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Don’t know exactly why, but this cover spoke to me the moment I saw it. I have looked at it many times over the last two weeks and I still can’t tell you why it drew me so much, but I’m glad it did.

Going into this, I just needed a break from the Splatterpunk/extreme horror scene. This cover popped up on Amazon, I read the blurb and thought: Why the hell not?
Which means I’ve never heard of this author or story before.

PARACHUTE reads an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Or, if you are of a younger generation, THE OUTER LIMITS. Or, if you are even younger still, BLACK MIRROR. And if you are too young to know any of these, use your damn innernet to look it up, kid.

This story is about a teen called Angela Rodriguez, who just graduated high school. They head to an abandoned elementary school, where they break in and discover an old gym parachute. When they start playing a childhood game, things starts to go off the rails.

It gets interesting form there.

My thoughts on this story is that it was interesting. While it didn’t blow my mind, it was something that kept my interest throughout and I am glad I gave it a shot. This is definitely an author I will have to keep my eye on.

The ending was right up my alley and I am really glad Miss Garcia ended it this way.

Recommended to those who their stories on the weirder side, but not to the point where you can call it bizarro.

4 STARS42 s Peter TopsideAuthor 4 books1,122

3.5 stars. This was a really fun, old school horror concept. And I, for one, hated that parachute game in gym class. It always smelled funny and had wierd stains on it. Bleh! So we go back in time here to a period where pagers, Butthole Surfers, and such were commonplace. Take a few teenagers who were typical placeholders in a horror concept, all banging around with each other, trying to figure their lives out, as they broke into a school and used narcotics. That’s how I always make big decisions. They find the activity parachute that transports them to all sorts of strange worlds, where the body count starts to add up. The characters were all forgettable, but that didn’t matter much. What really struck a nerve was how there was no satisfying pay off after all the wonderful build up that the author created. Some really cool creatures and situations, all pretty much rushed through, with a very bland finale and ending. I wanted and hoped for so much more here. The pacing needed to be slowed and, while the characters were fine as is, the parachute’s offerings really needed much more development. Still a good effort by the author, with much more to than dis, but it still left me with a a strong sense of yearning.24 s4 comments Yvonne (thehorrorhive)791 324

Move over H.P Lovecraft there’s a new cosmic horror genius in town! A pitch black concept that beguiles and unnerves in equal measure.

Parachute came along at just the right time. In a genre that can be incredibly hard to stand out from the crowd, Holly Rae Garcia has done just that. She hasn’t just stood out but she’s floating into space. She has proven that stories can still be unique, can still scare you, it can make you fall in love with reading again.

Horror is a drug, well it’s my drug of choice. It stops me from catastrophising life, dwelling on all the hurt and anguish in the world. It’s addictive. I couldn’t live without it – I want to experience other dimensions, I don’t want to walk in the woods unless I’m checking if there’s a serial killer behind me, I can’t walk through an abandoned house without making the connections to the dead. Horror has saved me on more than one occasion. With that comes the sameness in horror – you can see things coming at you, the patterns within the dialogue you quickly recognize the bad guy. Parachute was so original that I didn’t make assumptions, I took the road less travelled and slit my throat at what I found in an abandoned school.

It’s a coming-of-age story of kids reminiscing about a Parachute game they all played, the newbie to the group, Jason, had never heard of it let alone played it. Their dogged determination to show him what it’s all about forced them forward. Told from the perspective of Angela Rodriguez who is entangled in a bit of a love triangle with her boyfriend and Jason. Garcia did a great job of encapsulating those angsty teenage years within the pages of a novella. They break in and begin to play the childhood game – with dire consequences.

The scenes under the Parachute are sublime. It totally reminded me of those cooky episodes of The Twilight Zone or for us brits, Tales of the Unexpected. As they get deeper and deeper under the spell of the game a threatening cloud hangs over the group of friends. They all witness their world becoming darker, there seem to be no rules in this world.

The ending left me hanging, but I completely loved it. It leaves it up to your imagination and let me tell you – I was imagining all sorts. It was refreshing. You could spend all day trying to dissect but Holly Rae Garcia is a mastermind at messing with your head!19 s Steve StredAuthor 79 books610

** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **

I could’ve sworn I’d read some of Rae Garcia’s short fiction previously, but when I looked on Goodreads, it turns out she’s not been in the Kandisha Press Anthologies I’ve read so far, and the other anthologies she’s appeared in, I haven’t read either.

Sheesh, right?

Either way though, the synopsis for ‘Parachute’ had me really intrigued and as a fan of reading (and writing) about portals, this was one I was super excited to check out.

What I d: Having graduated the day before, a group of friends heads out to hang out and party, in a sort of ‘one last hurrah all together’ moment at an old elementary school. Once there, they decide to break in and see what’s left, and it’s while there that they find an old parachute.

It’s funny, because just the other day my wife and I were telling our 5 year old about how much he loved the parachute game when we had him in a baby music class a few years back, but I hadn’t thought of the parachute in school for years otherwise. You all remember that? Everyone would grab onto the parachute edge, raise it up and then run towards the middle, creating this massive balloon effect. You’d then sit on the edge and it would say filled. Lots of fun, right? Well not in Holly’s story. In here, each time they do it they get transported to crazy worlds, and as things escalate we get to see how they attempt to work together to figure out the “rules” of these other worlds and how to safely make it back.

I really loved these snippets (and while I would’ve actually preferred waaaaaaay more of these worlds, it worked well in this context) and it really kept the group guessing as to what was going to happen. I could actually see some of these worlds making for great sequels/set-in-the-same-world stories to see what happens to each of the characters who entered those places.

What I didn’t : The novella itself opens up with a lot of detail regarding what the main character’s house looks and it really felt a bit too much, especially given the length of the story.

Additionally, there was a love-triangle aspect that felt under-utilized, especially when odd portal related things occurred.

And lastly, there is zero resolution at the ending. I actually thought my Kindle had skipped ahead and I’d missed something, but alas the chapter ends and a prologue arrives, leaving me with SOOOOOO many questions.

Why you should buy this: ‘Parachute’ is a ton of fun, with some incredibly intriguing aspects that Rae Garcia really amplifies to keep you on the edge of your seat. I really dug how the group came together and vowed to keep going back to save each other. This is one that a lot of folks will read in a single sitting and find themselves breathless when they finish.

Definitely one to check out.17 s Stitching Ghost881 164

For such a quick read Parachute contains a lot of story while not skipping characterization. I really enjoyed the nostalgia aspect of it and the ending was just chef's kiss!

4.5 rounded up.got-it-from-godless-com16 s Chandra Claypool (WhereTheReaderGrows)1,626 344


Garcia gave me feelings about Bigfoot in The Easton Falls Massacre Bigfoot's Revenge I read a couple years ago so when given the opportunity to read her latest, PARACHUTE, I jumped at the chance. JUMPED! (honestly, no pun intended.. parachute, jump.. get it? Yeah, I'll see myself out.... (ahem). I LOVE it when a book brings back childhood memories and I had completely forgotten about the Parachute game from my childhood gym class. Do they even do this anymore??? I mean, they SHOULD... but maybe not so much in the way this novella shows it.
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