Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror

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Read by Dawn is an eclectic mix of stories, some of which I liked very much indeed, some of which bored me to tears, and a few of which I just didn't understand at all. Of the ones that I did like, the first three that come to mind are The Woman Who Coughs up Flies by David Turnbull, What Betty Saw by Joel Jacobs, and Ramsey Campbell's The Place of Revelation.
The Woman Who Coughs Up Flies pulls the reader into the story immediately (this reader anyway) and makes them wonder what exactly has happened to the old woman and why it has happened. It is quite a sad story and it was easy for me to feel the old woman's love when she thought of her grandson. And her pain. It is, as I said, a sad story. It is also a story of betrayal, and revenge (of sorts). It starts well and it ends well. It is very good.
What Betty Saw is a very short story indeed. It is only one and a half pages long and tells of Betty's uncanny powers and how she uses them. It's short and sweet with a powerful ending.
The Place of Revelation is one of the longer stories in the book (none exceed 4000 words) and the central character is a young boy called Colin. Colin has a story to tell, and he tells it to his uncle when he comes to Colin's room in the middle of the night. But that is only fair; his uncle has told Colin enough stories in the past. The Place of Revelation is creepy and mysterious and I am very glad indeed that I don't have an Uncle like Colin's.
The other 25 stories in the book are:
The Colour in the Jar by David Mc
Gillveray
Read by Dawn is 251 pages long, all of the
stories/poems are of a dark nature and with so many stories I am sure that
most readers could find something that they liked. I didn't like all of
the stories, but the ones that I did like, I liked enough for me to
consider the time that I spent reading Read by Dawn time well
spent. |