Shock Totem 1: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted by K. Allen Wood

Shock Totem 1: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted Reviews

• 
  Kenneth Cain

  If you are anything like me you have a “to read” pile. If you have a digital collection, it grows, expands, and has a life seemingly out of control. Often what you purchase and want to read is pushed back, while those you have to read are drawn to the forefront. Then your list is inundated with all the interesting freebies that are thrown your way, making anything hard to find. Sometimes these works can be lost or even forgotten. However, I am glad I found the first issue of Shock Totem and pushed it up to the top of my list.
  
  Not only did the stories exceed my expectations, but I also enjoyed the other aspects of the magazine. I cannot recommend enough John Boden’s interview with John Skipp. It was interesting to hear how he made his way and he also had some interesting thoughts that are quite relevant to what we are seeing now in the self-publishing industry.
  
  I think, “Murder for Beginners” is a delightfully funny story. “Below the Surface” and “The Dead March” were intriguing stories that had a good feel and kept my attention. Although slightly predictable, I very much enjoyed “Slider.” Perhaps it is the baseball fan in me that allowed the story to resonate so well; I don’t know, but this story sucked me right in. While all of the stories were written and edited well, one in particular stood out. I thought “Thirty-Two Scenes From a Dead Hooker’s Mouth” had a different take, both in style and idea. Stories often are designed to take you from elation to disaster, but not this one. This one did a 360 on me that left me considering its structure long after I finished the read.
  
  All in all, this is a very strong start and I plan to move up the other issues in my reading list that I had previously purchased.
• 
  Bandit

  This was my first experience with an eMagazine. It's slightly weird, but it works. There was a combination of short stories, interviews and reviews. I was primarily interested in the fiction part. Seems easier to enjoy the stories without knowing so much about their writers. For example, I absolutely did not need to know that John Skipp can't get through an interview answer without dropping expletives like they are weighing him down and he's trying to take off. I'm not a prude, far from it, and I get it, he's a hip dude, musician/trend pioneer/punk, but honestly for a man of words...it just comes across crude. The first short story was the best, morbid delight about homicidal childhood toys. The rest of the volume never lived up to that level of sheer fun, but was interesting enough and worth a read. There was a heavy musical slant to the theme as per creators' fancy, which did nothing for me, but that's a personal preference. Solid diverse genre reading experience makes for a pretty good first impression.
• 
  Stacey

  An excellent debut from Shock Totem. Loved the interview with John Skipp. My favorite tale was "32 Scenes From a Dead Hooker's Mouth" by Kurt Newton - brilliantly executed and a fantastic read.
• 
  Donald Armfield

  A mix of stories that gives shocks, tears and laughter. Here are the ones that stood out for me.
  
  T.L. Morganfield's Music Box the rated R version of Toy Story. Snowflake the stitched up bear has seen better days but he is the toy bully. "An eye for an eye"
  
  Mulligan Stew by Brian Rosenberger a short poetic piece
  
  Pam L. Wallace's Below The Surface is a girl cat fight between two sisters. A little twist at the end.
  
  The Dead March by Brian Rappatta gives us Aaron who is the strange kid in school who plays with G.I. Joes. His farther an alcoholic who may offed his wife. Aaron shows his dad at the end who the real men are.
  
  Kurt Newton's Thirty Two Scenes from a dead hookers mouth.
  5 stars
• 
  CasualDebris

  Please see my in-depth review at
  Casual Debris.
  
  The publication is quite diverse in content (featuring interviews and reviews) and in the style of its fiction. The overall fiction seems to prefer some element of fantasy, and all but two stories function on the basis of a strong fantastical element. Despite this continuity in (sub)genre the editors chose well and present a wide range of story type and writing style, with stories ranging from competitive stuffed animals to zombie love, paranoia and baseball. There is only one truly weak entry but also a stand-out story worthy of a future reprint. Overall the selections are above average, and I commend the editors for making the inaugural issue of the bi-annual publication something worth picking up. I've since ordered issue #2.
• 
  Brian Rosenberger

  Killer cover art by Robert Høyem for the debut issue. My favorite selections were Les Berkley's haunting "First Light," David Niall Wilson's cursed baseball tale, "Slider," and Brian Rappatta's "The Dead March," a story about relationships and the unliving. Best title goes to Kurt Newton's "Thirty-Two Scenes From A Dead Hooker's Mouth." Lots of other goodies inside - reviews, great interviews that read more like conversations than the typical Q & A sessions, and behind-the-scenes comments by the writers about their work. Heck, there's even a poem, "Mulligan Stew" by me. But don't hold that against the Totem. This was issue #1 and they are still publishing. That alone is testimony regarding the quality of the contents.
• 
  David

  A solid debut with good editing and decent story selection. The font was a bit small but that's ok as it helps to keep production costs down.
  
