In A Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu

In a Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This was the Goodreads Classic Horror Lovers Tales to Chill Your Blood group read in October 2017. I listened to it on Kindle. This volume contains five stories:

"Green Tea"
"The Familiar"
"Mr. Justice Harbottle"
"The Room in the Dragon Volant"
"Carmilla"

I will go through and discuss each story separately.

"Green Tea"--I have read this story before. It's interesting, although the way it's written is a bit on the dry side. It's told with detachment, which I suppose makes sense as it's told through letters written by Dr. Martin Hesselius, a paranormal investigator. The interesting component was the concept of green tea as a substance that can cause a person's third eye to open and to allow them to see into the spirit world. The unfortunate clergyman who is the focus of the story is able to see a monkey that continues to haunt him until it drives him crazy. It could have been more suspenseful, honestly. 3 stars

"The Familiar"--A psychological horror story about a man who is being haunted by a figure from his past as a sea captain. Another use of the trope of a person being driven mad by his perception of something no one else can see. I was not particularly impressed by this story. 2.5 stars

"Mr. Justice Harbottle"--a story about a judge who is haunted by the spirits of those he wrongly condemned to death. Nice build of suspense. I think the writing is much better in this story than "Green Tea" and "The Familiar". Ironically, I read the original version of this story, "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street" (1853) out of another ghost story volume I was reading in October. I like that it deals with the concept of spiritual consequences for the wrong that one does, even when the person seems to be powerful in this life. The judge was not just a corrupt official, but he was also a degenerate who treated those around him poorly. 4 stars

"The Room in the Dragon Volant"--This is more of a suspense story. It reminds me of something Robert Louis Stevenson might have wrote. It's one of the longer stories in the volume, with some involved storytelling. It's not a ghost or horror story, although there initially appears to be supernatural elements. Lots of nice twists in the story that did impress me. 4 stars

"Carmilla"--Another reread for me. A very famous novella about a female vampire with some very obvious homoerotic overtones. Carmilla chooses exclusively female victims and uses her allure to develop their attraction to her. Carmilla is a create of simultaneous seductiveness and repulsion to her newest victim, Laura. Readers can plot this story out and see over time that there is something very wrong about Carmilla. The story builds to an exciting climax as Laura's father and other concerned parties work to deal with the evil vampire. This is old school vampire horror. Carmilla is the bad guy. Readers who enjoy the romantic angle cannot escape the fact that Carmilla is a sexual predator who is endangering the life of Laura. This was written during the Victorian age, in which sexual values were highly pruritanical, so it couldn't have been written any other way without national outrage. However, it was a night springboard for plenty of later vampire stories that focused more of the erotic aspects and less on the evil monster component. First time I read this, I found the flowery descriptions tedious. I enjoyed this a lot more this time around, maybe because I listened to the narration. 4 stars.

Overall, I would give this 3.5 stars, which is an average of my individual ratings. Le Fanu is a good writer, but his style isn't my personal favorite. He's not the most active writer and I don't find his writing particularly scary (other than a couple of moments in Carmilla). However, he has some interesting ideas and concepts and his storytelling has been influential to the genre of classic horror.

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The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"The Last Wish" is a collection of stories about Geralt Rivia, the Witcher, whose occupation is to deal with monsters. This is a frame story in which other stories are the memories that the protagonist recalls as he recovers from a nearly fatal wound.

Readers who enjoy dark fantasy, fables, and fairy tales will love this book. The author retells some well-known fairy tales with ingeunity, such as "Beauty and the Beast" , "Sleeping Beauty," "Rapunzel", and "Snow White", and he also offers unique twists on ancient Eastern European legends such as the strigoi and rusalka, jinn, and even the Fair Folk, Fae or Elves. Some stories are pretty scary, and some are fairly humorous. Some have a little of both. All are written with loving care, with emotional depth, and plenty of action scenes.

Geralt, in my mind, is a hero, but he might be considered an antihero as well. I think he's a hero because he has a very good moral compass, and he makes tough decisions for the overall good. He's not driven by greed, but instead a desire to help people. But he also shows empathy and isn't unncessarily cruel. Even as a monster hunter, he doesn't kill them indiscriminately. His BS detector is well-honed as he deals with crooked humans who want to manipulate him. He's a well-developed character who struggles with the issues all humans face, despite his superhuman qualities.

