Scan barcode
kellyvandamme's review against another edition
5.0
I first learned of the author named Behrg through Drew at The Tattooed Book Geek (ICYMI). Drew had read and reviewed The Behrg’s short story One Star and highly recommended it so of course I – and my newly found love for short stories – had to check that out. Drew was absolutely right, it was a hell yeah short story. I promptly signed up for The Behrg’s newsletter, was gifted a few other short stories and a while later I got the notification that his short story collection The Passengers You Cannot See was up for request on NetGalley. Despite my self-imposed NetGalley ban I headed over to NetGalley right away, and I’m very happy that I did, because this is one of my favourite collections this year, if not ever.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am very difficult to please when it comes to short story collections and anthologies. It is very rare for me to love each and every story in a collection, but I loved each and every story in this one. I even loved the author’s notes on the stories, in which he explains how they came about. These are very personal, and I admire and am very thankful for the openness and frankness with which the author addresses his own mental health issues.
These stories all have three things in common:
1. Despite the fact that all but one of the stories are quite short, the author manages to make them twisty and surprising but in a manner that makes total sense.
2. All the stories have at least two layers. You can take them at face value, read what is there and nothing more, and they are highly entertaining that way. You can also look a bit further, at what’s just below the surface. If you look at them that way you notice that mental illness in all its shapes and sizes is the general underlying theme. The author’s notes help you to see this other meaning because it’s more obvious in some stories than others.
3. All of these stories are scary. Some I’d qualify as thrillers, others veer more into the horror genre. There’s some dystopia and some drama, and one that might even qualify as a love story if you really try. But all of them are scary in their own unique way, because though fiction they are real, or because they hit close to home, or because they remind us that we are fragile, or because they’re a reminder of the tough balancing act each and every one of us is performing each and every day.
Despite loving all the stories, I still have favourites. One Star is definitely still one of them. This story is about a blogger who has written a one-star review of a book and the author of the book read it and committed suicide. The blogger is left dealing with the aftermath of that. It’s about the price of fame and about appearances and even though I knew what was coming this second time around, I was still astounded at the cleverness of it all.
Another favourite is Every House Is Haunted. It’s just such an awesome story, starts out really creepy, then the revelation comes, taking me completely by surprise, I had NOT seen that shit coming, maybe you’re smarter or quicker than I am and you’ll figure it out but I sure as hell didn’t, and it’s a premier example of the tale that sets you on edge because you feel something is not quite right but you can’t put your finger on it, until the finale gives you the shock and the relief you’ve been waiting for.
The long and short of it is: if you enjoy short stories, please do yourself a favour and give this one a whirl. They are well-written and imaginative, and they make for a great collection!
Many thanks to Pricks Like Thorn Media and NetGalley for the eARC! All my opinions are my own.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am very difficult to please when it comes to short story collections and anthologies. It is very rare for me to love each and every story in a collection, but I loved each and every story in this one. I even loved the author’s notes on the stories, in which he explains how they came about. These are very personal, and I admire and am very thankful for the openness and frankness with which the author addresses his own mental health issues.
These stories all have three things in common:
1. Despite the fact that all but one of the stories are quite short, the author manages to make them twisty and surprising but in a manner that makes total sense.
2. All the stories have at least two layers. You can take them at face value, read what is there and nothing more, and they are highly entertaining that way. You can also look a bit further, at what’s just below the surface. If you look at them that way you notice that mental illness in all its shapes and sizes is the general underlying theme. The author’s notes help you to see this other meaning because it’s more obvious in some stories than others.
3. All of these stories are scary. Some I’d qualify as thrillers, others veer more into the horror genre. There’s some dystopia and some drama, and one that might even qualify as a love story if you really try. But all of them are scary in their own unique way, because though fiction they are real, or because they hit close to home, or because they remind us that we are fragile, or because they’re a reminder of the tough balancing act each and every one of us is performing each and every day.
Despite loving all the stories, I still have favourites. One Star is definitely still one of them. This story is about a blogger who has written a one-star review of a book and the author of the book read it and committed suicide. The blogger is left dealing with the aftermath of that. It’s about the price of fame and about appearances and even though I knew what was coming this second time around, I was still astounded at the cleverness of it all.
