WARNING! For those over eighteen. Three twisted tales revolving around the dark underbelly of Alaska. A view the tourists never see. What can induce a person to kill? And there may not be many roads in Alaska, but what is there can make for a wild ride.
Thought-provoking Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2020
I chose to read this book after receiving a free copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.
What If? has six dark stories and a poem that will make you think. I liked them, but I particularly two that rang true during the times that we are in:
“Confined!” is about Fern who self-isolates due to fear of the virus. See what can happen when someone isolates both their mind and body.
“One Race: On World – The Year 2050”: the government makes everyone multicolored, everyone works, everyone is paid the same amount no matter their job, and no one can have their own opinions (sounds a lot like 1984). Then, new neighbors move in…
“The Match” is a poem that’s disturbing. The other three stories are pretty good; they’re interesting and thought-provoking. What If? is a good book to read for when you don’t have much time (the stories are just 6 to 16 pages each) but want something that will make you think.
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes You Stop and ThinkReviewed in the United States on March 6, 2014
Verified Purchase
Faces Behind the Stones #1 is an eerie collection of tales told by the dead themselves. Each of the seven stories reveals what events brought them to their final resting place – an obscure, neglected corner of a graveyard.
Each character tells his or her own story. Often, the reader is left wondering—murder or suicide? All the people are forgotten, their graves ignored by the living, their graves overgrown. Why did these people have to die?
Sadly, none of the dead seemed to matter to the people they left behind. There is no one to grieve for them except a lone stranger who picks her way through the deserted cemetery.
Faces Behind the Stones is an incredible collection of stories, each more eerie and spine tingling than the last. Fran Lewis’ style is chatty and easy to read. The reader feels drawn into the characters as if they really are the ones speaking.
I highly recommend this creepy compilation and look forward to the other books in the series.
Below is a short review of the first tale in the collection: “Murder Through the Eyes of a Dead Woman”
MJ, a beautiful and successful woman in her 60’s, has a secret past that only she and a handful of people know about. She works for a doctor’s office and often goes in early and stays late. One day, she thinks she’s being followed. The feeling of being stalked doesn’t go away, it worsens. She wonders who’s following her and why. Has her past caught up with her? Or is something more insidious awaiting her?
Five Golden Acorns
© Dellani Oakes
Each character tells his or her own story. Often, the reader is left wondering–murder or suicide? All the people are forgotten, their graves ignored by the living, their graves overgrown. Why did these people have to die?
Sadly, none of the dead seemed to matter to the people they left behind. There is no one to grieve for them except a lone stranger who picks her way through the deserted cemetery.
Faces Behind the Stones is an incredible collection of stories, each more eerie and spine tingling than the last. Fran Lewis’ style is chatty and easy to read. The reader feels drawn into the characters as if they really are the ones speaking.
I highly recommend this creepy compilation and look forward to the other books in the series.
WARNING! For those over eighteen. Three twisted tales revolving around the dark underbelly of Alaska. A view the tourists never see. What can induce a person to kill? And there may not be many roads in Alaska, but what is there can make for a wild ride.
IF YOU HAVE JUST ENOUGH TIME TO SIT DOWN AND TAKE IN THESE QUICK STORIES THIS IS YOUR BOOK. THE AUTHOR HAS PUT A LITTLE BIT OF HERSELF INTO EACH ENTERTAINING TALE.
Lindlae Parish
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes You Stop and ThinkReviewed in the United States on March 6, 2014
Verified Purchase
Faces Behind the Stones #1 is an eerie collection of tales told by the dead themselves. Each of the seven stories reveals what events brought them to their final resting place – an obscure, neglected corner of a graveyard.
Each character tells his or her own story. Often, the reader is left wondering—murder or suicide? All the people are forgotten, their graves ignored by the living, their graves overgrown. Why did these people have to die?
Sadly, none of the dead seemed to matter to the people they left behind. There is no one to grieve for them except a lone stranger who picks her way through the deserted cemetery.
Faces Behind the Stones is an incredible collection of stories, each more eerie and spine tingling than the last. Fran Lewis’ style is chatty and easy to read. The reader feels drawn into the characters as if they really are the ones speaking.
I highly recommend this creepy compilation and look forward to the other books in the series.
Below is a short review of the first tale in the collection: “Murder Through the Eyes of a Dead Woman”
MJ, a beautiful and successful woman in her 60’s, has a secret past that only she and a handful of people know about. She works for a doctor’s office and often goes in early and stays late. One day, she thinks she’s being followed. The feeling of being stalked doesn’t go away, it worsens. She wonders who’s following her and why. Has her past caught up with her? Or is something more insidious awaiting her?
Five Golden Acorns
© Dellani Oakes
THESE STORIES WILL CHILL YOU!
WARNING! For those over eighteen. Three twisted tales revolving around the dark underbelly of Alaska. A view the tourists never see. What can induce a person to kill? And there may not be many roads in Alaska, but what is there can make for a wild ride.
WARNING! For those over eighteen. Three twisted tales revolving around the dark underbelly of Alaska. A view the tourists never see. What can induce a person to kill? And there may not be many roads in Alaska, but what is there can make for a wild ride.
