Showing results by author "Matt Shaw" in All Categories

It was a killer year for horror fiction of the harder kind. Authors, editors, and publishers presented readers with some startling works of horrific imagination, stories graphic in the extreme yet with subtleties suggesting larger meanings, tales that explore humanity by plumbing depths of soulless inhumanity and, in some cases, outright depravity. The stories here represent the best of them, disturbing tales that dig deep and take you into the dark heart of horror itself, unrelenting and unapologetic.

A family will do anything to survive after a nuclear attack has left their world in ruins. Actions which even surprise them.

From Matt Shaw comes the story of a new breed of serial killer - a stranger who travels the country kidnapping his victims before torturing them and discarding them in a field, dressed up as scarecrows.

The women wake to find themselves locked in a small basement. There are no windows and only one—locked—door. Just when they start to think they have been left to rot in there, the lock clicks and the door opens to reveal him standing there. Simon. Simon doesn’t know his victims. To him they aren’t real people but, rather, play-things instead; snatched from their lives so as to play a simple game of “Simon Says” with him.

Life, Death, and the In-between: A heartbreaking supernatural horror dealing with themes of suicide, grief and the after-life. I guess I wanted to write this given my own personal struggles with thoughts of suicide. Every day I deal with some degree of pain where some days are better than others. When the pain is at its worst, my thoughts often drift to ending my own life.

Twelve housemates enter a house as part of a bold, new television show. All they know is they're to have their actions monitored 24 hours a day and compete in a series of tasks with the knowledge that - at the end of the show - one of them will walk away with 100,000 pounds. But all is not as it seems, and the truth - and danger - becomes apparent as soon as the doors lock them in on their first night, and the first of the 12 is murdered....

For Craig, the trip to the cabin was supposed to be a quiet retreat from his hectic city life where he could concentrate on writing his latest novel. For his wife, Susan, and his two kids, Jamie and Ava, it was supposed to be a weekend vacation. For all of them, it became a nightmare.

The year is 2032, and five-year-old Jacob is opening the biggest gift, beneath the Christmas tree, which is labeled for him: his very first semi-automatic rifle—and he couldn't be prouder. He smiles to his parents who sit close by. They don't smile back. Their minds are stuck on earlier events of what should have been a magical day: the moment they found out Jacob was set to be a brother.

He understood why she did it. She had lost her own baby - one conceived by the unwanted advances of a sexual predator - and hated thinking of them out there in the cemetery, alone and cold. She had to bring them into the warmth. She had to give them the lives they'd otherwise never live. It was her mission. But with each new doll brought home, her yearning for a living child of her own continued to grow. Yes, he knew why she did it, but even so, he wasn't able to stand by her, and he knew she was going to get a lot worse before she got better.

Have you ever been cut up by another road user? Have you have been stuck behind some idiot driving well below the speed limit? Have you ever had to swerve to avoid someone who hasn't used their indicators? Have you ever been served by rude staff members who clearly don't want to be working? Have you ever listened to just how rude old people can be? Ever got frustrated listening to the excessive open-mouthed chewing of someone sitting near you? Have you ever been cheated on by a partner? Paul James has and...he's had enough.

It was supposed to be a pleasant evening out; a break from the stress of the hard-working week they had both endured. A bite to eat in one of their favorite restaurants and then, if there was time, a movie at the cinema opposite. It had been - her husband - Sam's choice; an impromptu date. Yet his day had been one cock-up after another. Meetings had gone on longer than they should have, his phone had run out of battery, and every single traffic light seemed to be working against him.

T-Rex isn't the violent, blood-thirsty dinosaur people believe it to be. He's just grumpy and you would be too if you were sexually frustrated. With arms so small he can't take care of his own business and with other dinosaurs running from him he is left to roam the land with a bad case of blue balls. Gark isn't a dinosaur though. He's one of the two-legged hairless apes who are new on the scene. And he knows just what Rex needs to mellow him out.

Home truths pave the way for a journey of self-discovery and revenge in the direct sequel to Matt Shaw's Sick Bastards.

Mark and Helen's relationship is in a rut. They don't really sleep with one another anymore unless Mark instigates it, and even then, Helen's heart isn't really in it. She just goes through the motions to keep him "happy". Mark doesn't understand why but, being a typical man, he doesn't really ask the important questions, either. He just hopes that, one day, things will improve by themselves. And luckily for Mark, that's exactly what happens. After a trip to the dentist to have a tooth extracted, Mark inadvertently stumbles into Helen's hidden fetish.

Moving from school to school is never easy. You're constantly struggling to catch up to the level of the other students. You're forever meeting new friends just to have to leave them and establish new colleagues at the new schools. You always find yourself lost in the never-ending maze of corridors as you battle to get to grips with where everything is.... But it's worse when the more unfriendly students decide to take an instant dislike to you. Tormenting you each day...pushing you to see how long it is before you're going to snap...

SickEST B*stards continues from the end of SickER B*stards. To understand this short story and wrap up the events of Sick B*stards, you need to listen to the previous two titles.

It was supposed to be a nice family vacation. Their first time out camping. Quality time with the family - more about communicating with each other as opposed to whatever electronic devices got them online. But from the moment they got lost and gave up looking for the camp site, opting to stay in a pretty-looking field deep in the country, things start to go from bad to worse, and soon they find themselves running for their lives.

The Holy Bible, according to Matt Shaw. Taking the popular stories from the Bible and giving them a horror twist, this book is not intended to be used as a way of preaching your beliefs. God would probably frown down upon such usage, but if you wanted to put your feet up and chuckle along with some dark humor, then God would surely approve. For fans of the original book, this isn't for you. You won't like this. Don't listen to it. Don't be mad at me for writing it, though because, if you think about it, I am still getting the important stories out there. Kind of.

Jake has nearly everything he wants from life. He has the good looks. He has the money. He has the fame. He has the model wife. He has the booming film career and popularity. The only thing he doesn't seem to have is the luck, and soon he finds himself without arms or legs....

Dean and Jess knew the house had a tragic past but it did not stop them from making the move with their young daughters. It was supposed to be a new - and bigger - home with which they could continue to build upon their already established happy memories but as the house's past begins to haunt them they realize it is not the dream they first hoped it to be.