With the Author Mark Matthews being a psychiatrist, it puts a different spin on some of these short stories. Coming in contact w so many angsty feelings, some of many being Suicidal thoughts & feelings.

As with most Anthologies, I liked some of these & some of these I truly didn’t care for.

Mastectomy Scars - ⭐️⭐️
Body of Christ -⭐️⭐️
The Last Bug Chaser -⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mask of Sanity - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tattooed All in Black - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Burdens of the Father - ⭐️⭐️
Howling From the Gallows - ⭐️⭐️
Meet My Old Over in the Grocery Store - ⭐️⭐️.5

I was interested in reading an anthology of dark short stories. However, the arc failed to download to my device so I will not be giving feedback.

LET ME OUT I’VE HAD ENOUGH – by Mark Matthews – Dark Horror Story Collection

Unfortunately, LET ME OUT I’VE HAD ENOUGH is a DNF for me at twenty-four, though I am a fan of Dark Horror, the content of all the shorts in this book centers around suicide, as mentioned in the synopsis—a miss on my part.

That being said, the misgivings I have about the book are personal and my own, and not a reflection of the book itself. I look forward to reading more work from Matthews and Wicked Run Press.

Of the few stories, I read, ‘Mastectomy Scars’ is one of my favorites—Love The Ending!

I agree wholeheartedly with what Matthews says here in a snippet from the Introduction:

‘I find that dark fiction unites us, understands us. Or at least, it understands me, when it’s at its best and not afraid to talk about anything, take me to any dark place. Fiction holds my hand while I have a look, and returns me back to a more understood place.’

Thank You, NetGalley and Wicked Run Press, for providing me with an eBook of LET ME OUT I’VE HAD ENOUGH at the request of an honest review.

Let Me Out I've Had Enough is a collection of mostly never published short stories and one novella by Mark Matthews. Be forewarned that this collection is dark and a difficult read. The author doesn't shy away from letting you know that there are themes of suicide, grief, and desperation. Suicide especially has a seat in every single story in some form or fashion. As the author is a licensed counselor, he drew from his own experiences. Don't let that trick you into thinking that he does it in an unkind way. He believes that bringing it to the light it may help lift that burden, instead of ignoring it and possibly leading to a further downward spiral.

I can't say that I loved any of the stories. Most were okay for me, and some I hated. While he certainly is plugged into the human mind, these stories were simply too grief-filled and dark for me. This collection is not for everyone and could be very triggering.

I almost want to rate this one higher because I love the gloomy heaviness that runs through this collection as a whole, but unfortunately, too many of the stories just didn't click with me. There were a few I enjoyed, but a lot of them felt a little too repetitive, and some just weren't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

A compilation that doesn't not have flickers of imagination and originality but is ultimately tempered by wordy writing and ham-fisted yet still baffling metaphors

An eclectic use of language creating high suspense, uncomfortable descriptions which were brilliant to read. Unfortunately, as these were short stories, the concepts were not developed as much as would I have liked and I was left with lots of questions at the end of each story. I am sure others would appreciate the shorter stories much more than I did.

Grief, depression, loneliness, suicide—these are true monsters who live under our bed. Prepare to be taken by the hand to explore the darkest of human emotions and fears. Stories about those of us who have had too much and cry out desperately for help, begging for relief, asking of anyone who might listen—Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough. The first collection of shorts from Mark Matthews, the author of novels such as Milk-Blood, The Hobgoblin of Little Minds, and the Shirley Jackson Award Nominated editor of Lullabies for Suffering.

3.5 stars

Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough by Mark Matthews is an anthology of his horror stories.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Wicked Run Press and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis and Opinions:   (No major reveals)
Okay, I admit that this is a new author for me, but since I love a good horror story, I thought....sounds good!  Then the author provides an introduction, and I find out that the theme of all of these stories is suicide.  Now, I'm not too sure.  But I decided to persevere.

Here is a brief synopsis of each story, including my thoughts.

