badly, again. He has a fit of some epilepsy or whatever and he is taken back to his home by his brother. He tries to kill himself with some firearm but his brother intervenes and it is the brother who is killed. Then the paralyzed ex-soldier tries to kill himself again and only wounds his mouth and jaw without exploding his brain. He ends up in hospital with his father sneering at him with contempt and agony.
  
  We are in a dual world again (and this duality is a pattern). First the two brothers, then the father and the surviving paralyzed brother. Contempt from the father, self-contempt from the paralyzed brother, fatherly love agony for the father and self-hate agony for the paralyzed brother. And finally the realization that hope and fear are the same thing. One hopes for something and that something is the source of one's fear. Hope leads to fear, nourishes fear, nurtures fear, gives birth to fear. The story crystalizes the American drama. The post Afghanistan-Iraq fear in 2008 brought hope to the White House, but this hope was partly dissatisfied, betrayed some say, and it gave birth to fear, nurtured that fear to the point of bringing the most fearful and fear-mongering nightmare to the same White House.
  
  Is the world condemned to live in that dual vision? To be dismembered between oneself and a second "brother" or "virtual image" of ourselves? Between fear and hope? And yet the two are only one, the two sides of the same coin. God and his spirit on one side, and the absolutely unitary god on the other side. Judaism (Genesis 1:1-2) and Islam, with a vague Christian ternary pattern: father, son1 and son2, but either captured in a succession of two dualities or in a perverse ternary situation of torture.
  
  Torturer T torturing a man's son S to make the father F speak.
  Binary couple: T – S
  Binary couple: T – F
  Binary couple: S – F
  
  Note how this situation makes the torturing soldier be the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Christian trinity: The Father F, the son S and the holy spirit T. This perversion of this sanctified Trinity is speaking to the reader so much that it could even become a haunting element.
  
  This ternary pattern is always in the background, never central. The man and the devil speaking to the man in his head are the central element. The man on the VR game-machine and the Japanese operator that more or less accompany him in his playing are central (Is the machine the ternary element? Then the Holy Spirit is not much if it is the machine, but if the machine is the Father, then the Japanese operator is the Holy Spirit, quite a surprising suggestion for a Buddhist and Zen character). The man and hope-fear concentrated in the VR helmet are the central elements. Are we condemned to live within this dual fake choice that leads to nothing except the perpetuity of the present survival instinct in which any ternary element is only one element used to pressurize another element in a triad because of the dual link between this element and the ternary element, the way I have explained for the torture situation?
  
  To conclude I feel like saying this ternary torturing image of three binary relations that are the sides of a triangle of evil is the pattern of modern schizophrenia. We can just wonder if that is not a prediction about the future of the White House in the present more circumstantial than historical situation? Is Tobias Wade the prophet of a new age? We could believe that since Tobias-Tobit is a rather important (tough at times evanescent) character in the Old Testament as is clearly said in the following reference:
  
  “The Book of Tobias, as it is called in the Latin Vulgate, is also known in the Greek Septuagint as the Book of Tobit, and serves as part of the Historical Books in the Latin Vulgate and Greek Septuagint Bible. Both the Hebrew origin of the book and the name Tobiah which means "Yahweh is my good" have been appreciated since antiquity . . . The recent discovery of five scrolls of Tobit - 4QTob 196-200 in both Aramaic and Hebrew among the Dead Sea Scrolls in Cave IV of Qumran has given the book renewed attention. As with all ancient texts discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew was in consonantal form only. The Book of Tobit is also extant in Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Syriac.” (
  http://biblescripture.net/Tobias.html)
  
  And this Tobias Wade embodies the following prayer uttered by Tobias in his story:
  
  “3 And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offenses, nor those of my parents. 4 For we have not obeyed thy commandments, therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity, and death, and are made a fable, and a reproach to all nations, amongst which thou hast scattered us. 5 And now, O Lord, great are thy judgments, because we have not done according to thy precepts, and have not walked sincerely before thee: 6 And now, O Lord, do with me according to thy will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: for it is better for me to die, than to live.” (The Book of Tobit or Tobias, 3:3-6)
  
  Hope is definitely not the main quality of this life. But fear is definitely the best element of this book.
  
  Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
  
• 
  Tina

  Great collection of weird and wonderful stories. 51 sleepless nights may very well keep you awake wondering what if?
• 
  Piyush Sakorikar

  Every story is different
  And some will give you shocks too
• 
  Becky

  Meh, these stories are just okay.
• 
  kartik narayanan

  Read more reviews at my site
  https://digitalamrit.com
  
  Animals aren’t like humans. They need a reason to cause suffering; humans only need an opportunity
  
  Disclaimer: I was gifted the book by the author for an honest review.
  