Another favourite is Every House Is Haunted. It’s just such an awesome story, starts out really creepy, then the revelation comes, taking me completely by surprise, I had NOT seen that shit coming, maybe you’re smarter or quicker than I am and you’ll figure it out but I sure as hell didn’t, and it’s a premier example of the tale that sets you on edge because you feel something is not quite right but you can’t put your finger on it, until the finale gives you the shock and the relief you’ve been waiting for.
The long and short of it is: if you enjoy short stories, please do yourself a favour and give this one a whirl. They are well-written and imaginative, and they make for a great collection!
Many thanks to Pricks Like Thorn Media and NetGalley for the eARC! All my opinions are my own.
bergamotandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 STARS
Every story has its beginning and end. But some stories won’t let go. Some stories dig their claws into you. They infect your dreams. They carve out a residence in your mind. They become passengers . . .Ones that never leave.
Light and darkness. Hope and despair. Depravities and humanity. These passengers and more await. And they’ve been sharpening their claws to greet you.
.
.
.
First off I want to point out that by no means am I typically a fan of short story anthologies. (I think I still have flashbacks to high school English and being forced to read them!) However, the synopsis of THE PASSENGERS YOU CANNOT SEE drew me in and made me take the short story plunge.
This anthology gave me massive "Black Mirror" vibes - so many of the stories went in completely unexpected directions and I actually went back and re-read a few of them to really savour and enjoy the dark, twisted nature of Behrg's writing. THE PASSENGERS YOU CANNOT SEE does not rely on gore or jump scares to capture your attention. Instead, the stories creep under your skin and cause the hair on the back of your neck to rise. They are a look into the dark psyche of human nature and underneath all the poetry and prose an exploration of what it means to struggle with mental health and addiction.
The reason this anthology didn't gain a higher rating from me was less about my aversion to short stories and novellas and more the fact that some of Behrg's stories were well written and interesting,...and some were not. If you choose to pick this one up I highly recommend "Driven", "One Star", "Kill Your Darlings" and the longer novella "Happiness is a Commodity" as I felt these were the most thought provoking of the anthology.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for my ARC copy. THE PASSENGERS YOU CANNOT SEE is out now!
Every story has its beginning and end. But some stories won’t let go. Some stories dig their claws into you. They infect your dreams. They carve out a residence in your mind. They become passengers . . .Ones that never leave.
Light and darkness. Hope and despair. Depravities and humanity. These passengers and more await. And they’ve been sharpening their claws to greet you.
.
.
.
First off I want to point out that by no means am I typically a fan of short story anthologies. (I think I still have flashbacks to high school English and being forced to read them!) However, the synopsis of THE PASSENGERS YOU CANNOT SEE drew me in and made me take the short story plunge.
This anthology gave me massive "Black Mirror" vibes - so many of the stories went in completely unexpected directions and I actually went back and re-read a few of them to really savour and enjoy the dark, twisted nature of Behrg's writing. THE PASSENGERS YOU CANNOT SEE does not rely on gore or jump scares to capture your attention. Instead, the stories creep under your skin and cause the hair on the back of your neck to rise. They are a look into the dark psyche of human nature and underneath all the poetry and prose an exploration of what it means to struggle with mental health and addiction.
The reason this anthology didn't gain a higher rating from me was less about my aversion to short stories and novellas and more the fact that some of Behrg's stories were well written and interesting,...and some were not. If you choose to pick this one up I highly recommend "Driven", "One Star", "Kill Your Darlings" and the longer novella "Happiness is a Commodity" as I felt these were the most thought provoking of the anthology.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for my ARC copy. THE PASSENGERS YOU CANNOT SEE is out now!
monikasbookblog's review against another edition
5.0
Horror is my favourite genre in books and movies. I have a huge collection of horror novels and short stories and without doubt I can say “Passengers you cannot see” is going in my top 10 short stories list! The stories were horrific and intense. All I can say is this book “did not let me go”. If you love horror and like to get into the story quickly, get this. You and your dreams won’t be disappointed!
Thank you NetGalley, Pricks like thorn media and The Behrg for reader’s copy of this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!
