Review of "Adventures Are Everywhere" by Elizabeth Horst

Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)

Adventures Are Everywhere is a wry, witty, and imaginative collection of short-stories by Elizabeth Horst!

Horst makes quite a splash with what is (apparently) her debut book!

While it's not a perfect short-story collection, it more than accomplishes what it needed to and—as we'll get to—included two truly standout and memorable stories!

So, one thing we'll say is that you need to be patient. This book doesn't start off particularly strong. There's some growing pains in this book, perhaps because (we're assuming) it was frontloaded with the author's older works when she hadn't quite developed her craft yet. Or perhaps it's because the more comedic, slapstick, hard-to-take-serious stories were relegated to the front of the book. Either way, we did connect somewhat with "The Sheriff’s Discovery" because Sheriff Tom Hutchinson and Deputy Steve are actually quite relatable, or at least their dilemma is.

Do you have people in your workplace, community, or household who do nothing but complain and trigger false alarms? So, when actual bad stuff actually goes down, you don't take them seriously at all. It's like the old story about the boy who cried wolf. He cried wolf so often that when the wolf actually came, no one believed him.

So, we really resonated with Tom & Steve. Actually, they resonated with us in different ways. Tom is idealistic and seems like one of those new employees that hasn't been grinded down by the system (and time) yet. Steve is the opposite. You could argue that Steve is lazy, but you could also argue that he's just jaded and disillusioned. He has seen the law be used and abused too many times. If you put yourself in his shoes, who could blame him? 

The first three or four stories have a Western tang to them. Think: sheriffs, bandits, and robbers.
The next few seem to take place in more Middle-Age/Medieval settings.

The remainder of the stories have more a modern psychological edge to them. And that's where this anthology shines.

We don't mean to be dismissive or to gloss over the other stories in this book, but they pretty much all get overshadowed by "Night Journey to Sanity's End" and "We're All Gonna Die."

These two stories—especially "Night Journey to Sanity's End"—are some of the most captivating, engaging, and enthralling short-stories we've ever read!

"Night Journey to Sanity's End" is a surreal and disjointed tale told from the perspective of a narrator named Johnny McDuff who is experiencing a descent into madness. The story reads like a fragmented dream or a stream-of-consciousness unraveling. The protagonist embarks on a journey—possibly physical, but more likely psychological—seeking something undefined: meaning, safety, truth, or identity. Along the way, they question reality, sanity, and even the reliability of language itself.

As the story progresses, coherence deteriorates. The text becomes increasingly abstract, blurring the lines between dream and delusion, sleep and wakefulness, memory and fiction. Imagery of darkness, stillness, and internal torment dominates. By the end, it's unclear whether the narrator has found peace, lost themselves completely, or simply fallen asleep.

What's magnificent about this story is that it's unsettling, ambiguous, mysterious, terrifying, and—shockingly—quite funny. The range of emotions, feelings, and interpretations of this story can't be put into words.

Where do we even begin?

Well, what makes such a dark story (about death, mental illness, and potentially even suicide) so funny? Well, part of it is when the narrator conscripts the audience, referring to them as "Dear reader" or "Dear Readers." That in itself isn't funny, but what makes it comedic and humorous is when the narrator starts telling the reader(s) that what they are seeing, witnessing, and experiencing is the worst thing in the history of ever—something the reader(s) cannot even begin to comprehend. Something that all the words in the English language cannot explain or begin to describe.

There's so much hyperbole and melodrama in this story!

It’s that over-the-top dramatization that catches you off guard. The narrator doesn’t just express suffering—they melodramatize it to absurd extremes, comparing their agony to abstract, ridiculous metaphors like “the death of all joy,” “the betrayal of the stars,” or “the collapse of the very fabric of sanity.” These flourishes are so exaggerated that they almost become a parody of suffering—inviting the reader to laugh not at the pain, but at the ridiculousness of its expression.

What’s more, the narrator assumes that the audience is completely incapable of grasping their turmoil—making statements like, “Dear reader, you could not possibly understand the depths of this abyss,” or “No, dear readers, not even in your wildest dreams have you suffered as I have suffered.” This mock grandiosity turns despair into something performative. The voice becomes a kind of tragic theater character—equal parts Hamlet and emo teenager—and the humor arises from that theatricality.

