Publication Date: September 27, 2024
Page count: 214 pages
Dug from the twisted mind of C.M. Forest, the acclaimed author of Infested, comes a collection of 15 horror stories that will drag you into the abyss of fear and despair.
A fast-food playland with a nightmarish secret, a greenhouse with a bug problem, a busload of kids lost in the woods, a trip through the solar system to investigate a strange comet, and many more.
Brace
yourself for an unrelenting journey through a world where evil knows no bounds,
and darkness consumes all.
“Lily! Your mom is not going to be happy with Daddy if I don’t get you home, honey.”
Robert drummed his fingers on the lip of the plastic rim entrance to the playland. He leaned into the opening and listened for any sound at all.
“Lily?”
A terrible thought came to him. What if someone’s taken her?
He shook his head to dislodge the idea from his brain. But a growing level of unease, like some dank fungus flourishing in the darkest of places, kept the horrible possibility present in his mind.
“Lily, this isn’t funny, baby.” Robert stuck his head farther into the hole, and his voice immediately echoed back at him, a dozen clones parroting his words.
Panic, the likes of which Robert wouldn’t have thought possible—certainly not so quickly anyway—arced through his body. He yelled again into the structure.
Nothing.
Not even the smallest knock or scratch to indicate there was anything alive in the playland at all.
Once, long ago, there was a village. And in
that village was a young man with a peculiar affliction. He saw things that had
yet to happen. Great triumphs of humanity. His fellow residents feared him,
naturally, and as result, this young man was banished into exile. While
wandering the frightening landscape of a Neolithic world, he found a cave. As
far as a dwelling went, it was not the best, but it would keep him dry at night
and relatively safe from predators. He spent the remainer of his cursed
existence in that cave, passing time by painting on the walls. The things he
saw, his visons of the future, were dabbed with the lunatic glee of a person
fully succumbed to their demons.
Flash forward to present day. A group of archaeologists
find the cave. They are not prepared for what awaits inside. A series of
images, perfectly preserved over the millennia, decorating the craggy walls. The
first, and what clued the archeologists into the fact that the ancient,
stone-aged man who lived in the cave was seeing the future, was of a Nintendo
system. Seriously. A NES! Next up, Barbenheimer! Yes, 2023’s blockbuster movie
event of the summer, was glimpsed in fever-dream visions by the stone-age man!
Other things prophesied were: sliced bread, coffee, Netflix, the moon landing,
Tom Hanks, and a book. Which book, you ask? It’s it obvious? It was The Roots
Run Deep!
Now, I don’t know why that man, so very
long ago, foresaw the release of my short-story collection, but he did. And if
such supernatural forces would deem my work worthy of such Nostradamus-levels
of precognition, then who am I to argue?
The Roots Run Deep is a short story
collection filled with thirteen spooky tales. Everything from folk horror to
comedic horror. A collection that, if my mom was brave enough to read it, she
would declare it the best thing ever written (even not being brave enough to
read it, she still makes that claim!).
So, if the above almost certainly true
story didn’t convince you, nor the very high praise from my dear mother, then
surely nothing will. But know this, when the day comes to say goodnight on
life, and you are lying in your deathbed, will you truly be able to face
infinity knowing you left such a work of fiction unread? I think not.
Thank you for featuring THE ROOTS RUN DEEP.
ReplyDeleteThe blurb and excerpt sounds good.
ReplyDelete