Showing results by author "Matt Shaw" in All Categories

A family will do anything to survive after a nuclear attack has left their world in ruins. Actions which even surprise them.

It was a killer year for horror fiction of the harder kind. Authors, editors, and publishers presented readers with some startling works of horrific imagination, stories graphic in the extreme yet with subtleties suggesting larger meanings, tales that explore humanity by plumbing depths of soulless inhumanity and, in some cases, outright depravity. The stories here represent the best of them, disturbing tales that dig deep and take you into the dark heart of horror itself, unrelenting and unapologetic.

Home truths pave the way for a journey of self-discovery and revenge in the direct sequel to Matt Shaw's Sick Bastards.

A group of strangers is pitted against one another in Matt Shaw’s latest extreme horror. The game is simple. Each of the contestants is asked a question: How much to complete a certain task? They then have two minutes to name a price, but if they go too high and their fellow contestants are cheaper, they have just priced themselves out of the game. The trick is to go high enough to win a good amount of money but low enough to ensure you are the winner.

From Matt Shaw comes the story of a new breed of serial killer - a stranger who travels the country kidnapping his victims before torturing them and discarding them in a field, dressed up as scarecrows.

He understood why she did it. She had lost her own baby - one conceived by the unwanted advances of a sexual predator - and hated thinking of them out there in the cemetery, alone and cold. She had to bring them into the warmth. She had to give them the lives they'd otherwise never live. It was her mission. But with each new doll brought home, her yearning for a living child of her own continued to grow. Yes, he knew why she did it, but even so, he wasn't able to stand by her, and he knew she was going to get a lot worse before she got better.

Life, Death, and the In-between: A heartbreaking supernatural horror dealing with themes of suicide, grief and the after-life. I guess I wanted to write this given my own personal struggles with thoughts of suicide. Every day I deal with some degree of pain where some days are better than others. When the pain is at its worst, my thoughts often drift to ending my own life.

It was supposed to be a pleasant evening out; a break from the stress of the hard-working week they had both endured. A bite to eat in one of their favorite restaurants and then, if there was time, a movie at the cinema opposite. It had been - her husband - Sam's choice; an impromptu date. Yet his day had been one cock-up after another. Meetings had gone on longer than they should have, his phone had run out of battery, and every single traffic light seemed to be working against him.

The women wake to find themselves locked in a small basement. There are no windows and only one—locked—door. Just when they start to think they have been left to rot in there, the lock clicks and the door opens to reveal him standing there. Simon. Simon doesn’t know his victims. To him they aren’t real people but, rather, play-things instead; snatched from their lives so as to play a simple game of “Simon Says” with him.

Warning: This is an extreme horror novel. There is gore. There is bad language. There are scenes of a sexual nature. But hidden underneath it all is also a chilling story. Please do not purchase this book if you are easily shocked, disgusted, or offended. This book is not for you. Would you give up your child if a stranger asked? No? What if they offered money? Still no? What if they threatened the rest of your family? Give your child up or lose your entire family in the most horrific way possible.

Dean and Jess knew the house had a tragic past but it did not stop them from making the move with their young daughters. It was supposed to be a new - and bigger - home with which they could continue to build upon their already established happy memories but as the house's past begins to haunt them they realize it is not the dream they first hoped it to be.

T-Rex isn't the violent, blood-thirsty dinosaur people believe it to be. He's just grumpy and you would be too if you were sexually frustrated. With arms so small he can't take care of his own business and with other dinosaurs running from him he is left to roam the land with a bad case of blue balls. Gark isn't a dinosaur though. He's one of the two-legged hairless apes who are new on the scene. And he knows just what Rex needs to mellow him out.

SickEST B*stards continues from the end of SickER B*stards. To understand this short story and wrap up the events of Sick B*stards, you need to listen to the previous two titles.

Mark fears that his wife is cheating on him. Over the past couple of weeks, she has been growing more and more distant and shudders at his very touch. Determined to keep his new marriage afloat, he confronts her only to find the truth of the situation is far more horrific than he could have ever envisioned.

The year is 2032, and five-year-old Jacob is opening the biggest gift, beneath the Christmas tree, which is labeled for him: his very first semi-automatic rifle—and he couldn't be prouder. He smiles to his parents who sit close by. They don't smile back. Their minds are stuck on earlier events of what should have been a magical day: the moment they found out Jacob was set to be a brother.

Martin and Sonia's child, Stevie, needs a liver transplant. But in this cruel world, unless you're rich enough to go private, the only way they're going to get one is if Stevie enters The Arena with other sickly children and steps out victorious.

If I am to be damned with slim chance to yet redeem myself than for why spend the rest of my waking days in trying to make amends when I can but face my demons early and enjoy the warmth offered from the free flames of Hell? You say that this is the fate that awaits unless I change my ways and wants and yet the man you’ve shown is the one whom I am and am proud to be. The what-if is all but weak, the kind of man seen staggering down a street with not a penny in his pocket and yet still taken for a fool by those passing by.

It was supposed to be a nice family vacation. Their first time out camping. Quality time with the family - more about communicating with each other as opposed to whatever electronic devices got them online. But from the moment they got lost and gave up looking for the camp site, opting to stay in a pretty-looking field deep in the country, things start to go from bad to worse, and soon they find themselves running for their lives.

Jeremy Jumper isn’t like normal people. Jeremy has a medical condition which causes a large mass to grow on the end of his nose. It starts as a red mark and, over the following days, balloons to ridiculous size. Strangers stop and stare while others dive for cover, worried it’s about to explode.

February 14th and my wife is looking at me with hope in her eyes. She has just given me a card and a bottle of my favourite drink so I presume she is hoping for something similar in return. I have nothing but the shovel I'm hiding behind my back. Valentine's Day is a joke. A day made up, no doubt, by people who sell cards and flowers. A way of conning us out of our money as we feel duty bound to "prove our love" for one another. Well this collection is not about proving love. This collection of stories is all about sour, bloody violent love. They say love hurts. They're not wrong.