If Only A Heart and Other Tales of Terror | Caleb Stephens | Horror | Netgalley DRC Book Review

 

Name of Book : If only a heart and other tales of terror

Author : Caleb Stephens

Publication Date : 3 Oct 2022

Publisher : BooksGoSocial / Salt Heart Press

No. of Pages : 200

Format : Netgalley DRC

An unlikely friendship is born in the red clay dirt of a trailer park. Two latchkey kids who will do anything to hold onto one other, despite the consequences.

A disabled boy and his sister move into a house by the sea, one haunted by a demon living in the walls.

A father on a camping trip in a remote section of Appalachia wakes to find his daughter missing, taken by something not quite human.

A traumatized teenager stumbles across a strange slide at a waterpark—one only he can see.

If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror is a visceral collection of thirteen stories that explore what happens when we open ourselves to others and dare to let them in. There are monsters on these pages, yes, ones whose teeth cut deep, but never as deep as the teeth of the monsters in the mirror.

Caleb Stephens is a dark fiction author writing from somewhere deep in the Colorado mountains. His short stories have appeared in multiple publications and podcasts, including The NoSleep Podcast, Chilling Tales for Dark Nights, MetaStellar, The Dread Machine, Tales to Terrify, and more. His dark fiction collection If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror is available through Salt Heart Press and includes the short story “The Wallpaper Man,” which was adapted to film by Falconer Film & Media in 2022. He is also the author of Feeders, a speculative horror thriller available through Timber Ghost Press, and The Girls in the Cabin, a psychological thriller available through Joffe Books.

My Opinion

If only a heart and other tales of terror by Caleb Stephens is a collection of horror short stories. The stories had a nice vibe of horror which makes them interesting. For me, the first story "The Wallpaper Man" was very haunting and terrifying. But, the other stories could not create that much terror. They were just simple stories and just a hint of terror. I had high hopes from the book.

I felt the stories missed to make their mark. I could only give it 3 stars only. 

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