Demonic and Other Tales could use the services of a professional proofreader. While Garon Cockrell writes very well, it is never wise for an author to be the only one who reads his manuscript for such things as inconsistent scene transitions, typographical errors, problems with tense (especially past and past-perfect), missing words, wrong words, inconsistent capitalization and so on. While reading this book, I noticed too many such errors. These may be small enough issues to not distract the average reader, but they should still be located and corrected. With an e-book such as this, it's as easy as correcting the manuscript and replacing the published copy.
Oddly, and possibly because of the powerful, brightly painted images, rather than seeming to fall into the supernatural or horror genres these stories come across as surreal, less like horror movies and more like the livid religious paintings of renaissance Europe. The effect is startling, sometimes scary, and definitely dreamlike, tending toward nightmare.
Perhaps due to this dreamlike effect, the endings to several stories feel incomplete and unresolved, as though something else should have happened or is about to happen. The Epilogue of the final story, and so of the book itself, reads like the end of a TV Pilot setting up the proposed series to follow. There seems to be that sort of promise of more to come. Perhaps that's not a bad thing.
At less than three dollars for the Kindle version, Demonic and Other Tales is a good read and an excellent value. Some books costing much more are not as well written or as gripping. I recommend giving it a look.
You can purchase Garon Cockrell's Demonic and Other Tales for Kindle online at Amazon for the very reasonable price of just $2.99.
Demonic and other tales
Garon Cockrell
doorQ Publishing
Playa del Rey, California
92011
103 pages
ISBN: N/A
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