Review of short, fictional story from this volume:”The Cultist’s Son,” written by: Ferret Steinmetz:
What word or pair of words is best to describe this story? Mind-bending or psychedelic. I think “psychedelic,” is really the best word to describe the stylistic nature of this story, and how there is both a lot of fragmentation between the various scenes in the story. But, there is also a subtle, even logical juxtaposition of the surrealist imagery that ties all the scenes of this story. It is very much a psychological story, as it accurately portrays the mindset of a guy that has survived growing up in a religious cult of sorts, and is trying futilely to help acclimate his deranged mindset to the world outside of the cult, which is governed by rules of logic. Yet, the world within the mind- the mind of a cult survivor- is often a minefield of illogical thought patterns that can easily make the mind’s coherent path to complete coherence go entirely awry.

I really enjoyed this slightly graphic, darkly humorous, and very psychedelic story. It was not just gross for the sake of grossing people out; rather, it was darkly beautiful, in the way it both concisely, yet comprehensively delivers the reader with a great psychological study of the mind’s own journey from out of the unenlightened darkness and fatalism of a cultist’s mind to the more enlightened, liberated mind of the person that tries to belong to the paradoxical, not-so-ordered world of the world of logic from without the cult.

With that said, I think people that really have an appreciation for unorthodox story-telling, horror stories packed with psychological depth should certainly check out Apex Publication’s monthly magazine; entitled the Apex Magazine.

As an added incentive for people to both check out the magazine and possibly subscribe to it, Apex Publications is offering a reduced price for a 12 month subscription for only $17.95 until April 17, 2014 You can find more details about subscribing, by visiting this link for where you’ll find the latest issue (that does include the darkly beautiful short story I reviewed above, called “The Cultist’s Son”).

This is all part of a campaign called “Operation Fourth Story,” which means that Apex Publications plans to add a fourth fictional story to their monthly magazine. I have a few odd stories of my own that would stylistically fit really well with the style present in this magazine. I love psychological horror stories or stories that are unconventional and framed as stories that go beyond conventional genre markers. That is why I greatly enjoyed what I had read from this magazine, and I encourage others with the same sorta taste for morbid/unorthodox writing to check this awesome literary magazine out.

Here are some direct links to subscribing to the magazine:
Weightless Books (Ebook file types, which are compatible with most E-readers)
Directly from Apex Publications
Amazon Kindle
Amazon UK Kindle