Victorian Frightenings, Volume I Anthology

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish I had taken notes when I read this, but I didn't have the time. I found this enjoyable. There's a little bit of everything. There are some widely recognized classics in the horror genre here: "The Judge's House by Bram Stoker, "The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford. Also stories by famous authors that might be lesser known, such as "The Lady Maid's Bell" by Edith Wharton, "Madam Crowl's Ghost" by JS Le Fanu. I didn't love all the stories, but generally they were all good quality. The best stories are probably the first ones: "Thurnley Abbey", a ghost story with a hefty dose of psychological horror, and I admit it did make me giggle. It deals with how a skeptic deals with facing something beyond his perception.. Also, "The Room in the Tower" by EF Benson, about a man haunted by a horrible woman in a portrait. This was very creepy! The last two stories, "The Torture of Hope" by Villiers d I'Isle-Adam and "The Iron Shroud" by William Mudford are more like contes cruel. The former about a man who is imprisoned and allowed to believe he has escaped, only to find it was just a cruel way to torment him by his captors. The latter, about a man who is forced to face his own execution in his prison cell. It ends abruptly and makes the reader feel acutely uncomfortable. I don't like the way "The Judge's House" ends, but it's definitely a very effective ghost story with some real understanding of supernatural evil in that a horrible person's essence retains the malevolence it had in life. I listened to this on Kindle and that was a very fun way to experience these stories. It's well deserving of a four star rating.

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Stories by Various

Stories: All-New Tales by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


How to review this collection.....Hmm..



One one level, for a reader who loves short stories (as I do), for the pure essence of the medium of storytelling, this is an excellent collection. There is no question that all the writers here know their craft, and very well. I had the pleasure of being introduced to many new authors I had never read, and none of the stories were boring. I know I will definitely seek out some of these new authors to read more of their stories. Others, I'm not so sure about. Not because of a lack of ability, but I'm not sure that they write the kind of stories I like to read, if the content here indeed represents their output. It's completely possible that the pieces here are a departure. I suppose that like strangers who travel down a similar path (the world of short story literature), we might meet again. As Neil Gaiman intimated in his introduction, most of these stories caught me, and had me on the line, waiting for what happens next. Like Mr. Gaiman, that is a huge draw when I read a story. If I don't care about what happens next, I don't even bother finishing the story. For pretty much all of these stories, even the ones I didn't care for, I did keep listening to find out...what happens next. I wanted to know!



On another level, I think that if a reader picks this collection up to read fantasy/science fiction/speculative fiction and that alone, they will be disappointed. Certainly, there was a good amount of those things on offer. There were also stories that I would place firmly in the literary fiction arena. Which certainly is not a bad thing if that is your sort of reading. And if you like a literary touch to your speculative fiction reading, you will probably be a happy camper. Myself, I don't care much for the genre or its conventions, so I felt a bit like I had gone into a movie theater for a science fiction 'popcorn' movie and ended up watching an IFC-style drama about all the depressing aspects of life that I don't need to be reminded about. Not to say that the latter movie isn't well done and interesting, but certainly not what I wanted to watch, or read, in this case.



So, this one is a bit of the good and bad. I loved a few of the stories. I liked more still. Others I didn't care for or I was ambivalent about. There was one with a woman who was being stalked by an admirer who gifted her in the days around Christmas in the manner of the wonderful carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Take a moment, if you will, to consider how messed up that could be in execution. Yeah. I was bad, and it was highly hilarious and entertaining. That was by far my favorite story. This was by one of my favorite fantasy authors since I was a young girl, Diana Wynne Jones, who passed away this year, and will be mourned by this reader and many others. If that was her last story, I would raise my glass in toast to her. The Joanne Harris story was about Norse Gods in modern NYC, and it was funny and entertaining. Yeah, the Norse mythology part hooked me, but the wit kept me listening intently. The Jodi Picoult story, "Weights and Measures," had me sobbing hard and blowing my nose as I drove and listened. I think I'll avoid her books. I don't like going to that emotional place if I don't have to. But she can write. The most disturbing story was by Lawrence Block. It was called, "Catch and Release" and it was about a serial killer who had developed a habit of doing exactly that, except not with fish, and not all the time. It was....chilling, to say the least. Another story that I found very well-written but I found very unsettling and very sad was "The Stars are Falling," by Joe R. Lansdale. I've been wanting to read him for a while, and he's definitely a talented writer. The story itself was incredibly sad, but the imagery stuck with me. The sign of a good short story. There were others, lots of others, and I could probably talk about each one, but I won't dither here.



