“Doom Sayer” by Zachary
T. Owen
Review written by Diana
Iozzia
Tonight, I finished this second collection of horror
short stories written by the independent author, Mr. Zachary Owen. I thoroughly
enjoyed Mr. Owen’s first short story collection, “Burn Down the House and
Everyone in It.” When I had the chance to read his second book, published just
this February of 2017, I was very interested.
If I count the days, I think it only took me three
afternoons and one night to read this, so it’s very easily read and digestible.
In comparison to his first book, Mr. Owen created more creepy and unsettling
stories in his second novel than the first. The first felt more comical, but
the second felt more gruesome and outlandish.
The first half of the stories were okay to me. I enjoyed
them, but the second half of the book was filled with interesting stories. As I
spoke about in my review of his first book, Mr. Owen uses common fears and
exemplifies them in his stories. These fear-filled felt much more natural and realistic
than the first collection. Owen’s worlds that he creates are natural, but they
are just at the fringe of your worst nightmare.
Personally, my favorite stories from this collection
were:
“The Orphan Room”, which wasn’t as realistic and natural,
but it reminded me of “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman.
“Lucifer’s Dream Box”, an interesting story about modern
art and secret pleasures.
“What We Do for Love” felt like a haunting, cautionary,
fairy tale. An interesting story, leaving you wondering who indeed was the
beast.
The last 60-70 pages (I didn’t do the math) were a
fantastic, eerie tale about a pond in the woods, with macabre secrets hiding in
said woods. “Beauties in the Deep” was a really vivid and interesting story.
I’d love to see it played out in a short film.
This second collection of horror stories by Zachary Owen
were great, but I can’t even pick which novel I enjoyed more. I would seriously
consider reading both.
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