Cover Image: The Passengers You Cannot See

The Passengers You Cannot See

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This was a great collection of short stories. Some were creepy, some were terrifying, others were gross! I thought they were well written and engaging. A few of my favorites were Every House is Haunted (a creative mind trip), The Trophy (clever, with a great ending) and Reborn (gross!). There was an underlying theme of mental illness throughout the collection and I enjoyed the author's history of each story at the end of the book. If you like scary short stories you should check this one out!

Was this review helpful?

I got a free advance readers' copy in exchange for my honest review.

I don't often read this genre or short stories, and this was actually a nice change in my reading repertoire. It reminded me a lot of the show Black Mirror, since every story was totally different but also had a very creepy edge to it, and either a supernatural or futuristic element. I especially liked Still Born - what a true nightmare!!! And Happiness as a Commodity was really good too because it's very much the dystopian future, which we all know is coming right?! If you normally like this genre you'll probably love it. If you don't, it might be nice to throw something new into the mix!

Was this review helpful?

This book was an ok read, Some of the short stories had a good plot line while the others just crashed and burned,

Was this review helpful?

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.

Was this review helpful?

I got a free advance readers' copy in exchange for my honest review. Thanks NetGalley and Pricks Like Thorn Media!

The Passengers You Cannot See is a collection of short horror stories by the author known as The Behrg. This was the first book I read by him. The stories in this book were supposed to be unforgettable, carried with you until the end of time. 

The one which that description fit was Still Born. As a parent, that affected me the most. Having to live in that nightmarish world after experiencing something like that is one of my worst fears and so it hit me hard. 

Every House is Haunted was chilling. After reading it, even though I knew it was impossible, I found myself wondering what if something like could really happen. I also felt that way about Kill Your Darlings.

The story that would be the creepiest for me, however, would definitely be Reborn. Even after reading the entire book, I was still thinking about the creature within this story. 

What I liked too was that just like in Every House is Haunted, An Ugly Resurrection made you look at things you would do normally with a new perspective. Like the author himself said in his note at the end of the book, what might be magical to some could be hell to another. 

He even touched on mental illness in stories such as The Lines and These Concrete Walls. Those stories made you look at the inner workings of patients dealing with depression and Alzheimer's. 

I enjoyed this book and am actually looking forward to checking out more books by The Behrg. I would definitely suggest that readers interested in horror check out these stories. 

Suitable audience: This is a book with quite a bit of blood and gore. I would suggest this book be read by older teens and adults. 

Recurrent themes: Death. Mental illness. Terror

Violence: Some quite violent scenes of death, both suicide and murder
Sexual Content: None
Profanity: A few instances of mild profanities
Religious Themes: One of the stories took place in a Catholic Church with priests and nuns.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Instances of each scattered throughout the book

Was this review helpful?

Unfortunately I didnt enjoy this one at all. Collection of short stories, but couldn't really get into any of them. I'm sure others will enjoy though. And i have also seen other books from this particular author have good ratings, so I'm not put off. I will at some point read other books by this author.

Was this review helpful?

The Bergh.
I will confess that whether I've liked a book or not, I usually thank them. So, thanks!
I have a difficult time with a writer who goes by "Behrg." I had already read 2 of his books that were free downloads on Amazon. I may or may not have liked them! Hell, honestly I truly don't give a shit! Something about this writer bugs me. He still feels like a writer. Authors tell grand tales! Writers, well they write. I confess that I only read 7 shorties from this dude. I wasn't impressed, nor unimpressed. For someone who goes by this name, he has put a burden on himself.
Come out, come out wherever you are! You screwed the pooch trying to be cool with one name! You are mediocre. I don't be reading from this writer again.

Was this review helpful?

I"m not always one for short stories, but I really enjoyed this collection! Most were thrilling to read and not overly drawn out. The world's built in such a short time were quite captivating. I will definitely be on the look out for more by The Behrg next time I'm looking for a new book to read! Thought provoking and chilling all at the same time.

Was this review helpful?

