{"product_id":"9780692339633","title":"The Laws of Nature: A Collection of Short Stories of Horror, Anxiety, Tragedy and Loss","description":"There is a dark side to human nature that neither can be wished away nor completely mitigated. Ashley Franz Holzmann details just several of these \"Laws of Nature\" before taking his readers on a journey through the bizarre, the terrifying, and, ultimately, the disturbingly real truths that underlie much of modern American life.\u003cp\u003eAshley makes his debut into the horror genre with \"The Stump,\" a story about an afternoon trot through the woods that quickly becomes a blood bath-and, much as it does for that story's monster, the scent of fear will only lure veteran horror readers further through the forest. A teenager's vanity will likely cause his town to be consumed by a roaming swarm of insects that burst forth from his acne-riddled skin in \"White Heads;\" entire populations vanish into the void of the Alaskan tundra in \"Glass Houses;\" and superiority takes the form of a murdering, sadistic woman in \"Lady Macbeth.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Ashley's best retellings focus less on gore and adrenaline and instead take human psychology as their medium, as demonstrated in \"Plastic Glasses,\" where readers are brought into a world of disturbing personality and mental disorders. Ashley's work abounds with stories in this vein, stories which grab a hold of a common failing-such as marital friction in \"Hush,\" or American male frustration in \"Orpheus's Lot\"-and take it to an extreme that is nevertheless not inconceivable for most people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComing from the mind of a man who has experienced more than his fair share of humanity, \"The Laws of Nature\" is, at its finest, a description of universal emotions of loss, nostalgia, anxiety, and soul-penetrating terror. Ashley's stories elicit empathy from his readers and draw them into worlds where they both acknowledge and cuddle with their fears and which leave them, ultimately, more human.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"As For Class","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49784913953008,"sku":"9780692339633","price":7.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780692339633","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}