Showing results by author "Matt Shaw" in All Categories

It was a killer year for horror fiction of the harder kind. Authors, editors, and publishers presented readers with some startling works of horrific imagination, stories graphic in the extreme yet with subtleties suggesting larger meanings, tales that explore humanity by plumbing depths of soulless inhumanity and, in some cases, outright depravity. The stories here represent the best of them, disturbing tales that dig deep and take you into the dark heart of horror itself, unrelenting and unapologetic.

T-Rex isn't the violent, blood-thirsty dinosaur people believe it to be. He's just grumpy and you would be too if you were sexually frustrated. With arms so small he can't take care of his own business and with other dinosaurs running from him he is left to roam the land with a bad case of blue balls. Gark isn't a dinosaur though. He's one of the two-legged hairless apes who are new on the scene. And he knows just what Rex needs to mellow him out.

From Matt Shaw comes the story of a new breed of serial killer - a stranger who travels the country kidnapping his victims before torturing them and discarding them in a field, dressed up as scarecrows.

The year is 2032, and five-year-old Jacob is opening the biggest gift, beneath the Christmas tree, which is labeled for him: his very first semi-automatic rifle—and he couldn't be prouder. He smiles to his parents who sit close by. They don't smile back. Their minds are stuck on earlier events of what should have been a magical day: the moment they found out Jacob was set to be a brother.

It was supposed to be a nice family vacation. Their first time out camping. Quality time with the family - more about communicating with each other as opposed to whatever electronic devices got them online. But from the moment they got lost and gave up looking for the camp site, opting to stay in a pretty-looking field deep in the country, things start to go from bad to worse, and soon they find themselves running for their lives.

A family will do anything to survive after a nuclear attack has left their world in ruins. Actions which even surprise them.

Jake has nearly everything he wants from life. He has the good looks. He has the money. He has the fame. He has the model wife. He has the booming film career and popularity. The only thing he doesn't seem to have is the luck, and soon he finds himself without arms or legs....

Warning: This is an extreme horror novel. There is gore. There is bad language. There are scenes of a sexual nature. But hidden underneath it all is also a chilling story. Please do not purchase....

Jen's life came crashing down around her when she found out her husband had been seeing another woman behind her back. She knew they had issues in their relationship but not enough to make him seek intimacy elsewhere and, yet, that was exactly what he had done. But why? The reason why he would throw everything away, instead of just talking to her, was the one question that was continually burning in the back of her mind and she knew there was only one way to get the answer.

From Matt Shaw (Sick B*stards) comes a new short story following a working girl as she tries getting her life back on track after one session goes very, very wrong. Violent, tragic, sad, and sweet. This one has everything.

A group of strangers is pitted against one another in Matt Shaw’s latest extreme horror. The game is simple. Each of the contestants is asked a question: How much to complete a certain task? They then have two minutes to name a price, but if they go too high and their fellow contestants are cheaper, they have just priced themselves out of the game. The trick is to go high enough to win a good amount of money but low enough to ensure you are the winner.

It was supposed to be a pleasant evening out; a break from the stress of the hard-working week they had both endured. A bite to eat in one of their favorite restaurants and then, if there was time, a movie at the cinema opposite. It had been - her husband - Sam's choice; an impromptu date. Yet his day had been one cock-up after another. Meetings had gone on longer than they should have, his phone had run out of battery, and every single traffic light seemed to be working against him.

Home truths pave the way for a journey of self-discovery and revenge in the direct sequel to Matt Shaw's Sick Bastards.

Karen thought she was married for life but her husband had other ideas. Married for five years and he'd been cheating for three of those. Why? Because Karen wasn't adventurous enough in the bedroom department. He got his kicks elsewhere, from a woman prepared to do anything and everything he fancied. He never meant to fall in love with the other woman, it just happened and - as a result - he had to leave his wife. Karen's friend Emma took her in and it was here - staying on her couch - that Karen was accidentally introduced to a new, seedier world....

Have you ever been cut up by another road user? Have you have been stuck behind some idiot driving well below the speed limit? Have you ever had to swerve to avoid someone who hasn't used their indicators? Have you ever been served by rude staff members who clearly don't want to be working? Have you ever listened to just how rude old people can be? Ever got frustrated listening to the excessive open-mouthed chewing of someone sitting near you? Have you ever been cheated on by a partner? Paul James has and...he's had enough.

Dean and Jess knew the house had a tragic past but it did not stop them from making the move with their young daughters. It was supposed to be a new - and bigger - home with which they could continue to build upon their already established happy memories but as the house's past begins to haunt them they realize it is not the dream they first hoped it to be.

Moving from school to school is never easy. You're constantly struggling to catch up to the level of the other students. You're forever meeting new friends just to have to leave them and establish new colleagues at the new schools. You always find yourself lost in the never-ending maze of corridors as you battle to get to grips with where everything is.... But it's worse when the more unfriendly students decide to take an instant dislike to you. Tormenting you each day...pushing you to see how long it is before you're going to snap...

The follow-up to Matt Shaw's Bite-Size: A Collection of Short Stories. Hear five more previously unpublished short stories from one of Britain's most warped imaginations.

"I want a dog!" Who hasn't heard that screamed from a child or partner? They want a dog, but you don't want one because you know it will be your responsibility to look after it when they grow bored. Well, this book isn't necessarily for you. This book is for those who want a dog but have no idea what they're really letting themselves in for.

He understood why she did it. She had lost her own baby - one conceived by the unwanted advances of a sexual predator - and hated thinking of them out there in the cemetery, alone and cold. She had to bring them into the warmth. She had to give them the lives they'd otherwise never live. It was her mission. But with each new doll brought home, her yearning for a living child of her own continued to grow. Yes, he knew why she did it, but even so, he wasn't able to stand by her, and he knew she was going to get a lot worse before she got better.