In that sense, it’s not unlike Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut—where the comedy doesn’t come from dismissing dark subjects, but from amplifying them into something absurd, inviting readers to chuckle at the extremity of human emotion while still feeling its weight.

It’s a mix of self-pity, cosmic wailing, and eye-rolling exaggeration that somehow becomes relatable in its sheer absurdity. And in a twisted way, it’s comforting: if this narrator can make a punchline out of a mental breakdown, maybe we can too.

Furthermore, there is so much suspense, intrigue, and mystery in this story—even despite the goofy, ridiculous, absurd humorous and exaggerated stuff.

We are continuously confronted with the question: "Where do the tram cars go at night?"

On the surface—on a superficial reading—this seems like a bland question for the narrator to keep asking. However, on a deeper reading, this question is haunting. To us, this is actually asking: "What actually happens to us (and our souls) when we die?"

It's so dark and eerie!

The repetition of that question just gives this story a creepy, unsettling, disturbing feel. It's almost like someone whispering in your ear: "I saw what you did yesterday" then retreating into the shadows every ten minutes. Creepy!

It's creepy even when it seems like the narrator is more a victim or a witness, not a perpetrator. He doesn't seem to want to kill or harm others, yet his words cut and stab and slice at the reader.

He dangles the carrot in front of us—the mystery: What's going to happen?
Is it really as bad and terrible as he keeps hyping it up to be?

It's tantalizing!

The next story that really impressed and wowed us was "We're All Gonna Die." The story is told from the perspective of a character named Nathan Levy who seems to live in an active warzone.

As the enemy approaches—their weapons sounding closer and closer—the village that Nathan was staying in evacuates in a panic. We thought about the wars going on in the world (like Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Gaza) and this hit extra hard.

This story hit us like a bag of bricks, highlighting the human costs of war—the greatest and most tragic cost of them all.

We see as these peoples' lives get upended and, in many cases, ended outright.

What's remarkable about this story is that we don't really get to spend much time with Nathan. This story is quite short. Yet we really get to know him. He is loving, caring, and compassionate. He is a good man in a terrible situation.

This story is also incredibly sad and heartbreaking, perhaps even more than you might expect.

Perhaps the most powerful moment in this entire story is the grim fate of the blonde-haired girl.

The blonde-haired girl is never named (that we can remember), yet she's such an impactful character. You can tell that Nathan wants desperately to save the innocent blonde-haired girl despite being in hiding and every cell in his body screaming to him to stay low.

His eyes and his heart reach to her and plead for her safety. That makes what happens all the more heartbreaking and tragic. And the way it is described is so beautiful yet horrifying and powerful. Just the description of blonde hair and "sharp green eyes" mixed with blood just hits differently from outright saying, "She was shot" or "She succumbed to mortar fire."

The descriptions are visceral. There's a description in here about how much Nathan's shoulder aches from the shoulder strap of his bag being in place for so long. We get lines like:

"I still craved existence.
To live! To breathe! To exist!"

And

"Agony.
Pain.
Torture."

We get descriptions of the flies and the stench of death. Nathan laments leaving the bodies of innocents to rot—unburied—and yet considers how that can send the enemy, humanity, and the world a message: that war is truly hell.

Furthermore, this story is incredibly poetic, especially when it comes to the theme of life and death.

A baby inchworm crawls on Nathan after he witnesses so much death, and Nathan is torn about this. On one hand, the inchworm represents new life and even hope. On the other hand, it seems like death or the universe is taunting or mocking him, almost as if to say: We've killed everyone in your village but let a bug live. This fills Nathan with rage and he even considers killing the inchworm, which is ironic because he continuously laments how people can be so cruel to take the lives of others.

There's a real tug-o-war for Nathan's humanity in the midst of such inhumanity and inhuman conditions.

So, did we only enjoy the books with grim and dark stories, characters, and circumstances? Not quite. There's another charming story in here that focuses on three dogs named Shelby, Bayley, and Simon who are waiting for a gift for their owner in the mail. What's humorous and entertaining about this story are all the canine shenanigans like going off to drink from the toilet bowl. Furthermore, there's a childlike innocence to these pups. It reminds us of children on Christmas day anxious and eager to open their presents. It's especially fun to hear them debate about UPS, USPS, and the delivery process in general.

Check it out on Amazon!