I have the pleasure of being part of another Blackthorn Book tour. This time it is for dark fiction short story collection, Nightmare Asylum and Other Deadly Delights.
The Book
Nightmare Asylum – Despised by day, tortured by night. A midwifery student’s life disintegrates into a terrifying nightmare, after a disturbing encounter with the notorious child killer, Evelyn Green. Dark secrets from Lydia’s past unleash a truth that conjures her fears into unspeakable horror.
Other Deadly Delights – Tales from the psychotically unsound and deadly deluded. A stalker turns serial killer; a cleaning lady is imprisoned in the basement, there’s a prophetic warning for a woman in peril, and an android with love addiction, plus many more… a deliciously dangerous collection of short stories, ranging from psychological horror to paranormal, sci-fi and noir.
Dare you enter the nightmare Asylum?
My Review
Eighteen short stories make up this collection from author, Sonia Kilvington.
The first story is Nightmare Asylum, about a midwife being called into a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.
Bad Reputation is a flash about sisterly love.
Women’s Work sees a maid held hostage.
Jake is a snapshot in the life of a woman who jumped out of the frying pan straight into the fire.
Cry Baby gets into the mind of a man with a fashionable obsession.
Skin Deep is a flash about cosmetic surgery.
Vera shows the green eyed monster in all its glory.
I Wish You A Happy Death Day is a story of revenge.
Deadly Desire has a threesome go horribly wrong.
Perfect Love tells the story of an AI whose programming is too good.
Every Move You Make has an Irish woman try to shake her stalker.
Every Smile You Fake features the same character from the last story helping another woman with her stalker problem.
Soulmate warns of the danger of online dating.
Disappearing Act shows that getting your ideal life is not always a good thing.
Paranoid attempts to describe the thoughts of a paranoid person.
Spectral Warning features a nurse who needs help.
Gatekeeper of Memories is a flash about the difficulty of the empty nester.
Winter Baby depicts the end of a marriage.
Kudos to Kilvington for stretching herself in these tales. She explores first person, second person and third person in the different stories, writes from both male and female points of view, and attempts to delve into the mind of a deranged or psychotic individual to tell the story from their perspective.
Two of the stories are set in Ennis, a town on the west coast of Ireland, and I applaud the author for convincingly setting a story in my home country.
Many of the characters in these stories are middle aged, or older, women, and it is refreshing to see this demographic represented in fiction.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of repetition in these tales. Many of the stories revolve around men stalking women, and while this is a subject rife with potential, I didn’t feel that the different iterations brought new light to the topic.
When it came to the stories about mental illness, I found them concerning, as it seemed to presuppose that the reader would find the fact that someone was mentally ill was horrible in itself.
Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that I am not the right reader for this collection. While I think that stalkers, psychopaths, dangerous technology, unhappy marriages and the death of a child are good starting points for horror fiction, I do not find these things inherently horrible.
I award Nightmare Asylum And Other Deadly Delights…
The Author
Sonia Kilvington is a journalist and fiction writer from the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus. She has published many articles, travel features, short stories and interviews in glossy magazines. She loves to write dark and disturbing short stories in genres such as noir, crime, ghost and Sci-fi. Her online writing credits include Out of the Gutter Online, Spelk fiction, Pulp Metal Magazine & Near to the Knuckle. Her new short story collection, Nightmare Asylum & Other Deadly Delights – published by Close To The Bone, is available on Amazon.
Click on the words below to visit the relative links.
Contact email: soniawriter@hotmail.co.uk
Amazon book links for Nightmare Asylum & Other Deadly Delights:
Iseult Murphy 
1 thought on “Book Tour: Nightmare Asylum by Sonia Kilvington”