I typically don’t like short stories since they seem to usually lack detail and they are too quick for their story plot. However, this book was not like that. These stories were short snippets, to the point and actually gave a lot of detail. The stories will still creepy even though they were short. They would be perfect to tell around a campfire at night.

I highly recommend giving this book a try if you love short stories or just want to give them another try.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC!

Was this review helpful?

I've never read any book by this author before but I found this title and its cover to be intriguing so I thought of giving it a try.

But now I'm so glad I did because every story in this collection of short stories left me speechless. This author really has the knack of writing suspenseful and terrifying short stories.

All the stories were dark and has the power to keep the readers hooked till the end. I had a wonderful experience reading this. Looking forward to more works by this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy!

Was this review helpful?

I’ve read a short story or a novella by the author before and found it to be of above average quality for a kindle freebie, so when an entire collection of his work showed up on Netgalley, I figured why not check it out. The results are mixed. There were certainly things about these stories I appreciated, the psychological darkness, the twist endings, the plot surprises, but…and there is a but here, not quite of Kardashian proportions, but still…the writing style didn’t quite work for me. Frustrating, really, because it’s almost good. It’s so close. Maybe a few more years of maturity and practice and it’ll get there, but as of now the stories are ever so slightly to considerably overdone, overbaked, overstylized. I was trying to put a finger on it (not literally to make Kindle define words), but to help me define what it is about the writing that didn’t quite work for me and the best word that came up is pomposity, which isn’t quite right, but close enough. There’s something oddly fustian about it all…much like me using the word fustian just now. A peculiar affectedness to the narration that occasionally distracts from the story. This isn’t a terrible book by any means, none of it, in fact quite decent at times. There are some interesting story concepts with the main theme being that of psychological disquiet in one’s mind, the title refers to all being privately haunted by ghosts and demons of one’s own making, life’s making, etc. The struggle to maintain a good front, while fighting secret battles of your own. A noble idea born of a noble quest to address depression and her ugly cousins, as the afterword will tell you. So basically purely good intentions, a fair amount of good ideas and a weirdly (and most likely unintentional) pretentiousness of style in execution…you know, much like going by the moniker The Behrg. In fact, exactly like that, maybe. Due to various time constraints this took me a wildly uncharacteristic three days to get through and at the end I was pretty tired of it (it’s mostly the final novella that did that, actually), so it didn’t work for me really, but this is the kind of book where user mileage will definitely vary. Thanks Netgalley.

Was this review helpful?

So, this is my first encounter with this author. I've never even heard of him until I came across this book on Netgalley but, Oh my! These stories are great. Like not in the sense where the sun is shining or anything like that but great as in the manner as they are raw, emotional and they definitely have the creepy factor. But, in a sense they amaze me because of the way the author writes about the passengers in the different characters lives. I really enjoyed that! This is a really darker side of fiction and horror but I will definitely be looking at more of his work. I really enjoyed the unique experience with the perspectives and his style of writing.

Was this review helpful?

For many people in my age bracket we were drawn to <i>Fight Club</i> and <i>American Pyscho</i> 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 <b>dark</b>. 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.

Was this review helpful?

I don't know anything about The Behrg but I want to read everything.

Emotional, powerful and terrifying stories. I had nightmares for two nights. So....excellent writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Was this review helpful?

There were some really insightful flashes of genius in some of the stories, a decent amount of spooky creepiness, and some that were just downright weird or draggy, but all in all a good collection of dread-inducing reads.

Was this review helpful?

Thanks to Netgalley for the Arc of this book. A pretty creepy,emotional book of short stories. I enjoyed every story and will definitely be recommending this book to others. Now I intend to read more by this author. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

Was this review helpful?

Wow, this book blew me away. The horror stories in here were so good. Very engaging and will definitely keep you up at night.

Was this review helpful?

I've heard about this author, but this is the first book I've read of his. I was pleasantly surprised, I normally do not like collections of short stories but this is dark fiction, emotional and awesome! Behrg is really a fantastic writer and I will be keep an eye out for his other work.

Thank for NetGalley and the author for a chance to read this

Was this review helpful?