Buy it here:

Cemetery Dance Publishing, Amazon, Bookshop

Synopsis:

Down here in the dark lies a vast and twisted landscape where the wicked, wistful, and profane coalesce. This is where the lonely and lost face their demons, where anxious paranoias are made manifest, and where mundane evil wears a human face. For readers, the sixteen stories found within Cold, Black, & Infinite serve as a harrowing glimpse into the nightmarish imagination of
Todd Keisling, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Devil’s Creek and Scanlines.

Visit a town where the residents are slowly being replaced by mannequins in “We’ve All Gone to the Magic Show.” Go for a drive and discover your favorite radio host is still transmitting from beyond the grave in “Midnight in the Southland.” Laugh at Karen’s misfortune when she learns necromancy isn’t the best way to raise a child in “Afterbirth.” And uncover the true motivation behind one man’s historical betrayal in “Gethsemane.”

Featuring three previously unpublished stories and an introduction by Bram Stoker Award-winner John Langan, Cold, Black, & Infinite establishes Keisling as a leading voice in contemporary indie horror.

Cast your doubts aside and take the plunge. Touch the abyss. It’s waiting.

Review:

Todd Keisling’s last novel, Devil’s Creek was an unsurprising hit. The plot is good, the characters are interesting, and the writing is superb. I did not connect with the novel like some other readers, but it was more my taste than the book itself. This is why I am thrilled to give Keisling another deserved shot. His short story collection Cold, Black, & Infinite: Stories of the Horrific & Strange is a much more appealing representation of his work. The sixteen stories are broken into three different, distinct sections, each with a different markedly different themes. 

The first section “Cold” has five stories, all but one of them taking place on a holiday (if you include Black Friday as a holiday). Each of these stories also have an element of the paranormal and otherworldly. My favorite of these stories, and possibly my favorite story in the collection is “The Happytown Yuletide Massacre”, a story about Angela returning to her hometown on Christmas Eve, possibly to be swept off of her feet by a hometown suitor. This is perfectly setup to echo Hallmark Christmas movies, but of course this one goes very wrong. The ending is very much turns the entire story into a cosmic horror. 

The second section, “Black”, contains five stories that are motivated by revenge. My favorite of this group is “Tommy The Destructo-Bot Vs. The Bullies from Future Street.” The story stars Tommy Slone, a handicap kid that is being picked on by the neighborhood bullies. When he meets Old Lady Future, part witch, part mad scientist, she promises him revenge if she can turn him into his favorite comic book superhero. 

The final section, “Infinite” contains six stories. All of them have a darkness or infinite void that the characters are either facing or jumping into. My favorite of these, “The Smile Factory,” is about the promotion of Marty Godot from cubicle worker to management. In this apocalyptic world, everyone is falling apart, and the higher you climb in the corporate structure, the less human you become. It reminds me of the Zach Galifianakis movie, Visioneers (2008), a little frightening with very dark humor.

Of all three sections, I love every single story in the first two. The third section was a problem for me because I but did not really connect with the stories. The themes of darkness and facing the void are not as interest to me as the overarching themes in the other two sections. Of course this section could be another reader’s favorite because it’s a theme they love. The last section falls into the same problem that I had with Devil’s Creek: the stories are good but they are not my favorite type of stories.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.