Mastectomy Scars ...  A young girl returns from school to find her mother floating in the tub.  Really sad and disturbing.  2 stars

Body of Christ ... A young girl's mother is taken off life support.  A little boy's father is the victim of suicide by police, right in front of him.  Not sure how to describe how I feel about this one.  Disquiet, disgust, and reading it felt sacrilegious.  After my dislike of the first, this one almost made me stop reading the whole book.  0 stars

The Last Bug-Chaser ... An alien race sent to make humans immune from viruses is taken over by the big pharmaceutical companies.  This was interesting.   3 stars

Mask of Sanity ...  A psychiatrist who has had 3 patients commit suicide in one week starts doubting his own sanity.  Twisted.  Quite good.  4 stars

Tattooed All in Black ... A wife dies of cancer, but her husband does not handle this well.  Interesting.  3 stars

The Burdens of the Father ...  In a world where forests were eliminated, and clean air a thing of the past, a young man looks forward to the birth of his son.  This was good.  3 stars

Howling from The Gallows ... Trying to help a patient, a man turns into the monster that she has become.  This was great!  5 stars

Met My Old Lover in the Grocery Store ...  A man on the brink of suicide and murder, runs into the love of his life on Christmas Eve.  Entertaining!  4 stars


First, I have to say that I loved the introduction to this book, which explained how the author came up with the title, and his experience with suicide in his job, and therapy in general.

Overall, this was not a bad group of short stories, although the start had me doubting.  Somewhat depressing, these stories show the depth of human emotion.  They are all very graphic, and very dark,  but the author can write very well.   This is the first I have read from this author, but I won't be afraid to pick up anything else he has written.

Mark Matthews is an absolutely amazing author and how or why he doesn't get more attention than he does, absolutely amazes me. This collection tackles subjects that make other authors itch and sweat. Mark tackles it like a pro with class and intrigue. These stories are grim at times, but it's those stories you just cannot turn away from. Highly recommend, but not for those wanting a light hearted happy tale.

This collection of stories really hit home in a lot of ways. This is definitely not a book for everyone, but it was a good read.

Despite the hard nature of the fiction, I enjoyed this collection. Some stories were better than others, but most were very good, and I didn't find one that wasn't good. Hard subject is suicide, so this book might not be for everyone. But it will make you think. #LetMeOutIveHadEnough #NetGalley

A letter to the author:

Mark,

I adore your writing. It's full of emotion and grief. I've read some of your other works in the past and always loved them. That being said, some of the stories in this collection I couldn't read. Having recently lost my mom to cancer, it was too raw, too close to home. Seldom, does an author's writing touch me so deeply that I have to take a break from reading to dry my tears.

Horror isn't meant to be comforting, and you surely do an excellent job at making me feel uncomfortable. Even if some stories were too much for me to finish, I know they were excellent in themselves.

Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough is another stellar testament to just how much Mark Matthews understands the power of the human mind. This collection displays the emotions and pain at play when considering suicide, coping with the effects of suicide, and the disastrous aftermath. If you want a collection of stories to touch you deeply whilst wrenching gasps and shock from you then this is a collection that needs to be devoured. Intricate, painful, and overwhelming is how Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough should be described. It leaves scars on the soul, it is that powerful.

Mastectomy Scars – is designed to shock and hook you straight away. A dysfunctional family that is rocked by the suicide of the matriarch, cancer that ravages her body and soul. A father and lover keen to move on quickly, to make a fresh start, draw a line under the unfortunate business. A daughter that can’t make sense of the devastation, questions burning into her mind, wondering what the feel of a razor would feel like against her skin. Would she feel the thrum and throb of the blood exiting her body? Her father’s lover tries to manipulate her into being with her mum, what will that action set in motion?

Body of Christ – This is the longest piece of work contained within Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough. It is a story that manifests how suicide and religion are viewed in society. Faith has lost her mother after falling into a vegetative state and her father has to take the difficult decision to turn off her life support. Keagan, who lives across the street from Faith almost mirrors her situation. He has a difficult upbringing, with his mother being super religious and his father trying to fight the fires from her behaviour. His dad plans to end it all and does so in a disturbing fashion.

The Last Bug-Chaser – this is a story that is extremely relevant in a pandemic world. The Gideons who are known reverently as Bug-Chasers can be vessels for human evolution. A virus is ravaging the human race and the last Bug-Chaser is attempting to infect themselves with the virus to create a vaccine from their blood. Without them, the human race would have become extinct at various points in history already. A story that is frighteningly relevant but with a violent ending.

Mask of Sanity – I found this story to be the most frighteningly realistic story in this collection. Can working with the mentally ill make you more inclined to suffer from mental ill-health. Are we all just slipping our mark of sanity into place when we are in public? This was a superb story and it was the strongest in my opinion.