This series is begging to be a movie, or even better, a cable network series. A thoroughly enjoyable read. I'm excited to continue this series.

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Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Stories by Edgar Allen Poe

Murders in the Rue Morgue & Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I checked this audiobook out to celebrate the October Spooky mood. I have been an admirer of Poe since I was a grade school student, and what IMurders in the Rue Morgue & Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I checked this audiobook out to celebrate the October Spooky mood. I have been an admirer of Poe since I was a grade school student, and what I've read by him, I've loved. I have been meaning to read more by him, but haven't taken the time. Audiobooks are such a good way to maximize my time because I can listen and do other things, so I grabbed this one. In all honesty, it wasn't very scary or even eerie (with the exception of "The Raven. " I am glad that I did listen to it though. I had never read any of these stories. I could have done without a couple of them, but overall, it was enjoyable, and this four hour audiobook format was a good way to keep me company as I did other things. The narrator's voice was a bit irritating, with a nasally tone that wasn't my favorite. He was good with accents and voices though.

Here are my thoughts on the stories:

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" --I love a good detective story, and this is the first detective story, and that is to be celebrated. I saw a lot of Sherlock Holmes in C. Auguste Dupin and Watson in his anonymous friend. It was a great mystery with a crazy resolution. I never would have guessed. My only issue with it is that it's basically telling and not showing. Dupin seems very pompous in his way of analyzing people, and he seems very self-important. He shows the observant trait of a good detective, which Poe terms ratiocination. I loved the twist on how each witness thought the guttural speaker was a foreigner, but from a place that had never been. In light of the resolution, that was a very nice touch. I give this four stars because it's impressive as the first detective story. I think all the detective fiction readers and writers owe Mr. Poe a great debt.

"The Purloined Letter" --I didn't find this one as impressive as the first. It seemed very simplistic, and there was no real tension. I do give Dupin props for his handy solving of a mystery that had the police stumped, but he's so obnoxiously arrogant about it. Sherlock with some aristocratic French attitude thrown in. 3 stars.

"The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade" --I didn't care much for this, sadly. I love Scheherazade and the Arabian Nights stories, and I don't think this added anything to the mystique of the stories. I felt like it was full of weirdness, way too random, with bizarre diversions in the storytelling, but at the same time, really quite boring. Besides, it ruined the best aspect about the stories, so that was a downer for me. Probably my least favorite story by Poe. 2 stars.

"A Descent into the Maelstrom" --This felt more like a Jack London story than a Poe story. It's good to see that he does venture into straight adventure, no pun intended. I felt it was an average read. It didn't have much of an impact on me, but I didn't dislike it like the previous novel. 2.5 stars.

"The Raven"-- A classic by this author. I love poetry, especially eerie poetry. I admit I don't like overly long poems, so this was a nice length. Long enough to get a reader involved, with a beautiful rhythm to it. Listening to this was a lot of fun. I think I would need to read it, to delve more meaning out of it. It's a bit oblique, in my opinion. 3.5 stars

"Masque of the Red Death" --I really appreciated listening to this. I have seen the movie with Vincent Price and thought it was very clever. It's interesting how they managed to get a full-length movie out of this, since it was very short. I think the tone was nicely Gothic and sinister, and it has an impactful statement about the concept of believing that being wealthy and high status makes one exempt from all ills. And there is something very repugnant about indulging debauchery and hedonism when people are suffering around you. Death finds everyone of us. 4 stars.

Conclusion: Four hours of my life that I can't say I regret. It helped that I was finishing a project for school at the time, so it kept me busy. I would say that one's life is not added to much by "Scheherazade" and "A Descent into the Maelstrom", but I recommend the other stories.


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Fungus of the Heart by Jeremy Shipp

Fungus of the Heart by Jeremy C. Shipp

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Fungus of the Heart is a short story collection that is rather aptly named. The stories do probe into the mysteries of the human heart, although their subjects are not necessarily human. However, they show emotions that humans would be intensely familiar with. The fungus part of the title represents the weird, strange, perhaps even unpalatable edge hinted at in many of these stories. I like that Mr. Shipp was able to capture that dichotomy between being a monster--so alien on close examination--and inside, so identifiable, nearly ubiquitous, like fungus is in our world.

