Macabre Notions: Aaron White
Reviewed By Gavin Kendall
The lack of word count certainly doesn’t hinder these stories, with six tales of the supernatural expertly covering just 60 pages. Macabre Notions is a thoroughly enjoyable quick read that should earn Aaron White quite a few fans.
Kicking off this delightful collection is A Bad Dream, a tale of guilt and paranoia built around a late-night knock at the door and a horrifying revelation. For me, this would have been enough in a perfect Tales Of The Unexpected type finale but the story did then carry on somewhat unnecessarily, weakening the gut-punch. Evolved focuses on a killer that uses his psychic abilities to find victims, but quickly finds that the tables have been turned? This was my second favourite tale in the collection. A very interesting premise that I could see being expanded into a full-length novel. Bereavement and loss are the central themes of An Impression Of Grief. Having recently lost his wife in an accident, an artist seeks to ease his grief and find answers through his art. The Farmhouse is the true gem of this collection, a haunted house story told in three parts. White here seems to of found his comfort zone, the phrasing and descriptive passages were wonderful to read. Easily my favourite story, with part two having a really strong Hammer Horror vibe and a twist that had me smiling and eager to push on towards part three.
Macabre Notions succeeds in highlighting that Aaron White knows how to tell a story. All four tales had their moments but it was The Farmhouse that stood out for me. Showing that although White is more than capable at the short story, being able to spread his wings and having more room to breath and tell a story may be where the author finds his true calling.
I thoroughly recommend you check out Macabre Notions.
Macabre Notions
“I lay there in the sunlight with my mind turning over wild thoughts. I was confused and relieved but still frightened. My eye caught the upstairs bedroom window and staring down, face pressed against the glass, the man watched me, eyes glaring, anger etched on his face.”
From vengeful ghosts and haunting grief to telepathic psychosis and the realisation of nightmares, this collection of short stories will take you into the darkness and refuse to let you go.
You can buy Macabre Notions from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Gavin Kendall
I’m living in the South-East of England between London and Brighton. I’ve been married to Laura since 2000 and have two daughters. (Emily & Freya). I’ve always had a passion for horror and decided, as a hobby, that I’d like to create a blog to showcase this fascination with the darker genres.
I started Kendall Reviews in January 2017, initially to host my reviews of books and music that I had in my sizeable collections. Pretty quickly, this became a passion project and morphed into a blog that wanted to help PROMOTE HORROR.
I want to thank all the people that interact with the blog and of course to the rest of the Kendall Reviews team.
Please find all my contact details here
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