Thanks for stopping by for my stop on the tour for Skeletons by Kenneth Buff.
I have some scary good stories to share with you.
Enjoy my review.
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I forgot to mention!
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Skeletons
by Kenneth Buff
My Review
I’ve become hooked on short stories and collections and these are some good ones.
I’m going to break it down a tell a little about each one and then give an overall rating.
And Then There Was Only Us
They say sometimes psychopaths will be drawn to each, like a shared sickness. These two lovers find a portal to other dimensions and take their killing games to a new level.
They enter a dimension and torture and kill their other selves.
“You wouldn’t believe the shock on their faces the first time they saw us. You wouldn’t believe the pleasure on ours.”
Sooner or later something has to happen. The fun stops being fun, at least for one. Then what?
This was the first story and pretty horrific. Twisted psyches and a lust for pain and blood doesn’t make for happy ever after. Even killing yourself gets old. I kept waiting for one to turn on the other.
Re – Tailoring You
2PM. Punch the clock. Work. Punch out. Go home. Repeat.
The man is stuck in his dead end job at All-Mart, the store that has, “Everything you need.” Days, weeks, months, years pass in a blur, and he dies a little each day.
It didn’t come to him all at once. But gradually he realized the other employees were acting strange. They stopped talking. Some of his co-workers noticed too. They started calling them the pod people. I guess that’s from the movie, The Body Snatchers. I called them The Stepford Clerks.
Knowing its becoming dangerous, the group that hasn’t changed split up, trying to reach others like them. Trying to warn them and make their escape.
But, like with all good horror stories, it’s not going to be easy.
I kept waiting for Bruce Campbell to jump on a counter with his boom stick and shout, “Shop Smart. Shop All-Mart!”
Mom’s House
When Henry’s mother dies, Alice knows she has to go with him. She’s all out of excuses for not going to that house. Who would want to. They siblings claim they commune with the ghosts that haunt that place. What would Alice have to say to them?
The funeral is over and the days pass. Alice waits for them to go through their mothers stuff, but soon gets bored. They sit at the breakfast table every morning relating the ghostly visits they had the night before. Felling left out, she takes Henry’s advice and goes for a walk.
Something, a niggle of doubt, causes her to sneak back and peek in the window. They are sitting around laughing, not packing things up.
When Alice confronts them, things get ugly. Then dangerous. It seems Henry had a big secret. One about why he truly brought her there.
This one creeps up on you. Then the secret is revealed and the action kicks in. Alice didn’t strike me as tough or resourceful, but she fooled me. Let’s hope she fools them too.
The Second Coming Of Cortes
He’s come! Jesus has come to Pike’s Peak in Colorado.
It came straight from Jesus on the TV. He appears, inviting all the people of Colorado to climb to the top of Pike’s Peak, to be received by him and enter heaven. There’s a catch. They only have three days to get there.
Brian and Karen drag their son, Alex, to the greatest show on earth. He scoffs at this person. Would Jesus pull a stunt like this? Why Colorado and Pike’s Peak? Why only three days?
His parents are bound and determined he make the climb with them, but Alex wants nothing to do with it. Can he hold out or will he be dragged kicking and screaming to the top of the peak? And who or what awaits them there?
This was creepy. I’d be with Alex. I hardly think Jesus would appear on TV telling us to come to him. Yet again, modern times call for modern measures. Who knows.
You can imagine how bad it gets. All those frenzied people crawling over each other to get to the top, to Jesus and heaven.
It became a bloody mess, people crushed or shot to death. Makes you wonder how they ever thought those actions would get them anywhere but a fast drop to Hell.
The Decoder
Everyone is required to use their decoder until noon. Most of them keep it on until the mandated shut off time of 4 PM. But not him.
He can’t wait for noon so he can shut of the decoder. When it’s on, by the time you think about what you are going to do, it’s done. Time flies by in a blur.
A normal day for him is work, then home. Mow the lawn, do laundry, vac and dust, maybe paint the walls. It’s only 11:30. Imagine watching time crawl while everything you do flies by.
Noon. Done. Decoder off. He sits down to work on the book he’s writing. It’s a good story. Opposite from his, where the decoder slows time down.
I got dizzy just reading this. I’ve seen some movies where they show a person standing still while everything rushes by in a blur of shapes and colors. That’s how this story felt.
I felt the man’s book was about his wish. Perhaps he should write a story about no decoders at all.
All of these were good. I don’t usually play favorites but several scenes in re-Tailoring You got my blood pumping.
For most of you, all of these will creep you out.
Scare a few minutes off your life.
Or at least give you some nightmares.
Horror is as horror does.
4 Stars
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BLURB:
Skeletons, everyone has one, and in this collection of dark short stories they’re scratching their way to the surface for the world to see. In Skeletons you’ll meet a man who confesses his secret time traveling fetish, a cashier who investigates the eerie behavior of his retail co-workers, a torn lover who travels to her boyfriend’s haunted retreat, a teenager who’s town undergoes some unusual changes, and a father who’s personal time is moving a little too fast.
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Excerpt
And Then There Was Only Us
I’m not sure how it started. I know it was me that showed her the portal, but I can’t remember whose idea it was to start killing them. I believe it was hers, but I honestly don’t remember anymore. That’s part of using the portal. You go in too many times and it fries your brain. I couldn’t even pretend to know how many times we’ve gone in. I just know that each time we go back we kill them a new way. That’s one thing I do know. I could lie to you and tell you I didn’t enjoy it, but I did. No woman in the world is kinkier than my Stephanie. Once I showed her the portal, it didn’t take long for her to change the way we dealt with the doubles. Prior to our trips, I had always just waited till my double used the portal before exploring the past. That way there would only be one of me. Steph changed that. You wouldn’t believe the shock on their faces the first time they saw us. You wouldn’t believe the pleasure on ours.
We took full advantage of the fact that no one would ever know about their disappearances.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Kenneth Buff was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. He moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2007 to attend Oklahoma State University. He graduated in 2013. He currently spends his days working as an elementary special education teacher and his nights at Aspen Coffee, writing his next novel.
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