Book Review: A SPLINTER IN YOUR MIND by Jeremy Eads

I recently had the chance to read an advance copy of "A Splinter In Your Mind," a collection of short speculative stories by author Jeremy Eads. He prefaces the book by sharing that these were written during a period of personal loss and financial difficulties, and those themes recur throughout the stories to varying degrees. They're all well written, and effectively creepy. To me, the standouts include:

"Mountain Stranger," which introduces readers to a traveling sales rep and all around loathsome guy who finds himself trapped in an endless and inescapable nightmare as punishment for his selfish, despicable ways. It's the collection's opening salvo, and reminded me of a cross between the Greek fable of King Sisyphus, doomed to roll a boulder up a mountainside over and over for eternity, and the old "Twilight Zone" episode called "Valley of the Shadow," in which a man can't escape a creepy small town in the middle of nowhere.

The chilling, dystopian "We The People" takes the concept of a political debate between rival candidates to a whole new, and extreme level. I loved the imagery Eads evokes in it (a phalanx of armored donkeys, for example, known as "Battle Brays," and a thunderous parade of "War Elephants").

My favorite of the bunch was "The Corpse Eater," in which a young woman discovers a journal written by her great-grandfather that had been locked away, along with a mysterious ring, for decades. It's in these journal entries, chronicling a young, idealistic soldier's experiences in the brutal trenches of the first World War, that Eads (clearly a history buff) seems most in his writing element. The titular creature is truly disturbing, but I wish Eads had fleshed the story out more in the end, perhaps made it novella-length or more, carrying the creepy vendetta further, more of a family affair.

"Black Hollow" is another one that I felt had potential to be reworked into something longer. The premise is pretty basic: a group of teens explore a house rumored to be haunted, only to regret it. But the horrors of that house -- in particular, an upstairs bedroom from which a strange and ominous buzzing can be heard -- are unique and terrifying, enough to have carried the story further than it goes.

Eads is a new author for me, and overall, "A Splinter In Your Mind" is a great introduction. His writing evokes just the right amount of dread to hook you as a reader, reeling you in deeper until each story reaches its chilling conclusion.

Available here.