Terry M. West ‘Held Over’ Review

Written by: Chad Lutzke 

This is part of Terry M. West’s Single Shot Short Story Series.  This particular story comes from the pages of his anthology What Price Gory?, which can be found on Amazon and a review right here in the HNR database.

Personally, this is my first experience with Mr. West’s work.  Reading a lot of self-published work, and networking with other authors, allows me to get my hands on some otherwise buried material.  Amazon is full of millions of books of all genres.  And in an age where one can easily self publish doesn’t mean they should.  The crap buries the gold.  The good stuff is in there, but you may have to get your hands dirty to find it.

I would consider Held Over a little nugget of pure gold.  There’s no messing around here.  West shows his intelligence without trying to intimidate you with a big vocabulary.  His prose is just that tight!  And his ideas that unique!  Yes, Held Over is a zombie story.  But you haven’t read this before (unless of course you literally have read it, as in from the pages of his anthology What Price Gory?).

Held Over introduces us to the Milburn & Stein Home for Continuance, where the rich go to keep on living.  After they’re dead.  Imagine that greedy old man who’s been served his whole life, the one with zero tolerance for the less fortunate.  Well, now he’s ready to fill out the DNR papers but instead hands over his entire lifesavings just to be able to continue romping around in that sagging skin even longer, while brainless and with a newfound appetite for flesh; all within the walls of a secure and specialized old (really old) folks home.

I’m seriously looking forward to more of Mr. West’s contributions to the literary world (and there are plenty available).  And now that I know about him, it’s less turd I have to dig through to find something satisfying.

Order it here.

Rating: 5/5