Title: Grim Portraits: Six Stories About the Dark Side of Art

Author: Kealan Patrick Burke

Release date: September 11th, 2023

Every time Kealan Patrick Burke announces a new release, it feels like an event. A celebration. A gathering of excited Burke-ians who can’t wait to see what creepy, dread-filled nightmares Kealan has conjured and is unleashing on his ever-growing fanbase.

When this one was announced, it was evident this one meant a lot to Kealan. If you’ve followed him on Twitter for any sort of time, you’ll see three constants – hilarity, his dog, and his sharing and appreciation of all things art. The last one there, typically has included him sharing paintings (though I think this was a more common a few years back than currently), and I was always intrigued by the paintings shared, as they always were very different in tone and texture each time.

The foreword to this one is wonderful and creepy and sets the stage for the stories that follow and if you’ve been a fan of Burke’s work for any length of time, I think you’ll know what awaits.

What I liked: This collection featured six stories that all infused the world of art really nicely. It opens with a bang, and one of my favorites – ‘Sometimes They See Me.’ This story felt ‘off’ from the beginning, as a troubled artist connects with another and we get a deftly told paranormal style story that felt so cinematic.

Up next was ‘The Binding,’ which felt as though it was plucked from Clive Barker’s vault itself. A man wakes, completely bound to a bed, unable to move anything expect his eyes and unable to remember much of what happened that led to him being there. The only way I can describe this one is as though you found yourself trapped inside an oven and someone turns it on, the heat rising and increasing until you can no longer handle it. Just amazing.

From there, we get the one-two punch of ‘Portrait’ and ‘The Acquisition.’ Both felt similar and thematically linked, while different enough to have each completely engaging for this reader. I would be hard pressed to choose which one I preferred more, but ‘Portrait’ I think comes out slightly ahead.

Which leads us to my personal favorite in the batch – ‘The Barbed Lady Wants for Nothing.’ Two small-time crooks decide to rob a rare bookstore, knowing that riches await, but things go hideously wrong when one of them discovers a comic book that shouldn’t exist. This was the most ‘Tales From the Crypt’-style story of all of them and I could almost hear Kealan cackling like the Cryptkeeper while reading this.

The collection ends with transcribed story, ‘The Amp,’ which is typically not my style of storytelling I enjoy, but it ripped along and I was whisked away into this ‘interview’ easily enough, making sure I enjoyed how this collection ended.

What I didn’t like: As mentioned, I’m normally not a fan of transcribed type stories, which may dampen some people’s enjoyment of that final piece, but trust me when I say the story told through that interview is a blast.

Additionally, if you’re not typically a fan of reading themed collections or anthologies, this may not be your style, as Kealan makes it quite obvious that this is a collection focused on and based around art.

Why you should buy this: Kealan fans will most likely already have snagged this, but for those who haven’t yet, or who haven’t read Kealan, trust me when I say this is just a phenomenal collection that will grab you quick and not let go. Kealan is a master storyteller – both of short and long fiction – and it’s obvious throughout that he wrote these stories from a place that mattered to him.

Just a fantastic collection by one of the best authors out there.

5/5