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| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
Opinion
I started following WB Welch on Twitter a few months ago, and I’ve enjoyed her tweets. I’ve seen excerpts of this book in bits in her Tweets, and then one night she got on Twitter and read some of it for us all in a live stream. So trust me, I was pumped for this book.
Here comes a full disclosure. WB Welsh had a Twitter Give-a-way that was not for her book, but rather just a follower give away, and I won. She did me a kindness that has lasted me all winter. She sent me an Orange Spice candle, a bag of coffee and words so kind it matched the coffee in how it made me feel. The very least I can do something for her and all I can do is read her book. However, I’m determined to do more than just read a book, and I wanted to be sure I gave her a full an honest review, no punches pulled, as I do anyone, so that is what I am going to do here. I think she earned my best and most honest take on her story.
“Blood Drops” is, is a collection of short horror stories. As most of you who have been following me for some time now, I love short stories, and I tend to read much horror as of late, even if I am a big ol’ ‘Fraidy cat book reviewer who has far too active of imagination for this level of terror. “Blood Drops” however is pretty perfect for my wheelhouse on what I’d pick up for myself. It’s also on Kindle Unlimited, but if you wish to purchase a copy, it is on sale in an eBook for $2.99 which is very inexpensive.
My first impressions of the book are that the cover has an understated but classy and very relevant tone to it. This isn’t terrifying to be terrifying; It’s just right given what you will be reading. When I opened the book, WB gets right to the point. The first story specifically was a sizzler to the mind. Moreover, though I knew it was a horror collection, I was surprised by the twist of the first story. Thus I wanted to read more.
This is the part of the review where I go into critiques, and let’s start with one from my “Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation” part of scoring. Short stories are meant to be short and to the point, which is done well here. The only big thing I would have asked for is a bit more spacing between the paragraphs just for ease of eyes, but that’s about it. It honestly would have tweaked the book up a small notch and made it that much more beautiful to the eyes.
My next critique comes in the “Lost in Translation” portion of my scoring. I need to do more research on horrific figures in history because there was one story referring to historical data and some of the names that were dropped I did not know. I had to look them up, and then found out the horror rich nightmare fuel that went into some of these stories. I’m not sure if I’m better or worse for it, but it did scare me. This is a critique because I had to research it, so if you’re not familiar with some of these names don’t feel bad, I wasn’t either. It’s not going to ruin your story if you do not know who is being referenced, but it might make it more terrifying if you do.
Let me go into the positives that I enjoyed about the book. First among them, if WB hasn’t taken her Editor out for a steak dinner and wine, WB needs to get on that. This is a clean and well-edited book, with perfect e-book margins, gorgeous indentations, excellent grammar, spelling, and prose. I’m not just saying this because I like her as a writer, I’m saying this as an enthusiast of beautiful edited and compiled books. Sometimes short stories do not get the love they deserve in the editing process because they are rushed at times. That isn’t what happened here, and it shows. “Blood Drops” was given affection and love so the reader can enjoy it.
Next, the research done to make the stories is impressive and appreciated. Now, right, I had to look things up for personal knowledge, but for the stuff, I already knew it was delightful to see things that fit. There is so much liveliness to understanding just how on point the facts are. Everything from anatomy facts, to law facts to even historical events. The topics in “Blood Drops” that range from skin-changers to gory serial killers, to some terrible accidents, but have bits of reality in it that come from knowledge. From the most improbable scenario to the most likely one, it’s a collection of scary stuff.
A couple of the stories realistically scared me, chiefly the second one which I could see happening to anyone and, it involved girls chasing each other just as their mother is not around taking a shower. As a mom, that second one scared me. It’s probably why I do the things I do when my kids are playing and focus on me the time when they do not need me as much. The third to last story made me empathize with the father character much, but I almost feel he didn’t do enough to put a real end to the situation. .Specifically, with that one story, that wasn’t a scary story as much as it was morally disgusting and I felt that was the kind of story that should have ended with some sort of horror torture table involved but did not because the situation is explicitly disgusting in and of itself. I could not empathize with the main male character in that story at all and wanted to see something more terrible occur to him.
Take that horror collection! Even I, the kind and sweet Mrs. Y have knee jerk reactions to terrible situations.
Overall, this collection gave me a chill, and it was the right kind. I am happy to report that this is the perfect kind of book to get scared too. My guess is after reading everything that WB Welch’s Google search must be terrifying, as most good Horror Writers have from what I’ve seen on Twitter. It's probably shudder-worthy in the least.
Score
Now for a score, and after doing all of my math, I am happy to inform you all that “Blood Drops” has a lovely 94/100 and that is a 5 Star Review on Amazon and Goodreads. Would you like something scary? Pick this up and try to read it during daylight hours if you are just as much of a scardy cat as I am.
Until tomorrow my friends, have the best day possible.
