One Day, October by W.R. Parrish

The book, "One Day, October" by W R Parrish is a brilliant, fast paced piece, which will have your heart pounding too fast, your palms too sweaty, and you reminding yourself to breathe.   This horror tale is actually six very different stories that take place in one twenty-four hour period. They seemingly have nothing to do with one another; except that the characters are in the same town, each fighting their own monsters. “…[These monsters] are creatures of the dark.  Demons.  Spooks. Werewolves…Boogiemen.  Nothing more.  Agents of the Deceiver come in many forms…” (Parrish 279).  The stories are unconnected until the very end, when we find that “’we are so insignificant to creatures such as these that we are well below their concern’” (Parrish 180).  This is one book that I would not skip to the very last page, as I would spoil it for myself.  Mr. Parrish quite successfully had me gripping the edge of my seat right up to the very end!

The characters include an experienced priest, an innocent boy, a family man and a naive college girl, with little in common. They were all different; different genders, different ages, different walks of life and, as a result, different life stories with different villains with which to deal.  I was able to relate to them all very well, and I found myself sharing each of their monsters, as I had in different stages of my own life.  As a result, I felt the cold fingers of my imagined ogres running up and down my spine, as I read this suspenseful masterpiece.  I usually do not read this genre, as I am a "big chicken", but I thoroughly enjoyed "One Day, October", and I would jump at the chance to read another of Mr Parrish's works.  I would definitely would suggest this book to any horror fan.  

His style is much like Stephen King's or Dean Koontz's; fast and furious.  As he so aptly puts it, “[ He] like(s) swatches of scenes which become a pattern which become a quilt” (Parrish http://www.wrparrish.com/writing/2013/04/08/amusings/).  This is exactly how Mr. Parrish writes; small patterns of scenes that fit together into a quilt of a story.  However, I did slow down as I approached the conclusion of "One Day, October", only because I did not want the ride to end!

The author has a background which includes church and horror movies, an unlikely pair of interests. Both are very evident in his writing.  He has a website, http://www.wrparrish.com/writing/ that is a delight to visit.

This book is available on Amazon; the Kindle version is $3.99 and the paperback is $11.99.