DARK TALES is a collection of J.D. Allen’s most haunting and imaginative stories. From science fiction terrors to body horror frights, from haunted dolls to premature tombstones, these dark tales will haunt you long after you’ve read them. Included in this tomb… er… excuse me, I meant, ‘tome’… are four shocking novellas:CONJOINEDThe job offer? Spend this winter on the remote, private island of the mysterious Dr. Castor Pollux, as a companion to his surgically abused daughter, Gemini. Sounds like the start of some demented horror story? It is! Lured onto the operating table, and into madness, by the hypnotic silver eyes of a sadistically predatory nurse, you’ll donate every organ to terror as you follow young Danielle on a horrific journey into a medical nightmare where no one escapes unaltered.SILVER SKYWatching a loved one drift away from illness becomes a literal nightmare for the family and friends of those afflicted with Silver Sky Syndrome, as victims become immune to the laws of gravity, and ascend into the heavens, in this metaphorical horror story.TOMBSTONESOut at the old cemetery, in the quiet town of Luna Vista, mysterious tombstones are rising up out of the swampy ground in an unused and cursed field, and gruesome deaths are predicted for the unfortunate townsfolk whose names can be found carved into their rocky surfaces! Who will be next?CAN SUSAN COME OUT AND PLAY?Some ghosts won't allow the living time to properly mourn the dead.Some hauntings begin with the very last heartbeat.And sometimes the living can haunt us too.This is a ghost story about the living.
A solid collection of effective horror.
"Dark Tales" gathers four of J.D. Allen's previously-published novellas into a single volume for an experience that's a bit beefier and more diverse than your typical horror tome.
I enjoyed some of the stories more than others, with "Tombstones" and "Silver Sky" being the clear standouts for me, but "Can Susan Come Out and Play?" and, to a lesser extent, "Conjoined" still proved to be interesting, entertaining, and worthwhile reads.
There were a few things I didn't love about the experience, such as techniques like foreshadowing and repetition being used more often than I would have preferred, but my overall takeaway was that my time with "Dark Tales" was time well spent.
Since each of these stories is available separately, here are my individual ratings for them but don't let that discourage you from giving the collection a try as you may find its individual components more or less to your own taste.
Conjoined - 3.25
Silver Sky - 4
Tombstones - 4.5
Can Susan Come Out and Play? - 3.75
Overall, I'm giving "Dark Tales" a 4.25, rounded up so as not to underrate it.