Thank you NetGalley, Pricks like thorn media and The Behrg for reader’s copy of this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!
autismreading_mom's review against another edition
2.0
This book was an ok read, Some of the short stories had a good plot line while the others just crashed and burned. I got this an ARC from netgally.
nerdontheloose's review against another edition
5.0
The passengers you cannot see is a collection of 14 short stories and a novella by The Behrg. All ranging from a plethora of out of the box and mind bending topics, but mostly with an aspect of horror in it, though sometimes very subtle. There is psychological horror, body horror, somewhat vampirish, cannibalistic creatures and town folks, haunted houses, ghosts, murderous authors, and crazy book reviewers (yes you read that right!). So, basically there is something for everyone, if you have a taste for crazy, and trust me none of it is clichéd or anything like you’ve ever read before, these stories are so out there. What’s incredible is that all these stories have an underlying emotion very subtly hinted and told between the lines that kind of explains why the characters did what they did, despair and depression being on top of that list.
There wasn’t a single story that I didn’t take something from and liked something about it. That said, some of the stories were beyond me and I couldn’t make much sense of where they went with the snap of a finger, the ideas they are based on however, are definitely very intriguing and the writing is just fascinating. Most of these stories have quite an open ending and it takes quite a bit of imagination and your own ability to join links and to understand what might have happened at the end and where it’d have gone from that point. Recommended if you like short stories that speak to your imagination and turn the gears of your mind.
There is also a kind of a behind the scenes, heartwarming note by the author at end of the book, sharing whys and hows of these stories, and what inspired him to write these, his struggle with depression one of the major contributing factor. He also calls out anyone struggling with depression to feel free to reach out to him if they need help.
There wasn’t a single story that I didn’t take something from and liked something about it. That said, some of the stories were beyond me and I couldn’t make much sense of where they went with the snap of a finger, the ideas they are based on however, are definitely very intriguing and the writing is just fascinating. Most of these stories have quite an open ending and it takes quite a bit of imagination and your own ability to join links and to understand what might have happened at the end and where it’d have gone from that point. Recommended if you like short stories that speak to your imagination and turn the gears of your mind.
There is also a kind of a behind the scenes, heartwarming note by the author at end of the book, sharing whys and hows of these stories, and what inspired him to write these, his struggle with depression one of the major contributing factor. He also calls out anyone struggling with depression to feel free to reach out to him if they need help.
kmk182's review against another edition
5.0
For many people in my age bracket we were drawn to Fight Club and American Pyscho for all the wrong reasons. We were promised ultraviolence and probably weren't ready for the themes of depression and being outsiders contained within.
I signed up for an review copy of this book having never heard of the author. There are a lot of books coming out by authors I read a lot or books with a lot of hype; so I kinda wanted go just take a shot with this one. Boy, was this a pleasant surprise. Being that it's made up of short stories I was going to do it in chunks while I read some novels I'd be anticipating, but this book was lingering in my brain so much I had to stop a novel 100 pages in and go back.
I made the comparison to Palahniuk and Ellis earlier because a lot of this book is dark. The author here isn't using violence as padding, but there are some difficult subjects here. In one story a couple loses a baby, in another a man grapples with suicide. However, the author does this as graceful as one can without always giving us a happy ending.
Like most short story collections sometimes the author stretch out a little and sometimes the stories falter a little; but even at the worst I still enjoyed most of these stories. This is more to say there may be some stories in here you don't like, but there are some amazing ones in here.
Again I must say this isn't going to be for everyone based on the content, but then again if you've head Stephen King you've tested your limits some too, so I highly reccomend this one.
neha_s's review against another edition
2.0
**Received an eARC from Netgalley and Victory Editing for an honest review**
'The Passengers You Cannot See' is the collection of 15 short horror stories, and you have all different sub-genres of horror in these stories. Few of them I really liked & few were either disappointing or too boring for me.
Stories I really liked :
- One Star Review : Creepy & dark side of a writer, I really liked the twist in this one
- Kill Your Darlings : It was really disturbing and I liked the concept very much
- Patterns : This one was kind of psychological and paranormal horror, and the twist completely took me by surprise.
- Stillborn: Another one with creepy & cool concept, really liked this one.
Apart from this, there were few stories I thought had so much potential but due to the writing style author chose, made them so vague and kind of pointless that I lost my interest. And few were just underwhelming and not scary at all.
