Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collection of Fear
by J. A. Crook
Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collection of Fear explores primal human fear with stories of tragic loss, murder, psychological torment, the afterlife, mental perversion, hidden evils and dark taboo. The short story anthology shows us that the greatest fear is that within ourselves.Amid the recesses, darkness reigns. In "Humansville," a small town in Missouri is visited by an outsider. Fate stirs him into the hands of a most unusual family and evil permits itself to a seat at the table. In "Black and White," a disease that some see as a blessing is instead a curse, opening the dark shroud of our world to things meant to be unseen. "The Eastern Tunnel" brings to question the fate of our simplest actions and the how both violent and subtle the passage of one world to the next may be. "The Horse, The Elephant & The Lion" follows a despairing mother like a thick shadow, wading with her through the tragedy and terror of her dreadful loss. "Chasing Crows" wipes away the oily obscurity of depression to show that hope comes in unlikely forms. "At the Bottom" documents Eddie, buried beneath his guilt manifested and reveals beneath the filth of his pain the truth of his sickness. "Memoirs of Jacob Bright, Ten Days Haunted" submerges us into madness that can only be satiated with timely blood. "Of Love and Death" convulses our spirit with shattered love and loss and exposes how death is no match for true love. "Binky" captures our worst of fears—the threat to a child and how from the maw of darkness can come a warning that changes everything. "Soup" settles unfinished business in the town of Humansville and twists and turns into unexpected and sudden endings. Finally, the macabre "The Widow, I" reanimates vengeance and brings it viciously to the doorstep of a supposed killer. In Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collection of Fear, spirits bound by the depth of our deepest fears entwine around the finger of terrible fate.