Face the Music by Mark Towse

Face the Music Reviews

• 
  Mark Towse

  Biased, but I like it!
• 
  Rebecca Rossi

  I'm such a fan of short story horror collections and I'm an even bigger fan of Mark Towse. I particularly enjoyed The Paperboy, Stick and Twist and Face the Music
• 
  Jose Villanueva

  I sound like a broken record at this point, but Towse nails it with these short stories. I could have easily blown through this in one day, but alas, life got busy and I was left gobbling up as much as I could everyday over the course of a couple weeks. The re-read value of this is through the roof. A few of these definitely have a “gather around a campfire at Halloween with your friends” feel. It was also SO cool seeing the beginnings of “Nana” and “Crows” in this! Cant recommend Towse enough!
• 
  Ben Long

  Wow, what a great collection of ideas and stories! I'm so happy I gave this one a chance. Sure, like most short story collections, the ones in Face the Music are an array of hits and misses. Each has a gut punch at the end that either takes your breath away or leaves you a little confused. But thankfully they tend to land more often than not. And even the ones that don't fully work have enough going for them to pull them above mediocrity.
  
  There are a lot of stories involving the nearly or recently departed, but I appreciate that Towse also mixes in a variety of other tales amidst the ghost ones. There are also lots of interesting ideas posed here, such as what do you do when the sky starts raining blood? How far would you go to save the ones you love? What happens when those creepy old people are just a little too friendly? And just who are those strange bird people anyways?
  
  Across all story types there are repeated themes of loss, grief, and revenge, and it's in the focus on these themes that the collection anchors itself. The writing is good, and it has a dreamy quality to it. I felt like I was floating through the book, unbound by time and space, a passenger witness to the horrors facing the main characters. And there are all types of horrors present, from terrifying monsters to the monsters hiding within us. The title of the collection is very apt, as each story features someone "facing the music" in some way (whether it be facing their fears, facing acceptance of a reality they can't change, facing a crossroads of difficult decisions, facing a seemingly unbeatable foe, and so on).
  
  A lot of the stories are written in the first person and almost feel like diary entries. This works until it doesn't, meaning that sometimes we're so far in the character's mind that it's hard to know what is actually happening in the story. I think this is my only problem with the writing is that sometimes it's difficult to know what is happening in certain scenes or with certain characters.
  
  At the end of the day this is a pretty solid collection of stories. Each one held my attention and felt important in its own way. Towse writes like a modern day Edgar Allan Poe (with his focus on unreliable narrators and tragedy) mixed with someone like Roald Dahl or Ray Bradbury (with his conflicted characters and variations on the "deal with a devil" trope). There's plenty to enjoy here, and I recommend you checking it out!
• 
  Serenity

  Pretty good
  
  Well written stories. Loved the gore that was in some of them. I thought the first couple of stories were the best.
• 
  Valerie

  This was a first time read for me from this author and I will most definitely read more! As with all collections each reader enjoys some stories more than others! They all held my interest but a few had me thinking “wow”. One was Stick or Twist-child plays games with himself, making bets to win or lose, and he begins to realize when he loses something horrible happens to the person in his bet. So he starts betting against years of his life! Example:take one year away from me in exchange for an A in English. Well around 24 yrs old he finds the darkness drawing close. I did this as a child and am grateful it didn’t play out like this story. Couple others that touched that horror nerve were Hugh’s Friend and Number Seventy-Two! Grab this one and find the ones that will linger in your mind long after you finish the book.
• 
  Danielle Vinson

  I really enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. Towse is a new discovery for me. I've become a fan in a very short time. These are my favourites — Monica Thompson, Stick or Twist, Child, *Journey's End, The Paperboy, *Bloody Dogs, Benedict, Disconnect, *Face the Music. I look forward to his next collection.
• 
  Denver Grenell

  This debut collection of short stories by Australian author Mark Towse is a strong set of horror tales that lean towards the darker side of the supernatural spectrum. There are very few happy endings here, which is to be often expected in the genre, but you can sense the glee the author has in sticking the knife in a bit deeper at the end of many of the stories.
  
  Despite the fantastical & supernatural elements in his stories, Towse does well to anchor them in recognisable scenarios - primarily the family unit. He explores some common themes across the 22 stories such as the afterlife, hauntings, demons & retribution. Where he really excels is in his interesting narratives which put dark & disturbing new twists on the horror story. Often when you think the story is going to go a particular way, he will satisfyingly twist it in another direction.
  
  My favourite tales are where Towse stretches the scope into different territory such as The Paperboy in which the title character confronts strange goings on in a sinister retirement village. Or Bloody Dogs, where he expands his cast of characters to include a whole street of people facing an unwelcome visitor from the depths of hell. This is also one of the few stories to feature a welcome humorous side.
  
  Another fave story of mine was A Wing And A Prayer where a group of teens come into contact with a strange Crow cult. This story has strong shades of folk and backwoods horror & a great ending.
  
  The only real criticism is a sameness of character (particularly in his male ones) & perhaps the story ordering could’ve have been varied to separate a few of the more similar stories. But all in all Towse is a strong new voice in horror fiction with a welcome freshness to his tales & by the looks of it there will be a lot more to come.
• 
  Janine Zaman

  Mark Towse wrote a collection of old-school style horror stories. And with this collection he accomplishes his goal. Wanting to take readers on wild ride with unexpected twists and turns.
  
  I started this book a week ago and though I usually keep away from horror, because I think they are to scary, I found this was a pleasant read.
  It wasn't like my heart was in my throat with excitement, tension and big thrills, so I could sleep well at night, but it was just scary enough.
  The stories and therefore chapters are short stories ans therefore not bigger than a couple of pages long.
  Therefore the character build is basic. You don't get to go to deep in with the characters, which works in the favour of the stories in this book.
  I gave it only three stars because for a horror it didn't make me go through the roof with frighteness and it is said that the stories are stand-alone. In this book on several stand alone stories, one of the character has the name of a character in another story. Which makes it that you see the character build of the Tom, Edith or Monica from the other story. And that makes it a little confusing sometimes.
  All in all it is a good read, I liked it. And if you did some heavy reading it is a good book for reading after a heavy read.
  The stories stick or twist, wing and prayer and the paperboy are my favourites.
  
  I hope you will enjoy the book too.
  
  With kind regards,
  Janine
• 
  A.G. Hilton

  With most of the stories here being on the shorter side, this collection clips along with a quick pace and offers a wide variety of creeps. Cursed objects, cults, and supernatural forces abound, each one serving up bleak fates to our characters.
  I enjoy Mr Towse’s direct and snappy style which is on full display here. I’d love to see his take on longer form fiction going forward.
• 
  Robin Knabel

  I really enjoyed this collection of short horror by Towse! I've read numerous works by him, and I'm glad I grabbed a copy of this anthology. I found a handful of stories I loved and this just made me excited to read more of Towse's works. My spoiler free review is linked here.
  
  
  https://robinknabel.squarespace.com/r...
  
• 
  Nikki in Niagara

  A collection of mostly very short horror stories by Mark Towse. I have enjoyed a few of his novel/novellas much more than I did this collection. This was fine, though. Just a lot of middle-of-the-road stories. I don't mind the occasional short short story but this did have too many in my opinion that I just couldn't keep them in mind. I did particularly enjoy the satanic panic story.
• 
  Bev

  Great little bite sized stories to keep you enthralled.