JournalStone – Damaged Skull Writer

SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS
Robert E. Stahl
JournalStone (2025)
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hello Horror Fans! I hope you’re all in the mood for some good news, because all I have is praise for Robert E. Stahl’s debut collection of short horror and dark poetry, Show Me Where It Hurts. If you’re in a hurry and want to save time then just bop on over to your favorite bookseller and order a copy of this book, pronto! If you’ve got a few minutes and want to get a better idea of what’s inside that terrifying cover, please continue reading. Most of these stories are brief and read fast but deliver a punch harder than Mike Tyson in his prime. The damage lingering in your brain long after you’ve been rocked. Kind of like a crazy ex or that creepy person at work who is always in the bathroom no matter what time it is. What the hell is that about anyway? Let’s get out there and into Show Me Where It Hurts.

Ghosts On Drugs is an interesting and terrifying ride where the reader becomes the protagonist in a twisted ether dream. The damn ghosts in your apartment keep trashing the place and your life! Unable to sleep, life becomes a surreal fog where everything loses importance. Job? Gone. Love? We used to have a thing. There’s a crossroads ahead and decisions to make. Will you choose wisely?

Speaking of work, Evil Inc. is about a guy who works in middle management for a huge company. Lately work has been even more sucky than usual with his highly eccentric bosses demeaning him and forcing him to do nonexecutive jobs like plunging out a clogged toilet. There’s also a secret door that they often disappear behind for long periods of time, having fun while Brian runs the company in their absence. He becomes an exhausted shell with zero self-esteem until an unexpected event triggers some changes in him. Big, scary changes…

While many of the characters in Stahl’s stories undergo a lot of changes, the “main brain” in A Very Stable Zombie does not. However, that seems to be what his fans like about him. Loud, wrong, inappropriate to the max, and somehow…president. I dug this clever piece of writing about a zombie who most readers with brains will recognize as a person whose last name rhymes with grump. There are definitely chuckles to be had, but they’re tempered by the cold chills of reality and the complete lack of humanity that no one seems to be willing or able to stop.

One of my favorite stories in this collection is The Last Night at The Black Boar Tavern. What a total wow! A mythic and terrifying tale of what could have been a boring snooze of a job morphing into something bigger and way cooler than its narrator ever imagined. When Jack Rollins zooms up to The Black Boar Tavern on his Harley to fill an open bartender position, he does so in a tight black t-shirt with his chest out and a pair of muscular arms popping with tattoos. The dusty old bar turns into a pot of gold overnight. Jack’s powerful charisma and deep knowledge of bartending impress 22-year-old Peter Ennis who is a self-described failure at life. Suddenly he goes from barback to a bartender struggling to keep up with Jack who nicknames him “Slim”. Coolness has arrived! Except there are a few conditions to the bargain including being sworn into Satan’s service. But hell, the money’s good and life is amazing! So amazing that it’s impossible to see how close the end of the road is. Arriving in a ball of fire, The Last Night At The Black Boar Tavern is one that nobody is likely to forget.

So, what’s the rating for this crazy cool short story collection? Show Me Where It Hurts by Robert E. Stahl gets a hearty 5 STARS from Damaged Skull Writer and Reviewer and a place of honor on the Skull Cave’s “Wall of Fame! Stahl’s fantastic writing pulls you deep into his stories, the variety of which is amazingly wide. The quick pace keeps you engaged and turning pages to read “just one more”. Highly recommended. Buy it, you won’t be disappointed.

While this is Stahl’s debut short horror collection, he’s a seasoned novelist with quite a few titles to his name. To find out more about this awesome author and his other works, head on over to: www.robertestahl.com You can also check in with Robert on “all the socials” as he puts it.

JournalStone Press is an established independent press with many excellent titles available for your reading pleasure. Be sure to check them out at: www.journalstone.com

Thanks for visiting your old pal Skull again! I hope you enjoyed today’s review subject. If so, please share and give these independent writers and presses a hand. See you soon!

About your reviewer

Brian James Lewis/Your old pal Skull is a disabled writer, poet, and book reviewer with PTSD whose work has appeared in Trajectory Journal, Mythic Picnic, The Awakenings Review, and multiple horror anthologies. Please visit him at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com, X/Twitter @skullsnflames76, or https://facebook.com/DamagedSkullWriterandReviewer

God’s Leftovers
Grant Wamack
Bizarro Pulp Press
August 26, 2022
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hello all you readers of horror and dark fiction, it’s your old pal Skull with some new dark fiction from Grant Wamack! Recently published by Bizarro Pulp Press, his novella God’s Leftovers is all killer and no filler, and I mean that in more ways than one. Just a quick note here for people concerned with triggers, this book is violent, gory, and contains some very graphic sex scenes. I know most of my readers are okay with that as long as it’s integral to the story, but for those who aren’t…you have been warned. Powerful images that stay in your head for a long time are on their way. All ready? Excellent! Then let’s all head for the desert.

What do a family of four, an extremely religious man, some funky hippies who live a strange life in desert, and a tough rapper and his videographer all have in common? They’re all visiting the Valley of Fire, a national park in the Nevada desert. The visitors all enter the park looking for something good. The family of four want to explore nature and see wildlife. Jerry the highly religious, uptight man is looking for peace. Big Redd and Scotty came to shoot a badass music video. The couple? Who really knows why they’re here. Probably to boink on the rocks and get video content for their vlog. But, instead of the goodness they seek, the visitors are found by the wiry man.

The desert is an ancient place full of magic and deadly threats. One might not regard the ragtag group of stoned looking hippies meditating for hours as any sort of threat, but the air vibrates with an electric hum that makes all things electronic die. As the power of The Collective continues to rise, the fates of the park’s visitors are revealed and the view ain’t too pretty. Help comes from an unlikely source, but will it be too late? The wiry man is not one to give in without a fight and to the winner goes the harvest. One person will finally find peace by riding into the flames on a pale horse, but who is it? Your old pal Skull gives God’s Leftovers a solid 5 out of 5 STARS and agrees with advance reviewers like Lucas Magnum that this spectacular splatterpunk blast is going to leave you wounded and bleeding. You’ll never look at a desert landscape in the same way again. Get it, but be warned, this ain’t no feel-good story. I dare you to step into the fire.

Want more information about Grant Wamack? Head on over to his blog www.grantwamack.wordpress.com

Want more information about Bizarro Pulp Press? Then head on over to the Journalstone website at www.journalstone.com

Want more information about Damaged Skull Writer Brian James Lewis and his Reviewer pal, Skull? Then follow us at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com

ABOUT YOUR HOST:

Brian James Lewis is a disabled poet and writer with PTSD, who writes daily on vintage typewriters rescued from scrap piles, including one previously owned by Rod Serling. He’s also been a reviewer of dark poetry and speculative fiction since 2016. Most recently, Brian’s poem about mental illness “AGAIN” was published in JMWW and his short fiction piece about mass shooter Chance McCandless, “Following My Destiny” is in the Spring 2022 edition of Trajectory Journal. Check him out on Twitter@skullsnflames76 and visit his website www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com for news and reviews.