Synopsis
Enter “Nightmares from a Desk.”
A chilling collection of horror stories bound to take you on a rollercoaster of terror and suspense. Each tale is meticulously crafted to take you through twists and turns, designed to lure you into a world of spine-tingling encounters, unearthly creatures, and unspeakable nightmares.
Review
I’ve had this paperback for a while, so I decided to get to it as a spooky season read, as well as a Hispanic Heritage Month read.
The first story, The Crossing Guard, is also available separately as a kind of sample to the author’s writing. There is something off about Val the crossing guard. Eric has taken notice, and he feels certain. She’s doing something funky to the water bottles she offers out to the school kids. But when she catches him trying to destroy them, he quickly blames another passing kid. Safe for the moment, but no less culpable.
It read like a Goosebumps short, like something from Tales to Give You Goosebumps or even the newer series Stinetinglers. It even has the kind of classic cliffhanger ending you’d expect. I look forward to the sequel story.
While many of these shorts read like the author’s version of Goosebumps, they do range from middle grade characters/feeling to adult reads. Some of which are definitely more extreme too. One of my favorites is a story about a break in that’s mixed the feelings of slashers/The Strangers vibes with those of the more mysterious and ancient ritual tropes. Think home invasion times un-killable killer. It allowed for some really interesting twists, and even got my own creative ideas flowing honestly.
From monsters to aliens, theme parks to bugs, magic napkins and evil lies, Heredia knows his way around some horror tropes. And this collection has a fantastic set of story headers.
There’s also a great deal of diversity present in these stories that I feel as if you don’t exactly see elsewhere. That remembrance to include others. If it wasn’t the main character, it was a named character that was involved. And I thought that was perfect for Hispanic Heritage Month.
I am steadily cruising through this October TBR, are you keeping up?!
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