A solid, engaging, entertaining collection of short stories, Beasts boasts a lot of range, which is a good way to start making a name for yourself as an author. A woman is stalked by one of her murder victims, who keeps returning at a different (and younger) age. A detective takes a case which finds him investigating a murder - oh, and meeting a young man with wings. A (literal) skeleton millionaire prepares for his annual Halloween party. A woman gets into a tow truck and flirts with a driver, while strange spirits watch her from outside. And if that's not enough, how about nine very different takes on the age-old rivalry between Sasquatch and Chupacabra, told as everything from office politics to savage warfare? Detzner's got a great imagination, but more than that, he's got a gift for knowing how to use the limited real estate of a short story well. Nothing here overstays its welcome, and indeed, a lot of them leave enough to the imagination to be truly satisfying in a way that overexplaining wouldn't have accomplished. By and large, this is a horror collection, but it's hard to really pigeonhole it entirely as that; some feel closer to science-fiction of a Bradbury bent, while some feel more akin to Neil Gaiman's sense of strange closeness to something primal and magical. Some are just plain fun, while others are grim and unsettling in the extreme. The only real complaint I have about Beasts is that they're all good, but none of them are great in the way you want from a short story collection; I spent the whole read enjoying all of it but never quite feeling that push into out and out love that the best stories can make for you. But that being said, I still think it's a great collection, and it's a solid testament to Detzner's imagination and idea-generating capacity; it's definitely got me wondering what else he's got floating around that head of his.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe