| Title | : | Shock Totem 2: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1453636005 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781453636008 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 82 |
| Publication | : | First published July 1, 2010 |
Shock Totem 2: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted Reviews
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I think I liked this one more than the first one. The quality and the originality of the stories is really impressive. There are some twisted meditations on the increasingly important role of technology in our lives. There is even a terrific carnival story, one of my favorite settings. The Australian story didn't really do it for me, but majority was absolutely excellent. Genuine literary horror that packs an emotional punch, the way horror ought to be written. Recommended.
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Rat Burner by Richard Bare
The sound of rats, to live with a hooker and share a bed with her. He is the guide to the black door. 4 stars
Sweepers by Leslianne Wilder
The city went down food got low where did these things come from? 4 Stars
Hide The Sickness by Mercedes M. Yardley
Working with boys who hate women. Being a woman and doing the job reality horror 3 stars
Return From Dust by Nicholas D. Bronson
Deadly Terrific !!
Leave Me The Way I was Found by Christian A. Dumais
A Web surfers nightmare. Must Read
This was an anthology of Horror, fantasy and cyberpunk. Enjoyed 5 of the stories out of ten. That deserves five stars. IMO -
As with all mags, some stories not to my taste. My favourite three would be those by Leslianne Wilder, Cate Gardner and the absolutely superb 'Leave Me The Way I Was Found' by Christian A. Dumais.
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In July of 2009 a new twice-yearly magazine came out that excited me. It was called Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted. I purchased that little digest-sized publication, dove in, and loved the experience of reading the wicked stories within. In every way this new venture excited me; for too long, dark fiction has been under represented in the literary print market. This was a shining beacon in the perpetual darkness.
Months passed. Then a year. Finally, this past July, the second issue of Shock Totem came out. Sure, that’s a long time between issues, but let me tell you, it was well worth the wait.
Issue two of Shock Totem just might be the best magazine I’ve ever had the opportunity to read. Unlike the first issue, in which I found there to be a couple duds, there were none such here. Every story tipped the scales upward towards fantastic. For my review of the first issue, I simply pointed out my favorite two stories, seeing as I didn’t want to expose the ones I didn’t like. For this issue, seeing as all were fantastic, I will give my quick-hit thoughts on each.
The Rat Burner by Ricardo Bare – A creepy tale of city slums, hidden doorways, and the price upon one’s soul. The tone brought me in and wouldn’t let me leave. Loved it.
Sole Survivor by Kurt Newton – A dark and strangely hilarious take on extreme game shows. In a way, it reminded me of a more concise version of Running Man’s concept.
Sweepers by Leslianne Wilder – Wow. This one grabbed me. A short piece about the waters of the world rising. I’ll never look down from a skyscraper the same way again.
The Rainbow Serpent by Vincent Pendergast – The tale of a man on a bus ride and an ancient creature who’s adapted to the times. Definitely my favorite of all the entries. The tone and themes enclosed within are fantastic.
Hide the Sickness by Mercedes M. Yardley – This is a nonfiction essay by one of the magazine’s editors, but it is such a brave and heartfelt piece of writing that I feel I must include it here. Ever wonder about juvenile sex offenders? Let’s just say that the story of Mrs. Yardley’s experience is one you won’t soon forget.
Pretty Little Ghouls by Cate Gardner – Another quirky and fun little tale. I won’t explain much, because the plot hinges on every word, which takes talent. It’s quite good.
Messages from Valerie Polichar by Gra Linnaea and Sarah Dunn – This, for a while, was my least favorite story. The inclusion of technology and technological terms in a work of fiction has a tendency to turn me off because it can date the tale horribly. However, this one, by the end, I grew to appreciate, and it became my second-favorite. It’s the story of a woman who obsesses with the dead and Facebook. Sound like an odd plot? It is. And it works.
Return from Dust by Nicholas D. Bronson – A man (soldier?) is blown to bits and is reconstructed. A good exploration what it means to be human and the point when we lose touch with that humanity.
Leave Me the Way I was Found by Christian A. Dumais – This short tale is very Ringu-like and eerie, about a video that causes sickness in the masses. There’s a melancholy sense of doom that hangs over it like a cloud of acid.
