"The Snout" by Edward Lucas White

Anddd yet another story that is told to the narrator through the eyes of another. At least in this story, there's a story behind that rendezvous between narrator and story-teller. Even if it's confusing.

I liked the story itself though, especially because once the word 'mythological' was mentioned, I was racking my brains trying to figure out which god this creepy snouted human-oid was supposed to be (thanks to my love of mythology, and Rick Riordan's many book series, I almost got to the right answer). I was honestly very worried that there were going to be dwarves and midgets, however. I consider myself very open-minded, but putting them in a horror story is enough to make me sleep with my lights on. This fear does NOT extend to real people, and I am in no way discriminatory toward any group of people, but horror stories involving some sort of little people are terrifying to me.

Little off topic, but now you know what scares me. In any case, this was an interesting enough story, kind of an Ocean's Eleven meets the Wolfman, except a less humorous trio of criminals, and a much creepier creature than the Wolfman. I once again, didn't really like that the narrator and the storyteller weren't given names, but at least it made sense that the narrator wasn't personally involved in the 'horror' story. And he had a role in this story besides being told a story! SPOILER ALERT the storyteller was a drunkard, and that's how the narrator knew where the missing money went, and whether or not he was telling the truth about this story. If you haven't noticed, I'm very excited that the narrator has an actual role in this story besides being a third party simply being told a tale of horror from somebody else. I hope more stories include the narrator like this one did.

Okay, I have three stories to read tomorrow for me to be all caught up from this weekend: "August Heat", "The Grove of Ashtaroth", and "Rooum". This is happening, and I shall feel very accomplished. And hopefully you will all be oh so proud of me. :) Happy reading! Hope you all have a truly terrifying pick line up for the last week of October!

- Justin