Demonic Wildlife

3.5 out of 5 Stars

A sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing compilation of “Campfire stories” involving animals in some capacity and, for the most point.. VERY WELL DONE!

The disappointing story in the mix was the 2nd short story in the compilation “Ninji by Richard A Wentworth” I’m sorry to say that this one was hard to follow with a lot of sentences that didn’t really seem to finish but just….. continuing on with a completely different thought like the train was de-railed. There were also many re-occurring spelling errors (THREW instead of THROUGH, THOUGH instead of THOUGHT, RIDDING instead of RIDING, etc.) and broken sentences like

“You’re on your sailboat! But…how in the world? And were under sail power, too?”

That actually had me highlighting and making notes that just said “???”

But, onwards and upwards! Since it is a group of short stories by different authors I’m not going to take up all of your time giving you a synopsis of each one (and potentially ruining the magic of the journey) instead I will do my favourite thing by giving you some of my favourite quotes from some of the stories to, hopefully, suck you all in!

The Spider Laughs by Linda Hill

“Its deep, throaty, rumbling laugh similar to the way villains laugh just before they blow up orphanages or embezzle money from the elderly, only the spider laughs quieter.”

“Nor am I afraid that it will jump onto my face and suck out all of the juice from my eyeballs leaving them to rattle in my head like shrivelled, dried apricots, because I know this particular spider is not of the eyeball-sucking variety. (Those spiders live in your couch. Not my couch. Your couch.)”

The Legend of the Chucacabra by Jeremy Rodden

“Now afore you all go off on that famous coyote and roadrunner situation, let me stop you . We live in a world of fact, even in the Tooniverse. Some of you may come from some pretty fantastical sections of Toonopolis.” He pointed to me and said, “Yuki there comes from a really wacky part without a lot of grounding in reality.” I wasn’t sure to take offense or to agree with him. Sure, Animetown seemed perfectly normal if it was all you ever knew, but having travelled to other sections of the Tooniverse, I knew it was pretty far on the absurd end of the spectrum at times. Even so, I felt I should defend my home section so I stuck out my tongue and took my right index finger to my lower right eyelid and pulled it down. “Don’t you akanbe me, son,” the cowboy said immediately.”

“This is where the creature earned its nickname: Chucacabra. It derived its name from the Chupacabra, a legend of Latin America in the Real World, but you know, with poop inside of it.”

CATagories for 500 by Clint Doyle

“A dark bolt tore out of the kitchen scrabbling across the floor and under the curtain. What the hell made cats do that anyway? At least it had stopped shredding the chair next to his bed.”

“He sauntered up to his Human charge. This was not his first. In fact, this was his 7th. Two more to go and he could take his place as an Oracle in the collective consciousness. Cats held the memories not only of their past lives, but the collected wisdom of their whole species.”

“He rushed the box in a mad dash to catch whatever had invaded his territory. The box rocked, scooted back several feet from the force of his charge. In the Spirit realm though, Warwick shot his claws into the darkness snaring the intruder.”

Adam, Eve, and Mr. Bubbles by Christina Bergling

“Come on, Adam. You’re Adam . She was Eve. You have a snake. That kind of blatant symbolism just cannot be allowed in the real world.” “So, did you lead her into temptation, Mr. Bubbles? Did you tempt her with the apple and then she cheated on me?” “Don’t be stupid, Adam. I’m just a snake.” “A snake who is talking to me.” “That is talking to you, Adam. You can’t say who; I’m clearly not a person.” “But you are clearly an asshole.”