I really liked the concept but the writing style was so not for me.
Blog Link | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
'The Passengers You Cannot See' is the collection of 15 short horror stories, and you have all different sub-genres of horror in these stories. Few of them I really liked & few were either disappointing or too boring for me.
Stories I really liked :
- One Star Review : Creepy & dark side of a writer, I really liked the twist in this one
- Kill Your Darlings : It was really disturbing and I liked the concept very much
- Patterns : This one was kind of psychological and paranormal horror, and the twist completely took me by surprise.
- Stillborn: Another one with creepy & cool concept, really liked this one.
Apart from this, there were few stories I thought had so much potential but due to the writing style author chose, made them so vague and kind of pointless that I lost my interest. And few were just underwhelming and not scary at all.
I really liked the concept but the writing style was so not for me.
Blog Link | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
readbydusk's review against another edition
4.0
The Passengers You Cannot See is a strong collection of short stories! The characters here don’t realise the weight of others that they carry, and in turn the devastation they leave behind. This is illuminated in the first story, Driven, and it’s a theme that flows throughout the book. Both One Star and Kill Your Darlings deal with the dark side of book publishing. Parenthood at its most devastating appears in Still Born, and a horrifying version is shown in the gory fest Reborn.
What sets this collection apart is the way it deals with mental illness as part of its stories. The horror of not knowing what’s real is evident in These Concrete Walls, Patterns and Happiness Is A Commodity. My favourite stories are Scabs, a beautiful love story set during a plague invasion and Amado, a straight up nasty creature horror.
I have to admit that I wouldn’t describe this book as entertaining, as the stories are really bleak and raw. This is purely my personal preference though. I do appreciate the Author’s Notes at the end, it’s always nice to get a look at the original ideas behind the stories.
CW: mental illness, suicide attempts, infant loss, graphic violence
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a digital review copy.
What sets this collection apart is the way it deals with mental illness as part of its stories. The horror of not knowing what’s real is evident in These Concrete Walls, Patterns and Happiness Is A Commodity. My favourite stories are Scabs, a beautiful love story set during a plague invasion and Amado, a straight up nasty creature horror.
I have to admit that I wouldn’t describe this book as entertaining, as the stories are really bleak and raw. This is purely my personal preference though. I do appreciate the Author’s Notes at the end, it’s always nice to get a look at the original ideas behind the stories.
CW: mental illness, suicide attempts, infant loss, graphic violence
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a digital review copy.
wellwortharead's review against another edition
3.0
This is an eclectic collection of dark tales that run the gamut from supernatural horror to fantasy/sci fi.
Some of these stories were better than others, a few I felt were a bit vague when it came to the ending. My favorites all involved children, as I'm sure I have told you more than once kids creep me out anyway! From the horror that befalls those who take in an abandoned baby in "Reborn" to the complete and utter devastation of coming home from the maternity ward in need of a tiny coffin instead of a crib in "Still Born", those were the tales in this collection that most resonated with me. "Amado" also involved children as an attempted rescue goes awry. I just can't say that I enjoyed the rest of the book as much as those three stories.
I received an advance copy for review.
Some of these stories were better than others, a few I felt were a bit vague when it came to the ending. My favorites all involved children, as I'm sure I have told you more than once kids creep me out anyway! From the horror that befalls those who take in an abandoned baby in "Reborn" to the complete and utter devastation of coming home from the maternity ward in need of a tiny coffin instead of a crib in "Still Born", those were the tales in this collection that most resonated with me. "Amado" also involved children as an attempted rescue goes awry. I just can't say that I enjoyed the rest of the book as much as those three stories.
I received an advance copy for review.
yogaalakshmi's review against another edition
3.0
Well, I would give this book 3.5 to be precise. This is the first time I am reading a work of this author. 'The passengers you cannot see' is a collection of 15 horror stories. While some of them were bone-chilling gems, others were not so captivating and flat. My favorite stories are One Star, Scabs, Still Born and Happiness is a Commodity. Especially, happiness is a commodity which is the longest story in this collection. I mostly tend to not like collection of stories but this book was above average for me. Themes included in this book are dystopia, horror, mental health etc. The book ends in a happy and positive note while also retaining the horror factor of it.