Tattooed All In Black – another cancer sufferer, another story full of grief, pain, and destruction. Lara Is sent home to die, she tells her husband that everything will be alright, but nothing is alright. A journey of self-destruction, a hope that Lara might make herself known, a friendly neighbour that only wants to help. This story had one of the best endings to a highly emotive plot.

Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough is a nuclear ball of energy. It taps into your humanity and makes you check on your loved ones. Unsettling, a scary look into our future as a society. It affected me in ways I’m struggling to verbalise. The brutality of it will knock you for six, bring you to your knees and leave you fighting for every breath.

I really didn't go into this expecting a collection of Weird Fiction, and I feel like that impacted how much I enjoyed the stories. Some of these tales, like Body of Christ and Mask of Sanity, are just pure insanity given form. But for me, this hard veer into the Weird somewhat dulled the impact of the main subject: What do people do when they reach their breaking point? Instead, it felt more like a glorification of "What I wish would happen when I break."

This is not to say I didn't enjoy the stories. I mostly did, and my favorite has to be Howling From the Gallows (an excerpt from a novel), which I felt did a much better job of using the bizarre to showcase the struggle of living with mental illness (bipolar disorder, in this case). What I can say, however, is that Weird Fiction needs a specific mindset to really enjoy, and the expectation of depression and hopelessness is not it.

Mark Matthews is not only an author, but also a psychiatrist, and so has regularly come into contact with people with suicidal feelings. It's not hard to see how this has led to this short story collection, with every story featuring some form of suicide (or sacrifice). That does sound like rather a grim proposal, but then these are horror stories.

It was a mixed bag for me - I liked about half the stories, and half I thought weren't very interesting, some being too far fetched even for a horror story, others being quite repetitive in nature.

A psychological horror short story collection focusing on themes such as depression, suicide, self-harm, and loneliness. Normally, I enjoy psychological horror but here the focus too often boils down to graphic, over the top imagery to make its point. There's also a lot of flat-out cringe writing.
Not for me, sorry.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Wicked Run Press**

This was such a deep and tough book to read through. So many differing stories, but all going through their own grief. I had to skip some parts due to the very graphic nature of scenes.


Please be advised of TRIGGER and CONTENT WARNINGS!
Suicide, suicidal thoughts, overdosing, cutting, cheating on significant other, suffering, mental illness, loss

Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough is a collection of psychological horror stories that delves into depression, isolation, grief, with most of the stories focusing on death, often suicide. Given the dark, disturbing nature of these stories it almost feels wrong to say I enjoyed the book, but it’s the truth. If you’re looking for ‘happy endings’ looks elsewhere. If author Mark Matthews’s intention was to make his readers uncomfortable while dealing with some serious issues, I’d say he was quite successful. As with most short story collections, I found some stories to be more successful than others, but I enjoyed the vast majority of them, and the despite the dark nature of the stories the ‘inspiration’ behind the final story in the collection Met My Old Lover in the Grocery Store honestly made me laugh. (I love Dan Fogelberg’s Old Lang Syne)
I’ve like to thank the author, Wicked Run Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Let Me Out I’ve Had Enough.
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Amanda M Lyons
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Quite What I was Hoping for
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2021
Dealing with topics like suicide, depression, angst, suffering, and loss, this collection would be a dark and complicated one for just about any reader and probably an ill-advised read for anyone who's dealt with depression, suicide, and trauma themselves. While it does manage to have a few stories I genuinely appreciated (the two at the beginning of the book), many of the stories deal in themes of disgruntled masculine characters with an ax to grind about an ex, iffy feminine characters who cater to those iffy masculine characters, and suicidal scenarios that feel a bit out of context and are often repetitively relied on for dramatic effect. I enjoyed Mastectomy Scars and the surrealism of Body of Christ, but most of the rest of the stories came off as underwritten and a bit frustrating for me as a reader.

This collection of work took me by surprise and was a lot different than I thought it would be. I selected this book based on the cover and did not realize that this was a collection of shorties rather than one continuous piece of literature. It was all very dark and at times too dark for my taste but Mastectomy Scars truly stuck with me. Although it was disturbing to read, it was also very poetic and beautiful. I enjoyed the symbolism and irony of the “fresh start” and would enjoy reading a part two to that story.