Not exactly stream of consciousness storytelling, but quite free-flowing and non-linear story structure, often leaving me scratching my head mentally, trying to figure out exactly was going on in the stories. They begin and end at seemingly random moments, but there is a feeling of closure in most, at least for the moment. Not a full resolution, but enough conveyed to give the reader the feeling that whatever Mr. Shipp wanted told about that particular story ends up on the written page. Beauty might not be what Mr. Shipp was going for, but I did see beauty in these offerings. The open, honest emotions flowing through them, and the highly visual and sensory imagery appealed to me, although he does go to some dark places here. These offerings ponder the highs and lows of life: love, loss, war, rage, alienation, fear, identity, all those things, and more.

The imagination exhibited here was impressive. I would love to sit down with Jeremy Shipp and ask him what his source of inspiration is. How he is able to fearlessly put down on paper what must wander through his mind, and do it in such a way as to avoid pretentiousness. There was never that sort of feeling as I read. Merely honesty, a sharing of himself with the reader. That’s pretty brave and fearless, because people aren’t kind to each other when a person opens himself up to others for examination. I definitely admire him for doing this here.

Although I didn’t always ‘get’ the stories, I got them on an emotional level, and that’s what spoke to me as I read Fungus of the Heart. Mr. Shipp has a way with short stories that will lead me back to him, probably in the near future. I think fans of Caitlin R. Kiernan would like this collection.





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The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy by Francis Stevens

The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy by Francis Stevens

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


What I liked about this collection of stories:



The stories within were pretty imaginative. The writing is erudite and fairly polished. Some of the story ideas were very innovative for the time. I can see the legacy that this author has bequeathed to future dark fantasists.



What I didn't like:



1. Story stories were often slow-starters and somewhat long-winded. There were too many novellas and not enough shorter stories. It made for harder reading for me.



2. The blatant racism against black people, Chinese, ethnic whites, you name it. Ugly terms for people of various races were used here and there with a distressing nonchalance. Negative traits being assigned and assumed to people of certain races based on their ethnicity was done very casually. There is also some subtle classism. Most of the protagonists are well-off non-ethnic white men (although the writer was a female who had to work for a living). I imagine this was done deliberately, as this is probably a big audience for these stories. This unpalatable racism, xenophobia, and classism is part and parcel of early 20th century literature, but it's still grating on this reader.



I'm just exhausted after doggedly reading this book. I usually finish most books I start, and I wanted to get this one read, even though my typical MO is to leisurely work my way through a short story collection. Mental note (please heed this time): Do not pick short story collections for monthly challenge reads!!!



Here are my brief thoughts on each story.



The Nightmare



This was a pretty good story. I can see some elements of 19th century fantasy adventure literature used with fairly good effect here. However, with its very slow start and too quick ending, this story did not impress me. Three and 1/2 stars.



The Labyrinth



This was my favorite story. I would have given it five stars except I disliked the racism against Chinese people. Otherwise, the humor was good, the diabolical intent behind the labyrinth, and the various characters and their interactions were well-written. I think this probably provided fertile fruit for many future works involving murderous labyrinthine traps. Four stars.



Friend Island



A short, cute satirical work that shows a world where women rule. I liked it. Four stars.



Behind the Curtain



A brief story (thankfully) about a man's dream of brutal revenge against his wife who asks for a divorce, involving an Egyptian mummy, and poisoned wine. This would have been very at home in a Weird Tales volume. Four stars.



Unseen--Unfeared



I can see that this story influenced Lovecraft in a massive way. His style, the use of horrifying creatures beyond our comprehension, the narrative focus, and the casual elitism and racism that he seemed to favor in his stories. The last was a big turn off for me. Two and 1/2 stars.



The Elf Trap



The good and the bad are equally weighed here. More xenophobic racism. The message seems to ridicule such prejudice in that the protagonist dismisses the gipsies on first sight, finding out later that they assume a mask to hide their elvish existence. I liked the idea behind it more than the execution. Four stars.



Serapion



I thought this was going to be a good, scary story. It started out so well-with plenty of supernaturally-sinister elements. It turned into more of a melodramatic piece. The protagonist is steadily possessed by the malevolent spirit of his dead uncle. I didn't much like the direction she took with this story, although it was well-written. More casual racism in the depiction of the medium's black servant. Lastly, it was way too long. Three stars.



