So, this is Billy Wells’ first book in a long line of little indie-horror eBooks. I don’t know how many stories are contained in each volume, but I do know this first book has seven stories while volume 2 has eight. These stories are short, not quite flash fiction, but also not anything requiring a lengthy read time.
Okay, so Wells makes up for length in sheer volume. As of the writing of this review, he has out (as far as I can tell) something like 40 volumes of these tales, but how many are in each one, I couldn’t tell you, because I only bought the first two. His books are incredibly cheap to purchase, or you can just get them for free if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription (of which, I do not).
This horror works, honestly, because it’s short and designed for the attention span of the—shudder—”modern reader” (who, on average, has the attention span of a gnat on crack). These things really are bite-sized for the most part.
Now quality? The quality of these is like off-brand soda. It’s like when you want the really good stuff, but you can’t afford it, so you’ll have to be satisfied with these.
With that being said, this is Wells’ first volume out of a huge list of them, so I assume (you would think) he has improved over time with each volume. A lot of times the first volume of a series will be the test run, and then the stories get better with each work (hopefully). Some writers may plateau, but since I only have volumes 1 and 2 of his works, I can’t tell you whether he leveled out or not.
The positives in this book (so far), is that these are clearly Wells’ own creations and not something an AI spit out, and that’s good. He has a distinct writer’s voice that he never compromises, and that’s also good. Considering the sheer number of stories he’s put out, he can’t have a lack of imagination, either.
Also, he put in his copyright info. That’s a real pet peeve of mine when it gets left out.
The downside to these stories is…well…they need work. Some of them sound like they’ve been written by an angry thirteen-year-old, especially when read aloud. I wouldn’t say they’re particularly scary for ME, personally, but at this point, I’m pretty much immune to fear when it comes to horror. Don’t get me wrong, I can tell what’s going to be scary for a reader or not, but I judge horror works not just by fear, but by other qualities as well, such as plot, dialogue, character interaction, setting, theme, etc., etc.
Now, I would say one of my personal favorite stories in this particular volume is actually his riskiest one, and that would be the very first story, “The Condom in the Casket.” It’s disturbing in a way that sits with you later on, and it also tells me that Wells has real talent for writing; he just needs to hone the craft.
All in all, I would say this book is worth a read, though it’s not quite to a professional standard.
My overall fear temperature for this book is 62° Scarenheit (16.66° Hellcius). This is actually higher than I would rate some of these stories and lower than I would rate some of his others, so this is an averaging out of the score.
Billy Wells: Creepers-Volume 1 Review Copyright © 2025 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
