Book Review: Stories From The Motel Sick edited by Michael Allen Rose

 Stories From The Motel Sick edited by Michael Allen Rose  (Full review on the way)

388 pages, Paperback
Published November 26, 2025, by Roshambo Publishing

From the back cover... "Stories From The Motel Sick is a genre-bending anthology featuring new stories from authors of horror, bizarro fiction, sci-fi, erotica, noir, and so much more. Each story takes place at the Motel Sick, a strange, metaphysical motel on the edge of a highway leading to nowhere in particular. Inside, you'll find criminals and lovers, aliens, clones, loads of bones, tiny people, time travel, legacies of death, the virtuous and the vicious, grappling for money, power, fame, escape... everything and anything can be found somewhere inside the shifting interior of the Motel Sick." 

4 of the last 5 collections I have read were anthologies in which I had a story in. One of the things about this one is that I was so excited to read, despite having had an e-pub of it for months, I did wait to I could hold the paperback in my hands. 

Motel Sick was masterminded by editor Michael Allen Rose, having recently done a similar anthology, Fragile, a collection of stories that all started with the same story prompt.  As one of the author I can tell you how this started. MAR wrote a group of writers and invited us to submit stories based on this concept. 

A crazy bizarro motel, and we each got a chance to write about one of the rooms. We got a description of the outside, that it was next to an Arby’s, and in my case, I was told that my room, room 12, happened to be next to the room of unrelenting screams. I don’t know if other authors, were told by Michael which room or got a similar message about the rooms next to theirs. My story ended up being a time-travel story about a screenwriter.

This is a widely diverse set of stories, considering that everyone started with the same prompt, but that is what creative types do. The story that made me laugh the most should not be a surprise, as that was Jeff Strand’s piece. Cythina Pelayo had one that effectively icked me out.  Every story offered something; I was never bored or skipped. Ending with John Skipp. Come on…how perfect.  

Editor Michael Allen Rose paced the stories well, added flourishes like a room service menu, giving this book a great one-of-a-kind feel. This book is an argument for indie publishing. Amazing concept. You must have it!

 

*****

Featuring...

Matt Dinniman

Brian Pinkerton

John Baltisberger 

Christine Morgan

Jim Marcus 

Christopher Hawkins

John Chambers

Cynthia Pelayo

David Agranoff

John Wayne Comunale 

David Scott Hay

Garrett Cook

Jason Rizos

Jeff Strand

Bridget D. Brave

John Bruni

Elizabeth Broadbent

John Skipp

and

Shane McKenzie