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| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
I was intrigued, when I found this book delivers on the terror and suspense that I liked about those shows, only in book form. So, drink your coffee and don’t talk to the lady in your head. Moreover, be sure you get some ID from your landlord. Here comes a review of “Night Vision” by Augie Peterson, brace yourselves, terror is coming.
Opinion
Oh, how I love short stories, and I think Augie must have noticed that when she contacted me about a review. I’m glad she did. Once again this is an honest review, one that Augie asked for, but one I take seriously. I picked the adorable set of terrifying short stories on Kindle Unlimited, which is fantastic.
Immediately, I was thrown into a story that could have come out of “The Twilight Zone” only it was written to me, better than an episode of the old show. The layers that were put into each short story are lovely. The secret to an excellent terrifying short story put a bunch of believable facts into it, then layer the tale into it. The more there is to know that is real, the more the disbelief becomes terrifying. Augie didn’t disappoint on that front at all. I was freaked out from the first story, heartbroken at the second one, and by the fifth one I was grimacing at parts or choked up in others.
This series is scary to someone like me because even though it’s fiction, the realities of it are enough to creep you out. Trust me, the Crypt Keeper got nothing on Augie Peterson, because she’s terrifying and a lovely writer. You heard me Crypty; you got competition for my nightmare narration from now on. Specifically, there is one story involving a doll, that has had me shivering the entire day. I have dolls, I love dolls, I'm not too fond of haunting doll movies, and this one is straight up nightmare fuel. No spoilers, I want you all to read that one, and tell me what you think.
I digress, let’s go into a few critiques and the biggest one of them was the amount of fear this gave me. Yep, Mrs. Y is a fraidy cat, and that's not likely to change. This thing is probably going to have me shivering and looking behind me all day long. I’m never a fan of that creepy feeling that all things are wrong behind me because something scared me earlier. I remain the same person who used to douse my backyard floodlights on, whenever I watched the Walking Dead because I kept checking the backyard for walkers.
However, I have no critiques of the grammar, spelling, e-book structure, formatting, mobi copy, margins or chapter marks. This collection is edited so cleanly, and so beautifully that I think the editor needs to be taken to a steak dinner, and sent roses. I haven’t seen a short story set given this much editing love in ages. There is one part where there is a beautiful letter placed in centered alignment while the rest of the book is in justified, and that’s not a critique. That was nice on the eyes because it was a consistent break off the narrative to show a letter.
For some other positives, there are some adorable but creepy little drawings in this book. If you don’t like creepy illustrations, flip the page fast. Otherwise, the pictures are not bad, just scary because each fits the stories they come before or after.
Of significant note, each story is a full story, beginning, middle and ending. Again, a story does not have to be extended into a longer format to have a whole tale. Some of these such as the Apartment one, are very short, but the collection of stories are perfectly bite-sized.
Score
So with this collection of terror, I’m going to give “Night Vision” a score of 98/100. That’s a five-star review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you want to get some terror in your mind, and would love to do that with some short stories, read this book! I want to thank Augie again for asking me to review this, and I hope you all have a pleasant day!
