LitPick Review
The Real Wolf Man is a collection of fifteen short horror stories that dig into your fears. The last story is broken into two parts. Each story has an introduction from the author that either explains on what he based the story that is about to be told or if he previously wrote it and this story is just a retelling sort with additional details. He also gives like a warning of sorts if it contains any graphic or sexual scenes. Some stories are mild, and some aren’t. It all depends on what the reader personally fears. Have a fear of rodents or elevators? Then those might get to the reader. Some stories will start out slow before getting to the “good parts” but that’s what keeps the anxiety up. You know something is about to happen, but you’re just not sure when and what will happen. These stories have a mixture of romance (A Grave Matter), Sci-Fi in my opinion and fantasy (Monsters in the Box), and just plain anxiety-inducing horror (Prey for Escape). These stories are written over the years, and at the end of some stories, there is a date when it was originally written and a date it was revised.
Opinion:
The way the author paces each story without throwing us, the readers, straight into the action was really well done. He could have thrown us into the main idea of the story which is to terrify us, keep us on the edge, or just freak us out, but he didn’t and I appreciated that. The settings to each story were different as they focused on one main location.
The story, Cheesy Demise, was mild since I don’t have a large fear of rodents, but the images were certainly put into my head thanks to the descriptive words of the rodents that plagued Danny every night. Even though Danny was sleep deprived, I’m still surprised he got any ounce of sleep knowing a rodent was somewhere in his apartment. ThIs was a good first story to get the whole book going. It only intensified from there.
My favorite story was A Grave Matter. This one really started out with the creep factor, not because they were in a cemetery, but because of them being watched. It gave me the heebie jeebies. The groundskeeper really gave an unsettling feeling through the story, and I enjoyed that. I enjoy stories that have a constant thought in the back of my mind “stop reading if you don’t want to freak yourself out.” Of course I kept reading. This story reminded me of one of the paranormal movies I used to watch. The anticipation was there through the encounter with the groundskeeper along with that sense of foreboding.
I really enjoyed the different stories as well as the different level of intensity each story was on. The stories were short but had enough detail that you could understand what was happening, when it happened, and why it was happening. If you are a fan of short horror stories that vary on levels of intensity, I highly recommend the book. You don’t find enough short horror stories that can keep the pace, level of intensity, and play so well on our fears.
