Reviewed by Yvonne Davies
8 short stories each completely different, the only common theme was
the African setting. I have not read anything by this author nor have I
read a story set in Africa, I didn’t know what to expect but I
pleasantly surprised. Each story left you wanting to read more, making
it a quick read.
Eaters of Flesh is about a young man’s missing
mom. Written in his POV, you find him trying to find the truth about why
his mom was getting ill and then just disappeared. With a note left
from his mom and his dad’s weird behaviour, was is due to her religious
belief or was it something else. It is not till the end of this story do
you find out what actually happened.
The Last Man Standing:
Nigeria is battling ADAIDS, an advanced form of AIDS. To speed up the
research, the government start moving their money from non-essential
items like TV, Radio and what they deemed non-essential foodstuff. This
does not hit home to the protagonist until he can’t buy a can a Sprite.
Opening up his place he tries to set up a safe haven for survivors and
it works pretty well until one of his trips he finds a lonely young
girl. This story shows the true horror of death and the fear of dying.
Exorcism: The narrator of this story is the other half of Ifeanyi.
Reading this you can’t tell who is good or evil as Ifeanyi likes to get
on the wrong side of people and the narrator tries his best to put it
right. A good twist at the end when a priest pays a visit.
Haunted Grave: A story about an urban legend. Sitting in an old cemetery
Chidi tells them the story of Ekene. Like all urban legends was it true
or not but the story never goes away. Beware of people with nails as
teeth.
To Love is Strange: A moving story of a clan that the
females are cursed. They can have sex but not with the man they love.
Juliet enjoys sleeping around to satisfy her itch but what feelings does
she hide. Her twin sister Ginika is in love with Ebuka. Written in
Ginika POV, the story is about the battle of her conscious and what
risks she is willing to take to get what she wants.
A Cursed
City: When children go missing they are reported to the Elders. The one
witness is Nkeshi, the local drunk, she saw a bird like monster with the
body of a man take a child. Due to her status, they did not take her
serious, but then more children go missing, each eye witness the same
thing. This is a story about revenge and the loss of a civilisation.
The Game of Aids: Another story about the Aids virus, Maria is the
latest victim of the Aids virus. Caught from her husband this is story
about how he caught the virus.
The Green Race: The one sci-fi
story, Professor Oliver Brown is giving a lecture about his time on Mars
and his views on the alien life form he met.
What I enjoyed
about this book is that not all horror are monsters, what happens in the
modern world is just as horrific. The stories leave you thinking about
the vulnerability of the human race, Aids, revenge and racism all play a
part. These stories are well written with a mixture of African culture
and horror makes them a good quick read. Looking on his Amazon page,
this author has other stories published which I will definitely read.
