Tales to Keep You Up at Night by Dan Poblocki

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

My Review on Goodreads

Let me tell you, Dan Poblocki has written quite a creepy, unnerving, and at times genuinely scary book of stories. While targeted for middle-grade readers, it definitely has appeal to older readers. This is quite dark.

The first story was so so good. It set such an excellent tone for the collection. It's still my favorite. I didn't love all the stories, but they were all effective, and I appreciated how they all tied into the frame story. Despite them all tying in, there was a little of every kind of horror. I don't enjoy seeing kids in danger or being harmed, so that was a little tough to take in, but there's nothing too gory with this book. I think it's more about the concept and the implications of each story that makes it so unnerving. I wish I had taken notes on the story titles, but unfortunately I didn't. I will say overall that this collection is worth checking out. I have already gotten the next book, More Tales to Keep You Up at Night from my library to listen to soon.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of kids' horror, even as an adult.

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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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