Some Short Stories from Kealan Patrick Burke

It's been a while since I've been into the office so the Kindle App has been left feeling all sad and unappreciated... until yesterday when I had to go into the office and needed some reading for the journey home :o) A feeling that 'It's October so I should probably read something scary' and then coming across Kealan Patrick Burke's 'The Tent' sealed the deal. I mean, what's so scary about a tent with no-one in it, right? Quite a fair bit actually... Let me tell you about 'The Tent' and the other two stories that I ended up reading afterwards (yep, 'The Tent' was so good that I ended up looking for more to read, and found it). Quick thoughts are the order of the day again. Work is looking like a tough one today...

The perfect getaway...The perfect place to hide...Hocking Hills, Ohio is an oasis for campers, hikers, nature enthusiasts, and for those who just want to get away and lose themselves in the wild.And as long as you follow your guide's advice and stay within the permitted areas, you can expect to survive the night. Because deep within the dark woods, something insidious awaits, something few have ever seen, something ancient, unknowable, and insatiable.If you go down to these woods today, you won't live to see the sunrise...

What's worse than being lost in a forest, in torrential, with a soon to be ex-wife that cannot stand you? The moment you realise your teenage son has just gone missing... And then it gets even worse, seriously. I couldn't stop reading this one and every time I thought that things couldn't possibly get worse, they promptly did. Things even managed to get worse after the point where you think that the story comes to an end. Fair play to Burke then for consistently maintaining the tension, and pacing, throughout as well as offering our lead a shot at finally getting some self respect. 'The Tent' is a vicious little creature feature that doesn't let up for a second and effortlessly carries you along for the ride. I loved it.

So I finished 'The Tent' and had to read something else by Kealan Patrick Burke right away. I knew that I had 'Sour Candy' on the App and that it was way overdue a re-read. What I completely forgot was that I'd already reviewed it here so... Here's the link if you fancy a read, 'Sour Candy' is still an awesome piece of cosmic horror and the ending is just perfect. I stand by everything I said in my original review, I'm just not going to copy and paste it here. Click on the link above for the full review but whether you read that or not, you definitely need to read 'Sour Candy'. No excuses ;o)


"What follows is the transcript from a series of screenshots emailed to the Columbus City Police on June 7th, 2011, and subsequently distributed to the media."

Everyone has a page...

In the last few years, social networking has exploded as one of the best and easiest means of keeping in touch with people. It increases your visibility, allows the creation of a profile that shows you to the world and lets them know everything about you.

Allows anyone to find you.

'Offline' is another re-read and remains as chilling as it was when I first picked it up. 'Past Me' pretty much said everything that was needed so I'm swiping his thoughts from a much older review. I don't think 'Offline' is still a free read but it's only 99p and worth every penny. Here goes,

'Offline' is only 19 pages long which makes it very difficult to say anything meaningful without totally spoiling it. What I will say is that it is an incredibly creepy read that had me wanting Mandy to just turn her computer off and stop talking to the strange guy at the other end. She doesn't though and I had a sick feeling in my stomach as the almost palpable sense of horror compelled me to keep reading. And just when I thought that I had a handle on what was going on, Burke threw in a really nasty surprise that I never saw coming and even had time to offer up a little social commentary as well. All in nineteen pages.

'Offline' is a nasty little slice of horror that wants you to read it and say, 'Oh god... no!' right at the end. And you will.


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