Tattered Souls II
Ed. Frank J. Hutton
Publisher: Cutting Block Press
Release Date: August 1, 2011
Pages: 218
Price: $18.95
Available for purchase on the publisher’s website

Featuring stories from Forrest Aguirre, Tim W. Burke, Stephanie Shaw, Elias Siqueros, Kathleen Dale, Melanie Fogel, Anne Michaud, and Steve Ruthenbeck, Tattered Souls II is the second volume of the Tattered Souls anthologies, the first of which, also edited by Frank J. Hutton, offered a selection of individual works, each by a different author, with a focus on exploring the provocative boundary of fear.

The ninth anthology from the great minds at Cutting Block Press and their fourth long fiction anthology since 2006, and although many writers have said this, I think it bears repeating–literary horror does, in fact, exist, and despite my dislike of labels and over-categorizing genre fiction, Cutting Block continues to get it right as they do with this latest offering. When I say literary I don’t necessarily mean in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, or Daphne DuMaurier, though they’re certainly some of the names that first come to mind. What I’m alluding to is subtler works that leave the reader with a deeper sense of disquietude after having read a particularly chilling tale rather than the splatterfests or B-movie imitations that characterize what most people think of as horror.

Making the reader feel disgust or revulsion doesn’t necessarily produce the scariest story. Grossouts definitely have their place in the genre, but the most memorable horror doesn’t come from who can write the most gruesome descriptions–that’s not hard. Striking genuine fear in the heart of the reader, or at least making them feel discomfort at the actions of the characters? That’s extremely difficult, and something few can pull off. And although I didn’t find the stories collected in Tattered Souls to be scary in the traditional sense, they are disquieting and memorable, and they do succeed in their aim to explore people’s fears.

The anthology kicks off with Yellow Called and Mom Was There by Burke, a sci-fi story in a world where everyone, including the main character and his mother, is hooked up to a computer program called Synapticel that distributes injections into people and has now turned its focus onto widespread targeting of people’s pleasure centres. It shares other people’s memories and distributes ‘zombularity.’ I found the ending vague, but it reminded me of something that Phillip K. Dick could have written, and it was a good story overall.

Next came my favourite pick, the best story of the bunch, Mademoiselle Guignol by Stephanie Shaw. With a title like that and an author bio stating that she’s been involved in theatre, I couldn’t wait to get into this one and had very high expectations that Ms. Shaw delivered on. It’s set in 1913 and told in a second person point of view in some parts, which, although usually not recommended, works quite well here. The descriptions are grounded in a historical context and Paris is brought to life with the main character’s bird’s eye view as she (and later, the second character to go into the second person) guides us through the city. I couldn’t have been more glad to have ended up in the theatre of the Grand Guignol, which you can read more about here.

Lina is an actress at the theatre and increasingly sick of dying a thousand different ways. She tells the owner, Max (also her lover) that she wants to quit, but he doesn’t want her to leave, and someone else wants to end her career permanently. I won’t give much more away, because you really should check this one out and discover it for yourself, but the characterization is excellent, the dialogue superb, and the ending appropriate. If you thought the scene in Interview with the Vampire in the Theatre de Vampires was gruesome, you’ll rethink that after you read this story, not because of the descriptions of violence (of which there aren’t many), but because of the way the story is written.

Next we have The First Stroke about a retired Polish dollmaker with people after him because of his prized creation, Jan, a doll that looks like his son. This one had a Pinnochio vibe to it, and although a tad on the predictable side, the story still delivered on the creepiness factor.

Kathleen Dale explores domestic violence in Becka, an epistolary tale that led me to believe that Becka could have been the bigger monster than her husband; an interesting take on the subject. With Pied-a-Terre, Melanie Fogel shows us the story of a woman so caught up in her past lives from Venice to Alexandria and more who buys an expensive condo and thinks her life is going to improve after her divorce only to have a breakdown as she succumbs into her own world. Misery of Me by French-Canadian author Anne Michaud is a cautionary tale of drug abuse that involves an undead junkie. Also worth checking out is The Arch by Forrest Aguirre, which is about a student, Jason, who hears about a book called The Arch: Conjecture of Cities in the bibliography of a dusty architecture tome, and seeks the book and its creator only to find that The Arch isn’t a book. It’s a place, and a rather disturbing one at that. It’s a bit on the longer side, but still a well-crafted tale.

The anthology ends with I was a Teenage Zombie Apocalypse by Steve Ruthenbeck, which deals with Jeremy, the teenage protagonist, who finds himself embroiled in a zombie apocalypse to which his parents have succumbed. He “rescues” a girl he likes, Julie, but she learns that there are worse monsters than zombies–the hard way.

Overall, it’s a fantastic collection and well put together; Cutting Block continues to publish excellent, well-crafted tales in each anthology that they do, and Tattered Souls II is no exception. It’s wonderful to see the quality in each new volume they release.

Horror fans, I urge you to support independent presses like Cutting Block who deliver some of the finest work in the genre today, whether it’s by buying a paperback or Kindle edition of this text. Every horror aficionado should have this on his or her shelf.

Also, don’t forget to check out Horror Library Volume 4, also available from Cutting Block.

Thanks for reading!