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Reviewed by Nino Lobiladze for Readers' Favorite
A Funhouse of Nightmares: Twisted Tales for Troubled Grown-ups by Robert L. Appleton is a mesmerizing collection of five short stories for fans of horror, fantasy, dystopia, and magical realism. Chris and Amanda traveled to Peru for an ayahuasca ceremony performed by a shaman, Don Alfredo, to revive their relationship but the ceremony went wrong. The Toad is a story about deceit, vengeance, and self-destruction. Lucia ate an otherworldly truffle and found herself in a parallel dimension inhabited by talking animals. In The Mould, Lucia and Frédéric Pekingese-Wong fight against a power-hungry hedgehog. In Static, Tommy hears the messages in radio static, revealing the future. Tears for Topsy invites us to a wicked circus on the border of worlds. The Book of Fallen Angels reveals a prophecy of the Antichrist. A holy abbot, Guan Shou, faces many temptations to protect the world from destruction.
A Funhouse of Nightmares offers us fast-paced, captivating, and dark stories. The plots of the stories seem complicated, but the author considers every detail and amazes us with sudden twists and unpredictable endings. I liked Tears for Topsy the most. The dark imagery of this short story is fascinating and impressive. Appleton uses eerie metaphors and depicts evil as a vicious circle. The author touches on the themes of kindness and compassion as the antithesis of evil in this and other stories in the collection. Static is another thrilling and entertaining story where Appleton explores the concept of fate and its dominance over humans. At the same time, Static is a character-driven story. It is full of action and holds our attention from the very beginning. In The Mould, Appleton masterfully adds surrealistic and even dark notes to the fairy-tale narrative, offering us a gripping new interpretation of the classic journey into the underworld. The Book of Fallen Angels shows the battle between good and evil from different time perspectives. Appleton boldly combines Buddhist teachings with Judeo-Christian views on the Antichrist and the fall of the angels. I highly recommend this wonderful collection to open-minded, brave, and thoughtful readers.
