Engaging short story very reminiscent of the set-up for The Evil Dead. The focus is more on the creeping mystery over character development, but I enjoyed myself. The best parts were focused on Donna and her fate which sent a shiver (hah, if you know, you know) down my spine.

A gripping short story with an interesting premise, but a slightly (only slightly!) disappointing ending.

3 1/2 stars for a wonderful little tale of psychological horror.

This is one of those stories where the characters aren't the focus of the story; they're present only to be vehicles for the larger demonic horror that the story is really about. A bunch of clueless teenagers get caught up in some otherworldly malevolent sound-monster that possesses and then kills them-- it's obviously drawing on a ton of tropes and the movie Cabin in the Woods, but where Cabin in the Woods makes you spend time with the kids so you care about them when bad stuff starts happening...

At first I thought this short story was just another "Teenagers killed at a Cabin in the Woods." But Ian Rogers took that classic horror trope and built on it until the anticipation of what was going to happen built to a crescendo. Even though it was fairly obvious where this story was building up to, I still enjoyed the anticipation immensely. This is a Tor.com free read available here.

I would have loved a novella instead of short story. There was so much potential for more. Nevertheless full points for a creepy little story of another cabin in the woods.I'm just wandering why it's called Shards instead of The Shard... But that's for the author to decide

It was the song, and it wanted what every song wanted: to be heard.Chad, Annabelle, Mark, Donna and Marcie are five best friends and they have been friends for a very long time. When they rent a cabin in the woods just before their graduation, strange things happen. Chad and Annabelle are a couple, so are Mark and Donna. Marcie is the only single of the group. When Marcie opens a trap door and finds a gramophone that produces strange music as soon as the shard touches it, she gets affected and s...

August Review #3: Shards by Ian Rogers Five Friends. A Cabin in The Woods. A trap door with a surprise inside. A group game. Blood and Dismemberment.I know, I know. I know what you’re thinking: this story is a shameless homage or-God forbid- another deconstruction of the Evil Dead (1981) and similarly themed films. But you’d be wrong, for Ian Rogers’s short story goes beyond the fateful night and into the living hell called their lives. For Rogers, the fateful “Evil Dead” event is just the star

This story is available to read for FREE at Tor.comhttps://www.tor.com/2021/01/27/shards...Or you can buy it for .99 to read on your Kindle which is what I did because I hate reading on my laptop...Ian Rogers is the author of one of the best short story collections for the genre. It's titled, EVERY HOUSE IS HAUNTED and if you don't have it, get it! And if you have it, read it! And if you've read it, read SHARDS, because the man has seriously leveled up (if that's even possible).The foreboding fi...

WTF? Wow, this was freaking dark. And went so much further than that murder of their friend. So kids, don't open strange cellar doors and take things out of it. Just let thing stay hidden. Sometimes that is much much better.

Wow!!!! This short story is jam PACKED with greatness! It baffles me how someone can write such an awesome story in less than 50 pages. Top notch from the very beginning to the very end. I can’t wait to check out more of Roger’s works.

Looking back, it made a strange kind of sense—an absurd kind of sense, one could say—that they should be the ones who ended up killing Marcie. They would have died for her if the situation had been reversed.If you looked at it like that, killing Marcie was really the least they could do.Still, there were some unanswered questions.Like why did they dismember Marcie’s body after they killed her?teenagers renting cabins in the woods: good idea or no? if you’re a fan of horror (or NOT a fan of teens...

Get out your trunks, pack an hour of free time and head to the cabin!This one has a lot more to offer than you would expect. (view spoiler)[I mean, contagious obsessions... Wow, I wish I'd have come up with the idea first. (hide spoiler)]

Five friends rent an isolated cabin for a getaway and discover something unexpected and unstoppable. Each person catches an infectious obsession that will change their lives forever. A violent and psychological/supernatural thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.

Stars: 2.5 out of 5I have been in a bit of a reading slump lately, so my star rating might be harsher than I would usually give it. It is an okay short story about a group of friends who go spend the weekend in a cabin in the woods... Sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's because it's like any other slasher movie out there. Which is not bad per se, because it's a genre and it can be mindless and bloody fun... Only it didn't quite work for me with this story.I think my problem is that those 5 teens...

. Well this was short but creepy af! I did a great job in choosing to read this one right before bed. I really think this would work great as full length story.

It is no secret I love Ian Rogers and adore every single thing he has written. So hearing he put out a new novelette I couldn't wait to read it. My plan was to put my children to nap and devour Shards in one sitting. Unfortunately, children play by their own rules and I didn't get to finish it. But that worked out for the best because when I sat down to finish the story at bedtime the clouds that had been hanging around all day opened up and I was able to read this creepy little tale to a soundt...

*3.5 stars Spooky! I wish that this story was a bit longer. I would have loved for it to have explored the relationship the characters had with Marcie more.

I first heard about Shards on Twitter when a friend was saying it was free from Tor Books and how good it was. I had never heard of the author before but I figured i had nothing to lose so I grabbed a copy. From the book’s description I was expecting your usual teenagers go to a spooky cabin in the woods story. The book does start off that way then suddenly it turns into so much more. Five friends rent a cabin for a weekend and discover something totally unexpected. They each end up with an infe...

I’m self admittedly late to the Ian Rogers game. I had snagged his collection ‘Every House is Haunted’ some time back in a Story Bundle package, but didn’t get to it for a bit and then when his other Tor.com release ‘Go Fish’ came out recently, I snagged that and devoured it. It was amazing. Which pushed me into reading ‘Every House is Haunted’ which was also amazing.So, when Ian announced ‘Shards’ I was excited… but also completely believed it wasn’t coming out until February. I was a bit surpr...