eoghann's review
4.0
Nightmare Fuel is an short fiction (flash fiction if you want to get specific) anthology. As the name suggests these speculative fiction shorts are aimed at creeping you out or making you shudder.
Flash fiction anthologies can be a little frustrating to read. Sometimes you're just getting into a story and already it's done. There's little time for building characters of any depth.
But there are certain rewards too. The variety of settings and ideas on display here is impressive and there was no sign of repetition. It's a literal parade of the imagination. It's also easy to dip in and out of the book. You don't have to commit to more than 15 or so minutes of reading if you don't want to.
There were a couple of stories where the sting in the tail didn't quite seem to come off. Or maybe I misunderstood the ambiguity, but the majority of these short stories stand up on their own merits.
Some of the stories are funny, others disturbing, but none of them resort purely to shock for their nightmarish qualities. They play on our irrational fears but frequently in a cerebral way.
Flash fiction anthologies can be a little frustrating to read. Sometimes you're just getting into a story and already it's done. There's little time for building characters of any depth.
But there are certain rewards too. The variety of settings and ideas on display here is impressive and there was no sign of repetition. It's a literal parade of the imagination. It's also easy to dip in and out of the book. You don't have to commit to more than 15 or so minutes of reading if you don't want to.
There were a couple of stories where the sting in the tail didn't quite seem to come off. Or maybe I misunderstood the ambiguity, but the majority of these short stories stand up on their own merits.
Some of the stories are funny, others disturbing, but none of them resort purely to shock for their nightmarish qualities. They play on our irrational fears but frequently in a cerebral way.
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