Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke is a short novella that’s 76 pages total but manages to pack quite a wallop. The mood is set early and it’s creepy and disturbing. This short piece fits in the Twilight Zone, and is self aware enough to say so. The visuals are great and thanks to a creepy cover art, it’s easy to picture to creatures true form. The ending is good and will stay with me for a bit, just like a good episode of the twilight zone. This story spins the child from hell in a new direction. Those that follow my blog will know just how high the praise is as I use an image from the Twilight Zone Time Enough at Last as my monthly wrap up image.

The Plot: Phil Pendleton is in a local Walmart searching desperately for chocolate candy for his lover in a break between love making. He talks on the phone flirting the whole time, but that stops when he here’s the most loud and annoying scream from a six year old, in the candy aisle. Phil life other look among the other patrons and wonder where is the child’s mother and why isn’t she controlling here kid. He see’s a mother who looks like a spaced out thin junkie barely register’s her kid as she rips a bag of sour candy and puts it sloppily in her mouth. Phil connects with the kids eyes feeling sorry as the kid does another horrible high pitched scream. The store’s manager comes over and ask them to leave, Phil see’s to woman almost falling and give her a hand, for his reward he’s given a piece of sour candy. He jokes to the lover about never having kids on his drive home, as he is violently rammed in in the back by a speeding car. Phil comes to as people help him out of his now totaled car, and saw that it was the mother at the store. He immediately thinks of the kid and calls for others to look in the car for a kid. An officer comes to the scene and takes his statement as the mother of the boy passes away, asking him to describe the kid, Phil tries to get a hold of his girlfriend and can not, the officer takes down the address to send an officer over. The officer says he couldn’t get a hold of the girlfriend just his son. This is when his world starts crashing down, because he has no son, the officer says you must have been thinking about him because he fits the description of the kid you described in the accident. Did Phil always have a son? Did the accident do more damage than he thought? Or is there another purpose that he has a kid now?

What I Liked: This novella moves lighting fast, the plot summery I described is the all in the first 20 pages, and I left out information I deemed spoilers. This thing is creepy, like shower after reading creepy. I liked the use of descriptions and the visual picture created. The final twist is really good and is going to stick with me for a bit. I liked to the clever way it was set up.

What I Disliked: I thought the dialogue could have been a little better in parts between Phil and the kid. The story could’ve been easily expanded, I would have like to see more torment, to lead up to Phil’s actions, I understood them but don’t know if I fully emphasized with them.

Recommendations: This is my first Kealan Patrick Burke story and will not be my last. If you like the Twilight Zone, then this story will fit right in. If you like spine tingly stories that go to the extreme then you will love this story.  For horror aficionados Bentley Little recommends tale saying, “He wished he had written this tale himself” Bentley Little has written one of my favorite horror short stories in his book The Collection called The Washingtonians about England not conceding the Independence War and secretly running Washington.  I rated this Sour Candy 4 out of 5 stars.