Whispers In The Night (Dark Dreams)

by Brandon Massey

Book Overview

Beyond Your Darkest Dreams-- From the deceptive safety of your very own bed to the seeming stillness of country roads and the bustle of urban streets, your darkest realities reveal themselves as you... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758217420
• ISBN13: 9780758217424
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Dafina
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 1.1" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

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fabulous horror collection

The third "Dark Dreams" anthology (see the superb DARK DREAMS and the even better VOICES FROM THE OTHER SIDE) is a fabulous horror collection of all new works written by black authors. There are no clinkers as the compilation runs the gamut of the genre with for the most part fresh spins such as zombies dining on a TV news reporter while on the air to infant possession to Hurricane Katrina. A few of the tales are excellent. Especially outstanding are headliner Tananarive Due, whose "Summer" focuses on the evil possession of a preschooler, and Terence Taylor's "Wet Pain" that centers on the Old South racially rising just after Katrina devastated New Orleans. Whereas Randy Walker's "To Get Bread and Butter" hits personally home and "Are You My Daddy: by Lexi Davis will leave the audience laughing, "Ghostwriter" by Mr. Massey is a fitting closer as Dark Dreams is three for three; how could it not be with tales like the aptly named "Mr. Bones" by Christopher Chambers and the ironically titled "The Love of a Zombie Is Everlasting" by Tish Jackson. Harriet Klausner

Once again Brandon Massey's Collaborations Hit the Mark!

This is the 3rd in the Dark Dreams Series! You won't be let down with this new group of short stories! Tananarive Due's "Summer" will have you checking those summertime bugs that always seem to be hanging around! "Are You My Daddy" gives new meaning to Baby Mama Drama! If you've enjoyed Dark Dreams I and II you won't be disappointed!

Third Time Is A Charm!!

Whispers In The Night is third in the Dark Dreams series featuring nineteen speculative short fiction stories from veteran and upcoming authors. Massey has done a credible job assembling a variety of stories that offer differing themes and varying degrees of horror which may also appeal to some suspense/mystery fans. He anchors the anthology with the traditional `old fashioned' ghost story opening with Tananarive Due transporting the reader to Florida just in time for the emergence of the swamp demons (Summer) and closes with his self-authored tale about visiting the cemetery to remedy writer's block (Ghostwriter) . Massey fills the anthology with stories that have political or socially-conscious themes such as slave reparations (The Taken), drug use in the inner-city (My Sister's Keeper), spousal (The Wasp) and child abuse (Hell Is For Children). Humor is sprinkled in the mix when a "special" boy looks for a father (Are You My Daddy?) and love is in the air when a zombie claims her soul mate (The Love of a Zombie Is Everlasting) . Spirituality is at the forefront when a man's faith in God is challenged by a demon (Nurse's Requiem), false and true prophets clash (Power and Purpose), and the aftereffects of internalized intra-race discrimination manifest themselves on an unsuspecting office worker (Scab). Although I found most stories engaging, there were three tales that I thought were notable: And Death Rode with Him by Anthony Beal - Paradise Pub, a gritty bar in the middle of a desert, has a television that only gets channel 66 and seemingly "permanent" patrons who routinely drown their sorrows in a powerful yet strange elixir. WET PAIN by Terence Taylor - a very touching tale that reveals misery does indeed love company in a twist on how unconquered racism of yesteryear festers and destroys friendship, family, and community amid the atrocities of Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Bones by Christopher Chambers - a timely tale that is appropriate in the wake of the Michael Richards/Don Imus controversies. It examines the tortured souls of minstrel show performers who "sold out" their own people with disastrous results only to find themselves reincarnated in a hellish cycle of torment as modern day rapper/hip hop artists. While some stories appealed to me more than others, I found that this collection challenges the imagination and gets high marks for creativity. I think Massey was extremely successful in his attempt to showcase old and new talent in horror and speculative fiction. I will be on the look out for independent work from these writers as well as Dark Dreams IV. Reviewed by Phyllis APOOO BookClub Nubian Circle Book Club

More thought provoking that the others

I read DD I and II and gave them both 5 stars. Solid,vivid, lurid horror and well crafted. But I think this volume had some threads in various stories, including the ones the Urban review listed that were subtly teasing on the reader. That is not to say that many stories in the DD I and II didn't contain amazing symbolism and allegories but this one had them spread across more stories. I disagree with the Urban reviewer's assessment of some of these stores not "belonging" in this volume. Particularly Robert Fleming and Christopher Chambers. Both writers are major published authors and veterans, and have been among several others who have been backbones of the past collections. Fleming's "Wasp" fits the footprint of what this collection apsires to be, and frankly I don't know why the reviewer would shade Chamber's "Mr. Bones" unless there is bias against his symbolism in this ghost story/devil pulling the strings story of a 19th Century minstrel show and a modern rapper and the negative aspects of hip hop culture. Given the publishing dates Chambers wrote this well before the debate fueled by the Imus event and other important debates on hip hop. I also know this because I have good fortune of inhabiting the coffee shop in suburban DC where he and other authors write. As for the Middle Passage and horror stories, read the combination of Jules Verne and Charles Johnson in Chambers's "Leviathan" in DD II)! When laid against such mediocre, even offense stories in past DD volumes by Zane and the like, I am glad for stories by Chambers, Fleming, Giles, etc. I hope there is a 4th installment with the present cast of writers and thoughtful newbiesand I hear of fruther collaborations in the works: Massey and others, Tananarive Due and Blair Underwood, Due and others with Walter Mosley and Chambers. However, I still see DD as the first work of this sort and the standard to measure by, and I hope Massey continues to enthrall us. I think it is timely that blakc writers take up the mantle started by Edgar Alan Poe long ago and set down their own path, slnging off the baggage.