Ziesings
11/4/2022
Loved it! This was my first time reading Reggie Oliver and I'm an instant fan. He is at the top of the scale in a literary sense, and yet manages to be simultaneously down to earth in a very comforting way. He's like eating your favorite homecooked meal and then realizing that it's also super nutritious. This book of short stories is a superb mix of supernatural and gothic horror tales with variety in plots and settings that are linked often linked stylistically and thematically. The reading order of the stories is perfect and added to my enjoyment like the perfect track order of a great music album. It ends on a very big high note with perhaps the best story of the lot in which J. Edgar Hoover and H.P. Lovecraft make highly entertaining appearances, and are sewn into a tale that exhibits Reggie Oliver's virtuosic writing abilities. It's like a difficult literature professor's writing assignment - connect these two unlikely characters in a zombie apocalypse in 15,000 words or less - and Mr. Oliver nailed it with an A+. Witty, charming, and fun!