Description: A public restroom even more horrific than most, with a stained toilet that can swallow a man whole, sending him to a sewage-filled hell!

A riverbank lined with swaying mops given faces and philosophies! A secondary school that seems to waver in and out of reality not only in dreams, but also upon wakeful visitation!

An isolated grotto, home to trolls and the posthumous shadow form of Elvis Presley!

These are all settings of the peculiar, often unnerving events in Set Sytes’ collection of short bizarro fiction. By the author of How Not to Kill Yourself, this second edition of Born to Be Weird features hordes of new terrors and otherworldly adventures to make your stomach turn and skin crawl.

You’re welcome!

Verdict: In what has fast become not only one of those books that I could have kept reading even if it were the size of War & Peace, but also one that I have been loaning out to my friends and neighbors (as something they have to also read), Born to be Weird: A Short Collection of Demented Fantasy & Horror by Set Sytes may well only be a collection of short stories, but there is much more to see behind the curtain, as they say.

Chock full of compelling ideas, in an unto their respected prose, but obviously not wholly capable of becoming book length themselves, in the end, the path taken to a thunderously entertaining read isn’t worried about such things - for they come together as one regardless.

In fact, this shorter format not only helps, but propels each and every tale further, allowing the reader to see the light at the end of the tunnel as they read, and yet not allow them to reach it before having been thoroughly put through the, at times, stomach churning and skin crawling tales!

My own personal favorite tale here is the quite brilliant Keep it Clean, which comes toward the beginning of the tales and is, for my money, the best one spun.

I will not give anything away, but just the opening couple of paragraphs should have you compelled enough to keep reading until the end is revealed. For it is structured upon a very unique concept and provides a rather strong execution of narrative within the story also. Great turn of phrases and excellent pacing, with colorful descriptions continually on point, everything made this, for me, a vividly palpable tale to read.

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