Review: I Died Yesterday

I Died Yesterday by Andy Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I Died Yesterday: five stories of dark fiction, suspense and horror.

Personally, I would have simplified that to ‘five chilling reads’ but to each their own. All that matters is that these five stories were a lot of fun – and that is saying something coming from me.

I have a complex relationship with short stories. I either love them or hate them. More often than I’d like, I end up disliking them. I always want more, I always feel as though there is not enough. This is partly due to the fact that I love long stories, stories where the multiple layers are slowly unfolded, and often short stories just deal with one aspect. These five stories, however, left me so happy. Well, happy probably isn’t the best word to use considering the topics. What I should say is these stories were a lot of fun; I really enjoyed them.

I Died Yesterday is the first of the stories, the shortest. It’s a mere handful of pages, and yet it is easily the darkest of the stories. I’ll admit to working out where things were heading, yet it did nothing to remove my enjoyment of the story.

Chopper is the second story, not as hard hitting as the first but still enjoyable. It looks at a different topic, and yet it still looks at the dark side of the world and the people upon it. It’s a story that pulls you in, leaves you wanting more.

A Decision at Dusk is the third story, one with a clear fantasy element to it. With magic at work, we get to look at what happens when revenge comes hand-in-hand with the knowledge of how to bring people back from the dead. As with the first two stories, it is not a light read.

Sunflower is the fourth story, bringing us back to the real world. This one leaves us questioning for quite some time, curious as to what is to come. When the chilling factor comes about, it hits you suddenly, leaves you unsure of what exactly occurred.

A View is the final story, and another that leaves you questioning what is happening. Not in the sense that you have no idea what is going on, as you’re more than aware of what is occurring, but it leaves you with questions about the bigger picture.

All five stories are wonderfully written, leaving a mark. Three of the stories occur in the real world, with two occurring in an alternate world. This alternate world is from Andy Graham’s Lord of Misrule series, yet it is not necessary to have read the series to understand these short stories.

Honestly, I had such fun with these. I was pulled in from start to end, and I’m more than happy to read more of the author’s work in the future, as these five short stories leave you with the promise that full-length novels will have so much to them.

As a final note, I would like to thank Andy Graham for contacting me for a review. These were such great reads, and I really appreciate being given the chance to work through them.

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