Just Below

Excellent body horror, confined with the psychological horror of liminal space.
A stunning exploration into repression. The prose are immaculate, allowing just enough to peek through to keep the reader glued to the narrative without giving it all away. There are only hints as to why, but the need to escape is pervasive. Whether taken metaphorically or metaphysically, the emotions conjured are brutal and inescapable.

Wow! Just Below grips you from beginning to end. Trapped in a dark basement, a man desperately tries to free himself. He hears life going on above him, but he goes unheard, ignored and forgotten. Willing himself to break free, to get to the life on the other side of the door.

Review

As I begin to write this review, I have to wipe the tears from my eyes to see my screen. I have to control my emotions as they come flooding. Just Below a short story by the amazing John Michael Alaia (The confession: Justice In Blood) gripped me from the first page. I finished it at work and at one point I almost forgot to clock back in from break I was so entranced. This poor man is tied up to a chair, chains through his mouth in his basement. John goes into deep details of every single pain this man was feeling and it sent chills through my body. I felt every pain this man felt. John is great at making you feel as if you are there in that basement, the cold, the pain, the loneliness, the agony, the deep psychology torture. The whole time you are wondering how he got there, who put him there and why. Then you get to the ending and not to spoil it but man was is insane. Grief comes in so many forms and as a man the world always made it seem like a man expressing any kind of emotion is wrong. Holding that in though can consume you and wreck you in ways could never imagine. Man I’m tearing up again. This was an amazing short read I’m so glad I gave it a shot. 5 stars out of 5 for sure.

This story was much more than horror . It carries a very powerful message about stuffing emotions. The end left me flabbergasted I need to know did he use the knife on his family or himself?!

The way this begins, puts you right into a scene that leaves you saying wtf. As the story continues, and the scenes change, it becomes clear what is going on. But how you expect it to end is NOT the ending you get. As it is a short story, it is a quick read, but don't let the size fool ya. This one has some thought-provoking moments, as well as some anxiety-filled moments at the beginning and end. Definitely recommend.

This story was short, but definitely not sweet. It was chilling in the very best way. Gory while still having beautiful prose. You can see the scene so clearly and feel everything the character is going through. Horror fans will devour this!

First of all: thank you for this ARC.
Second of all: thanks for dragging me back into my own basement. A place I actively avoid. For very good reasons. So. That was rude. Respectfully.

This story doesn’t knock. It doesn’t warm up. It grabs you by the collar and says, we’re doing this now. My brain immediately went feral—What’s happening? Who did this? Why is he here? I lined up theories like a nervous tic. Not a single one survived.

And yes, before you say it—I know. I always say things hit close to home. But this one didn’t just hit. It moved in, rearranged the furniture, and sat quietly in the corner waiting for me to notice it.

Then I read this line and had to stop breathing for a second:
“Forever present but invisible. Existing but not truly living.”
Cool. Casual. Absolutely devastating.

At that point, I still had no idea where this story was going. I just knew it had already left fingerprints on me. So I did the only sensible thing: accepted my fate and kept reading.

Page by page, the space tightens. The dark creeps closer. The air thins. You don’t read this story—you’re slowly sealed inside it. And then comes:
“I close my eyes and listen to the silence and try to remember what it felt like to be whole.”
Which, frankly, felt like a personal attack. I think about that more often than I’d like to admit.

By then, my internal GPS had fully lost signal. No map. No exit. Just silence and the weight of it.

I’m not going to say more. Not because I’m being mysterious—but because this story doesn’t want to be explained. It wants to be experienced. If you’re capable of facing something that feels uncomfortably familiar, something that doesn’t let you look away or dissociate your way out of it… this one’s for you. And I refuse to rob anyone of that impact.

Five dark, locked-in-the-basement stars.
When a short story knows exactly how to pry your eyes open and tear your heart into quiet, jagged pieces—yeah. It earns them.

Personal note from me to you:
Don’t read this unless you’re ready to look at what you’ve been avoiding.
The silence is already there. This story just turns the lights off so you can hear it better.

What would you do if you woke up one day and you were tied to a chair and unable to make a sound? What if your family was just above living their lives like nothing was wrong? To one man, this is is his reality. He must come to terms with his situation and try to get free. But will it be too late?

This was my first story by this author, but it won’t be my last. The ending dropped and it made me wonder what I would do in that situation. The tension had me gripping the sides of my kindle for dear life!

I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend it!

I am honored to have been given this ARC of John Michael Alaia’s soon-to-be-published novelette. Thank you for this opportunity. We’ve all got basements. Some are pretty scary. I’ve got a basement. Most of the time, it takes some time and some navigation to find a basement. Walking through front door, maybe a hallway, a few steps down. JMA skips all of this and drops you right into the narrator’s basement and it is absolutely scary. Scary because it’s dark, it’s gruesome but most of all, because it’s familiar? In less than an hour of your time, JMA will launch you into a pit of despair and, for some, six inches from the mirror.

Thank you to Inside story and the author for a copy of this book! Wow. This one really got to me. That feeling like you are stuck in a rut. The meaning behind this one really stuck with me.

Short but INTENSE! This story will stay with me for a while. A must-read, not only because it is a good story, but because it is a story that a lot can relate to.

An easy five stars. The imagery, the pain, the ending, Just Below works on every level. Alaia’s prose is stunning in the most unsettling way, managing to be beautiful and nauseating at the same time. The contrast between horror and reality is razor sharp, and that ending. . . unforgettable. I won’t spoil a thing, but this is a must-read for any fan of psychological horror.

Wow—what a story. Dark, gripping, and absolutely exceptional. From the first sentence to the last, it held me completely captivated. A stunning read and a definite five stars.

I just finished this book and I’m still processing