Title: Enter At Your Own Risk
Author: Timothy Bartlett
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing LLC
ISBN: 978-1-64361-378-9
Genre: Short Stories
Pages: 398
Reviewed by: Carl Conrad
Hollywood Book Reviews
Enter At Your Own Risk is both the title of this book of 56 short stories of varying lengths by Timothy Bartlett as well as also the critical admonition above a doorway in a tree in the last story of the collection in which a teenage boy must decide if he should enter or not – and, of course he does and has an incredible, though unexpected adventure – which ends the book. I mention this so that potential readers won’t think this is a collection of bone-chilling, scary, fear-inducing short stories that require caution for their unnerving tales because, while it does have several creepy, spooky, stories that will shock or startle you, it is mainly a book of innocent outcomes.
That isn’t to say that Enter At Your Own Risk does not have stories with surprises or twists and turns that will make you believe that you’ve slipped into a rabbit hole of manipulated delights, because it does. But, the kind of stories that Mr. Bartlett tells will stray from a relatively normal experience in the beginning to one that suddenly confronts the reader with a conclusion that may resolve the dilemma by proposing a solution which you might never have expected. That’s what seemed to lurk behind the playful magic of each of these short (although some are quite lengthy) stories, is the unimpeded imagination of an author who told his story – wherever it took him. And, in some of these stories, they took him into places where only a playful magic could flourish.
Take, for instance, the perfectly normal day that started for Melvin in the story “One Thrilling Morning” when he walked to the subway station to go to work and a seven foot, multi-legged creature was following him! Or, there’s the wild and baffling story about Tony called “The Question” in which he mysteriously appears in the mall among a group of girls without any clothes on, and runs away to hide his embarrassment only to find that it was his shyness about asking a girl to the prom that caused him to dream that predicament. Or, “It’s My Miracle” in which Tim needed to practice his paragliding techniques only to inexplicably perform flawlessly for two hours because of the cooperation of the wind which whispered to him that he could do it.
Then there are stories about what it might be like to be animals – fish, spiders, birds, bears, flies, mice, or even tree frogs – and how they cope with experiences that appear much different to them than to us. Or, even my favorite called “It’s Downstairs” in which a creature turns the tables on some classmates who meant to scare a boy they didn’t like only to find that the creature didn’t cooperate with their plan.
This is a book that will entertain you with its unique and unconventional stories at the same time that it often leaves a message from which a sharp reader will learn.