Showing results by author "Matt Shaw" in All Categories

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The world is overpopulated. Resources are running out. In an effort to balance things out, the government has stepped in with a radical new lottery system. All names are put into a computer, with 200 names being drawn at random. Of those people, 100 will get one color (red) token and 100 will get another color token (white). Whatever color they received, they had to go to the government-run club for the night. Of those who received the white token, they would be going home the following day. For those who received the red tokens? They would be leaving in a body bag.

Karen thought she was married for life but her husband had other ideas. Married for five years and he'd been cheating for three of those. Why? Because Karen wasn't adventurous enough in the bedroom department. He got his kicks elsewhere, from a woman prepared to do anything and everything he fancied. He never meant to fall in love with the other woman, it just happened and - as a result - he had to leave his wife. Karen's friend Emma took her in and it was here - staying on her couch - that Karen was accidentally introduced to a new, seedier world....

For Craig, the trip to the cabin was supposed to be a quiet retreat from his hectic city life where he could concentrate on writing his latest novel. For his wife, Susan, and his two kids, Jamie and Ava, it was supposed to be a weekend vacation. For all of them, it became a nightmare.

"I want a dog!" Who hasn't heard that screamed from a child or partner? They want a dog, but you don't want one because you know it will be your responsibility to look after it when they grow bored. Well, this book isn't necessarily for you. This book is for those who want a dog but have no idea what they're really letting themselves in for.

Ed Boothe was convicted of killing more than half a dozen girls. It is believed he killed many, many more. His methods were brutal and documented here, along with his fascination of collecting body parts. Up until his execution, he showed no remorse for his acts.

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.

Robert Nash is unlucky in love. He is so unlucky in love, in fact, that he has never been with another living person. And that's not about to change any time soon when his latest date is far from living.

From Matt Shaw (Sick B*stards) comes a new short story following a working girl as she tries getting her life back on track after one session goes very, very wrong. Violent, tragic, sad, and sweet. This one has everything.

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 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.

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.

Something is wrong with Crista's children. Her partner, Matt House, tells her it's nothing to worry about. He says they're probably acting up because they didn't want to move into this new house. But Crista knows her children. She has seen them play up before at various times and this isn't like them. What they're saying, what they're doing...It's not like her children at all....

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.

People laughed at him when he said he wanted to be a movie star, and yet here he was - the biggest night of his life - collecting his Oscar for "Best Actor". Grinning like an idiot, he couldn't even recall the speech he gave to the camera...The camera and a room full of actors, directors, and producers - people who used to look down their nose at him whenever he had a new film coming out (usually an over the top action film with huge explosions and slow-mo gun battles). They're not looking down their nose at him now though.

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.