Milflores Publishing, Inc. has recently released Spooky Mo: Horror Stories, a collection of scary short stories in English by Marivi Soliven Blanco.
The nine stories in the book are all truly horrific and unpredictable because they are so imaginative. They feature the Seven Deadly Sins that we were all warned against when we were young—Pride, Envy, Anger, Avarice, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lust. The sins are committed in tandem by the characters in most of the stories, causing an eighth sin—revenge—and endings that provide the reader with a gleeful shock.
Most of the stories portray ghouls from Filipino folklore, from the cheeky “Manananggrrrl,” to the duwendes in “Child’s Play,” and the sawa of the urban legend in “Consumption”. One tale features the vagina dentata myth that recurs in several South American cultures through a Japayuki character. They are all fast-paced, satisfying reads.
Marivi Soliven Blanco won the first prize in the 1998 Philippines Free Press short story awards. Her collection of funny essays on immigrant life, Suddenly Stateside, is a bestseller. She has authored books on pregnancy, on living life as a single female, and a number of books for children, two of which won Palanca awards.
The eye-catching cover was designed by Blooey Singson, and the layout was by Zeny Ebalan.
Spooky Mo: Horror Stories is available at all National Book Stores, PowerBooks, Books for Less and other major book stores at P260 per copy.
Call 721-6431, E-mail: milflores@pldtdsl.net, or visit the Milflores website at milfloresonline.blogspot.com.
From the Lifestyle section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 5, 2008
Posted on May 05, 2008
