This was a great horror collection. The stories about the peripheral demon were great. I really like how, throughout the book, there were more stories about the different perspectives of people in the Peripheral world. There are many stories in this collection; love, obsession, revenge, karma, beauty, and serial killers. I really enjoyed this book, it had some original ideas which is hard to find these days.

I was given a copy for an honest review. ( )

It took me a while to review this book because I really wanted to get all the way through it before reviewing it, it's the least I can do since I was generously granted a copy for Early Reviewers. The problem being that these stories were terribly cliche and the short story format made it easy for me to put down the book and the derivativeness of them made it not all that exciting to pick back up. I did finish it finally, but if I hadn't gotten it in exchange for an honest review, I probably wouldn't have finished it. I love short stories, and I like supernatural/horror short stories, but that genre is sooo full of talented writers, writers who have been working their craft for decades and burgeoning new writers who eventually become the next great. From this offering, I don't think Sylvester Pilgrim is going to have a very distinctive career with this genre. It's just too competitive, the stories all been told in many ways, and new ideas hard to come by. I don't think he's broken any new ground an the retread wasn't even done in a very interesting way. I wouldn't recommend this book. ( )

When you are getting ready to publish a book maybe getting it professionally proofread is something that should be done, especially if you are going the self-published route. This book could have used a good edit or two, and a clean up of the verbage is on order. Especially the stories themselves, I know he calls this horror, but they range all over the place. And the placement of the stories is odd as well, with the worst ones towards the front of the book and slightly getting better. And with changing tones, and graphic nature, it is hard to wrap your head around this book; and changes in tone that it was written by one person. ( )

**Full disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review**

'Peripheral: Tales of Horror at a Glance' is a series of short stories written by Sylvester Pilgrim. He lists his work as 'horror' but I'm not sure I agree - I might have been inclined to call them 'thrilling tales' - the anthology covers a wide range of subject matter, and whether a detective story, a ghost story or just a story about people killing each other, each one ends on a plot twist.

First and foremost, I don't think this book should have been published as-is. The writing isn't polished - it would have benefited from a good proofread if nothing else (given that there are mistakes printed on the back of the book). Sometimes it's a problem with vocabulary - Pilgrim will often choose a less common word at the expense of readability (sometimes a house is just a house, not an abode, sometimes people just read instead of perusing). The intensity is very patchy too - some stories are quite straightforward while others are jarringly graphic - they read more as a descriptive writing exercise than a story in and of themselves (I'm all for graphic descriptions, but I'll be honest, a description of a person being bitten in half probably doesn't need to mention faeces, I probably don't need to hear about infants blowing up either). I think he thought he could brute-force impact with excessive gore and detail and it hasn't always worked.
Whole sentences were written in Italian without translations. I feel like I was given endless lists of last names for characters that didn't matter - it feels like someone who has studied novel writing has tried to prove character depth and planning in a short story format and it hasn't translated well.

That said, it isn't terrible. The less readable stories are at the front of the book, which I found off-putting. I don't know whether I just became more tolerant of his style, but I found myself enjoying the ideas if not the execution. Some of the stories didn't hit the mark for me, but I could always see what Pilgrim had been trying to do. Another set of eyes before publishing would have smoothed a lot of the bumps over.

I think this book serves primarily as an example of how important an extra set of eyes can be on a story. I think most of the stories have a solid premise, but the execution is shaky. I finished the book, but I'm not sure I would recommend anyone else to do the same. ( )

Attention all prospective writers: regardless of your skills at writing, you CAN get published! Don't believe me? Check out Sylvester Pilgrim's book, "Peripheral: Tales of Horror at a Glance". If there is a publisher that deemed this book worthy of publication, then anything you write is also worthy of publication!

I cannot presume that I understand the mindset of Sylvester Pilgrim and the process he went through to write this book. Did he set out to write a classic book? I highly doubt it, although I can't be certain that that wasn't his intent. Did he write this book to fulfill some contractual obligation? Possibly.. if he has been offered a contract at all.. Or did he simply have the manuscript for this book on his laptop and feel that it was "good enough" to submit it for publication? I tend to believe it was the latter option, for there is no evidence in the book to suggest that he put any real effort into writing this drivel.

I would like to start off with the good aspects of the book, but I'm having a difficult time trying to find one. "Peripheral: Tales of Horror at a Glance" has the potential to be a decent anthology of horror stories; I like the idea of having an overarching theme connecting all stories together, despite the majority of them involving different characters in different locations in different narrative times. Often, short story anthologies are unrelated stories that are connected only by the genre on which they are based (namely "horror"). "Peripheral" takes the short story genre a bit further by attempting to connect the tales by "one common thread". Is this an overtly original tactic? No, but it does offer something for the reader that is beyond the expected standards of the short-story genre.

To his credit, I will also say that Pilgrim's writing style is straightforward; if you prefer books that do away with the verboseness and loquaciousness found in classic literature, then you will likely find the narrative voice of "Peripheral" to be a positive feature. I don't hold the lack of any real creative voice in the book against Pilgrim, for each writer is different and each writer has his or her own preferred writing style. What I do hold against Pilgrim is the fact that he clearly didn't attempt to put any effort into developing and constructing his "stories". It is evident from the first story that Pilgrim is following the standard "twist ending" approach for his stories. The plot of each narrative moves towards a final climax, with the protagonist reaching a situation, conclusion or realization which was not what he or she was expecting or planning for.

The most frustrating aspect of this book was the fact that the author clearly believed that he was offering some insightful or creative "twist endings" to his stories. Many of the chapters are written in a way that signals to the reader that the author is planning some clever twist which neither the reader nor the character(s) see coming. Unfortunately, nothing about the narrative, including any of the endings, is creative. This book is the most generic, uninspired, uncreative book that I have had the misfortune of reading. I found myself getting frustrated because the author spends so much time building up to what should be a creative ending, yet every time the reader is left disappointed. True, some characters in some of the stories are fairly well-developed, but I cannot give credit to Pilgrim for this feat, since it takes him 15-20 pages (in a short story format, this is way too long) for him to present the reader with a character that is fleshed out and developed.

I can sum up my opinion in five simple words: Do not read this book. Give the author more time to redevelop the way he writes, and hopefully he will be able to produce a book in the future that is worthy of your attention (and money). By far the most disappointing book I've read all year.

1/5 ( )