Sunfire



A somewhat interesting look at a seemingly deserted pyramid in the Amazonian, which hides a human sacrificial culture and the dangers within to the five men who arrive to explore it. Not a bad story, but it shows the prevalent white racial attitudes of superiority demonstrated in most of the other stories. Three stars.



In Summary:

I don't want to belabor my point about the racist elements, but it made this collection a lot harder to read. I like reading the classics and pulp literature very much. But as a person of color, it is very difficult to see such blithe ignorance and disrespect for people of differing ethnicities and racial backgrounds. Sadly, the author seemed to be a person of intelligence and vision, but the racist/prejudice attitudes that her stories revealed (although representative of her time) dim the light of the promise shown in these stories (this author was the inventor of dark fantasy as a genre). Reading these stories and other authors from this era make me grateful that the books available in the fantasy genres today are free (in my experience) of such objectionable attitudes. Although I find myself disappointed for the racism and prejudice shown in the stories from this collection, I definitely don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, because that would be a huge waste. Instead, I hope that authors will continue to incorporate some of the inventive, imaginary ideas of this era of writing, and create stories that show a more enlightened perspective on race, ethnicity, and nationality. After all, fantasy is a genre in which the writer's imagination is boundless. There is no place for small minds.



A completist reader with an interest in classic/pulp fantasy literature from the early 20th Century should check out these stories, because it is quite clear how influential Gertrude Barrows, who wrote under the pseudonym of Francis Stevens, was on future writers.



Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.



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Vacations from Hell by Libba Bray

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


Lessons learned from reading this book:

1)Do not go on a cruise for your vacation...There might be vampires aboard.
2)Be aware of childhood rivals that you go on family vacations with...They might be evil witches.
3)Never spend your vacation in the French countryside, and by all means, avoid striking up a conversation with a garrulous Frenchman...It could very well be deadly to you and yours.
4)If you go to Jamaica, avoid the strange house with mirrors on it...Just take my word for it.
5)Never, ever take a backpacking trip through strange European countries with even stranger names like Necratul. Trust me on that!

This turned out to be a very good short story collection. I was kind of worried at how the first story, "Cruisin'", by Sarah Mlynowski, started. I thought, "Crap. This is like the CW teenie-bopper shows I avoid like the plague. Young girls out to get laid, 17 going on 35." I'm glad I kept reading. Just when I was about to give up, it got interesting. I have to admit that she threw me for a loop with the unexpected twist. Nicely played, Ms. Mlynowski. 4 stars.

"I Don't Like Your Girlfriend" by Claudia Gray took an interesting look at childhood rivalries between two girls whose mothers are both initiating them into their lives as witches. Cecily is a by-the-book girl, following all the rules of the Craft faithfully. Kathleen, her nemesis, has no problem breaking one of the first rules of witchcraft, not using your power to influence others. And to make it even worse, she's using it over her sweet boyfriend, Scott, who Cecily has a crush on. Cecily is out to see justice done. This was a pretty good story. Not really a subject I'm that interested in, but it kept my interest. 4 stars.

"The Law of Suspects" by Maureen Johnson struck me as such a well-done story. It starts out so funny in a completely sarcastic way. I was laughing out loud at Charlie's observations of her trip to France. And then, suddenly this story became as creepy as heck! Imagine being stranded in a country where you barely speak the language, and there is a weird French guy telling you an incredibly unsettling story. You know something is Just Not Right about this guy. Then, there's a very cute French guy who shows up. He tells you that you and your sister's lives are in danger. What do you do? What do you do? Man, this was a suspenseful story. I had no idea how it was going to end. Was Gerard telling Charlie the truth? Argh! I was holding my breath! When it ends, there's still this lingering fear. Is it over? What a good story. 5 stars.

"The Mirror House" by Cassandra Clare unnerved me, enthralled and riveted me. Ms. Clare used her prose very skillfully, creating a story that was beautiful and sinister. Despite the sunbleached brightness of the Jamaican beach, there was a dark undertone to everything. Along with Violet, I feared for young Evan. I had no clue initially what the threat was, but when I found out, I really liked the direction that Ms. Clare took. Brimming with atmosphere and intensity, this was a 5 star story for me.

