Trade Paperback: 9780982159613 , $15.95

The Monster Within Idea, R. Thomas Riley’s collection from Apex Publications is an exploration of monsters in all their various forms, supernatural and dark, beneficial and very, very malicious.

“Attrition” the first tale in this collection, is the story of an incarcerated man who is preparing for his release day. To be free all he has to do is walk out, where a vicious tunnel will either deem him worthy of being a part of society, or turn his sentence into a self-fulfilling death penalty.

“Touching God” is a surreal story of two boys trying to escape a personal darkness, only to find that something follows them back to the mundane world. A story of family tragedy, it’s heavily character based with an open ending that implies the worst is yet to come. Continuing with a child’s point of view, “Too Little” tells another short, dark story of victimization and revenge in a lilting, almost playful tone.

“Jenny” is the tale of a jealous lover, a woman who will possess or punish the man she loves. It’s a little too obvious, but a darkly amusing addition to the collection.

“Perfect” also uses a very female point of view, as a woman obsessed with body image imagines that as she airbrushes models’ pictures she also cleans them of their other flaws. If only she could fix her own life as easily.

The next two tales are both zombies stories. “Haven” is a wholly depressing story of a boy who is trying to get to his older sister after a zombie uprising. After days of traveling and barely surviving, he reaches the hospital where his sister works in the maternity ward, which has been overrun with zombie infants. As is often found in zombie tales the desolation is overwhelming and there can really only be one end.
“In the Beginning” could be the start of a longer zombie tale. The imagery of a bio weapon going off at a Six Flags amusement park is chilling, but the story is one readers already know.

Taking readers to the Old West, “The Run” is about a man hired to transport a mysterious package from one town to another. He’s warned not to look at or open the package, but a busted wheel leads him to being trapped in the growing dark, in the woods, with its contents. There’s a feeling of filler to this story, though it fits the theme. The setting doesn’t quite come alive, though the monster within certainly does.

Tales of love gone wrong is one of Riley’s strength, as is evident by the next two tales, both tackling the topic. “Twin Thieves” is a surreal tale, tinged with sadness, of a man trying to make things work between himself and his wife, at any cost, when some things are just meant to be broken.

“Tautology” is darker, displaying a different form of co-dependency and depression with a side order of stalker. As short as many of the other tales, this one is also stronger, despite the only action being the emotional ex-boyfriend repeatedly calling his love. It has a killer and an unexpected ending that makes the tale one of the strongest in the collection.

Going back to the Old West “A Pair of Aces, a Pair of Eights” tells of a gunfighter so loved by the people around him that even Death himself seems to want to take revenge on his killer.

The following tale, “Bubo”, is also primarily set in a bar. But in this bar a yuppie with a last wish finds a creature that shouldn’t be on Earth and learns that most wishes are better off just in your head.

“The Day Luftberry Won It All” is a surprisingly imaginative tale of Luftberry, a pool shark living after the apocalypse when other players are a fast fading commodity. In one of the last “Sin” bars in this semi-science fiction world, he is challenged by a strangely serpentine man. In a game for his soul, literally, Luftberry becomes so preoccupied with winning that he never stops to consider that the prize might not offer much of a victory.

“Just Decoration” is a revenge story that’s simply too short. The revelations are fired at readers like bullets, rather than slowly revealed, making them feel contrived. There’s no time to build up the character, thus their relationships, before suddenly they’re all dead and the reader is left feeling out of the loop.

“The Lesser Evil” pits the young black, ex-thug trying to do good against the stupid white corrupt congressman. A voyage that touches on the splatter scene with a grisly pair of murders with no solid explanation, “The Lesser Evil” is part discourse on racism and politics and part murder mystery.

“The Monster Within Idea” is remarkable for how very little it reveals, which only emphasizes the quest of the mysterious girl trapped in a closet trying to determine what’s real and who she really is. Where it could have delved into stark realism and drama, instead Riley merely hints and leaves the true horror for the reader’s minds to make up.

“Brittle Bones, Plastic Skin” is one of Riley’s best, and it’s a pleasure to say it’s been included in this collection. Here he walks the line between surreal and reality, pitting a man against an ancient evil with the lives of children at stake. Other tales have been told in the same style and fail, but this story maintains a level of dark, paranormal questioning through out, making the point of view changes only add to the robustness of the tale.

One of the longest additions, “The Core of Forgotten” pits a pair of children, bored and a bit criminal on a long summer vacation, against the neighborhood witch, who’s genuinely evil. When the kids’ stop watching the witch and instead break into her house they get more than they bargained for, ending up in a bloody, ruthless showdown with the witch, a demon and stand byers whose interests have turned from merely malicious to wicked.

Finally is “Only Spirits Cry”. An excellent way to end the collection this one is the long, emotional tale of a man who is willing to do almost anything to save his mother from death, because he’s done so before. A delicate weave of old magic, modern setting, childhood magic and unconditional love it’s one hundred percent pure adventure.

Riley’s strength lies in spinning emotional tales, often ones that involve or are told through the point of view of children. While not all the tales in this collection are the best of the best, there are several darkly brilliant gems that readers can be happy to have in one bound volume.