Welcome to My Monday Minis.
This is where I review short stories and flash fiction.
For today I’ll be telling you about The Basement
by Chad P. Brown
My Review
I’ve seen the movies. I’ve read the books. But, I just can’t say it enough. Don’t go in the basement! There’s always something bad just waiting to make you dead.
So the story goes, Heather takes a dare and enters the Blackwell House. Everyone knows it’s haunted, and really bad things happened. But, like the foolish girl she is, I guess she figures it can’t happen to her. She’ll show her friends there’s nothing to be afraid of and that’ll be the end of it.
Not quite. Heather doesn’t run into the Blackwell family ghosts. Instead, she’s confronted by her dead mother.
What the author did really well was hook me in right from the beginning. This isn’t a new scenario. I’ve read many similar stories, but the author made it different. The ghost Heather thought she should be worried about isn’t the one that appeared.
The atmosphere is set, from the door slamming shut after she enters, to the creaking and moaning of the old house settling.
Another thing that I liked was how the author let me into Heather’s head as she tried to dispel her own fears and find logical explanations for what was occurring. It enabled me to feel her fear, her disbelief, and finally her terror.
Kudos to Chad for his surprising ending. After I read the last sentence I said to myself, “Got ya!”
3 Stars
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Chad P. Brown was born in Huntington, WV. Once he outgrew his childhood fears of haunted houses, clowns, and toy monkeys with cymbals (although those still creep him out a little bit), he discovered a dark love for writing and an affinity for macabre and eldritch matters. He holds a Master’s in Latin from Marshall University and is an Affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association. In October 2011, he released his first horror novel, The Jack-in-the-box. He has appeared in the anthologies SPIDERS (August 2012 by May December Publications) and Gothic Blue Book Vol. 2 – Revenge Edition (October 2012 by Burial Day Books). His current projects include a recently released zombie novella, Messiah of the Zombie Apocalypse, and various short stories, as well as a dark fiction novella, The Pumpkin House, which is in submission.