Christa Carmen

Westerly author Christa Carmen has a way with a metaphor, like when a bullet rips through a zombified junkie’s brain “like the point of a pastry bag digging through a jelly-filled donut.” That’s one of the more outlandish moments in Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, a debut collection of thirteen horror stories that range from the poetic (opener “Thirsty Creatures”) to the campy (“The Girl Who Loved Bruce Campbell”). Cell phone cameras reveal inexplicable horrors, while trick-or-treating tweens stand in horror waiting for strangers’ doors to actually open. The plot scares and clearly described action more than make up for the occasionally stilted dialogue, and this book release party should appeal to lovers of anything dark.