Scott 's Reviews > Try the New Candy

Heavily salted, yet surprisingly sweet and somber is one way to describe Aron Beauregard's Try the New Candy. An increasingly diverse and disturbing collection of short stories, this one is a highly enjoyable viennese table of vileness and tenderness. The title tale twists you in emotional pretzels towards its put upon protaganst, Stanley, before Beauregard crushes your nuts and hopes that some people are able to endure overwhelming adversity without having to resort to putting body parts in alphabetical order. "The Donor," serves as a savage and unfortunate origin story for Edmund--the titular "Scary Bastard" of Beauregard's Halloween nightmare novel. "Still Under Construction" is especially unnerving as we tag along with a couple of newlyweds through a macabre museum that's looking to expand well beyond exhibiting Charles Manson's underwear and Jeffrey Dahmer's good china. "Housesitting With Dad," "Did They Deserve It" and "Club Hell," are all squirm-worthy tales that bear Beauregard's ability to create extreme horror that's as interesting as it is vomit-inducing. While only mere pages away, "Five O'Clock Shadow" and "More than a Feeling" showcase beautifully crafted work that's spooky, but also sad and poignant to the point that one would think the author can earn a second audience who prefer their horror pages more tear-stained and less blood-soaked.