Product Description

This 13 story collection delves into the dark depths of noted Amy Grech's Unique style of horror. "Amy Grech has a cinematographer's eye, and a surgeon's hand-at once brutal and tender, unsettling yet humane. These stories linger like traces of an acid trip. Highly recommended!"- Jay Bonansinga, National Best-selling Author of TWISTED, FROZEN, and THE SINKING OF THE EASTLAND

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1043281 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Customer Reviews

Eh...
(Ash Lomen)



Apple of My Eye is a horror collection put out by Two Backed Books (who have put out some great bizarro [Lawson's anthology "Tempting Disaster"] and horror [Wrath's "Book of 1,000 Sins"] books over the years). This collection is written by Amy Grech.

...and, I have to say it was a little disappointed in this collection... there were some good ones, don't get me wrong... but overall it's a bit sub par. The characters aren't particularly interesting... the gross out moments are mostly nothing we haven't seen before... and the sex is kind of boring

I'm not saying Grech can't write (the title story is actually pretty damn good)... but I think she could have worked on this one a bit longer... a bit of editing, a bit of polishing, before publication.

I'd give another collection by her a chance ... but I don't think I could ever make it though a novel...

You're better off getting "Experiments in Human Nature" also by 2BB.

Very Impressive First-Time Collection
Amy Grech has had her fiction published all over the place, and this--her first collection--is a fine example of why. These 13 tales range from the extreme, to subtle, to a thrilling scifi/horror hybrid ("EV2000") that will easily satisfy fans looking for a good smorgasboard of terror tales. There's something for everyone here, and Grech holds her own even among the rising tide of new horror writers. She's surely one to keep your EYE on.

Needs to ripen a bit
Apple of My Eye by Amy Grech
Review by Nickolas Cook
Two Backed Books
Trade $11.95

Comprised of thirteen stories, APPLE OF MY EYE is Amy Grech's second book. One wishes that TwoBacked Books had taken a bit more care in editing the material, because too many of the book's offerings have minor to major narrative and structural issues. Granted, it's a novice's effort, but with a little spit and polish, and an editorial eye to greatness, Grech and TwoBacked Books might have come away with something much better than this collection.
Unfortunately, most of the stories that make up the first half of the collection feel repetitive and amateurish. All the `killers' use almost the same weapons, and all display a very similar ambiguity in characterization, as do her wispy framed protagonists. Too many characters `wink', `nod' or use other silent descriptives instead of allowing the spaces to just be: in short, Grech doesn't seem comfortable with the silence and feels she must fill them with such physical and repetitive inanities. Grech seems to be shooting for a sophisticated sort of eroticism in some of the stories, but a lack of life experience makes them come off like silly teenage girl journal entries instead- the daydream of eroticism, not the reality. She tries for danger, but it feels like camp. When she tackles love, she does a much better job of conveying realistic emotions.
The collection does, however, begin to pick up towards the last half, giving us much more professional and polished selections--albeit still on the amateurish side. I found `Perishables', `Damp Wind and Leaves' and `EV 2000' to be the best of the thirteen. Each of them displayed a style and voice that I'm sure is hiding within this inexperienced writer. If only they had been made manifest in the other stories as well, this would have been one hum-dinger of a collection.
As it is, it's mediocre at best.
Still, on the strength of the above mentioned stories, I would give Amy Grech another read in the future, in the hopes that she will have improved her craft considerably.

--Nickolas Cook