I picked this up for the zombie dinosaur story, and it was a decent short story collection. I did, skip the last story "The Soul Thief's Son" as it was a continuation of a novel Cargill wrote, and so I'd be absolutely lost. I did read all the other stories, though, and now I'm gonna rank them from my favorite to least favorite.

1: Hell Creek. This story and the 2nd place story are a close neck in neck for me. Honestly, I kind of like The Town That Wasn't Anymore a bit more than Hell Creek, but dammit, I'm a dinosaur fella through a through. I was endlessly impressed with Cargilll's ability to give these extinct animals strong personalities with no words at all, and the ending, while hopeful, was extremely bittersweet. 5/5

2: The Town That Wasn't Anymore. This is such a good story. It's one of those rare horror tales that has filled me with a sense of lingering dread that's persisted even after reading it. The idea of this slowly dwindling cast of characters facing off against a supernatural threat night after night after night with no end in sight is so bleak and hopeless. The characters are all interesting and fun as well, which makes the peril they're put in that much worse. I will absolutely revisit this story at some point. 5/5

3: The Last Job is the Hardest. A man with a bomb in a suitcase is confronted by a fellow who knows far too much about him and leaves him with an awful circumstance. The idea here is pretty simple but brilliant in execution. The fact that the main character is such an asshole makes his eventual fate all the more delicious, and that sudden ending is *chefs kiss* 4.5/5

4: I Am the Night You Never Speak Of. I wasn't 100% feeling this story until the twist came, and then I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Only reason it's missing a star is that I did think the start was a bit slow and since this piece is based on an established universe that I haven't read, I had to piece some things together. Still, not bad at all and wicked monster design. 4/5

5: We Are Where The Nightmares Go. The entries from here all have a similar flaw in their premise being excellent but with a not fabulous execution. I love when fairy tales or children's stories are twisted into a dark nightmare. In a number of ways, this story does that, but I also just wanted more. You have an entire realm of banished nightmares at your disposal, and the most we get is clowns and some creepy locales. I did like the ending though, very fun in that regard. 3.5/5

6: A Clean White Room. Again, an excellent idea that I'm not so sure about execution wise. I love the idea of truly reprehensible sinners escaping hell and there being an individual that contains them and sends them back. I even love the personal stakes of having someone our main character knows coming back. I just felt like there were a number of ideas here that didn't quite mesh when all was said and done. It didn't leave me with a sense of fun mystery or unease, but a feeling that I was missing a much bigger part of the picture.

7: Jake and Willy at the End of the World. Two rednecks sit and wait for a mob of psycho killers to come at them so they can blast them with their guns. While they wait, they talk, I guess. Idk, this is such a nothing story in my mind. Not bad, but the characters are just such stereotypes of a character that's been done for so long and much better. 2/5

8: Hell They Call Him, The Screamers. Hoo boy. This one kind of comes across as something I would have written my freshman year of college. Extensive profanity, gore, and filth. I'm not a prude, I don't mind those things, but this really just felt like a way for the author to play around with explicit material within a meh plot about the afterlife. The whole thing just seems a bit immature. 1.5/5

9: As They Continue Falling. This here is the king of unrealized potential. The author has a note about this being a very rough work that has many worts and bumps, and I appreciate that vulnerability. That puts this story in a weird spot for me because I actually like it a bit more than the last two on the list. I just can't get over what this story /could/ have been. The idea of fallen angels being absolute assholes to innocent people and ruining their lives is SUCH a good idea. It just feels a bit like this story squanders it. I'd love to see another take on this idea or perhaps something updated from Cargill himself. 1.5/5