The House of Untold Stories: 50 Unexpected Tales - Peter Chiykowski - ★★★★.¾

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AUTHOR: Peter Chiykowski
GENRE: Flash Fiction Collection.
RATING: 4.75 stars.

Wow! Let me take a moment to collect myself!! Because I am dumbstruck by this collection of micro-fiction and I don’t want to sound like a gushing nerd in this review.

From its title, “The House of Untold Stories” sounds like a regular SFF or horror anthology that will provide you some dark twisted tales. The dull cover doesn’t help in stimulating excitement. The book even starts off a bit slowly. But after the first 3-4 tales, I was hooked onto the gripping fables and how! I simply couldn’t let go till I reached the end.

The tales span a whole range of genres such as fantasy, sci-fi, humour, drama, mythical, horror, dystopian… So there’s no feeling of boredom at all as every page flip offers something new and exciting. Each of the stories is divided across two pages. The first page presents an innocent straightforward tale while the second page introduces an unexpected twist that takes the story to a whole new level. Almost all the stories are imaginative and stupendous. Quite a lot of the stories made me go “Oh, Wow!” and a few even elicited a horrified “Oh My God!!” Some of the stories are among the most brilliant pieces of original writing I’ve seen in a long time. The stories are accompanied by some fabulous illustrations and photographs of closed doors and houses. These add the right amount of spooky charm to the book.

Peter Chiykowski, you should feel proud of yourself. This was a job well done. A thank you from an absolutely satisfied and delighted reader. I’ll look forward to more of your works.

I think the gushing nerd did make an appearance but who cares! I’m on a book high!

Thank you, NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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