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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
dark
tense
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Here is how you do a small horror anthology with 50 stories with each story with 4/5 pages top.
First thing you realize that some are more pitch for new ideas and they didn't work OR there was no juice. I could see some of these to be a bigger ones, maybe turn into a novella or novel.
The vast majority are plain horror with a twist or holdup. In terms of genre we've got a normal urban horror and some had sci-fi, post apocalyptic feel with more horror. There are also a few with gore.
11 Stories I gave a 4 Stars
4 I gave a 5 Stars.
Overall I would say it's a very good anthology and I have no problem giving a 4 (85) because almost all others are 3 stars. There are only a few I didn't enjoy.
Some highlights
Hazard Lights - Another great alien invasion story. Would love to see more
Overheard - Reminds me of a movie (Scary Movie first kill)
Room for rent - What a finale twist...
In the Space Above the Wardrobe -
Death Follows - This could have been better as a more long novel
The Dog's Grave Digger - what a holdup.
The Sightless - a Post apocalpytic, alien invasion story. Could easily be turn into a novella.
Footsteps in the Night, Ghost Town, Magpie Girl, Tune
Really good.
First thing you realize that some are more pitch for new ideas and they didn't work OR there was no juice. I could see some of these to be a bigger ones, maybe turn into a novella or novel.
The vast majority are plain horror with a twist or holdup. In terms of genre we've got a normal urban horror and some had sci-fi, post apocalyptic feel with more horror. There are also a few with gore.
11 Stories I gave a 4 Stars
4 I gave a 5 Stars.
Overall I would say it's a very good anthology and I have no problem giving a 4 (85) because almost all others are 3 stars. There are only a few I didn't enjoy.
Some highlights
Hazard Lights - Another great alien invasion story. Would love to see more
Overheard - Reminds me of a movie (Scary Movie first kill)
Room for rent - What a finale twist...
In the Space Above the Wardrobe -
Death Follows - This could have been better as a more long novel
The Dog's Grave Digger - what a holdup.
The Sightless - a Post apocalpytic, alien invasion story. Could easily be turn into a novella.
Footsteps in the Night, Ghost Town, Magpie Girl, Tune
Really good.
There's that saying, "Quantity has a quality all its own." I don't think it was originally made in reference to this book, but it feels fitting here anyway.
I think horror as a genre lends itself to shorter stories and maybe this is confirmation bias but I tend to see more short story collections for this genre than others. But fifty stories? I was skeptical until a brief skim through the pages confirmed that no, they really were all crammed in there.
Some (okay, most) of them were fairly formulaic, but that's hardly a fair criticism when they're all written by the same author. If anything, I got so used to expecting the same order of events - person is minding their own business doing something normal, notices something strange, oops! they're dead! - that whenever there was a deviation I paid closer attention. And none of them were outright bad, but there was a comfort in knowing that if I wasn't vibing with a given story it would be over in literally two or three pages.
As a whole it felt more like a collection of writing exercises than a coherent polished product, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In retrospect, I would have gotten more enjoyment out of it had I read maybe one story a day and give it time to settle in my mind; trying to rapid-fire my way through these stories felt like leaving a car radio on scan mode. I could totally see this collection being repackaged as like a "spook-a-day" microfiction calendar or something.
I think horror as a genre lends itself to shorter stories and maybe this is confirmation bias but I tend to see more short story collections for this genre than others. But fifty stories? I was skeptical until a brief skim through the pages confirmed that no, they really were all crammed in there.
Some (okay, most) of them were fairly formulaic, but that's hardly a fair criticism when they're all written by the same author. If anything, I got so used to expecting the same order of events - person is minding their own business doing something normal, notices something strange, oops! they're dead! - that whenever there was a deviation I paid closer attention. And none of them were outright bad, but there was a comfort in knowing that if I wasn't vibing with a given story it would be over in literally two or three pages.
As a whole it felt more like a collection of writing exercises than a coherent polished product, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In retrospect, I would have gotten more enjoyment out of it had I read maybe one story a day and give it time to settle in my mind; trying to rapid-fire my way through these stories felt like leaving a car radio on scan mode. I could totally see this collection being repackaged as like a "spook-a-day" microfiction calendar or something.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was fun. My favorite story was Growth. A lot of it was kind of repetitive and I obviously couldn’t get attached to any of the characters since the stories were about three pages each, but overall easy and enjoyable.
My first Darcy Coates book and I'm extremely disapponited. Most of the stories weren't even worth reading. Unbelievable cliche & meaningless. There are fifty friggin' stories, I thought at least fifteen or twenty would be good, LOL. Only six of them were kinda worthwhile - Sixth Floor, Flotsam (disturbing), Music Box (gave me some chills), Skin House (creepy), The Woman In The Morgue & Room For Rent. I have a few other books by this author on my TBR, but not sure anymore if I'll be reading them.