Dan Chaon

The National Book Award finalist author of Among the Missing presents a collection of suspenseful tales in which fragile and searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland after experiencing intense loss or displacement. 20,000 first printing.

Stories

Stay Awake

Colton Ray

This collection of short stories started out strong and then fizzled out near the end. I liked the strong eerie aura around the earlier stories, with strange things happening and a touch of magic realism. The author has a really good command of language and someone else described this book as "literary horror" which is pretty accurate. Unlike Stephen King, this man knows how to give you a short straightforward story that's low on the outright horror factor, but high on general creepiness. That said, the stories near the end started having lower quality until the abysmal "St. Dismas". Seriously, that story just sucked. They pick back up a bit before finishing on a high note. Stay Awake is a very uneven collection, but worth reading.

Jeannette Ordas

I liked most of the short stories in this collection. They all felt like horror stories, dealing with self-doubt, anxiety, loss, and loneliness rather than hairy monsters. Unnerving and creepy.

Stay Awake Stories

Reviews