ELEMENTS OF HORROR: AN ANTHOLOGY BOOK FOUR – WATER
Human beings are made mostly of water, and just as we can be our own worst enemy, so can that element. In the fourth installment of the Elements of Horror Series, water takes center stage, terrorizing and tormenting its victims. Sometimes it’s a horrific shipwreck that threatens to swallow its surviving passengers. It could house creatures beneath the surface who emerge to swallow unassuming
trespassers on the surface. It could even be the active ingredient in a demonic bath bomb that possesses its user, forcing them to perform murderous acts.
The most engaging element of this series is knowing the theme beforehand and waiting for that theme to come into play within each story. This collection is full of interesting interpretations of the water horror theme. They mostly revolve around desperation: a starving town, a husband who can’t deal with his wife’s cancer diagnosis, a haunted doll that keeps appearing on a little boy’s pillow, and the water serves as an escape from life. Characterization is often kept to a minimum. So, it’s sometimes hard to connect emotionally in just a few pages, but the situation itself is often gripping enough to incite sympathy based on the circumstances alone.
Review by Laura Smith
ELEMENTS OF HORROR: AN ANTHOLOGY BOOK FOUR – WATER is available on Kindle and Paperback