I’m not entirely sure what to make of “Spider Pie” as it is rather difficult to classify. I do know one thing; I liked it…a lot! These two dozen short tales from the mind of Alyssa Sturgill are like Grimm’s Fairy tales on acid with a steroid chaser. They are insanity-filled whimsy that range from the truly horrific to the outrageously humorous and just about everything in between. Classifying these short stories as horror simply would not do them justice. Sturgill blends a child-like fascination with monsters with skull-splitting irony.
“Leviathan” is about a boy and his monster. Jester just does not seem to be able to get his pet Leviathan to grow and is the subject of ridicule from his family. But you’ll soon wonder who the master is and who is the pet.
In “Bag of Hair” Justin works in a barber shop and sweeps up the hair, making extra money by selling it on the side. When he can’t make a sale to his usual contacts, he takes the bad home, but soon the hair takes on a life of its own.
“Bunny Threat” is the most darkly amusing tale in the book. Benny has a thing for albinos…he likes to kill them. Pretty soon poor Benny has wiped out all of the albinos in the world. His attempts at creating them by injecting kids with chlorine only creates youngsters who can chlorinate a pool by whizzing into it…but then Benny meets the alien albino bunnies!
Sturgill shows her gruesome and gory side with “Death of a UPS Man”. Here we have a driver that is so dedicated and determined to deliver his package that he handcuffs himself to the door of the house, Hellbent on getting that signature no matter what happens to him.
Alyssa takes aim at gluttonous and greedy kids in the appropriately titled “Scary Tale”. Little Jill and Bobby love to get their Slappy Meals. Dad has to run out and constantly buy them more so they can get their Slappy Meal toys and line them up on the shelves in their room. But one night, the Slappy Meal toys come to life and prove they are not suitable your young children.
At just over a hundred pages the book is short with most of the stories being only a few pages long, but what Sturgill does in just a few pages is amazing. She’s able to push many different buttons on the reader; amusing them, scaring them, and even grossing them out, but what she does best of all is entertain.
– Tim Janson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
