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Simon Paul Woodward
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Wearing Skin: 12 Devilishly Dark Horror Short Stories (Wearing Horror) Kindle Edition

by Simon Paul Woodward (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 131 ratings
See all formats and editions
None of us are what we seem to be on the outside. We are all pretending. We are all wearing skin. The Angel of Loughborough Junctions: An amoral filmmaker experiences the horror of the world through an angel’s eyes. Children of Ink: A living tattoo breaks one of the Five Laws of Ink and suffers the terror of life away from flesh. Wearing Skin: Bigotry conquers true love in a blood-splattered tale of body swapping, sex and immortality. American Sexual Lobster: A seafood chef loses his mind and body on a night of shellfish slaughter. Manny & the Monkeys: An egotistical writer’s life is ripped apart by escalating, and increasingly bizarre, coincidences. These 12 unsettling short stories include the British Fantasy Society award-winning Manny & The Monkeys. If you're a fan of Stephen King, Joe Hill or Clive Barker you'll love these dark stories with a twist. Get ready to stay up all night with award-winning horror author Simon Paul Woodward.
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  1. Part of series
    Wearing Horror
  2. Print length
    194 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    October 31, 2020
  6. File size
    1160 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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From the Publisher

None of us are what we seem to be on the outside...

Women with a nosebleed clutches her head

Blurred image of a figure falling forward

Tattooed woman looks over her shoulder

A woman's hand. touches a window

Bigotry conquers true love in a blood-splattered tale of body swapping, love and immortality.

An amoral filmmaker experiences the horror of the world through an angel’s eyes.

A living tattoo breaks one of the Five Laws of Ink and suffers the terror of life away from flesh.

A young couple on the verge of breaking up suffer a mysterious theft.

We are all pretending...

Classical Statue of a woman

Old typewriter on a wooden table

Bright Blue Lobster

Woman in white t-shirt covers face with hands

A woman finds myths stalking her across a Greek island

An egotistical writer’s life is ripped apart by escalating, and increasingly bizarre, coincidences.

A seafood chef loses his mind and body on a night of shellfish slaughter.

A rich socialite offers herself as a research subject in a bizarre experiment.

We are all wearing skin.

Child sits on the top of a high building

A woman juggles balls.

An old house against a night sky

A door opens on to a red scene

A murderer's plans are thrown into disarray when he suddenly finds himself alone in the world. For a while.

Who is the mysterious Hero? Why is she so obsessed with juggling? And what plans does the Master Juggler have for her?

A bullied and betrayed boy finds absolution through a bloody evolution.

1950's America. A radical plan to spy on the Soviet Union threatens to spark an even greater Cold War.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The ideas, the language, the grasp of how people really talk, and think, and how close the dark is to all of us... this is an exceptional collection."
Michael Marshall Smith
New York Times
Bestselling author

"The core story 'Wearing Skin' is a tale of body swapping, touching on the mythic questions of immortality and sex. The author presents the scenes in their raw form, shocking the reader and keeping them in fear. The book is an excellent read if you are fan of Joe Hill."
Joel Stafford
Joelsbooks.com

I wear a skin when I wake up in the morning. I wear a skin when I leave for work. I wear a skin when I mingle with people. I shed my skin when I am all alone. This fantastic collection consists of 12 'skins'. 12 unsettling and unique short stories that deliver more than just a punch. Dark tales with a twist that will keep you up all night. The writing is beautiful and inventive, the style unique and the graphic horror comes in waves. Huge, massive, waves to sweep you of your feet and launch you into surreal worlds.

My personal favourite is 'Children of Ink', a story that caused me nightmares and 'Manny
and the Monkeys' a story that truly stressed me out. No wonder it won the British Fantasy Society award.
Pan | Book Reviews

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08KDWFRN5
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ musingMonster Books (October 31, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 31, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1160 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 194 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B08M81NYF9
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 131 ratings

About the author

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Simon Paul Woodward

Simon Paul Woodward

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Simon Paul Woodward is a horror writer based in London, UK. He’s a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and the British Fantasy Society (BFS) and has won the BFS short story competition. His novels and short story collections have received plaudits from bestselling authors and his short fiction has appeared in magazines in the UK and USA.