In this collection of short stories, you’ll meet vampires, zombies, elves, and aliens. You’ll step into an old haunted house. You’ll even witness a trial of the Kafkaesque sort, set in the distant year 2668.
But you’ll never guess how any of these stories are going to end.
Twisted Tales from the Northwest are chilling, subtle stories of latent horror. There’s not much blood spilt, but still, maybe you should refrain from reading this one at night.
Berk Rourke5.0 out of 5 stars Short stories with unexpected twists and turns.
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2016Verified PurchaseI don’t know exactly how to review these stories except to say they were very well written, very entertaining and very worthwhile reading. I loved the completion of the book and each of the stories resonated. I am so used to reading a continuous tale that a series of stories such as these is almost a shock as each story ends and a new one begins. But no matter. Each was entertaining in its own right and in its own way. All the tales put together to make a fine presentation worthwhile for any group of readers.
May 29, 2016Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseA must have and get more than one as its the kind of series of short stories you just want to share with everyone like when you find a new resturant that has great food and excellent service. After reading one story you will feel satisfied, after you read them all you will become obsessed wanting to read everything you can find by this author
THESE STORIES WILL CHILL YOU!
WARNING! For those over eighteen. Three twisted tales revolving around the dark underbelly of Alaska. A view the tourists never see. What can induce a person to kill? And there may not be many roads in Alaska, but what is there can make for a wild ride.
IF YOU HAVE JUST ENOUGH TIME TO SIT DOWN AND TAKE IN THESE QUICK STORIES THIS IS YOUR BOOK. THE AUTHOR HAS PUT A LITTLE BIT OF HERSELF INTO EACH ENTERTAINING TALE.
Enter worlds both strange and familiar.
Travel through time, encounter witches as they move about their day, be enchanted by childhood fairies, and slay dragons from tales of old. Encounter ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and rocket through space to a wasted planet that auctions its one exportable product… women.
As in life, Twisted Tales from the Universe offers a range of stories that include humor, murder, love, and situations that never end quite the way one would expect.
Wild scenarios with deeper meaningsReviewed in the United States on April 15, 2021Verified PurchaseHaving read Collier’s Book 1 (Twisted Tales From a Skewed Mind), a collection of short stories and wild scenarios that leaves one happily awed, confused and a bit frightened, I found Book 2 equally entertaining, cryptic, bizarre, ironic and tinged with dark humor.
In the twelve unique little tales, we find erotic and surreal imagery, sexual references, repressions, religious ponderings, ancient tribal rites, mythological and occult practices, perhaps a touch of insanity and delusion. It takes a well-honed imagination, and Collier has one, to conjure a morality tale about “morally made” fruit drink mixes, and to make palatable the need for procreation of the cross-species kind. We also “relate” to a hungry cave-dwelling dragon as he searches for a new home and a satisfying meal. Who hasn’t shuddered at the possibility of an immortal Robo-Nanny, contemplating aging in a world fraught with violence and suffering, who makes one last visit to a favorite child she raised, and doles out an appropriate punishment for his complicity.
There is a tenderness and sincerity to Collier’s style, a true grasp of the twisty material, as though she has lived through these vignettes, in real time or through paranormal out-of-body experiences. But there are deeper meanings in the stories – whether they are romantic dream sequences, recollections of a childhood Christmas, a bird couple contemplating a custom-designed home in a neighborhood overrun by monsters: deeper meanings of survival by brawn and wit, of the need for procreation , of a teenager struggling with out-of-date belief systems and finding her own truth, of trying to grasp that disruptions in the earth’s crust are actually caused by a disruption of cosmic musical harmonies.
You can look for these deeper meanings in the stories, or you can just read them for pure escapism.
I will now move on to Book 3, Twisted Tales from the Desert, (if I can get past the creepy cover); no doubt the stories will be as creepy and mind-altering.
In this collection of short stories, you’ll meet vampires, zombies, elves, and aliens. You’ll step into an old haunted house. You’ll even witness a trial of the Kafkaesque sort, set in the distant year 2668.
But you’ll never guess how any of these stories are going to end.
Twisted Tales from the Northwest are chilling, subtle stories of latent horror. There’s not much blood spilt, but still, maybe you should refrain from reading this one at night.
Berk Rourke5.0 out of 5 stars Short stories with unexpected twists and turns.
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2016Verified PurchaseI don’t know exactly how to review these stories except to say they were very well written, very entertaining and very worthwhile reading. I loved the completion of the book and each of the stories resonated. I am so used to reading a continuous tale that a series of stories such as these is almost a shock as each story ends and a new one begins. But no matter. Each was entertaining in its own right and in its own way. All the tales put together make a fine presentation worthwhile for any group of readers.
magine a forest so dense and so filled with trees that you cannot see anything but darkness. The smell of the dead leaves, the creatures that lived there, and the stench they created.
Imagine smashed windows and abandoned satellite dishes and blocks of plaster all over the ground.
Imagine... What might the world be like if humans were suddenly to disappear?
In Population Zero by Fran Lewis, we experience several post-human worlds through the eyes of people who were allowed to visit for one day. A world covered in ice, a world in complete darkness, a world where deserts are plentiful, and others...
Get a glimpse of what our planet would look like if humans stopped existing. Get a glimpse of the future.
