domik's review
3.0
Final rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: mentions of sexual assault, mentions of drug abuse, mentions of suicide
"The Lighthouse at Montauk Point and Other Stories" is a collection of twelve short stories, that were written by R. David Fulcher. They're mostly horror stories with elements of fantasy.
The stories are distinct from one another, and the pacing and length of each one are good. I didn't have any issues with the writing style. The descriptions and world building are solid. One of the stories (An Unlikely Hero) is divided into chapters, which seemed unnecessary to me while I was reading it.
My biggest issue with this collection is that it has the undeniable feeling of "This was written by a white man". The amount of female characters was close to none, two of which were sexually assaulted and dead, and the rest didn't really matter. Some descriptions of women's bodies made me uncomfortable. There's also thinly woven racism through the book, in a way that most of white authors don't realize they were being racist, but from the perspective of a reader it's much more noticeable.
One of the things that really irked me was the lack of research and calling HIV "the AIDS virus" by a medical professional. Come on, it would have took anyone no more than five minutes with Google not to make that mistake. HIV is the virus, AIDS is the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, it's not that hard to understand.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, even if parts of it went into Yikes City territory. I wouldn't reread it, but it was entertaining and I especially liked the horror parts.
Content Warnings: mentions of sexual assault, mentions of drug abuse, mentions of suicide
"The Lighthouse at Montauk Point and Other Stories" is a collection of twelve short stories, that were written by R. David Fulcher. They're mostly horror stories with elements of fantasy.
The stories are distinct from one another, and the pacing and length of each one are good. I didn't have any issues with the writing style. The descriptions and world building are solid. One of the stories (An Unlikely Hero) is divided into chapters, which seemed unnecessary to me while I was reading it.
My biggest issue with this collection is that it has the undeniable feeling of "This was written by a white man". The amount of female characters was close to none, two of which were sexually assaulted and dead, and the rest didn't really matter. Some descriptions of women's bodies made me uncomfortable. There's also thinly woven racism through the book, in a way that most of white authors don't realize they were being racist, but from the perspective of a reader it's much more noticeable.
One of the things that really irked me was the lack of research and calling HIV "the AIDS virus" by a medical professional. Come on, it would have took anyone no more than five minutes with Google not to make that mistake. HIV is the virus, AIDS is the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, it's not that hard to understand.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, even if parts of it went into Yikes City territory. I wouldn't reread it, but it was entertaining and I especially liked the horror parts.
wanderlustdamsel's review
3.0
As the author points, the book is a collection of 12 short stories. Each one has some theme of supernatural or horror or both combined together. There were elements of time travel which could be scifi but it had more of initial themes rather than scifi theme. Also overall all stories lacked detail narrative. It felt like random story ideas were put together. I think if they were worked upon more, they could have made for better short stories.
immanythings's review
This was a great read. The characters in each story were interesting; I wanted to read more about Eduardo and the lighthouse, there seemed to more to his story. "Faerie Lights", was an amazing tale that reminded me of my favorite royal Fae in another great story. Big Daddy in "Retribution" the karma bug bit him in the ass, again I wanted to read more. Big Daddy, was taken down then what?. There seemed to be more to tell in each story. Overall, I enjoyed The Lighthouse at Montauk Point and Other Stories, and would definitely recommend it for an afternoon of reading.
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