You can visit him at www.simonpaulwoodward.com

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
131 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

NICK EVANS
5.0 out of 5 stars A dark parallel world
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
Simon Paul Woodward: Wearing Skin

By his own account, Simon Paul Woodward lives a tranquil life in Coulsdon, south London.

I imagine his house to be a Gothic mansion which terrifies the local schoolchildren and old ladies of a nervous disposition.

These stories are great: disturbing, dark and discordant.

When you think he’s following a more conventional narrative, Simon will add an unexpected twist and veer off into sinister territory.

Alex and Stan break into a flat to find a new squat in The Angel of Loughborough Junction: only to discover there is more than a trapped pigeon in the loft.

In Wearing Skin, a boy is out on the town with his new girlfriend when they have a disturbing run-in with a killer who stabs a woman in front of their eyes.

My personal favourites: Still Lives in Motion, in which a troubled mass killer finds brief redemption.

And Children of Ink in which tattoes come to life.

Simon really gets us into the heads of some very troubling characters, and takes us with him into a dark parallel world which only exists in his imagination… but who can be entirely sure?

There’s not a duff tale among these 12, all incredibly varied, horror stories. Highly recommended.
7 people found this helpful
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Espresso and Books
3.0 out of 5 stars Unnerving 12 story anthology
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2022
Verified Purchase
This was an interesting (and unnerving) 12-story anthology. Wearing Skin is definitely dark and foreboding. A few of my favorite stories include;

‘The Angel of Loughborough Junction’: This one had great atmosphere. 2 men come across what they think is an abandoned house, but when they break in, they hear weird noises coming from the attic. They head up to the attic and find something completely unexpected.

‘Kissed by the Moth’: A couple wake up to find that an intruder has been in their apartment. They can’t figure out what has been taken…until later.

‘The Anatomy of Tears’: A scientist is trying to figure out if tears hold “images of emotions”. What seems like a interesting (albeit creepily fascinating) procedure ends up turning into a bit of a nightmare.

‘Still Lives in Motion’: A man has a very dark plan he wants to carry out. He’s in a bathroom getting everything together, but upon leaving the restroom he notices the entire human race has vanished.

There were a couple that I wasn’t a huge fan of, but that’s not to say someone else wouldn’t love them. If you’re looking for an eerie book that goes by pretty quick, give this one a read.
4 people found this helpful
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Ashley Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars Really amazing
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2021
Verified Purchase
Such skilled writing and fully equipped with the finesse to scary you with something so ordinary or miraculous you wonder what he will do next. Highly recommended!
2 people found this helpful
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Author Elizabeth Suggs
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll find something you love in here!
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2020
Wearing Skin: 12 Devilishly Dark Horror Short Stories by Simon Paul Woodward is a quick horror read with some stories that’ll stick with you for a long time afterward.

Woodward has a way of bringing the reader into his world with every story. Some of these tales are remarkably different from each other, but it works. I’m going to focus on my three favorite stories, “Children of Ink," “Still Lives in Motion,” and “The Galilean Manoeuvre.” Woodward has other great stories, but these spoke to me the most.

“Children of Ink” is the strangest yet one of the most beautiful short stories I’ve ever read. In this world, art are living things. We explore different avenues of life, like graffiti, the story’s focus is on two tattoos who find each other on the bodies of a very dysfunctional couple.

While the tattoos fall in love with each other, breaking the Five Laws of Ink, the couple on which they inhabit slowly cycles more out of control, becoming all the more unhealthy.

This is my favorite story, one I will definitely come back to reading over and over.

Here are my favorite quotes:
“I feel her slide against me, body to body, ink to ink, and confusingly, even though we only exist into dimensions, I can feel her body’s curves.”

“We make love across Eloise’s body: across her stomach and between her thighs, crushed in darkness on her back.”

Another great story is “Still Lives in Motion.” This is about a man who lives in a world of isolation and emptiness. He creates a place to live in a mall, and he is happy for years until he realizes there’s something missing. Almost as if the universe hears his mind, a woman comes along. She is like him, enjoying isolation, living in this quiet world. Together they make a life for themselves.