  Introduction
  
  “Horror Stories: 51 Sleepless Nights ” is written by Tobias Wade, former neuroscience researcher and author. ’51 Sleepless Nights’ is an anthology of fifty-one (duh!) horror/thriller short stories involving all kinds of fears including arachnophobia (spiders), changelings, loss of identity, paranoia, demons, serial killers and more.
  
  The first horror books that I read were ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘The Omen’; that I read when I was 13 years old ( some blame this for the way I turned out, but that is neither here nor there). I, then, discovered Stephen King, Robert Bloch and other greats, whose books I devoured. But that was 20 years ago. And it has been a long time since i read horror. So, when Tobias Wade asked me to review his book, I jumped at the opportunity. This would break the monotony of the few genres I had become entrenched in and give me a chance to go back to a genre that I had neglected.
  
  Opinion
  
  ’51 Sleepless Nights’ is a very well written book. Writing good horror requires that you have excellent writing skills, since building a sense of paranoia and nameless fear is key to the experience. Tobias Wade is obviously no slouch at this. Most of his best stories in the book involve this building up of tension.
  
  In addition, horror writers also need to have a keen understanding of the human mind. Why is this important? Our fundamental fears arise from abandonment, a loss of identity or loss of connection. Which, in turn, translates to our nearest and dearest being the source of our fundamental fears. If you can’t trust them, then whom can you? A fear of disappointing them or letting them down is also a prime motivation. This book has it in spades. For example, in one of the stories, the protagonist describes his personal devil in the following way.
  
  “His horns were as sharp as being stabbed by the love of your life after you have sacrificed everything to bring her joy.
  
  His face was the burden of holding your dying father in your arms while both of you knew you could have saved him if only you’d tried harder.
  
  His body was the shape of a long life spent in quiet desperation after all living matter had wasted away and you alone remained to dwell upon your regret.”
  
  Powerful imagery. I loved it.
  
  I never felt bored while reading it. The only suggestion I have is to have longer versions of some of these stories. I would love to read a novel by this author.
  
  I recommend this to all horror aficionados.
  
  (and don’t forget to keep your lights on and your windows closed when you read this book)
  
  Read more reviews at my site
  https://digitalamrit.com
• 
  Lee Lee

  1) A cracked life - Was a wtf? And not in a good way, very short and didn't make much sense to me.
  
  2) My Mother the spider queen - Seemed as though a child had written it, but it also felt familiar somehow like I knew this story, reminded me of the UK, kids T.V program ”Gruesome Tales”
  
  3) I’m In love with the devil's wife - I only hope these stories get better as I get further into the book. Was in and out of interest while reading this one. Again a bit crap to be honest.
  
  4) Like father like son - This one was slightly better seemed more like a short true story, a bit sad rather than a horror story.
  
  32) The masked orgy - Just thought I'd read a little out of sequence, because why not? Interesting, quite amusing actually what’s good for one is good for the other...Or is it? 😂
  
  OKAY, I have decided to abandon this book for no other reason than I know for sure there are waaaaay better books out there.
  
  P.S, Sorry Mr Wade, free or not it’s not for me. 🤷‍♀️
  
  
  Tᕼᗴ ᗴᑎᗪ
• 
  Kristin

  I won this book on Goodreads first reads.
  
  I'm not really sure what to say about this book, other than it was "okay". I'd give it a 2.5 rounded up since Goodreads doesn't do half stars and all...
  
  What prompted me to even request it was the description. It claimed to have a mixture of both supernatural and "real" situations (such as psychopaths and murderers). I was excited at the thought of being chilled by reading a ghost story that makes your imagination make every little bump and creak in the night a demon or monster, only to have the next story be about someone we all know: a sweet and friendly face that hides the face of a cold blooded monster or psychopath.
  
  In other words, when I applied to win this book about horror, I expected to get a book about horror. Not a thinly veiled political agenda.
  
  Several stories veered off course just to take petty shots and hurtle unnecessary insults at politics. I hear enough about this crap in real life, I read non-political books to get away from it. I'm so sick of hearing about politics in real life that it took the charm right out of some of the stories. Which is a shame.
  
  The stories themselves (without the politics, please no more political talk. Omg.) were...interesting.
  
  Before I start I just want to say, I know this author is relatively new to the scene and this book doesn't have a lot of reviews yet so some poor soul may actually pause to read mine and base their decision to try it or not off my complaints. I'll make it clear from the start this is more of a "me" problem than a problem with the stories.
  
  I'm more of a visual person and may prefer a slightly different style of horror than someone else who is considering reading this. So that sort of puts this poor book at a disadvantage right from the start.
  
  I completely understand writing/reading a book about horror is totally different from creating/playing a video game/movie about it. Authors don't have fancy visual effects and a million dollar budget to create an atmosphere or actually have a way to depict just how "evil" their bad guys are.
  
