Mixtape: 1986 by Alin Walker

Mixtape: 1986 Reviews

• 
  David Swisher

  What a great retro horror Anthology. Mixtape 1986 transports you back to the time of pagers and VHS tapes, arcade games and latchkey kids, killer toys and summer camps. Truly great 80s timeset horror. Standouts for me were "Brian," about a new kid at school who is bullied but, you'll be wondering who's the real monster at the end, "Latchkey," which is about a latchkey kid who finds shelter from the Bad Things in a VHS tape while awaiting his mother to come home, and "Camp Kehlani," about a fat camp where the counselors are definitely up to something. The introduction contains a web address to a Spotify playlist to play along while you read to really set the mood, highly recommended!
• 
  C.B. Jones

  This was a fantastic collection and I'm surprised it's not getting more love. Seems like it has all sorts of things going for it: a killer cover, a public that is hungry for 80s nostalgia, and a batch of awesome stories.
  The premise is this: each story is set in the year 1986.
  There wasn't a weak story in the bunch. While the subject matter and themes varied greatly from story to story, I found there to be a modern literary style to the prose that was consistent across the pages and this regularity kept me engaged. At the end of the book, I was left with a list of new authors to check out.
  
  Some stories were downright surprising in where they ended up, particularly the stories, "Just Elaine" by Ali Seay, "Latchkey" by Amanda Cecelia Lang, "And the Universe Went On" by Jason P. Burnham, and "Everyday's a Party With You" by Christi Nogle.
  
  Caleb Stephens's "Camp Klehani" was a total Goosebumps throwback. Fun and quippy characters and a nostalgic setting. Edith Lockwood's "Derailed" kinda felt like the Fear Street version of the collection.
  
  "One of those Nice Guys" by Jonathan Duckworth is an unsettling creeper that will have you second guessing diners and road trips and helping out strangers, while "Jaws" by Christopher O'Halloran ramps things up to 11 so fast that your head will spin.
  
  So all in all, I strongly recommend this collection. The theme never wears out its welcome, instead it easily pulls you along for the ride into a different time and place.
• 
  Alin Walker

  As one of the editors of this book, my review is heavily biased. I'm SO proud of these stories and their authors. Every one of the writers in this TOC put in a ton of work and did such an excellent job of delivering a truly fun, beautiful, and enjoyable read. Each of their stories captures the spirit of the 80s without bludgeoning the reader with mere references or familiar tropes, which results in an atmosphere that's distinctly retro without being over-the-top. Their styles are so distinctly different, but the stories somehow have a cohesive feel, as if they could all be happening in the same world, around the same time. I hope, one way or another, these stories reach you. :)
• 
  Cheryl (Takin' It Easy This Year!)

  **This rating is for the short story "Welcome To Camp Klehani" by Caleb Stephens which is included in the above anthology as well as a new collection of short stories written by Caleb.**
  
  All I can say is 1) thank god we don't have summer camps in Australia, 2) I can't believe there was such a thing as "fat camps" and 3) the 80's was a bad, BAD period. All the above results in an awesome short story!