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Title: 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories
Score:
Author: Michael A. Arnzen
Rating: Not available
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Review of 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories

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Comments for 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories

• Posted on 2006-12-10
  A Book To Read With Friends
  
  One stormy night...well, it wasn't stormy, but six of us did stay up all night, taking turns reading these flashes of horror. Everyone had their own favorite. I fluctuated between 'Stretch' (which few people can read all in one breath) and 'Brain Candy' (which is so good it's used as a back cover blurb).
  
  It's also great to read with a flashlight around a campfire.
  
  Of course, now that some of these were made into the movie EXQUISITE CORPSE, you can see some of the images inspired by the book. (With the lights out, of course.)
  
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• Posted on 2005-12-30
  twisted humor
  
  The best thing about a book like this, 100 short stories in 145 pages (not counting the lengthy interview with the author at the end), is that everybody will have their own favorites. Mine were the "Nightmare Jobs" series and "A Donation," a macabre first person account of a man who plans to will his body to science. These stories are horror stories, complete with blood and viscera and body parts. But the most important thing a potential reader needs to know is that these stories are FUNNY.
  
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• Posted on 2005-04-05
  You'll crave more
  
  In his introduction, author Michael Arnzen states that "Horror is the genre of the jolt, the shock, the spark." To prove his point, he then offers up one hundred short stories to his audience, the longest, "Five Mean Machines," only nine pages in length (many are only one paragraph long), each designed with the idea of creating an immediate, visceral reaction in readers. It's a measure of Arnzen's talent that he more often than not achieves this goal, all without losing sight of a couple basic tenets of storytelling, those being to grab and hold your reader, and maybe make him think in the bargain. Despite the limits he's imposed on himself, Arnzen still proves capable of doing just that in little gems like "Nightmare Job #1" through "Nightmare Job #5" (think of it as a mini miniseries), "The Curse of Fat Face," and "Her Daily Bread." One warning before you begin 100 Jolts, though--like the candy in a Whitman sampler, you'll find yourself gobbling up one tale after another. Not a big problem, until you abruptly come to the end, still craving more. You might consider exerting some willpower, and force yourself to sample these varied delights over several days, thus maximizing their impact.
  
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• Posted on 2004-10-19
  This book twangs!
  
  Ever stick your tongue on a fresh 9-volt battery? This clever collection is appropriately titled. Each little story sends a shock straight into your literary central nervous system. Some pieces are disturbing. Some are funny. Some are heart-wrenching. But they're all short, and they're all frightening. If you want to be entertained, moved, jolted, this is a collection for you.
  
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• Posted on 2004-08-29
  It's Terrorific
  
  horror n
  1: intense and profound fear 2: something that inspires horror; something horrible; "the painting that others found so beautiful was a horror to him" 3: intense aversion
  See: repugnance,
  repulsion,
  revulsion,
  
  short story
  n. A short piece of prose fiction, having few characters and aiming at unity of effect.
  
  
  Michael Arnzen is master craftsman of the horror short story. Mixing elements of gore, humor, and horror, sometimes within the same sentence, he shocks and entertains with every bite. If you need proof just read a few stories in. Most of the stories here can be read in one paranoid insomnia driven night. He uses words like a scalpel, cutting open your head and dumping a bucket of psycho-babble right into your raw exposed brain. The stories will leave your head throbbing, you'll find yourself thinking of the stories relating to them in new ways weeks even months later.
  
  But what really impressed me about 100 jolts is the balance. The blatant to the subtle, the humorous with the terrifying, the short with the long, flowing mercilessly one to another. It all balances out, and it's balance lends it to become an addictive read. You keep saying, just one more, oh just one more, and then it's dawn and you've read the book, and your head is throbbing. And you're not sure if it's with joy or if your brain is trying to escape from your skull. One way or another this book will get you.
  
  Howl with the raw dog screaming.
  
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