Review: Nightmares by Dan Sihota

Title: Nightmares

Author: Dan Sihota

Publisher: Self-published

Date of Publication: 2015

Number of Pages: 121

Disclaimer: The author provided me a copy of his book in exchange of an honest review. Thank you so much!

Summary

A collection of stories which chill the senses with tales of vivid imagery. Prepare to be drawn into worlds of dark innermost secrets, bleak violence, and ancient lore.

Review

Nightmares is a collection of nine short stories. All of them deal with situations that feel like nightmares do come true, so I couldn't imagine a better title for the collection. 

Some of the stories are pretty realistic, while others have heavy supernatural elements. Whether a young man is taking the bus to visit his girlfriend, or a group of friends travel to India, things get really quickly out of hand. And there is no hope to be seen. In fact, all of protagonists have dark futures ahead of them. I like the fact that superstition and folklore is a part of some of these stories and these are the ones that I prefered, stories like The Spell, Dead Man's Fruit and The Field. I also like the fact that many of them are set in India, a country that seems so different from my own, yet has such rich traditions. 

But I didn't find all of the stories that appealing. For example, the first two stories, Road Rage and The Bus Journey, left me unsure. I couldn't really understand why things were happening the way they did. In these two stories, I couldn't really connect with the characters, because I felt that I was lacking information about their idiosyncrasy. 

The rest of the protagonists, though, were pretty likeable and I was sorry to see them in misery and distress. Ok, some of them brought their bad luck upon themselves, but I was still sad about the way the ended up. I have to comment in particular about the main character of the short story called Torture. He is such a well-developed character that I was very impressed.

All in all, Nightmares is a good collection of unsettling stories. This is a pretty quick read and if you love horror stories and maybe a little bit of violence, then you'll definitely find something to like. 

So my advice is...

Live your nightmares!