Stay Awake
Publication Date: February 7, 2012
Pages: 272
My lovely Husband is a big fan of scaring the shit out of me and it is really not all that hard to do so. He is the kind of guy who loves to hide in closets and and around corners. Anything to get a reaction out of me. Most recently it was forcing me to watch Paranormal Activity3 & then trying to get me to play "Bloody Mary" with him... *sigh* I am married to a twelve year old girl.
Anyway. It isn't the gory stuff that gets to me, it is the suspenseful building of a story, that gets my pulse racing. Dan Chaon has done just that with the short stories in his new collection,
Stay Awake. Dan Chaon has got a heck of imagination and he sure knows how to use it for good instead of evil. Wait. Should that be the other way around?
He starts his collection out with a doozy of a story. When a Father's young son is having problems sleeping, it causes dear old Dad to think about the wife and child he left behind all those years ago. Are their Ghosts haunting him and his new family or is the weight of his guilt playing games with his mind? Either way, the end will set your heart racing.
I think the most chilling story (for me) though, was the story of the baby born with two heads. I read that one while I was eating lunch and I literally had chills run down my spine.
Dan Chaon has gathered a collection of terrifying, chilling, and haunting stories. All with the underlying theme of sleep or lack thereof. But I urge you to read this book during daylight hours, for his stories are bound to make you want to
Stay Awake.
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