Devils Rejects: A Horror Anthology for Second Chances by Michael R. Goodwin

Devils Rejects: A Horror Anthology for Second Chances Reviews

• 
  Sandra Henriques

  Putting together a horror anthology without a “theme” is hard; organizing one with stories previously rejected (and instead of hiding that fact, making it a big deal) is even harder. But I believe it’s to break the bounderies that anthologies like “Devil’s Rejects” exist. The beauty of horror is its non-conformity. I won’t say I didn’t like all of the short stories because it’s not true. Some spoke more to me than others (it’s only natural), but they all brought me the privilege of getting to know new horror authors (and I’m always on the lookout for those). Do pace yourself and give each story the dignity of reading them on different days, so you have time to distance yourself between different styles and topics.
• 
  Dave Musson

  The premise for this collection is excellent - a second chance for stories that have been rejected elsewhere. That’s not to say this a collection of duds - far from it; many great stories get turned down not through lack of quality, but simply because they’re just not the right fit. Devil’s Rejects has given new life to a dozen of them, and they all prove themselves worthy of a place in the world.
  
  This collection’s approach also makes for a wonderfully varied read; there’s no central theme here other than all the stories didn’t make the cut somewhere else, so we get a real mix of stories; other worlds, sharp objects, twisted minds, literary horror and more can be found in this one.
  
  In terms of my favourites, there were a few I wanted to shout out. Miguel Goncalves’ The Scarecrow Man and Jamie Stewart’s Mr Nostalgia Becomes Mr Hollywood both had twists that I saw coming but were executed so delightfully that it didn’t matter - they were enjoyable, nasty little stories. Elsewhere, I very much enjoyed Jeremy Megargee’s take on ghosting in The Ghost, while the found footage, fourth-wall breaking, immersive creepfest of Spencer Hamilton’s The Cursed was terrific - even if it took a few paragraphs to get used to.
  
  My absolute standouts, though, were Kindness by Michael Goodwin, and Jay Alexander’s From the Airport Bar. The former was grizzly, shocking and violent, while the latter was deliciously creepy and went dark out of absolutely nowhere. Wonderful stuff.
  
  In summary, lots to enjoy here and definitive proof that one rejection does not make something bad - it just needs to find the right home.
• 
  looneybooks79

  3,5/5
  
  
  http://looneybooks79.blog/2022/09/10/...
  
  A lot of indie horror authors send in stories for either collections or anthologies but I guess more often than not they are sent a refusal letter, which is part of writing of course.
  
  But then Dark Pine Publishing, together with writer Michael R. Goodwin (Smolder, How good it feels to burn, Broken Justice) thought: ‘why not collect those stories that didn’t get a place somewhere else and collect these in an anthology without real theme?’ And thus arrived ‘Devil’s Rejects’!
  
  In principal this is a great idea, to give these writers the opportunity to showcase those stories and not have them collect dust in a shelf somewhere. But I have to admit, even though I enjoyed a lot of these stories in this here collection, I might have enjoyed them more with a sort of binding theme. (A lot of these stories are situated in rural villages so that could have been a great theme)
  
  So I enjoyed reading this collection. It started out a little slow but once I got in the flow (the stories are never longer than 20-something pages) it read really quickly. I also love how these writers got a second chance with these stories, but I am sure they would have gotten them out anyway, somehow, somewhere…
• 
  Catarina Prata

  An anthology made with purpose and a second opportunity to awesome stories that deserved it. Even though some of the themes might not have been completly to my liking, others were incredible and the amount of talent is undeniable.
• 
  Gwendolyn Wood

  In this collection you’ll find stories that were rejected from publishing elsewhere though once you read them you’ll truly wonder why.
  
  I enjoyed the bulk of the stories but there were a few truly stand out reads among them.
  
  - The Scarecrow Man by Miguel Gonçalves
  - Kindness by Michael R Goodwin (this story has just been released on its own)
  - The Cursed by Spencer Hamilton
  - Yours Truely by Marcus Hawke
  
  These four stories were so fantastic it made the whole book for me. 5 star stories I’d highly recommend.
  
  There were one or two stories I didn’t care for but this collection has such varied writing styles and theme that it stays fresh all the way through.
  Definitely one of the best anthologies I’ve read.
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
• 
  Gibbothegreat

  As the title says it's an anthology of short stories which were rejected for publishing, I have given it three stars as some were ok, my favourites were:
  
  The Scarecrow Man
  The Cursed
  Yours Truly
  The Ghost
  
  But the one I most enjoyed was "Kindness" absolutely fantastic, so good it grabbed me from the beginning. I don't know why it was rejected, I wish at some point in the future the author expands the story because it could easily make a 250/300-page novel.
  
  Initially, I was going to give it 3 stars but thanks to "Kindness" it deserves 4 stars.
• 
  Gavin Gardiner

  'Writing is rejection'. I don't know where I first heard this brutal little saying, but it's a mantra that's stayed with me throughout my own writing journey. It can be disheartening continuously facing knock-backs as you try to find a home for your work, but all writers would do well to remember that rejection isn't always an indicator of poor writing. There can be a hundred reasons your piece is rejected that have nothing to do with quality. Indeed, your story might truly rock.
  
  So it is with THE DEVIL'S REJECTS.
  
  Within these pages you can expect imaginative storytelling and inspired ideas, presented in a tightly edited package. I'm familiar with several of the featured authors, Jeremy Megargee, Jamie Stewart, Marcus Hawke, Spencer Hamilton, and Michael Goodwin particularly, and none of them disappoint.
  