This story feels very reminiscent of the life we lead now, living during a pandemic, despite it having nothing to do with a virus. I enjoyed this a lot.

The last story I’ll mention is “The Galilean Manoeuvre.” This is about a compulsive liar journalist who meets a female juggler. The pair are together for a small amount of time, and in that time, she uncovers his secrets. The writing is clever and concise. The ending was great.

Here are some quotes:
“An effortless lie; a professional reaction.”

“Taylor had a face like a crushed beer can and implosion wrinkles and folds of skin.”

“The more he filled the space inside him with booze, the more real he became.”

I want to give a shoutout to another great quote. This one’s from the story “The Anatomy of tears”:

“The image of emotion in the heart of tears.”

Definitely check out Woodward’s anthology. You'll find something you love in here!
3 people found this helpful
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Kyle Duarte
5.0 out of 5 stars It scared me! I loved it!
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2020
The words creative, creepy, and suspenseful can only begin to describe this amazing collection of short stories. Simon Paul Woodward has the imagination to create fantastic worlds, and the talent to bring them to life. I felt like I got to know all the characters, despite the short amount of time I got to spend with each of them. I truly lived in these worlds (as scary as that was sometimes) and love every second of it. If you want to be on the edge of your seat, biting your nails, turning pages faster than lightning while you forget to breathe, then this is definitely the book for you.
3 people found this helpful
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Miss.Morningstar
5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection of short stories!
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2020
This was an interesting one, such a awesome collection of short stories.

12 horror stories that will scare you, creep you out, and sometimes you may want to put it down! (If you read them late at night) 👀

My favorite was Still lives in motion, about a murder who finds some Redemption.

Simon Paul Woodward did a amazing job, the talent and creativity he put into these stories, and bringing the characters to life.

I recommend this book! I give it 5 ⭐️ !
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Dylan Butcher
5.0 out of 5 stars BORN IN PAIN, AND BLOOD AND INK!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2020
Verified Purchase
An angel in an attic. An author accused of plagiarism and under attack by monkies. A story told from the perspective of a girl's tattoo. Age-old monsters in human skin. A doctor who freezes tears to understand his own lack of emotion. Two people ready to throw their lives away, until the people they hate vanish and they are alone in the world... And many more besides.

This horror short-story collection is full of the most unsavoury characters, with recurring themes of vengeance and suffering. Filled with so many sins that this book could only end in one place... And it ain't Heaven! With subtle vibrations of Joe Hill and Stephen King, and lashings (of the Hellraiser kind) of Clive Barker, reminiscent of the Books of Blood of the 1980s. Woodward will make you want to tear off your own skin to stop it from crawling. Titles to die for for. Narratives with bite. A Molotov Cocktail of realism and the mythological, contemporary characters and settings... You will be gripped!

Seasoned with the speculative and served on a bed of nails...

"Born in pain, blood and ink"
2 people found this helpful
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Mr Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars 12 stories that will unlock a path into your mind and release an imagination!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
Remember to leave the light on at night when reading this remarkable horror book and with twelve short imaginative stories they conjure up all sorts of dark and mysterious thoughts. I started to sweat compulsively and my nerves were on edge, I was biting my finger nails frantically...like Cronenberg, Stephen King and Wes Craven the authors mind has reached new heights and aiming for a no1 best seller AGAIN!! His new release Wearing Skin sets the standard for something new and frightening in the genre...I purchased the paperback instead of the kindle as my fingers like to grasp the pages tightly and I was NOT disappointed from reading the demonic, scary stories. 10/10
One person found this helpful
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Zoe
5.0 out of 5 stars A different kind of horror.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2022
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A selection of short horror stories which are very different to the norm. Certainly worth reading. Each one has a different aspect.
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Alyson Allgood
5.0 out of 5 stars A hit
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2023
Verified Purchase
Bought for a friend who is a horror connoisseur. They loved it.
Horror not my genre but went down a treat.
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Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely not worth full price
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
Well enough written but I finished this book in about an hour. It's very short and not worth being the price of a full book.
Having said that it was well written. Not very gripping but OK.
One person found this helpful
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