This edition of Wrapped
In… has exceeded itself with the caliber of author included, the stories and
the editing lay out.
I am not sure how Sekhmet is going to follow on from this
but I sure hope they do, I will be first in line to buy it.
Hair
Shirt Drag by Gordon White: Jesse, or Sissy to his
non-friends, is a backwoods, Southern, effeminate, cross-dressing Witch and is
even a little strange even for each of those sub groups. He comes from a long line of Overhold women
who have the “gift”, each use and supply it in various odd ways but the
outcomes are all the same.
The town has come to
Jesse’s Momma house to help her with some “medicine”, the initiation of her
son, who should have been a girl.
However Jesse is
splendid in his hand me down Hair Shirt and as the townsfolk turn upon him, his
beauty explodes around them. Fantastic
build-up, great finale and brilliant start to this anthology.
I could feel the
atmosphere such is the writing skill of GW, he managed to spin, wind and wallow
me in a tale so beautiful I almost did not notice the dark undertone.
Comes
the Rain by Gregory L. Norris: Granny Rae is dying,
but not in peace. Three of the most awful creatures are after her powers.
Jamison must protect her.
The pace of this story
is enchanting, the rhythm that the author beats out with his words entraps you
into this little snippet of world. His descriptions are vivid and colourful.
The ending is so bittersweet.
Number One Angel by Allison M.
Dickson: Louise is trying to kill her Mama and Phelan, her
lover, has told her how to do it. Gulp, gulp, gulp; the sound of the cake going
down her fat neck.
But
Phelan is not all he seems and only wishes to collect what was his from Mama’s
box.
Short
but punchy, this made me smile, I love the way AMD writes, all her work is
exquisite.
Unto
the Earth by Patrick C Greene: Landon and his
beautiful wife, Agnes, who makes a wonderful Voodoo dinner, if only the dog
would shut up, the cable wasn’t off and Aggy would stop ordering all the
magazines in French!
The tension between
these two and the unspoken things that are in their pasts and what is occurring
now was intriguing.
I think this is one of
my favourite lines to describe love and need - they clutched each other like otter pup littermates.
There was some serious
imagery in this story along with the spooks. The reasoning in the end is
fantastic and I loved the finale!
Brilliant writing and torment from PCG!! He is a master of short
stories.
HÄXENHAUS by Nick Kimbro: eeeeek
at the torturous instruments described and explained.
Our narrator, Kramer,
is close to a house that is prison to witches, a place that has turned
confession, torture and suffering into an art.
The witch that killed
his child is now dead but what parting gift did she leave him. To say I really enjoyed this story would make
me sound perverted, but then I love horror! And this has multiple elements to
it.
To wish suffering on
others, is that human nature? Whatever, it was brilliantly written and
certainly deserves its place in this black anthology.
Stories
I tell to the Girls by Michael G. Williams: The Book People are a coven
working magic through the written word but magic
often requires a sacrifice.
Loved all the book
quotes! But with all their chanting they conjure up Percy the vampire and then,
as the story states, there “…..is some seriously weird reverse-Bella shit.”
Because, actually, he only wants to go to Heaven!
A beautiful tale of
love, forgiveness and something wished for. Gripped from the start I thought
this story had a unique edge using its humour.
The
Rising Son by James Glass: Calahan
has had a taste of Cherry, but apparently who hasn’t! Apparently his brother
who is in love with the great Crowley. So they decide to summon a demon, well
why not?
So his local coven
decide to help, as world domination is not enough fun. However, what pops up is
not quite what they were expecting.
I have read JG before
and always enjoyed the story and writing, no different here, just wish there
were more!
Beautiful,
Broken Things by Rose Blackthorn: Trey with his mantra of
clean now. Trey has done something
that requires penance. He has lost much too, and he appears to be paying. The
world he lives in miserable; dull, grey and dirty.
Ciara gives the
illusion of colour, and such gorgeous descriptions of colour given by the
author, I was mesmerized.
This is a sad tale,
with the lesson of being careful what you wish for. Wonderful.
Not
this Time by Mike Lester: Jack has buried Melanie. I loved
the skill of the author in telling the story through snippets of conversation,
memories and flashbacks.
This was a brief story
but I really felt like a I knew the main characters. Amazing writing.
Into
the Light by Solomon Archer: Elliot got more than
scrapped skin when he fell handlebars over butt off his bike last April.
The grooming of Elliot
into the coven was almost friendly but watching from the outside it’s easy to
see the danger, the author did a brilliant job in conveying this.
The Sight and the
Dreams made uncomfortable reading. BUT I think this line is my favourite from
the whole book (horror and humour are a powerful mix): he imagined a family of raccoons sitting around a tree stump playing
Yahtzee, their little paws clumsily tossing acorns onto a pile as they placed
their bets.
The climatic ending was
expected in such a powerful story and was suitably explosive, perfect.
She
makes my skin crawl by Shenoa Carroll-Bradd: Jaime and Elana,
she who was bitten by the Devil, on her ass no less!
Her small but powerful
punishments result in bloody bags of stuff,
stuff from Jaime, skin from Jaime, skin that goes crawling on its own!! Even Jaime’s
own bath tub was gagging at the revolting descriptions and imagery.
To take a common saying
and place a story around it, awesome!!
Pigeon
by Eric Nash: Maddie has removed her amulet and now
Jack, ex-lover/married another woman/living the wonderful life Jack, is
literally in melt down.
I really enjoyed the fast
pace set by the author, there was no let up, pushing, pushing, pushing….until,
Bang. Glad this was fairly short as am
sure I was holding breathe for the entire read.
Pig
Roast by Aaron Gudmunson: Chet loves food, but mostly with
mustard. Then he meets Sarah.
Whilst I felt where the
story is heading the humour kept me reading! I thought the ending was great and
really wrapped up this anthology well!!
The Bio’s at the end were mostly witty and very
informative! I enjoy finding out about authors, it makes them so much easier to
locate and stalk them!
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