I’ve attempted this review three times. I get distracted by what I read in this collection. I’ve thought about it for the last week.

First, I’ve read Todd’s book, Devil’s Creek and Scanlines, and loved them. I was happy to see one story tied into Devil’s and another with the same theme. As someone who dealt with suicidal ideation, Scanlines was difficult, but I was better for reading it.

So, let’s get into it.

Midnight in the Southland is one of my favorite stories in this collection. I listened to Art Bell driving home from work when I lived in Las Vegas. It was late at night, and I worked graveyards and swings. I loved Art Bell. The people who came on that show were off the wall sometimes, but they believed their stories, and Art believed them.

This story reminded me of those nights. I would have known who it was for if Todd hadn’t put that dedication to Art Bell at the beginning. All those late nights driving home from work made me and my girlfriend(now wife) go out to Rachel, NV. We have our own stories about those trips.

2:45 to Mexico had Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, and Tales from the Darkside feels, and it was a fantastic story. I’ve traveled by bus a couple of times. There are those people in stops that you’re not sure about. You keep your distance from them. There’s something off, even if you can’t grasp it.

HappyTown, man, this story was a lot of fun to read. It was a change from the other stories but fit into the collection.

Y2K: I remember the stress of working the night of Y2K. I was bartending on the Las Vegas strip. We were told to prepare for our computers to go down. For hysteria to eclipse the festivities of New Year’s Eve, but none of that happened. I’ve come up with a story idea after reading this one. I’ll have to spend some time with it, but this could have happened anywhere.

Black Friday: What’s better than zombies? A black Friday with zombies. I’ve worked retail a lot in my life. I worked at Blockbuster in the late 90s. We had some crazy nights, but our store had haunting issues, not zombies. I think about that store a lot. It’s where I met my future wife.

Tommy: This was one of those stories that felt out of place from the others. It feels that way with some collections. I’m sure it was added for levity. Who hasn’t wanted to get rid of their bullies? I had a couple in junior high that I would have done anything to eliminate.

Afterbirth: This was a story that struck a nerve with me. Having fertility issues early on, my wife and I considered many things, but this was not one of them. I liked this story and the tragedy of the MC, who only wants to have a child, but goes about it in a way that no one should ever do.

Annie’s Heart Is A Haunted House: Feels of Poe, Beast House By Richard Laymon, Sleeping Beauty, and Urban Gothic by Brian Keene. I liked this story a lot. The way the house takes its victims and moves them into the house was genius, and I loved watching them fall. Brian Keene’s Urban Gothic was my introduction to Extreme Horror and holds a special place. I saw instances of that book in this story.

The Gods Of Ours Fathers: Todd says this story was challenging to write. I understand the reasons. The brutality of the father and Mary’s brother overtakes my stomach. The writing brings it together in a way that could have faltered had it not been for Todd’s writing. The imagery within the story of Mary at the stones, of her asking for help from the Gods of her grandfather, of the blood on the rocks, and Mary’s blood from what her brother did, gave the story a resolution I hadn’t expected.

Solve For X: The black-eyed children have come for your kids. The imagery of this story and the ending with the eyeless child was great. While this is the shortest in the collection, it hangs in the air, and I would have liked it to be longer.

We’ve All Gone to Crooked Town: If you’ve ever been to a town on life support or lived in one of them, this story will hit home. I’ve done both. The little town of Granger, WY, where I lived during my Junior and Senior year of high school, is only a dot on the map, but I always wondered if the Green River that flowed through it would take the town one day, or the winter storms would. Neither happened, and the town is still there.

Granger was smaller than that town. Full of oil riggers and people working during the summer months, then returning to their families. I know what it feels like to wake up and hope the town you were in would vanish. I liked this story for those reasons.

Smile Factory: The Eldritch have you. They’re making you smile for what they want. This was an exciting story that left me guessing what was happening. It felt like a descent into madness at times. Having dealt with depression and those conditions myself, having to put on a smile to make my way through life is constant. This is what that felt like. Wearing a smile so no one thinks something is wrong is what you do when you’re depressed. It keeps the questions away.

Holes in the Fabric: Devil’s Creek is a favorite novel of mine. Seeing into the past of one of that novel’s characters was a great escape. I wondered about how she got where she was in Devil’s Creek. It was a fleshing-out of the character’s story that I enjoyed.

Happy Pills: We’ve all wanted that pill to make us feel normal. If you’ve dealt with depression, you have. I wouldn’t want to go as far as this story, though it does have its rewards.

Gethsemane: I read the title for this story and wondered how that could be turned into a horror story. It’s done well. I won’t give anything away with this one. You have to read it with an open mind. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We’ve All Gone To The Magic House: It felt like a Twilight Zone episode or an episode of Doctor Who. I wasn’t sure where it would end, but it tied everything together. I remember a place like the Magic House in my hometown. People remembered it being open, but no one could say what lay inside. Even now, I forget what the place was called.

I hope you enjoyed this review. I enjoyed reading the collection. It comes out on September 1, 2023. I will buy a copy of it and put it next to Scanlines.

On a side note, the choice of title and how each section was broken up was great. I am a huge Nine Inch Nails fan and have seen them 10 times. I knew I’d like this collection from the title.