BOOK REVIEW: IF ONLY A HEART BY CALEB STEPHENS

22/10/2022

If Only a Heart by Caleb Stephens

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B4S862HD
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Salt Heart Press (3 Oct. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8985871326

A Horror Book Review by Joe Ortlieb

So when I was finished reading If Only a Heart I had to think for a little about what I read. This was a real hit or miss collection for me. It's not as though the stories were poorly written. They just didn't connect with me.

There were some stories I really enjoyed.

Wallpaper Man was a creepy story that I didn't want to end. It was one of those shorts that would make a great longer read. Don't Let Her In had me hoping I never break down on a back road. Backward man was down right creepy.

Those 3 stories I felt were the true stand outs in this collection. The other were ok reads. If I was to reread this collection down the road, I would probably just read. Of course you could read them and love them all. These are my thoughts. That's the thing about opinions we all have them. These just happen to be mine. Like I said no story was poorly written they just weren't for me.

If Only A Heart and Other Tales of Terror
by Caleb Stephens

An unlikely friendship is born in the red clay dirt of a trailer park. Two latchkey kids who will do anything to hold onto one other, despite the consequences.

A disabled boy and his sister move into a house by the sea, one haunted by a demon living in the walls.

A father on a camping trip in a remote section of Appalachia wakes to find his daughter missing, taken by something not quite human.

A traumatized teenager stumbles across a strange slide at a waterpark-one only he can see.

If Only A Heart and Other Tales of Terror is a visceral collection of thirteen stories that explores what happens when we open ourselves to others and dare to let them in. There are monsters on these pages, yes, ones whose teeth cut deep, but never as deep as the teeth of the monsters in the mirror.