Narrator Comments: I think the narrators were very good. There was one man who I felt sounded a little too much like the PBS documentary narrators for my tastes. It took me out of the story because it was too monotone, and a bit too detached. The other narrators I liked very much.



Final Thoughts: My rating is an emotional one (that's how I roll, you see). I gave it three stars because it didn't quite give me what I wanted. That's on me, not the writers here. However, for the reader who has a serious love of the short story, and who wants to bask in that medium for many hours, or however long one wants to spend reading through an anthology, regardless of the genre and subject matter, I think this is a good collection to reach for. In that sense, it's probably more of a four star collection.



So I recommend this one with reservations...





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Sails and Sorcery by Various Authors

Sails & Sorcery: Tales of Nautical Fantasy by W.H. Horner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a good collection of stories that smoothly combine the seafaring/pirate theme with fantasy. I only disliked a couple of stories, although as a whole, I found the tone a bit on the dark side. I think the only upbeat story was by Patrick Thomas, and I would expect no less of him, since he always gets me to laugh with his stories. The writing was high quality, even if I didn't necessarily care for all the stories, and none were predictable in the slightest. One hopes to find fantasy stories ripe with imagination, and such was the case here. They also depict all the highs and lows of the human experience, even if the characters aren't necessarily human.

I am feeling too lazy to give an individual account of each story in this collection. Instead, I will end this review with a wholesale recommendation of Sails and Sorcery. It took me a month to read (with other books on the agenda at the time), and that is the best way to read this. Savor each story, one or two a day, or more if you find that you don't want to put it down.

Maybe the person who did this collection will put together an assassin-themed one. Hint, hint!




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The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire by Various Authors

The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire by Trisha Telep

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a collection of young adult vampire stories with a definite bite. Quite a few of these stories were disturbing, and the resolutions were fitting with the old school vampire--a predator who kills, often just for survival, and sometimes for less justifiable motives. The fact that these stories involved teenagers makes the stories that much more disturbing, for teenage-hood is a harrowing enough experience already without the influence of the undead!



Although one might consider this paranormal romance, I don't. I would consider this more of a horror collection. There are elements of romance, but the focus doesn't veer far away from the sinister aspects of vampires. I think young readers who are looking for a darker type read might enjoy them.



I won't go into great details on the various stories in this review. Instead I will give my ratings and classify the stories based on the ratings. My caveat is that I rate books based on how much the ideas appealed to me, and the execution. It goes without saying that others might view the stories differently. Because the bulk of these stories are unsettling, I can't look for sympathetic characters and particularly happy endings, so I've taken that into consideration.



Four and 1/2 stars:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Shutter Island by Melissa De La Cruz

Undead is Very Hot Right Now by Sarah Rees Brennan (very amusing)



Four stars:

Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney

Kat by Kelley Armstrong

The Thirteenth Step by Libba Bray

All Hallows by Rachel Caine

Other Boys by Cassandra Clare

Passing by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie'

Ambition by Lili St. Crow



Three Stars

Wet Teeth by Cecil Castellucci

Sword Point by Maria V. Snyder



I'm come to the conclusion that writing a short story is much more difficult than writing a full-length novel. It requires the ability to conceive, give birth to, raise, and to launch a mature creation in a very short period of time. Ideas have to be honed to the finest edge so they can penetrate the reader. I felt that some of these authors were more successful than others at having that power of a bringing their short story to life for this reader. All in all, there were no bad stories in this collection, because they all succeeded in giving me the author's vision of vampires in a young adult's world. For that, I respect the authors. But, I admit some stories impressed me a lot more than the others. Having said that, this is worthwhile anthology for most fans of vampire fiction, regardless of age.





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