"Nowhere is Safe" by Libba Bray. Man, oh, man. I'd rather have the most boring summer on earth than have the vacation from you know where that this group of friends had. I couldn't believe how scary this story got. Imagine going to a town where the townspeople had a pact with the Devil, sacrificing their children for prosperity for many years. They haven't done that in over one hundred and fifty years. But, some traditions aren't easily forgotten. I loved that the main character was half-Asian. He was subjected to prejudice because of his heritage, but he is heir to a special ability that may very well be the saving of his friends. He's sweet on his best friend, Izzy, whose parents were Haitian refugees, and who understands very well being a stranger in one's own land. Can he and his friends survive the nefarious plans of the villagers on their last Feast before their village is uprooted to build a power plant? Boy, this was not an ideal story to read before bedtime. Although the ending was a bit rushed, I still give it 5 stars for really scaring me, and for the hidden themes of prejudice and identity that I think it handled very well.

I was very happily surprised with this story collection. It was a quick but fulfilling read. I didn't expect these stories to be quite so scary, but it was, and in the best ways! Although this is a young adult collection, I think a lot of older readers would enjoy it too.

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars.


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Weddings From Hell by Maggie Shayne, Jeanine Frost, Terri Garey, Kathryn Smith

Weddings From Hell by Maggie Shayne


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My favorites in this collection were the Maggie Shayne and Kathryn Smith stories. The Jeaniene Frost story wasn't bad, and the Terri Garey story was decent.

"Till Death" by Maggie Shayne

I didn't expect to like this story with the family curse due to a female witch ancestor embittered because her husband had cheated on her. She killed him and the woman he betrayed her with, cursed all her female ancestors to die by their husbands' hands if the husbands are unfaithful, because it was better to die than to know that their husbands had cheated on them. It just sounded...not to my taste. Well, it turned out to be a good story. I admit I really liked Ian (well he's a big, sexy Scot--so that's practically a given), and he was a sweetie. I liked Kira too. Although she was a bit skeptical at first, she showed real resourcefulness and bravery, confronting her ancestress to end the curse. I thought the accents were a little hokey. I'm thinking modern Scots don't talk like that. But, I guess that's a small thing. Four stars.

"Happily Never After" by Jeaniene Frost

This is my first story by Ms. Frost, and I'm not sure what I think about her. The humor was a bit on the cheesy and hokey side. Don't get me wrong, I like cheesy humor, but the tone of this story didn't always work for me. I thought Isabelle was a little hard for my tastes. She didn't trust, and didn't believe in much. I didn't really get to know her or come to like her. I hope that she learns to open up a little more in the future. I liked Chance, and I did get some good laughs. I mostly like Ms. Frost's concepts of vampires. I was offended at one comment about what modern women should have done regarding the lie that Isabelle told her unwanted fiance. It makes it seem as though a woman of a certain age who is chaste can't possibly be modern. It was a throwaway comment, but rather presumptuous. I guess I shouldn't take it personally, but I did. All in all, pretty decent. 3 stars.

"Ghouls Night Out" by Terri Garey

Overall, not a bad story. I liked the mystery and the unfolding of the dead bridesmaid haunting Nicki to solve her murder. I did not like the liberal throwing around of the offensive term 'redneck' and the low-brow offensive humor directed towards 'backwoods" people. Some of the jokes were funny, but some were mean spirited, making Nicki seem like a mean snob. Overall, she was likeable, but the judgmental attitude she had towards her country cousins made it hard to warm up to her at first. Her boyfriend, Joe, was scrumptious. It was an entertaining read, other than the offensive parts. Not enough to get me to read this series though. 3 stars.

"The Wedding Knight" by Kathryn Smith

This is part of the Brotherhood of the Blood series, about Payen, one of the knights who drinks from the Blood Grail chalice, becoming a vampire in the process. He seduced and left Violet five years later, but returns when he finds out she's marrying a member of The Silver Palm, a dastardly organization behind the betrayal and extermination of the Knights Templar, and worse. He refuses to let her marry such a dishonorable man, so he barges in on the engagement party, leading to Violet breaking the engagement. In truth, he never got over Violet, although he told himself he couldn't have her because she was human and he was a vampire. Violet realizes that she never stopped loving Payen, and is determined to make him realize their future belongs together. Ms. Smith managed to get three love scenes in this very short story. I liked that Violet was a larger-sized woman, and Payen liked her just fine that way. It was a passionate, well-written story for all its shortness. If a reader doesn't like her love stories earthy and sensual, she probably won't like it. I liked it a lot. Four stars.

