“What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!”
Charles Darwin in a letter to his friend Joseph Hooker dated July 13, 1856
Edition:
Kindle e-book (Kindle Unlimited – my free trial is almost up, oh no!)
Synopsis:
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but supernatural curiosities brought it back.
A Jack-in-the-Box made from skulls.
A monster egg in the mail.
A sketchbook bridging imagination with reality.
What other wondrous and terrible secrets will these survivors tell?
Cruel Works of Nature is a collection of 11 horror novellas about strange and exciting supernatural encounters. Reality and the fantastic are blended seamlessly in these immersive tales, with plenty of mystery to lead the reader on a thrilling journey. Some stories are dark and macabre while others whimsical and lighthearted, together ensuring constant surprises and terrifying twists to keep you reading until the very last page.
Special edition with full page illustrations. Hand illustrated by the author herself, these images will bring the stories to life and give unique insights into the wild unknown.
My Thoughts:
Ok, first off, I love that even the e-book contains the author’s illustrations, and they are wonderful. I found myself excited to see each new one. For the stories themselves, I didn’t think there was a weak one among them. Out of eleven stories, I enjoyed them all quite a bit. I’m going to stick with my prior short story collection format and rate each story separately and then add them up for an average to review the book as a whole.
The Stories:
The first story is titled Foliage. In this, a young woman is trying to fix up the estate of the grandparents who raised her years after they disappeared (for which she was unofficially blamed by the townsfolk).
This is a brilliant story. I absolutely loved it. It was super gross, but in the best possible way.
Jack in the Box is a story of grief at the loss of a child, a failing marriage, madness and a jack in the box.
It’s definitely creepy and well-written, but ultimately not my favorite of the bunch.
Black Sand tells the story of a beach on the coast of Italy where the sand is perfectly black. A woman on vacation is pushed into going to visit it, but is warned that no matter what, she mustn’t touch the sand.
This one features one kick-ass lady and a dude whose kinda dumb.
Back Alley Sue is about loss, grief, and acceptance. What makes it unique is that our protagonist is a homeless man coming to terms with what drove him to his current state.
Sue is pretty cool.
Girl on Fire is my favorite entry in this collection. It is a good old fashioned tale of revenge by way of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
“I am the fucking apocalypse.”
I mean, come on – that line! So rad.
Scuttlebug is a big ol’ platter of fuckin’ nope. Keep a giant-sized can of Raid handy, and good luck with this one.
I mean, it’s good, but…ick.
The Path Through Lower Fell is definitely my second favorite on the list. It plays into one of my greatest (completely irrational) fears – cows. I don’t like them, I don’t trust them, and I JUST FUCKING KNOW they are up to no good.
Thank you, Gemma Amor, for reinforcing my greatest fear.
His Life’s Work is about a doctor making a house call on a seemingly eccentric, very old scientist who had a recent fall.
It’s fun, gory cosmic horror.
Special Delivery will make you never want to open another package as long as you live.
Who the hell sent it?!
It Sees You When You’re Sleeping is good, gory Christmas-monster horror.
Gives you good reason to hate the holidays.
Sketchbook is about a cursed sketchbook and a dying woman.
This was probably my least favorite, but it was still pretty good.
Overall Rating:
Not bad! It was actually just over at 4.2. This is a really strong collection that I highly recommend checking out! It’s another one that I definitely want to pick up in physical format once my buying ban is up (oh yeah, I’m on a book buying ban because my personal TBR -not to even mention my ARC one- is out of control).
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About the Author (via GoodReads):
I’m a horror fiction author, podcaster, artist and voice actor from Bristol, in the U.K.
I write for the wildly popular NoSleep Podcast and various other horror fiction audio dramas. I’m also writing, producing and acting in two shows, ‘Calling Darkness’, and ‘Whisper Ridge’, out in 2019. My first anthology of short stories, ‘Cruel Works of Nature’, was released in 2018, and my next book is the novella ‘Collection’.
I’m heavily influenced by classical literature, gothic romance and magic realism. I am most at home inside a dusty, rundown mansion or in front of a fire with a single malt and a dog-eared copy of anything by Angela Carter.
I’m open to collaborations in 2019- find me at @manylittlewords on Twitter and throw ideas at me.
Cruel Works of Nature By Gemma Amor Haunted House Publishing LLC Horror ASIN: B07KSKKGFS Published: September 4, 2019 E-book, paperback 381 Pages
