SHUDDERS
Author and screenwriter, focusing on fantasy and thriller stories, Jordan Tate, invites us to a meeting with the greatest classic monsters of all timei n her horror anthology “Shudders”.
Tribute to the classic monsters, “Shudders” starts with the short story “Into the woods” that revolves around the mythic Wolfman, a creature that devours imprudent tourists and villagers on full moon nights… But don't be fooled by appearances, the villain, is not always what and who they seem to be... And sometimes the past resurfaces in very unexpected ways.
With that story, Jordan once again leaves us with one of these twisted endings she treasures so much, influenced by Hitchcock's work . As finishing reading this tale, the wolf's howling will most likely keeps echoing in your heads, haunting you like the promise of its return on the next full moon.
The journey into mystery and Gothic goes on in the misty streets of London with the legendary “Dracula”, the prince of darkness who never ceases to make much appreciated returns on our screens is the lead of “prison of eternity”. In this short story, the count meets Mina, who, this time is a lonely pickpocket, in love with a young doctor and much famous vampire hunter, but who, regrettably and quickly becomes the prince of darkness victim. Her transformation will promptly plunge her into a heavy loneliness, an eternity that the few remaining memories of a mortal life will appease, before her soul gets completely consumed by the vampire and the lust for blood.
“Meeting Bram Stoker”, raises this uncanny question “What if the author of the famous Dracula was inspired by real meetings with blood suckers? What if someone had witnessed these?”
From the vampire myth we jump to that of the devil, with the very romantic short and Gothic story “The pact”: After a wish, a very beautiful but poor young woman dreaming of acting and celebrity is lured into making a pact with the devil. The demon offers her everything she wants, success, money, on the condition that she gives up on love. But the young actress, meets with her partner and forgets about her promise playing Romeo and Juliet on stage with him...
“Tokage”, reminiscent of Indiana Jones, the old Hammer films and King Kong, follows a tough adventurer and a young female archaeologist who find themselves trapped by a tribe worshiping a very peculiar God.
Finally tenderness and melancholy close this anthology with “Beauty of the heart”, a short story revolving around John Merrick, nicknamed “The Elephant man” and depicting the deep loneliness and abuse in which he lived, in parallel with that of a young prostitute arriving in London. While they are both on the run, the two meet and take refuge in an abandoned house, where they dream of a better future, and where they remake the world, a world in which they too would have right to happiness and love…
Shudders can be purchased on amazon, in its paperback and kindle editions.
Comments