Upon My Return by David Jack Bell – What would happen if a Christ figure were to appear in the present day? This depressing little story of a misunderstood carnival worker says it all.
That’s it for stories. There is also a review section inside, an interview with James Newman, and Howling Through the Keyhole, a Shock Totem staple, where the authors give their thoughts on the creation of their stories. The editors, led by K. Allen Wood, have put together a master collection of the macabre. All in all, it is a rewarding literary experience.
I highly recommend this magazine, and those to come. The only problem I see with it is this: With the quality found within, the bar has been set, and set HIGH. It’s a lot to live up to for issue #3, which I will be waiting for with bated breath. -
Shock Totem released their fifth edition not too long ago, which reminded me that I still had a couple more editions on my to-be-read pile, including this one. It's one of the short fiction markets that is right up my alley with a clear affinity for horror and dark fantasy. This second issue featured a few familiar names for me, and introduced me to many more whose work I hadn't read yet.
Right off the bat, there was Richard Bare's "The Rat Burner," a grim bit of back alley brooding, about a guy who either spends him time in a rat-infested apartment or standing on a street corner getting paid to guide desperate people to a black door in a labyrinth of alleyways. Look up bleak in the dictionary and you'll probably find a quote from this story. Something like: "the girls say they get less customers when there's too many rats."
Leslianne Wilder had a sad and creepy story called "Sweepers," set in a Manhattan that's been submerged by rising waters and overrun by the corpses that haven't quite figured out how to be dead yet. Vincent Pendergast's "The Rainbow Serpeant," which I actually listened to a couple week prior on Pseudopod, is a really fun mix of weird and wicked with a man on a bus trying to get to his girlfriend, only to find himself in the company of strange passengers and an even stranger driver, on a bus that isn't quite what it seems. And the staggering imagery from Cate Gardner's brain makes an appearance with the story of a prisoner with a catastrophic gift in "Pretty Little Ghouls."
The most hard-hitting bit of storytelling comes in the form of a nonfiction piece by Mercedes M. Yardley called "Hide the Sickness," in which she recounts her time working at a home for juvenile sex offenders. The oppressive sense of constantly being looked at by kids as a potential target and victim was enough to make my skin crawl. There's a level of empathy that comes with the idea of kids being so cruelly abused that they themselves become abusers, but it's the kind of situation where my resolve and endurance pale compared to Mercedes.
I've give a nod to "Leave Me the Way I Was Found" by Christian A. Dumais for offering a story that felt like a cross between The Ring and that short story by Stephen King where Alzheimer's becomes an epidemic of his brother's design. Imagine a video on the internet, one of those banal clips you see on YouTube, only this one makes viewers sick in a myriad of ways, some going psychotic, and more becoming suicidal. Would you watch it? Maybe just to see if it was real, and if so, if you were one of the apparent few who can watch it and not wind up dead?
Shock Totem #2 is definitely a different mix from the other issues I've read. This issue had a much starker vibe coming from it, thanks in large part to the stand-out stories I mentioned. The stories, as you read them, kind of spill out like brackish water with very nasty treasures writhing beneath the surface. I still like Shock Totem #4 the best, but this is a close second, and I still have issues #3 and #5 left to read. -
IMO, volume 2 had a stronger mix of stories than volume 1 (and, yes, the larger font was easier to read). There wasn't any poetry in this issue, but the book/music/movie reviews were still there (and useful).
My favorite story was "The Rat Burner". It was a deliciously dark and gritty story. I'll have to look up Ricardo Bare's other work.
"Sole Survivor" was a humorous twist on adventure style reality shows.
"Sweepers" was decent but a bit lacking. I was left with too many unanswered questions. A longer story could've filled in those gaps.
"The Rainbow Serpent" was surreal with its horror. I really enjoyed the blending of myth, reality and nightmare.
"Abominations: Hide the Sickness", a non-fiction piece, was creepy. It also made me wonder if it's worth it to keep certain people incarcerated for life. I'm not sure they're human anymore.
"Pretty Little Ghouls" was a short bizarro piece. I liked it.
