But You Scared Me the Most And Other Short Stories

This collection of twenty-six dark but often humorous short stories features a pantheon of disturbed and disturbing characters, human and otherwise.

Many of the stories are modern takes on classic monsters crafted with twisted plots. The Wolfman of “Wolfman and Janice” is doing the best he can under very trying circumstances, especially when confronted with eating his elderly neighbor’s cat. There’s an adolescent vampire-wannabe who is suffering badly: in love for the first time. “Frankenstein and His Mother” is a terrifying story of a grown man who wears a Frankenstein mask, lives with his mother, and watches TV and eats corn chips all day, too afraid to work.  “Dracula’s Daughter” turns a pretentious hippie into an honest ghost. And Bigfoot—lonely, sexually frustrated—tells all.

Other stories feature characters who seem perfectly normal until they're alone. Phil, for instance, is never so happy as when he’s with his inflatable girlfriend, Vanessa—until she tells him the devastating truth about himself. Elderly Ellen is running out of patience with her dead husband George, who’s turned prankish. “Bob and Todd” tells the story of a hitchhiking ride gone bad that will have readers squirming in their seats. More than just standard monster stories, the tales in But You Scared Me the Most reveal the dark heart of human nature

John Manderino is the author of The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock, The Man Who Played Catch with Nellie Fox, Sam and His Brother Len, Crying at the Movies, and Reason for Living. He lives in Scarborough, Maine.