This story collection does indeed touch on weddings with a supernatural edge to their distaster quotient. Thankfully weddings do occur in two out of four (with a botched wedding scene in another), so it qualified for my challenge read! So to recap: I received a pleasant surprise with Ms. Shayne's story (although she has proven herself to be a good writer when I've read her). As for Frost, I will one day start the Night Huntress series, and I hope that the humorous tone is more to my liking in those. I'm not stricken with a burning desire to read Nicki Styx's series, since my tbr pile is already massively large and I don't tend to like the more chick-lit-oriented urban fantasy. Of course, I appreciated the Brotherhood of the Blood Offering and look forward to reading the rest in the series. So, I'd say two out of four isn't bad.

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Dates From Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong, and Lori Handeland

Dates From Hell by Kim Harrison


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I started this one and put it down almost two years ago. I was distinctly disturbed by Ivy's backstory (from the Rachel Morgan books by Kim Harrison), featured in Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was not at all what I'd call a romance. Her relationships with the men in this story were dark, tangled, and unsettling. It's good to have some perspective on Ivy, but I'm afraid I don't have a good opinion of her character right now. Maybe that was the point, and we will see her evolve as she spends more time around the more innocent and sweeter Rachel. This was a beautifully written, but dark, dark story. Kim Harrison is one heck of a writer and she pulls you into the stories that she spins. I'm not into dark and sexual so much, and this story has that edge to it, hence I was a bit turned off. I did love the banshee part. Very cool! Four stars for the quality of the story, even though this one disturbed me.

Attempt #2 Went much better as I finished the Lynsay Sands story. I actually enjoyed The Claire Switch Project, and I didn't expect to like it. I thought it was going to be way too light and fluffy and annoying as Claire used her power to deceive the man she was in love with. Thankfully I was wrong. It just goes to show that you need to be in the mood to read certain books. This reminded me of a screwball comedy from the 80s (which I love). Claire has a unique ability that her friend manipulates her into exploiting to get a little revenge against the jerk who dumped her. Her scientist colleague, Kyle, is the man she's been in love with for over ten years, but afraid to say anything. Well, he asks her out on a date the very night she has to pretend to be her friends famous date (Brad Cruise, get it?). Hilarity and confusion ensues. It was cute and fun, so I ended up giving this one 3.5 stars.

Kelley Armstrong's Chaotic was interesting. The heroine is Hope, a half-chaos demon/half-human. She gets a high from chaotic/violent events that she has tried to channel into helping people working for the Interracial Council. She's on a mundane date (but on the lookout for anything unusual) and she ends up catching jewel-thief and somewhat rogue werewolf, Karl. It turns out that the people that she works for are gunning for Karl in the worse way, although he's not on the wrong side. They are. This reminded me of those beloved 80s action movies I watched too many of, even though I was probably too young for them. I have to admit that the first person didn't really seem to fit the story that well. I think third person would have gone over better. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Heck, I'm an easy sell with the werewolf theme, and the on the run theme combined. I also liked Hope's unique ability (if you can call it that) I look forward to reading Private Demon to further explore Hope and Karl. Four stars.

My favorite, hands down, was Dead Man Dating. It was so interesting and unique. Kit is a woman who is being relentlessly hunted by a demon who's looking for a very particular type of woman. Not too many of them found in the modern world, especially in the big city. Thankfully there is a rogue demon hunter (sorry, not Wesley Wyndham-Price) here to save her. Chavez is one sexy demon hunter. I loved the aspect of good versus evil, and finding out how to kill this demon that is gunning for Kit. I firmly believe that Ms. Handeland was inspired by Constantine, and I'm not complaining, since I love that movie and the idea of the comic book it's inspired by (I haven't read them yet, but I will). Being the complete folklore/supernatural nerd that I am, I ate this story up like Mexican food (my favorite). This was such a great story, and it flowed very well, hence the five star rating. Here I am hoping that it ties into the Doomsday Chronicles series that Ms. Handeland has out (which is in the you know what). Sign me up to read about these warrior fighting against the apocalypse.

I am so glad I gave this anthology another chance. I have to thank Mel for inspiring me with her love of Karl Marsten. It really turned out to be a great read, and makes this girl who doesn't date that much pretty happy that she didn't go on any of these dates from hell (Sorry. I can't resist a bad pun).

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