Click here to buy this book! Amazon Lulu Joseph Sweet's Storefront Category:  Horror Publisher: Forsaken Press ISBN-10:  0615159397 Type: Fiction Pages: 250 Copyright: September, 2007 ISBN-13: 9780615159393 A journey into madness and Chaos. From an alien invasion, to a woman, losing her mind slowly, chained to a madman's basement floor. Don't miss out on what's already being compared to Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Edgar Allen Poe. - Feeding Time - A man watches from his window as a young woman is kidnapped. His attempt to save her, leads him to a discovery beyond his worst nightmares - Just Like Going to Sleep - A woman hangs on by a thread of sanity. In darkness, chained to the floor of a psychopath's basement. Her time is running out, as she is slowly starving to death. - Escape to Mars - In a last ditch effort to flee a dying planet, a group of rebels steal an experimental craft in hopes of making it to an unmanned terraforming facility on mars. Will they succeed, or will they suffer the rest of earth's fate regardless? This and many more await you in Hell 101 by Joseph Sweet.

Review by Cheryl Anne Gardner
Meat-eating tentacled underground creatures—the feeding has begun. Apparently, the standard scythe bearing Grim-reaper has taken to riding trains. We have terminator-esque story of Fiona, crystalballing by will of mind into the future in order to stop her own death. Then we have a little genetic experimentation in an island of Dr. Moreau/mutated vampire-gargoyle themed story called The Scavengers, and this was by far my favourite; I particularly liked the contemplative and moody ending. And we have a ghost town, a decayed beacon amongst the sandy dunes of an alternate universe lost to time, space, and reality. Trapped by the sand storm, no one dares venture out of the town for fear of the creature. But should they really be afraid? This was another of my favourites. Not to mention what might be lurking in that locked dresser drawer.

And these are only but a few of the stories...

This is a collection of scare stories everyone can enjoy, minor grammatical issues aside. The author has a good grasp of the macabre, but in my opinion, these stories lack the intensity I normally prefer in my horror—they seem a bit censured to me and might seem that way to mainstream horror fans as well. However, not everyone likes their eyes gouged out or their hearts ripped from their chest like I do, and that might not have been the author's intent anyway. So if you are looking for a light version of Hell, well, then this is the book for you.

In any event, all of the stories have a classic underlying point to them, which is wonderful, as there is nothing worse than pointless cliché horror. Clichés abound in this book, but these are beautifully constructed stories, so I can forgive a cliché or two. I like terror stories, as a result, I only wish there had been imagery that was more imaginative. I felt that the stories were well constructed but lacked a certain depth of feeling mainstream horror fanatics crave and expect. As far as thought-provoking tales of the macabre, I think that definition classifies this book much better than Horror. These are not hack-n-slash gore stories, as they are all constructed with a much deeper existential meaning, which was not lost on this reader.

This collection shows a lot of promise, and I think once the author spends a little uncensored time in the shadows these stories could be something fantastic—a little more imagery would do it. And for those who are not as versed in the Horror genre as I am, this is a nice place to start without losing your mind or your flesh. This is a good book for adults young and old who might want a little suspense, without being terrified. I also hear that the author, adding a deeper feel to the work, illustrates the book. Visuals are always nice, although I didn’t get a chance to see them in the review copy. Providing the author fixes the grammatical issues before live-release, I think this book will do well with horror fans that like it a little easier on the psyche—more theme than throttling.
(You can view this review on it'[s original site as well as info on the reviewer at http://podpeep.blogspot.com/2007/11/halloween-review-hell-101-by-joseph.html)