Seven Deadly Pleasures »

Each of the seven tales that Michael Aronovitz brings together in his first collection of stories is a powerful, hard-hitting specimen of contemporary weird fiction. From "How Bria Died," which tells of a baleful entity lurking in the bowels of a placid-seeming high school, to "Quest for Sadness," with its searing analysis of an aberrant mind, to "The Legend of the Slither-Shifter," in which a babysitter discovers far more than she expected in an urban household, Aronovitz displays an enviable skill in the handling of supernatural conceptions. The capstone of the collection is a long novella, "Toll Booth," a richly complex tale of death and betrayal among teenagers. Michael Aronovitz is a new voice in horror fiction, but it is one that will be heard far and wide.

"Seven Deadly Pleasures is a startlingly good collection. With the assuredness of a born storyteller, Aronovitz rips the bland surface off the everyday to reveal the rolling horrors that lie beneath. These stories are raw with emotion, and the true terror of life, but be careful as they drag you down into the darkness, because you won't return the same."-William Lashner, author of Blood and Bone

"Seven Deadly Pleasures is scary smart-more than just monsters and ghosts, these stories are beautifully crafted pieces of writing that tap into the darkest places of the human psyche. Lovers of both beautiful writing and spine-tingling terror will fall in love with this collection."-Dr. Annalisa Castaldo, Widener University

"What is impressive about Aronovitz's tales is their range of tone, mood, and substance. . . . His surehandedness in prose, in character portrayal, and in the pacing and development of the short story mark him as a veteran."-From S. T. Joshi's Foreword

Publishers Weekly

“Toll Booth,” the novella that closes Aronovitz's first horror collection, will remind many of the better work of Stephen King. Via a letter from beyond the grave, James Raybeck, who from 1979 to 2008 worked the night shift at a toll booth in the small town of Westville, Ind., describes how horrific ghostly visions plagued those manning the toll booth shortly after its construction. Raybeck dropped out of high school to save the booth from being torn down, though he later pays a gruesome and terrible price. While the tale offers nothing particularly original, the execution and prose are exemplary. Aronovitz is especially good in the opening setup, as the narrator grounds what's to follow in the prosaic details of a municipal engineering project. The other six stories are less remarkable, but all show a subtlety and deftness of touch rare in the genre. (Apr.)