Dark Celebrations by Calvin Demmer #BookReview

Dark Celebrations by Calvin Demmer

5 Star Review

Back Cover: Each year, people all over the world celebrate special festivals and days, shining light on what they wish to remember and revere. But sometimes, inhabitants of the dark arrive with the desire to disturb proceedings. Dark Celebrations is a collection of twelve short stories... and the holidays will never be the same.

Calvin Demmer weaves a collection of deliciously wicked short stories centered around everyone’s favorite times of year. Witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts and mummies are just some of the many monsters gracing the pages of this engaging and frightful collection. There is truly something for every horror fan.

The collection contains twelve stories with a common connection of holiday horror and young adult protagonists. Most of the heros in the story are in their late teens, early twenties and completely unprepared to encounter terrors waiting for them. While some stories contain more guts and gore than others, they all build tension from the first paragraph to the last.

My favorite story was story four entitled “Thanks Sinning.” This is based around the Thanksgiving holiday. DeShawn WIlliams sits at a bar contemplating his new life path. He finds himself caring for his mother and younger sister while his father fights in Iraq. Meanwhile, a fight breaks out over a mysterious and beautiful woman, who later sits nexts to DeShawn and propositions him with sex. Flash forward, and they are in a cabin, getting it on, and she stops to ask, “Want to play a game?”

DeShawn knows better than to get mixed up with this unpredictable woman, but he’s persuaded to go along with it. Big mistake. Things unravel quickly, and DeShawn realizes that evil comes in all forms. I won’t spoil anything, but I think people will have different interpretations of the ending, which makes the story even more fun.

I also enjoyed the first story “Hungry Ghosts” which follows Lara Adams as she participates in the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival. It starts with a set of rules for surviving the festival, and all horror lovers know that if a story sets rules, they’re going to be broken. For Laura, the price is deadly.

All the stories display solid plots and stellar character development. I sat down to read just one or two stories and ended up finish the whole book. It’s a quick and frightful read. Please, give it a try!

You can buy it here!

As a trigger warning, there was some domestic violence in story nine “She Will Rise”. It’s ending was a bit haunting, but it also served as a warning.