About ‘Not Four Children’ by Stephen Cooper::
Genre: Horror; Anthology; Short Stories
Four Extreme Tales.
Featuring Four Unruly Brats.
Not Four Children.
A baby in desperate need of an evil test, and a father who regrets every second since the little accident was born.
A young girl who definitely shouldn’t have stayed up all night watching a slasher flick, and a class full of kids who are going to pay for it.
A kid whose room is in such a state it smells like something died in there, and the unfortunate pregnant mum who has to help clean it up.
And a brother who most definitely doesn’t want a younger sister… his parents have been warned!
I think we can pretty much all agree that kids can be both terrifying and ruthless. In ‘Not Four Children,’ author Stephen Cooper explores extreme cases of children who are not the innocent little angels we’d like to think they are. Here are my no spoiler opinions on each story:
-Holding the Baby-
Not everyone wants to be a parent. Not everyone is cut out to be one either. But what happens when you combine not wanting a child with your baby being the literal spawn of Satan? This story takes a reluctant father and places an evil child in his arms he can’t escape from…or is it all in his head? This, despite the harshness of the father’s feelings, was actually a pretty fun read. Kudos to the author on never running out of new clever insults to call the kid.
-The Red Stuff-
Ever think about how a kid perceives violence and gore when they’re too young to fully grasp the concept of death and inflicting pain? From personal experience, I can tell you that it’s not uncommon for a young child to have no reaction to the most brutal slasher film. Their sense of awareness is so minute that they do not really perceive others as being aware too, and therefore have trouble understanding that others feel like they do. Perhaps that’s why the little tyke in this story is fascinated with the red stuff that magically comes out of people when you hit them. An interesting introspection on childhood evil and psychological development.
-Tidy Your Room-
I totally did not see the end to this coming. When a busy mother is fed-up with her son’s ever-growing pile of filth in his room, she forces him to sit and clean with her. My initial reaction to the ridiculous grossness in the bedroom was how on earth could any parent let it get this bad when the rest of the house clearly is not? As the two start going through things, it gradually becomes clear that something larger is at play under the mess. I have never been so scared of cleaning! I was on edge with each new discovery and ominous hint at the what may be lurking underneath the piles and within that child’s head.
-Me First-
A spoiled firstborn with anger issues bullies everyone around him in the most horrible of ways. Desperate to love their ungrateful terror of a child, mother and father try everything from genteel parenting to homeschooling to at long last putting their foot down with punishments when the boy threatens in no uncertain terms, the life of his newborn sister. The latter only teaches the brat to be manipulative and deceive his parents of his “changed ways.” But you know who’s not deceived? The sister he continues to torture. This was not something I should have read right before bed, but I was already invested! It hit really close to home in the sense that I too was the second born child with a bully older brother. Like the girl in the story, I was made to be too afraid to ask for help. Unlike the story, however, my parents were not innocent. I’m unsure of the logistics of the ending (ie if it would really work that way), but it’s a fantastic ending to a perfectly delivered story nonetheless!
‘Not Four Children’ is a wonderfully horrifying anthology of evil incarnate where innocence is expected. These stories combine the fun of slasher films with the unsettling subjects/delivery of psychological horror. I’d venture to say any fan of horror would greatly enjoy it. The author is clearly unafraid of not only tackling, but detailing dark matters.
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~Sahreth ‘Baphy’ Bowden
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