Beauty. Cruelty. Insanity.
Poison Bonbons is a Surreal Horror / Dark Fantasy / Flash Fiction blog created in 2022 by author Jada Maze. It is a non-themed collection of very short stories and chapters from longer original works: The Black Rainbow Society, The Carnifex Variations, and Nightmute.Read here.
And beware of the Folding Men.
Poison Bonbons provides example of:
- Alice Allusion: Curiouser involves a young woman on the lam hiding out at an island festival dedicated to Alice in Wonderland, only to find the islanders are a clan of Ax-Crazy Lewis Carroll cultists.
- Brawn Hilda: Subverted by Aura in Nightmute. Although she's a very strong and overweight, her sharp personality and cute looks tend to attract people.
- Cast Full of Gay: Many stories feature queer and transgender characters, usually lesbians and trans women. The author herself is trans.
- Emotionless Girl: Aidan Frost is not very good at emotions, and has to practice smiling in a mirror to make it look slightly natural. Curiouser implies she may be functionally psychopathic.
- Eye Scream: The narrator of "Gorgon" falls in love with the titular creature, who turns men to stone if they see her face. He responds by having his eyes stitched shut.
- Curiouser: Aidan attacks one of the Tweedle Brothers and gouges his eyes out with her thumbs.
- Humanoid Abomination: Too many to count, although the Folding Men of Nightmute stand out most. Little men in black suits who can fold themselves flat to fit into any space, and love terrorizing children.
- Lighter and Softer: "Randall Moon, Runaway Balloon" lacks any dark or horrific elements and is much sweeter, a story about a parade balloon who goes rogue.
- No Ending: Many of the shorter pieces end abruptly, with no explanation. Just quick glimpses of the strange.
- No Name Given: Stories with first-person narration rarely give the protagonist's name, giving the effect that perhaps they're all happening to the same person (or that the intended effect is to put the reader in their shoes).
- Surreal Horror: Bizarre, dreamlike events and creatures are often accepted as everyday occurrences by the narrators.
- "Laundromat At Night": A young woman has a pleasant conversation with a severed head in a laundromat dryer.
- "Empty Theater": the protagonist finds himself in a theater filled with identical, black-suited men awaiting something they call "the opening."
