The Red Room and Other Tales (2016)

Halloween is just around the corner ya’ll.  If you are anything like me, you are probably gearing up with lots of spooky movies, scary stories, and a big tub of popcorn and candy filled to the brim.  Most likely, you could catch me consuming a large pumpkin spice latte as well.  It’s that time folks!  So, grab your favorite treats and allow me tell you about this cool book I read called The Red Room and Other Tales written by Bruno Carlos Santos.  This is the perfect book for settling those Halloween cravings.  However, if you are really hungry, you can always eat a Snickers.

The Red Room and Other Tales is a collection of five short stories guaranteed to make you cringe.  The gruesome tales include The Bone Goddess, The Abyss, Paint It Black, The Red Room, and The Evil Deed.  It would be hard to not give anything away by telling you about them.  However, be prepared to encounter vampires, evil sea creatures, dark depression, and a psychotic husband.  Each story is unique in its own way.  Horror anthology novels succeed when the stories are crafted to be separate from each other.  Santos demonstrates the variety of his writing style well.  To prove my point, I read this in one sitting.

I can usually sense a theme throughout every horror anthology I read.  As I mentioned before, the stories in this book are very different.  Regardless, I still picked up on some common denominators.  I perceived broken relationships, an urgency to prove oneself, and psychological disorders.  Themes are A-okay in my book because it tells me the writer understands their own mind.  I’m not saying horror anthologies are not successful because they do not include themes.  I am saying that themes do help with the flow of the stories, though.

I loved every story in this book.  If I had to choose a favorite story, though, I pick The Abyss.  Centered around a strong female character, this tale was bound to win me over.  Also, any horror story involving water freaks me out. Do you guys remember the movie The Descent?  Think along those lines but instead place the characters in water. There you have it, one epic horror story!

I can’t really think of anything I disliked about this book.  The only critique I have is why I didn’t hear about this author sooner.  If you love to read horror books, snatch this one up!  Right now, Amazon has it available for purchase and download at a pretty affordable price.  I hope Bruno Carlos Santos continues writing in the horror genre because he certainly has a knack for it.  I, on the other hand, have a knack for being hungry.  Did I mention a Snickers bar earlier?