  There's no little signals in the background or body language for us to get "feelings" from and so there's no looking at a character and just getting that gut feeling something about them is "off" or seeing the vase sliding across the table in the background.
  
  So while this guy (Stefano Valentini, for the curious) instantly establishes his evilness/creepiness from his first appearance (which is the player witnessing him murdering an innocent and turning them into "art" similar to the poor NPC in the background):
  
  
  
  He'd probably come across as a cheesy, moderately creepy Italian villain in a book. Because he doesn't have a visual presence. Reading atrocities (real or imagined) is completely different from "witnessing" them.
  
  So, we don't really get the same shock or discomfort from the bad guy "[...] just standing there...menacingly!" (-Patrick Star):
  
  
  
  (Sorry, I've been playing "The Evil Within 2" while reading through this book. Oh! And that's Ruvik (Evil Within 1) for the few who are curious.)
  
  Nor can the author use conveniently timed jump scares to put us on edge:
  
  
  
  All of these are visual triggers, which can't be achieved in a book (unless it's manga). This is obviously a very difficult genre to write about... So despite my less than stellar rating and political whining, I do highly respect authors who decide to tackle such a difficult subject and try to put (what is essentially) atmosphere and body language into words.
  
  So before I get to the review I want to state that if you're still reading this (thank you and I'm sorry for being so long winded), to take my complaints with a grain of salt and give the book a try. Just because it didn't "fit" me and my preferred style horror, doesn't mean it won't be right up your ally.
  
  Just like how some people love
  Stephen King and others much prefer
  Dean Koontz. You have to at least give it a try to see if it "fits" you and *your* horror or suspense likes, before deciding against it completely.
  
  [Review starts here...finally!]
  
  That being said, I found no fault with the writing itself. In fact, it was as dark as promised (with some poetic or lyrical hints if it called for it)...my problem is related more to the stories themselves. I'm not exactly sure I would (personally) label this as "horror".
  
  Some stories were creepy (like the spider stories, as someone with arachnophobia all I can say is: "Jfc, why?") but the majority of the stories struck me as more "mindfucks" than anything.
  
  Some of them were "creepy" and might make me side eye things for a while, but most of the stories didn't really have that magical "spine tingling" effect. A lot of the stories seemed to rely a lot on confusion, lack of detail and explanations, or relied on gore (or shock value, if you prefer) to try to give people the heebie-jeebies. Which wasn't what I had expected.
  
  The stories were also (usually) very short. Great for some but for me, it fills one of my biggest complaints about horror (in general): they don't explain crap.
  
  Either the ending is left wide open with multiple plot holes or something (such as the case with the first story) extreme happens and everyone lives happily ever after with no further explanations as to "wtf" just happened or why.
  
  Again, I felt like the author has a lot of potential but maybe this book just wasn't "for me". Or maybe I'm not imaginative enough to truly appreciate the written version of this genre and need to stick to the video game/movie form.
• 
  Ronald Keeler

  51 Sleepless Nights by Tobias Wade is a remarkable collection of short stories about what the author describes as demons, the undead, paranormal, psychopaths, spirits, aliens, and a few mysteries thrown in. That variety is what makes the collection remarkable. As I read through the stories, I looked for instances of similarities between the selections. I couldn't find any. Which means the reader can look forward to 51 different themes. This amount of creativity is something I rarely see in literature; I see it more in stand-up comedic or political commentary.
  
  When I read a collection of short stories, I usually comment on each one. With 51 stories to read, I will not do that. But I do want to point out some of the more terrific stories and interesting themes introduced. I have found only two stories I didn't like and that was because of their endings. This is mostly a "safe" novel in terms of language use, sex, and violence. There is even The Masked Orgy that doesn't use offensive language. In a brief email exchange with the author, he remarked that on a dare he wrote one of the stories for a challenger who insisted that one author could not write from so many different perspectives and come up with so many different stories. This collection is proof that Tobias Wade can do that. This is one of the very few collections that I highly recommend for variety, entertainment, and thoughtful writing.
  
  And here are a few comments on some of the stories that impressed me most. I rated them from 6 (good) to 10 (noteworthy).
  
  My Family Tradition to Feed the Spirit (6) A good story well told but a predictable ending.
  
  I am a Human Voodoo Doll (8) I liked the moral "No-one should make life-altering decisions as a result of an emotional state. No matter how convinced your heart is that something is true, wait to act until your mind has caught up." (p. 321)
  
  The Solution to Prison Overcrowding (8) Another great observation on humanity. "There is no Devil, only man, and he does not buy souls... Man is far more insidious than that, for he grinds down his brother’s soul one layer at a time until the residual humanity begins to devour itself." (p. 289)
  
  I Loved her in the Winter (9) A story of the death of a loved one. I rated this high because of the author's skillful use of prose/almost poetry in one part of the selection.
  
