Bad Dreams and Reflections
by Trevor Kennedy
"Together, we must read your book..."
"...a font of horror: a source from which macabre, terror,
suspense, and dread flows."
~ Carl R. Jennings, author of Just About Anyone
For paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited
This book is appropriate for teenagers.
"Depending on your definition of the term, I am God.
At least to someone like you I am.
I am your God now,
and within those doors awaits your judgement.
You can put it off as much as you like,
but you cannot avoid it completely.
You were but a man, alas a weak-minded, base animal,
but a creature of certain sentience, nonetheless.
The rules must be obeyed in full.
Together we must read your book."
~ excerpt from "Skull & Bones"
Within Trevor Kennedy's Bad Dreams and Reflections, you will discover a world of darkened shades of night and long-forgotten angles of reality where good and evil collide.
A plane of malevolence where vampiric cats, insectoid abominations, mischievous genii, demonic entities from Hell, lycanthropic freaks of nature, the sleepless dead, the foul stench of rotting ghouls, and Lovecraftian terrors coexist and stalk the twisted streets and mist-filled entries, as treacherous cursed tomes and the apocalypse wait patiently in the shadows.
Do you dare walk the roads of this forbidden wasteland of unprecedented horror?
About the Author
Born in 1976, Trevor Kennedy is a writer and editor based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has been working in the genre literary field for around ten years now, although he has been a fan of all things weird and fantastical for as long as he can remember. He edits Phantasmagoria Magazine and its spin-off Special Edition Series, along with other related books under his TK Pulp imprint.
Trevor is also a radio presenter for Big Hits Radio UK and co-host of Citizen Frame film review podcast (available here and wherever podcasts are broadcast). His day job is a complains handler for Channel 4 (UK). Previous employment includes as a lithographic color proofer, composite operator for Bombardier Shorts aircraft manufacturers, the BBC Complaints department, call centre operative, and brief stints as a security guard and industrial cleaner. He can be contacted by email at tkboss@hotmail.com.
Praise for Bad Dreams and Reflections
"Trevor Kennedy, Northern Irish editor of the widely acclaimed Phantasmagoria Magazine is a man of many talents... Bad Dreams and Reflections: A Collection of Weird Horror Stories published by Dark Owl Publishing LLC is yet another example of a creative mind that refuses to back down from any challenge...
"Kennedy creates horror to perfection, a mad scientist just waiting for the lightning to strike... Kennedy [also] writes with a mournful pen, ink-stained future projections of a race too far gone to be saved.
"This dark collection delves into the unspeakable injustices of those who devour all, and leave nothing but the deepest scars behind... a string of dark words, the coming together of many apocalyptic threads, a spider that weaves mankind's epitaph, one cautionary tale at a time."
For the entire review, click here.
~ Jessica Stevens, peer review
"In his introduction, Trevor Kennedy calls himself 'something of a connoisseur of horror at its finest and most exquisite,' which is a level of modesty I must disagree with.
"The Crypt Keeper is a connoisseur of horror; curating and disseminating horror that only stodgy, busy-body parental groups could find objectionable. What Trevor Kennedy is, along with the likes of John Carpenter, Ramsey Campbell, and Robert W. Chambers, is a font of horror: a source from which macabre, terror, suspense, and dread flows.
"When one finds Trevor Kennedy's work, it gives the same thrill of finding an unassuming book in a local small bookstore - the kind that ends up exploding the imagination out into tendrils which wrap around realms the reader never knew were missing from their life.
"With the likes of 'Relating to Thaumaturgy' and 'The Crimson Tower,' being part of the horror scene in Northern Ireland around about now will be viewed in the future as drinking in the same bars as Edgar Allan Poe, or being in correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft. I've been privileged enough to work, however distantly, with Trevor Kennedy for several years now. Even though we're thousands of miles away from each other, I can chart out how knowing him, and, even more, reading what he has written and what he finds important to read, has improved not only my writing skill, but, more importantly, enriched my life as a reader of the horrific."
~ Carl R. Jennings, author of Just About Anyone
"All the stories contained within are set in Ireland, with some definitely falling into the strange category. Some of the stories are short and feel like little fever dream snippets... Where this collection shines is with the longer stories, all of which are creepy in their own right. 'Crown of Thorns,' which includes the genuinely scary character, Mr. Needlesticks, is the best of the bunch for me. ...there are more than enough excellent stories in here to make this collection worth reading."
"4 stars out of 5."
~ John Watson, Horror Book R&R
"Right from the introduction you get a good sense of how enthusiastic Kennedy is about horror. He states in his own words his lifelong fascination with horror, and in particular H.P. Lovecraft. In fact, his first story, 'The Cats of Silverstream,' started with the Lovecraft quote. It is a strange tale of a ghostly girl and a feline wail. But in no way does it set the tone for the rest of the book. Kennedy's writing morphs from eerily disturbing to dark comic satire to shocking. My favourite style of his writing is the dark comedy. This is executed to perfection in the story 'So the Story Goes.' It is the 'ripping yarn of Andy and Daphne's' first date. Having heard Kennedy's voice on his radio show, it was easy for me to read (in my head) this with a Norn Irish accent like Kennedy's. If you can also do that, trust me, it will add to the satire of what is the rite of passage of young lovers everywhere. A nice night out followed with a walk in the woods when it all goes wrong.
"'It Begets' is deeply disturbing on many levels. Here, Kennedy has clearly used life experience of the troubles in Northern Ireland as the basis for the story. A story about a man facing the judgement of the hellish things he did to others for 'the cause.' He now relives them nightly in his dreams. He knows that ultimately, he is damned to hell.
"It is fair to say that throughout Bad Dreams and Reflections, Kennedy's tone to each story changes. This gives the reader a real roller coaster of a read. I admire Kennedy's tongue-in-cheek humour, as much as I admire his ability to twist the story and deliver a shock when you least expect it. I also really enjoy the pace of his writing. As I read each story it became my new favourite until by the end of the book, I could not pick a favourite. Kennedy has a talent to deliver every time and can turn his hand to any number of narratives.
"I have read and own his other books: Phantasmagoria Fantasias of Possibility and Phantasmagoria Book 2 Dance Macabre. What strikes me in this, Bad Dreams and Reflections, is that you can see how he has, and is still, growing as a writer.
I look forward to reading more of his work in the future."
~ Helen Scott, peer review