Tales for Spooky Season

 The October Country by Ray Bradbury

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

My Review on Goodreads

I really wanted to finish this in October.  Sadly, I finished it on November 1st.  I love Ray Bradbury, but I was a bit underwhelmed with this collection. Honestly, I disliked the first few stories intensely.  As I got further along I found I did start to like some of the stories.  It was so weird, because I normally eat up Ray Bradbury's prose, but some some reason, the audiobook narration was not working for me.  Maybe it was the narrator.   For sure, a bad narrator fit to the story can definitely mess up a reading experience.  The reader did capture the feel of the Early 20th Century to Mid-Century, which is the setting for the build of these stories, but he was a bit, I don't know, dry for me.  It could have been my mood as well.

I won't go through all the stories, because the ones that I didn't like, didn't impress me at all. I'll talk instead about the ones I appreciated the most.

"The Lake"

A sad story about regrets.  3 stars.

"The Emissary"

I really liked this story.  There are unanswered questions that make you think about the story long after it ends.  4 stars.

"Touched With Fire"

Wow, this story is timely for the particular era we live in.  3 stars.

"The Small Assassin"

Very dark, but I loved it.  The thought is so scary!  Why don't people listen to women?  5 stars.

"The Crowd"

This one was super creepy!  3 stars.

"Jack-in-the-Box"

Very fanciful in a characteristically Ray Bradbury way.  3.5 stars.

"The Scythe"

I liked epic scale of this novel. It goes to some truly existentially dark places. 4 stars.

"The Man Upstairs"

This was weird and kind of creepy.  I don't know whether to be more afraid of the man or the boy!  5 stars.

"There Was an Old Woman"

I loved this story. It has a really good sense of humor that had me chuckling.  5 stars

"Homecoming"

I liked the Addams Family vibe to this story. I need to check out the full-length novel based on these characters.  3.5 stars.

My overall impression of this volume is disappointment.  I wish I had read it instead of listening to it.  I have it on my Kindle and a paperback copy stored away, so I'll try to reread the book without the audio and see how I like it in the future.  I could see these as vignettes in a tv series.   Perhaps some were on the Ray Bradbury show back in the day.

I'd have to give this one <b>3.5 stars</b>.

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Once Upon a Tale of Terror

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

My Review on Goodreads

I really should have taken notes as I listened to this, but I did not. So my review will be a bit slapdash. I had very low expectations for this because I don't like slasher movies at all. However, I do enjoy a good anthology and I wanted something to continue my spooky reading into November. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. I think pretty much all the writers in this collection are very good at what they are doing. There are some stories that are just plain beautiful. Even though the subject matter wasn't always to my taste, the writing was so good, I was transfixed. Another thing I really liked is every single story is different. While the name of the collection is a good heads up, you would find so much more than the title suggests.

I admit I ended up not finishing "Sleepless" because I really triggered on a personal level by the content. But I listened to all of other stories.

"The birds of Azalea Street" / Nova Ren Suma

What a start to this anthology. It was so weird and ugly and beautiful at the same time. 4 stars

"In the forest dark and deep" / Carrie Ryan

I liked and hated this one. It was twisted and disturbing and almost dream/nightmare-like. I didn't like the ending, so I took off a star because of that. As an Alice in Wonderland acolyte, I did get a kick out this interesting take on the story. 3.5 stars

"Emmeline" / Cat Winters

I wasn't that impressed with this one, to be honest. I love a good ghost story, but this one didn't work for me. 2.5 stars

"Verse chorus verse" / Leigh Bardugo

What a creepy story. It's a twisted look into the stage mom/mother manager and star daughter take. I have questions that didn't quite get answered. If you like vibes and the dark feel of a story more than a story that lays everything out clearly, you'd like this one. I feel like it ended too soon. I think it should have been a novella and not a short story as there are plot-lines that weren't developed that really needed more page time. 3.75 stars

"Hide-and-seek" / Megan Shepherd

This was one of my favorites. I loved the heck out of this story. I am crazy about Applachian folklore based stories and the atmosphere was immaculate. Also the story keeps moving along with no drags or pacing issues. I definitely want to read more from this author. 5 stars

"The dark, scary parts and all" / Danielle Paige

If Carrie and The Omen had a baby pretty much sums this one up. It was hard to take this one seriously. It had an almost "Is this supposed to be funny" kind of feel like the new Sabrina show on Netflix. It wasn't bad, it just didn't have that much of an impact on me other than for obvious reasons. 3 stars

"The flicker, the fingers, the beat, the sigh" / by April Genevieve Tucholke

This story was so beautiful and heartbreaking. The imagery is as exquisitely rendered as Jung Hoseok's face. This will stay with me for a long time. 5 stars

"Fat girl with a knife" / Jonathan Maberry

I love Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger series, and there are aspects to this story that make it feel like a cousin to that series. It was a bit too short for my tastes, but I really liked what was there. I would like more from this character. 4 stars.

"Sleepless" / Jay Kristoff

I didn't finish this one because I was triggered by the subject matter. It's a me thing based on my own family dynamics. You might like it. Not Rated

"M" / Stefan Bachmann

Loved, loved, loved it! I hate bullies, and I appreciate books where the predator becomes the prey. Hope that's not a spoiler. So well written and the setting and storyline hits me in my Gothic-loving soul. 4.5 stars

"The girl without a face" / Marie Lu

I wasn't that keen on this story. It's well done and I like the twist in plotting. It just had a yuck factor with the main character I couldn't get past. 3 stars

"A girl who dreamed of snow"/ McCormick Templeman

Unique story that is completely unpredictable. It's such a divergent turn in this collection. 4 stars.

"Stitches" / A.G. Howard

Absolutely loved this story. It has a Southern Gothic/Rural dark fantasy feel that always sucks me in. There's something so beautiful about the tale, even with some ugly subject matter. It feels like a fairy tale. 5 stars

"On the I-5" / Kendare Blake

So many times, I thought I knew where this was going, and I was so very wrong. It reminded me of the movie Freeway. I am not a big fan of the movie overall, but Reese Witherspoon's character was awesome. This just had a bit of that feel with the character, but it's so unique. It was really dark and twisted, and I loved it. 4.5 stars.

I was so impressed by this collection. I'm glad I got the audiobook because the narrators were excellent, and listening to the collection added so much more to the experience. I definitely recommend this volume to dark fantasy and horror lovers. There's little of everything in here with consistent quality throughout the collection. That's what I look for in a good anthology.

I'd give this an overall rating of 4 stars.

 

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