Equal parts of whimsy and weird, horror and heartbreak, That Which Grows Wild by Eric J. Guignard is a collection of 16 short stories that traverses the darker side of the fantastic.
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Equal parts of whimsy and weird, horror and heartbreak, That Which Grows Wild by Eric J. Guignard is a collection of 16 short stories that traverses the darker side of the fantastic.
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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Very Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 6x1x9; Has some light general reading/shelfwear-otherwise this is a clean, tight copy. Quick dispatch from the UK.
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Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.
The first thing that caught my attention was the wonderful cover art for this collection. The roses are very much growing wild; they look similar to my mother's attempts to growing roses, hers are always crazy explosions of color and thorns. The more I thought about it, the more I found this cover fitting for horror tinged stories. My mother always told me that you could do everything right from a gardening standpoint, but without a little blood, the roses would not grow. She had to pay a price if she wanted them to flourish, her hands and wrists would have long scratches and gouges, even after wearing gloves. Her roses would thrive, and she swore it was because they took their pound of flesh. So look at this cover and I'm sure you will agree with that sentiment, these blossoms are well fed.
That Which Grows Wild boasts 16 stories of the dark fiction flavor and this collection delivered on that promise. Short stories take planning to pull off; you are not given endless pages to build on an idea and present it to your readers as embellished as you may prefer. There is also a certain amount of trust that the reader can gather the information between the words to fill the spaces not spelled out, and that can be met with mixed results. But I found each story here written as a complete tale-there was a recognizable beginning, middle, and ending to every one, no matter if the story was 22 pages long or only 2. I was very impressed as well with the varied subjects found in this collection, the author wrote them masterfully.
A Case Study in Natural Selection and How It Applies to Love - This hit a little close to home, with the world steadily heating up and water becoming scarce, sounds like the next month for 2020 apocalypse bingo. There is the added stress of random human combustion, teenage hormones and survivors' guilt. I don't know if I could handle the end that well.
Last Days of the Gunslinger John Amos - Another dystopian feel, the world as far as the characters can see is overrun by fantastical and bloodthirsty creatures referred to as Hopper. They sound like a horrifying mix of insect and mammal. John Amos has kept his family safe as long as he can, but as the title suggests, time is running out. It was a tense read, I really liked it.
Momma - This got under my skin! Told from the point of view of the only surviving son, Daniel, as he takes care of his mother, who is not always of sound mind and fading fast. I can't really say more without spoilers, but this is a very dark tale. Loved it.
Footprints Fading in the Desert - This one is sad but also really dark. A plane crash survivor follows footprints in hopes of rescue. Went in a direction I wasn't expecting.
The House of the Rising Sun, Forever - The story about opium addiction would probably be the one I had trouble understanding fully. It seemed like 2 separate stories told in tandem, but I don't think that was how I was supposed to read it. I think this is one that will take a few reads for me to get, and that's okay. It was still interesting and colorful.
The Inveterate Establishment of Daddano & Co. - This one was an alternate history event, with a supernatural twist. It was really well done.
Last Night - I loved how this was written, the idea scares the pants off of me but makes for a great story. Another one where the less said the better for spoiler reasons.
Those Who Watch From On High - This gave us a horror story that is possible; it was heartbreaking and perfect.
Vancouver Fog - No wasted words for this 2 page terror.
A Curse and a Kiss - One of my favorites in this collection, this is a fairy tale retold; darker, if possible than original fairy tales. I could see this being made into an animation similar to Junji Ito's horror.
Whispers of the Earth - Grief goes hand in hand with horror, because it shapes how we react to unexplainable things. When you think there are messages coming from a lost loved one, how could you turn away?
A Serving of Nomu Sashimi - The idea that specialized underground eateries can be found is not that big a leap, people eat some weird stuff. This has the added stress of not killing you if prepared wrong, as with the puffer fish, but changing you horribly. But what do you expect when you want your meat a little magical?
Certain Sights of an Afflicted Woman - Another one that hits during this time, set during the 1918 plague. A woman can see out of her infected eye a little bit more than everyone else, but will that save her in the end? This was an interesting story but it also confused me a bit at the end.
A Quaint Ol' Bigfoot Tale - This cryptid tale has a grandfather trying to impart wisdom in a telling of how he lost his hand. I would not want to run into that Sasquatch in the woods.
Dreams of a Little Suicide - I think this is based on a legend, I don't know if it is true or not, that an actor hung themselves while filming for The Wizard of Oz. This story got to me too, the anger and all around rottenness of the protagonist turned antagonist is the stuff of nightmares. I can't imagine the hate it would take to do that to someone.
So this is a 5 star for me. I enjoyed every story, even when I felt it went over my head. I think anyone that likes dark fiction should give this a read, so I am definitely recommending it to people. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.
