The Poorly Made and Other Things
A Story Collection
-
- $189.00
-
- $189.00
Descripción editorial
An unsettling and creepy short story collection of literary horror set in the Renfield universe from “major new talent” (R.L. Stine) Sam Rebelein, author of Edenville.
“I hope I get to go back to Renfield County again, before too long.” —LitHub on Edenville
There’s something wrong in Renfield County.
It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew The Giant in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.
These are their stories.
In “My Name Is Ellie” a young girl uncovers disturbing secrets hiding in the walls of her beloved grandmother’s home. An unassuming box, built with reclaimed wood, connects a grieving widower with his late wife’s lingering spirit in “Hector Brim.” In “Detour” a father, desperate to return home, finds himself trapped in a dizzying maze, haunted by stories of lurking monsters that live off the remains of weary travelers.
Playing with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief, Sam Rebelein returns upstate to unravel the mysteries of Renfield. But regardless of what started the trouble, there’s one thing of which we can be certain: for those living here, the nightmare is far from over.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rebelein (Edenville) takes a novel approach to the small-town horror story in this collection whose 12 entries interlock to form a dark diorama of Renfield County, a Hudson River Valley community cursed by a historical episode of violent bloodshed. In "The Stain," a frame narrative whose events are also interwoven between the individual stories, Rachel Durwood emails her estranged brother, Tom, a report cobbled together from "anecdotes and articles and newspaper clippings" about a local father's inexplicable slaughter of his family in 1927. Blood and debris from the man's blighted homestead have since been dispersed around the county, spreading the madness that fuels each tale's horrors. "Red X" follows a young woman whose paranoid belief that she endured an alien abduction culminates in her horrific attempt at self-salvation. "Detour" is a Twilight Zone–esque tale of a motorist diverted down back roads to a destination whose signposts appear increasingly ominous. In "So My Cousin Knew This Guy," a harried worker's search for tranquility through meditation opens a window on a world of demons. Rebelein deploys gruesome physical horrors, including cannibalism and self-mutilation, in service to his elaboration of the haunting setting. There's enough fear and mystery on offer here that horror fans will hope to return to Renfield county in future installments.
