Trick-or-Treat by Eduard Joseph

Trick-or-Treat, Eduard Joseph.  self-published, Smashwords, 2013.  e-book, 19 pps.

http://eduardjoseph.webs.com

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/eduardjjoseph

https://twitter.com/TheEduardJoseph

@TheEduardJoseph is an indie author and I've grown quite fond of his writing.  I reviewed the novel God's Gonna Cut You Down previously.  Today's review is on a short story that he wrote.  Since Sam Hain is around the calendar corner, I decided to review Trick-or-Treat.

Trick-or-Treat is a fabulous 19 pages of what a pain it can be dragging a little brother around on Hallowe'en when you'd much rather be at a party down the road with the bigger kids.  The conversation is very realistic.  I feel like I was there.  The characters were true-to-life.  The story is quaint and has a twist.

sapphoq reviews says:  Eduard Joseph has done it again.  An enjoyable story for the season designed to run chills up and down your spine without being ghoulish.  A definite winner!

God's Gonna Cut You Down by Eduard Joseph

God's Gonna Cut You Down, Eduard Joseph. self-published: 2013.  e-book, 73 pages.  twitter: @TheEduardJoseph


If you haven't discovered Eduard Joseph yet, you really ought to do so.  God's Gonna Cut You Down is a fine showcase of a novella, demonstrating both the writing talent and the imagination of the author.  The novella is the stuff of clownish nightmares.

The main character is a guy in a clown mask.  It quickly becomes apparent that he is a disgruntled ex-employee with a boring life.  Work had been the bright spot of his bane existence and now that was gone.  Saved by a vision in a dream, he reaches for a clown mask.

We all wear masks, it has been said, and often we have several of them laying around to be exchanged at will.  Our masks protect us [usually] from revealing too much to the general public.  We guard our masks, knowing that without them we would become as vulnerable as a deformed baby left on a frigid mountaintop to die.  There is almost an instinct that informs [most of] us that we ought not to tell the racy joke that earned us the laughter of a few friends to the staff during a meeting or to a prudish granny among our relatives.  Our inhibitions change according to our circumstances.

Once in awhile, an individual loses control of the process of selection and the masks in the collection take on a life and savage beauty of their own with often tragic results.  God's Gonna Cut You Down is an example of what happens when a mask becomes all-powerful.

sapphoq reviews:  Eduard Joseph has written an excellent novella.  I loved the description of the characters, the building crescendos to each action, the dialogues interspersed to illustrate something about each character which also served to move the story along.   God's Gonna Cut You Down is both chilling and delicious.  Highly recommended.