"Messages from Valerie Polichar" is a nice little ghost story that explores death and social media.
"Return from Dust" held an interesting premise, but I felt the execution left a lot to be desired.
"Leave Me the Way I Was Found" successfully grabs Lovecraft's penchant for not describing horrors that are incomprehensible to the human mind. In this case the author, Christian Dumais, suggests how the world would react to a certain YouTube video. In Lovecraft's day, the dark things were whispered about by a select few. In the Internet Age, no one whispers anymore; they broadcast.
"Upon My Return" had a hint of Bradbury (people forget that he wrote horror too) in the way the story was told. I liked it.
As usual, the cover art is great. Now to pick up issue 3. -
I really like this.
There is a lot of quality writing to be found here. Take the first line in 'The Rat Burner': "Cherry looks like an old house sagging on its frame." I watch for really good first lines; they are the hook, baited and ready for an unsuspecting reader. Even before that, how can you not want to read a story with that title.
'Sole Survivor' is an imaginative and devilishly funny take on reality television. The writer puts you there as the contestant finds success.
There isn't any deadwood here. It's a nice mix. Some are short, one is an apocalytic sort of darkness, most of what is included is very imaginative. Certainly, this second volume is worth a look. -
To me this is one of the best ways to discover new authors. Jam packed with short stories. Can't go wrong with Shock Totem.
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. -
Ricardo Bare always finds a new way to tell a story, especially those with mysterious and other-worldly personas. You can actually feel yourself in the spaces he opens up for you. Shock Totem itself is a superb publication full of short stories that will intrigue you!
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This is an excellent horror anthology, with some really strong stories and a solid review section. Well worth buying, and keep an eye out for future editions.
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I love the mix of fiction, nonfiction and reviews. Some of the stories fell flat, but there were some definite standouts. Definitely worth a look - one of the better horror mags.
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My favorite of this batch: Kurt Newton's "Sole Survivor" for it's quick look at reality TV and how much farther it can go wrong.
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I liked this second issue even more then the first.Great mix of stories.Not all horror.More in the realm of fantasy with a horror mix.Again I encourage you to pick up a copy.
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A great collection of horror stories, and excellent reviews!
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At eighty-two pages, Shock Totem #2 is slim, attractive and promising. I often prefer shorter periodicals as the lengthier issues seem to be stuffed with filler material, and with a total of fifty-seven pages of fiction, I opened the glossy cover waiting for a wallop of prose.
Now, the first thing I'm naturally itching to do is compare issue two with the first, solid launch. Both are attractive, sporting great, easy on the eye cover art (both issues by Hicham Haddaji), nice glassy binding and good quality paper. Internal improvements include better font which makes for easier reading, though the interior artwork is a little unclear and hence I pretty much ignored it. Content-wise the stories here are not as consistently strong as they were in issue one, though the concepts are more interesting. Darker-themed and modern ideas work well with the good mixture of dark fiction, brushes with postmodernism and much welcomed moments of absurdity and surrealism. The problem is that while there are a couple of really strong stories ("The Rat Burner," "Sweepers," "The Rainbow Serpent"), there are also a couple of obviously weaker ones which makes me think it was for the best that the editors waited a year to release issue two. Many of the stories don't quite work because their good ideas are not fully developed ("Pretty Little Ghouls," "Leave Me the Way I Was Found"), and the abundance of flash fiction is an unfortunate let-down.
At the same time it's great that the editors weren't daunted by tweaking the journal's overall content, and are offering us something different, as though we were reading independent anthologies rather than two volumes of the same periodical. Shock Totem deserves an audience and I recommend the purchase.
For my full review and comments on each story, please visit
Casual Debris. -
This is the second edition of the Shock Totem magazine. Having read and liked (for the most part) the first, it made sense to have a look.
The problem with magazine-style publications is that the content will always have good and bad, depending on your preferences. This was no different.
While this started off with a great story called "The Rat Burner", it quickly became a mixed bag and I lost interest towards the end.
Worth a look if you enjoy short horror fiction.
Paul
ARH -
Shocking
I loved this book. I only half read the write up on it. Was pleasantly surprised. Absolutely enjoyed the stories and liked the reviews on other books.
