 Laughing at Shadows is a delightful collection of stories that are both dark and funny. As someone who loves to laugh, and who loves horror, I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. There is a wide range of topics in this collection. I read stories that featured a dragon, sea monkeys and a cartoon pistachio character. Some stories were gory and some were a little quieter in their spookiness, but most of the stories had me chuckling. Hands down, my favorite story was Captain Pistacio’s Charming Rampage by Jeff Strand. I read this at my desk during my lunch hour, and cackled retty loudly more than once. this story begins like a daytime snackfood commercial, with an exhausted mom at home with two kids wanting totally different unhealthy food for a snack. Only it’s real life, and not a commercial. Until the mom (Mildred) hears an unfamiliar voice, and In walks a man made out of pistachios. Things take a dark and hilarious turn when Mildred begins to question the creature’s existence… Murder Sandwich by Skyler Goff was my next favorite story. It’s the book’s opening story, and I think it was the perfect first story to set the tone of the book. In this story, two men have kidnapped the daughter of a rich man and are holding her hostage for $10 million. The girl is vegan, and when her captors try to feed her a ham sandwich, she goes beserk. A funny story with a surprising ending. I also really enjoyed The Haunting of Peruvius Corcorant by George Nikolopoulos. It’s an interesting little ghost story. Peruvius is hosting a Halloween party for his coworkers and wanted to impress his boss and a girl he likes. So he buys a ghost to haunt the party. He buys a Japanese Yurei which ends up being more depressingly haunting than he bargained for. I loved the ending of this story, it was super sweet. Those were my favorite stories in the book. There were a couple more I really liked, as well as a few I did not finish. A few didn’t seem scary or funny enough for my taste so I skipped to the next one. That’s probably a matter of taste, as they seemed well written. For the most part the stories weren’t so long that I lost interest in them so I worked through the book pretty quickly. Overall, this is a great book if you like humor with a dark twist. It’s a highly-recommended 5-star book that must have been a blast to put together. My rating - 5 out of 5 stars Review by Kimberly Wolkens LAUGHING AT SHADOWS EDITED BY BRETT REISTROFFER Twelve Humorously Horrific Tales! Who says you can't laugh at horror? We've all heard of being scared silly, so obviously there's room between slashings, hauntings, and summonings for a good knee-slapper. Which is exactly were this book of dark-minded but lighthearted short fiction comes in. If you've ever giggled at guts, chuckled at cannibals, or laughed at severed limbs, then this collection of humorously macabre stories might be right up your dark little alley. With twelve tales from some seriously sick and silly writers, it's guaranteed to tickle your funny bone...if not rip it right out of you. Authors featured in this anthology include: Skyler Goff, Andrew Johnston, Alyssa Eckles, Santiago Eximeno, Eric J. Guignard, Jeff Strand, George Nikolopoulos, C L Raven, Sean Logan, William West, Brandon Butler, and W. T. Paterson.   Comments are closed.
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