Bait and Other Stories Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)(Let me `splain: I made an offer recently on a discussion board to spend the month of May reviewing authors that hang out around them there parts. I told folks that, in this case, I would need their consent since my reviews would be absolutely honest. I didn't want anyone to be blind-sided or to feel they're being picked on since I like hanging out on that board, but I need to be honest too. I also made it clear I would purchase my own copies to further distance myself from people I do know casually. I'm hoping to promote some new authors, particularly while big name pubs duke it out over e-books, but I won't do that at the expense of honesty. My first obligation and responsibility when I review remains is to the readers.)

This is the second book I picked during this offer where I found out after I started reading that the author is a Minnesotan. I'll add this to my other talents of dubious worth. Most of the stories in this anthology have been published elsewhere first and it shows in how few errors I found. Off hand, I recall the use of "heal" when "heel" would have been the way to go in a story called Scorched Earth, but the prose was tight and professional quality.

The description reads, in part:
...the febrile imagination of Joel Arnold will keep you up long into the night with over 50k words of horror, suspense, and mystery. Includes the award winning stories 'Mississippi Pearl' and 'Some Things Don't Wash Off.

I believe this description is good, but I'd like to point out that there is a strong focus on the tragic and the macabre. I think this is both the strength and the weakness in this anthology. Mr. Arnold is not afraid to go to dark places and, as someone who writes too, I admire the courage that takes to truly explore loss, regret, and the darkness of the heart -- and not flinch.
The author served up a couple tales where the horror was in seeing the ending a mile away, and hoping I was absolutely wrong -- Bait would be one of those stories -- and it's the perfect example of no-holds-barred writing. The reward is that the stories, while short, pack emotional heft and involve the reader.

This stories, however, were not written to be in an anthology together and I wonder if the author would have done a few things differently or made some different choices if that had been the case. Almost all of the stories are quite good, but also brutal. I think an anthology does well with a unifying theme, but over the course of nearly twenty stories the same tone of despair tends to be burdensome. I found myself hoping for a lighter piece or some sort of reprieve from life being a female dog waiting to rip out the throat of Mr. Arnold's characters. It's to the author's credit that he made me care about so many different characters, but, wow, did that make I end up with literary compassion fatigue. I can also say that it made the stories less suspenseful after a while, because -- well -- suspense needs hope.

That's why I would rate this book 3.5 stars (rounded up.) So many of the stories are extraordinarily good and would most, if I were rating the actual stories, would be 4 or 5 stories -- with the occasional 3 star tale -- but when I rank the anthology as a whole I feel the combination of them all was too dark, too sad, too ... much.

Joel Arnold is clearly a talented writer, a fellow Minnesotan who has made me fear the woods outside my door, and someone who has the courage to go down into the dark cellar with the ripe smell rising up from it. Once I've recovered, I look forward to reading more. (Also, not for nothing, but I defy anyone to read the actual story Bait, look at the cover, and not feel a little ... queasy.)

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Product Description:
Welcome to the deep north woods. Here you'll meet:

A father whose intense longing for his dead son lead to disturbing consequences.
A group of college students tubing down a river through a burnt forest who encounter terrifying creatures.
A man seeking redemption for a sinful past through the skill of a tattoo artist.
A Cambodian-American teen who will fit in with the locals at any cost.
A woman who finds a bizarre solace in a rare pearl.

These, plus a dozen other stories from the febrile imagination of Joel Arnold will keep you up long into the night with over 50k words of horror, suspense, and mystery. Includes the award winning stories 'Mississippi Pearl' and 'Some Things Don't Wash Off.'

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