  "The Music Box", a very dark variation of Toy Story, was the best piece. I'm not normally one for poetry but "Mulligan Stew" was good. "The Dead March" gave us a look inside a trailer park where a troubled kid with a dark gift desperately needs to be loved. The other stories were technically fine, but didn't stand out like these others. And there was a sample chapter from a novel featuring a serial killer, a big turn off for me.
  
  The interviews were good, particularly the one with John Skipp. The various reviews of select books, music, and movies were useful.
  
  I liked it enough that I'll check out another issue or two and see where it goes.
• 
  Kate

  3.5*
  Collection of short stories, poems, interviews and reviews. Quite a good start to the series which had a couple of stand outs, most of the stories were good but I had no interest in the interviews with John Skipp, Alan Robert and William Ollie.
  My favourite stories:
  
  The Dead March - Brian Rappatta - Young Aaron has a strange gift which he decides to use on his abusive father.
  
  Thirty-Two Scenes From A Dead Hookers Mouth - Kurt Newton - Horror version of Memento that stays with you.
• 
  Alexis Hunter

  As dark and beautiful as always (I've read the following issues). Only downside on this one was the tiny font, but it was well worth it for the stories within.
• 
  Paige

  It's rare for me to give any anthology above a three star because even though there are almost always stand out stories, there's usually a few stories that really miss. Even though I have a definite favorite in this one (Slider, because I am a sucker for baseball and curses) every single story is well above the average. The stories are interspersed with interviews and reviews which are all pretty entertaining, and considering the quality of the short stories picked, I think I'll go with any novel recommendations from the staff. Just an all around awesome debut issue.
• 
  C. Patrick Neagle

  Shock Totem is a great e-zine if you like horror on the slightly edgier side. The offerings are generally quite manageable in terms of size (my short fiction reading habits are currently leaning more toward the, erm, lean these days) and although I don't always care for the interviews, I suspect there are many readers out there who enjoy getting behind the scenes of music and horror. What I find most useful on the non-fiction side are the book and movie reviews, which point me in directions I may not yet have explored.
• 
  Steve Bouchard

  My favorite of this batch: Mercede's Yardley's "Murder for Beginners" for it's off-beat, funny, and completely inappropriate
  
  look at a murder.
• 
  Tom

  Great collection of stories.Most from authors I have not read before.Shock Totem should be high on everyone's list of reads.
• 
  Scott

  Good anthology. Some fun stuff. Not worth a reread but good for a quick go through.
• 
  A Reader's Heaven

  An impressive collection of stories, poetry and interviews from authors of all walks of life.
  
  It was a great first edition and the reason I bought the next 3 issues.
  
  
  Paul
  ARH
• 
  Chris Riley

  Good stuff, and with excellent media reviews.
• 
  Jenn

  I always love a good original horror short story. And this had quite a number of them. I wasn’t overly impressed by the interviews but that’s not about these ones in particular. I don’t generally like any of them. Although I did find some interesting music based on one of the interviews. As for the stories, there wasn’t a single one I didn’t like. All well done and all new to me. Love the toy elephant story, and the 32 Hooker story.
• 
  Nicole

  A wicked impressive debut bursting with the good stuff! Movie and book reviews, interviews and of course stories. The Music Box by T.L. Morganfield and The Dead March by Brian Rappatta are personal favorites. (And a bonus at the end if you are the type of reader who enjoys reading about the inspiration behind the stories.) Definitely will be marathon reading some Shock Totem to catch up!
• 
  ~ Lei ~ Reading Is An Adventure ~

  ★★★☆☆½ ~ 3.5 Stars
  An interesting mix of shorts and interviews. I especially liked the interview with John Skipp as I had pretty much every anthology that he and Spector published back in the day and many were rereads.
• 
  Misty

  LOVED LOVE LOVE this read. What amazing tales this magazine weaves. Looking forward to reading the rest of the collections!
• 
  Paul

  Some good tales from new authours but way to much pages in the book was given to interviews of upcoming authours & considering the book only has 120 pages the reader is a bit cheated on value for money as the interviews are to long so become boring quite quickly with very few actual stories between the covers. Overall poor value for money.
• 
  Nev Murray

  Worth a read if you like the idea of a magazine on your kindle. Worth it alone for the short story "The Music Box" by T L Morganfield.
  
  This review was written before I started to take my reviewing seriously. I would need to re-read the book to give it a serious and fair review so the above review was what I posted at the time.
• 
  Rebecca

  It was okay, not what I expected. The stories did shock me in most instances, but to call this a horror was an overstatement. I will give the other issues a try to see where this magazine is going.
• 
  Katie

  I couldn't finish this. Short, boring stories. Okay authors, but overall: total flop.