  She is still with me (10) Another death of a loved one story but the ending provided is an abrupt shock.
  
  Three go to sleep. Four wake up. (10) The title gives you a hint of what is happening but it is deceptive. I gave this the highest rating because of Wade's skill with the sing-song poetic passages. They occupy almost six pages of the story and deserve a careful read.
  
  How to Start your own Cult (9) This is a recipe book with step-by-step procedures to take over the world. It can be applied anywhere in our current environment. Very well done. This encourages thought.
  
  Everyone Lives, but not Everyone Dies (9) I found this to be the most frightening tale. But that might be because I am old. There is also a great moral "One lifetime is more than enough if used properly, and a thousand lives aren’t nearly enough when used as he has done.” (p. 232) Read the story to find out who "he" is and what exactly he has done.
  
  The Wall Between Us (8) This one risks the accusation of being snarky because of the mention of Trump (POTUS) but I still liked it.
  
  Like Father Like Son (8) A scary story for parents.
  
  Countdown to the Beast (10) A very innovative and artistic look at a concept of time.
  
  124 Terabyte Virus (9) For those worrying AI will take over the world, this story is for you. Also a story for proud parents.
  
  She Was Asking For it (8) He had to destroy her in order to save her.
  
  The Psychedelic Tattoo (7) Read this and you will never again consider getting a tattoo
  
  The Final Question (9) Just thinking about this line kept me awake. "(S)omewhere in the beginning that which existed was separated from that which does not, and the void has never forgiven you for leaving it behind." (p.114)
  
  The Angel Doll (9) For those who remember reading A meeting in Samarra, this will provide a modern update.
  
  Two stories had endings I didn't like. They are good stories but in comparison to everything else offered, they were bland. The Organic Machine and Breaking and Entering for Dummies. But, wow, that still leaves forty-nine out of fifty-one winners.
  
  SUMMARY: Buy this novel, follow this author, don't read anything by him a few hours before bedtime.
  
  
• 
  Jules Fier

  I read the book, still slept like a baby (that is because I LOVE HORROR), and must say that the book still manages to deliver 51 different new odd stories (which is not easy since the same old stories by nearly everyone get retold and retold). The horror of the stories are more focused on their psychological theme, and what human beings are capable of doing.
  
  If you are in the mood for horror anthology (I sometimes often am), this is not a bad book to pick up, and even choose which story you would want to start off with.
  
  Although the title says 51 Sleepless Nights, which would be implying 51 stories, actually there are 52 stories altogether.
  
  The 1st story Vicarious deals with the issue of being-in-denial, as a father loses his real son, only to have something that looks like his son, talks like his son and even walks like his son.
  
  The 2nd story Virtual Terror is what if you were that guy in that film Lawnmower Man. Imagine you put the VR helmet on and instead of seeing something virtual, you relive a past experience that you are you are trying your best to forget.....LITERALLY. This story alone can give you the insight of what psychological horrors soldiers returning from war go through.
  
  One of the stories that caught my attention was the 34th story The Wall Between us, a story obviously influenced by real-life politics, with its interesting statement "hate begets hate". In the story itself, it shows you what people are willing, and capable of, doing when you make them mad enough (and I am not even talking about the theme here, which in itself is interesting).
  
  The 37th story How to Start your own Cult shows you what would be both the perspective and psychological insights of a power-driven power-hungry manipulative leader, in how one would create his own new religion, political ideology and of course...his own cult.
  
  The 38th story Three go to sleep. four wake up, is a good supernatural story, imagining you were out in the middle of the woods, only to be in a situation that a monster like a werewolf is really out there with you.
  
  The 25th story 124 Terabyte Virus is a good illustration of how people in the modern day live and exist today ie hooked up to their technology. But the real horror is the idea we have of AIs ending up taking over our world.
  
  The 19th story The Suicide Bomber pretty much gives you of not what just could go through the mind of a suicidal terrorist, but the idea of what is really life after death, as well as being able to talk to ghosts.
  
  The 23rd story She Was Asking For It is a good story to show you how messed up the mind of a serial killer can be, as well as reflecting on society's obsession with good looks.
  
  The 50th story The Monster Inside Us is a story to make one think, of both the cautionary tale of what things we should and should not be telling to children, as well as how really innocent anyone really is, and in the case of this story, both the babysitter and the boy she is babysitting.
  
  The 51st story is a good ex-girlfriend's-from-old-school ghost-taking-revenge horror story, but only that this ex-girlfriend happened to be a preteen, when she died years ago.
  
  Overall, these are stories you don't need to read in one night, and as the stories are different from each other, each story delivers a different type of horror, and that includes other stories from this anthology that I didn't highlight. Tobias Wade does his best to entertain.