Sick
John Edward Lawson ed.
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Buy *Sick: An Anthology of Illness* online

Sick: An Anthology of Illness

ed. John Edward Lawson
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Paperback
300 pages
November 2003
rated 4 of 5 possible stars
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Talk about an appropriate title for a horror anthology. Sick delivers exactly what the title states: a stellar collection of abnormal, deranged, and deliciously decadent horror that just could make you… well – sick!

Within this tome, you’ll find a cross section of material that will most assuredly fill most every horror maven’s palette. It ranges from utterly repulsive to psychologically disturbing to grotesque revulsion to ethereal to buckets of blood and gore. There is even a bit of comedic relief in there, to boot.

The anthology is broken up into three parts. The first section is entitled “Part 1.01 - God Playing On The Posterior Of A Man When He Is Thinking About Tulips.” The second section is titled “Part 1.02 - Spontaneous Ars Poetica.” And last, but certainly not least, is section three under the heading “Part 1.03 - Excessive Exposure To Time.” Each section has its own distinct fingerprint. The first has more of the extreme physical afflictions. Standouts in this section would be Greg Beatty’s “Unicorn’s Revenge,” Harold Jaffe’s “Wournos”, C.J. Henderson’s “Sacrifice” and Vincent W. Sakowski’s “The Legend Of Jimmy Wad,” which seemed to be inspired by the use of expectorants. This one got me to hurl metaphorically within the first paragraph! Sakowski would appear again in section three with a piece that really screws with your mind.

In the second section, we have Jack Fisher’s “The Shadow,” a good character study on the split personality of a murderer, and Steve Goldsmith’s “The Wishing Urn.” There were many good stories in this section, and those were but a few of the delights.

The third section opens up with Christian Westerlund’s “Drainage”, and Sakowski renders the hospital experience in quite a unique (albeit twisted) way with “A Terrible Thing To Waste.” Make no mistake about it; this isn’t for the faint of heart or those looking for light, mainstream horror. This is a kick in the gut and them some which should appeal to hardcore horror aficionados.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Bobby Blades, 2005

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