  A highlight for me was Miguel Gonçalves's THE SCARECROW MAN. Having had the opportunity to speak to Miguel at length about the craft of writing, he's demonstrated through this story an ability to channel his understanding of what makes good horror into his own original work. I suspect (and fear) that this terrifying offering is only the beginning for him. I certainly hope so.
  
  Well done to all the authors, and a special shout-out to Michael Goodwin for curating the collection. Awesome effort all round. Keep up the good work, my fellow horror freaks!
• 
  Nova

  3.5 stars.
  
  Trigger Warnings - drug use. Domestic violence. Domestic abuse against a child
  
  Mild Review - A second chance Horror Anthology. All with some really strong voices and some new to me authors. Some shorts I didn't connect with as much but others I loved and will haunt me for a long time to come. My personal favourites were
  * The Scarecrow Man
  *The Cursed
  * Yours Truley
  *The Ghost.
• 
  RoseDevoursBooks

  The stories featured in this collection are stories that were submitted to other publishers and turned down. This book offers these horror tales a second chance by being compiled into an anthology together.
  
  I love the idea of giving these stories a second chance, it piqued my curiosity in wanting to know why they were turned down to begin with. As it turns out, a lot of these stories were actually quite good, there were some misses for me but overall, I enjoyed this horror collection and I’m glad some of these were given a second chance at being read. There’s a lot of talent and excellent writing to go around!
  
  My ratings for each story:
  1. From the Airport bar - ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
  2. The Change - ⭐️⭐️
  3. The Scarecrow Man - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  4. Kindness - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  5. The Cursed - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  6. The Hike - ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
  7. Yours Truly - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  8. The Hypnosis Factory - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
  9. By The Light of Crushed Wings - ⭐️⭐️
  10. The Ghost - ⭐️⭐️💫
  11. Tripping Tartarus - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
  12. Mr. Nostalgia becomes Mr. Hollywood - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
  
  The majority of these stories were perfectly chilling and it is a book I would recommend for horror readers. There are some dark themes within these stories that contain graphic scenes of violence and gore. If you’re looking for some short indie horror stories to get into, this one should definitely be considered.
• 
  Suze

  This had some good stories in it particularly The Change, The Scarecrow Man, Kindness and The Cursed. I enjoyed these the most. Some of the other stories I found were okay. Overall it was a good read and some of the stories definitely had interesting and original concepts.
• 
  The World According To J!

  Video Review:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eymW...
  
  
  These are second chance stories. And look, before you say well they weren’t good enough to be accepted the first time, you’re wrong. I’ve talked to many many different publishers over the last couple of years and they’ve mentioned a lot of times they get great stories for anthologies that just don’t exactly fit what they are looking for. The story is still great.
  
  So here we are with an Anthology of second chance stories. This is from Dark Pine Publishing and it’s edited by Michael R Goodwin. It’s called “Devil’s Rejects: A Horror Anthology for Second Chances.”
  
  I found out about it from a writer whose book I reviewed a few months back. Jacob Ian DeCoursey. I reviewed his collection “Vivid Green." He reached out to me to see if I wanted to check this out. Of course I did.
  
  Jacob has one in here called “The Change.” I read it first because he is the one who reached out to me. And I thought it was great. He played on a time-shift scenario I enjoyed. Flashbacks weaved in with the present. And it got me thinking, damn, if I think this story is this damn good, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t have been picked up for other Anthologies. Which goes back to my original statement about sometimes stories just don’t have the right feel for the theme, or maybe there are limitations to the Anthology.
  
  But this story got me excited because I expected the other stories to be just as good and surprising. And they are. There is a wide array of subjects hit in this collection. And different styles too. I always appreciate when an Anthology mixes things up.
  
  The format of the story by Marcus Hawke called "Yours Truly" is made up of these newspaper articles and letters for the whole story, allowing these to explain the situation. It’s a good way to break things up a little.
  
  I would also suggest to use this Anthology as a way to learn, or discover about some of these writers. Since these are 2nd chances, you may not of heard about some of them. This is the first time I’ve read anything from Jay Alexander, or Spencer Hamilton, Grace R Reynolds.
  
  Now some of these get a little extreme at times, some are just unsettling, and some leave the outcome open for you to figure out, for you to think about well after the story is over. “The Hike” by Kay Hanifen is probably the shortest one in the collection, but the ending will have you screaming, as you start to come to your own conclusion of what really happened and why.
  
  Look, I enjoyed this collection. I like the fact that it’s a 2nd chance for these writers to get the stories out there for us. And the title is pretty fitting, because we all have a little bit of the Devil within us.
  
  
• 
  Ryan Marie Ketterer

  Obviously a little biased since I have a story in this collection! I really enjoyed the stories here and thought Michael did a great job selecting them. No doubt there's a ton of great writing talent contained in this little anthology!
• 
  Emily L. Terry

  I’m a sucker for second chances! 💀
  
  I enjoyed every story in this kick-ass collection.
  
  Bravo! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
• 
  Lucretia Ruiz

  A gruesome collective collection of stories, from some amazing authors that share a kin liking for a twisted look into a world that can be scary, but so good.
  
  This cool collection of stories leaves you wanting more from each of their characters.
  
  I found a new fear factor of hiking, caves!
  
  I look forward to more from these amazing creative authors!