Optical Delusion by Hunter Shea
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Do you remember those bare-bones hokey horror shows from the seventies and the eighties, the ones that played upon fifties values and aimed at the lowest common denominator by giving us a MC that IS the lowest common denominator?

How about some really cheap made-for-tv horror episodes that were amusing more for the schlock value than the shock value? Do you miss those?

I admit I do, to my everlasting shame. But I don't feel that guilty. Not really. It's comfort food and Shea is great at giving us exactly what we want. No nutritional value at all. :)

In this case, we have a slothful drunk dad that goes on a journey with his new x-ray glasses that really function as advertised, only they're cursed and he can't get them off. Of course, the old complaint about x-ray glasses also comes true when it starts working a little too well. The simple concept even has the horror-moral built in, and I didn't care what happened to the guy so...

Enjoy! Nothing in here except popcorn wish-fulfillment as long as you're a 12-year-old boy inside a sad grown man who just wants to see titties.... gone wrong. :) Amusing for what it is. Please don't expect anything more, though, unless you're expecting a bit of a nice gross-out, because that's here, too. :) In this respect, it's quite a bit better than the made-for-tv horror shows. :) Very modern sensibilities there, at least. :)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!



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