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darquedreamer's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
mehsi's review
3.0
I was looking at one of Darcy Coates books, and spotted this one as being read by other readers. It sounded pretty awesome, and so I had to try it.
The book has 12 stories, 1 for each month. They each tie in with the month, or an event happening in that month (for instance October has a Halloween story/poem, and Christmas has a Christmas story). I quite like that this is done, I was thinking it would just be twelve stories, so imagine my delight to see one for each month.
I also liked that the author tells us a little bit about the story, and how he came upon the idea of writing it. It always makes the stories a bit more special. A bit more fun.
Like with the other short story books that I read lately, I will post my thoughts + rating for each story. The rating may have changed from when I posted the status update about the story. Sometimes I just felt it could use a bit higher, thinking back on the story and what it held.
January: Crow Manor: 4 stars. Definitely was a great story, didn't expect it to be so long though. As there are only 253 pages, and with 12 stories I expected each to be quite short, however this one took 31% of the book.
I could have told them that this was a bad idea, and I think Gina wanted to tell Matt, but Matt was too stubborn. I didn't like Matt that much. POV switched all over the place. The ending was o.0.
February: Fear of Torture: 4 stars. Ah, this one was a short one, and pretty good. I didn't like the woman that much, she could just have waited for a divorce, but eh. Poor guy. It was a pretty creepy story, and the ending was good.
March: Squish: 2.5 stars. Ewwwww, this was a bit too much for me. The ending, well it seems someone else is also getting a portion of Karma. I felt sorry for those motor people. :(
April: Purgatory: 3 stars. A decent story, though I was confused up until the ending, then every piece of puzzle clicked and I understood what happened. Still don't really get why the truck was following them/hurting them, but eh. Poor Cassie. :(
May: A Knock in the Night: 2 stars. What the hell? What the hell? WHAT THE HELL? The story was quite good, but a bit too much for me, especially that ending. o.0 No one deserves that. I thought they were friends. o.0
June: The Closet Monster: 4 stars. Oh my, this was a good story. Creepy, spooky, haunting, and definitely awesome! I would have just gone for the Terry Pratchett way though, bring a baseball bat or a fire poker and kick some butt. :P
July: The Tank: 1 star. Sorry, but what? This one was too weird and even the ending didn't make sense. It could have been good, but nothing was explained, and I just wanted to know more about why he got in that tank, why him, who is that masked person that feeds him, and so many other questions.
August: Welcome to Paradise: 2.5 stars. That was just a weird story. It also felt a bit too long, too stretched out. I just knew from the get-go it would be a bad idea to go to that town. The pastor guy was also insta-creepy. The ending was good, but I am worried for Hannah now.
September: Skinwalkers: 0.5 stars. Meh. That is all. Meh. Not really my kind of story. It had some good elements, but it just kept on going and going and didn't seem to go anywhere. My least favourite story, I mostly just skimmed through it hoping it would be over soon.
October: The Spirit of Halloween: 3 stars. Whut? Why suddenly a poem? I also didn't like the formatting, on my reader it was just one wall of text, not really making it easy to read it. Still it was a nice idea, and I did like what happened in there, it was quite creepy.
November: Rattrap: 3.5 stars. That was quite good, right up to the end. Then it started to go down the drain. :| It was still exciting, but sorry, the ending was just a bit too weird for me. How do you not notice THAT in your house.
I also didn't like the characters that much, but their petty arguments did add to the story and the excitement. I was also kind of thinking it might be just one of them doing all this.
December: The Vending Machine: 4.5 stars. Ohhh I liked this one. A vending machine that doesn't only give you cola, but also fulfils wishes! I was worried about the ending, but in the end it turned out to be a very nice ending. It wasn't as creepy as the others were. OK, sure, there was some excitement, but in the end it was just a cute Xmas story.
All in all, a pretty good story collection. There were some that I quite liked, and some I just couldn't like at all. Would I recommend this book? Yes. It may be a bit mixed bag, but the stories I did like were good and I want others to read them as well. :)
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
The book has 12 stories, 1 for each month. They each tie in with the month, or an event happening in that month (for instance October has a Halloween story/poem, and Christmas has a Christmas story). I quite like that this is done, I was thinking it would just be twelve stories, so imagine my delight to see one for each month.
I also liked that the author tells us a little bit about the story, and how he came upon the idea of writing it. It always makes the stories a bit more special. A bit more fun.
Like with the other short story books that I read lately, I will post my thoughts + rating for each story. The rating may have changed from when I posted the status update about the story. Sometimes I just felt it could use a bit higher, thinking back on the story and what it held.
January: Crow Manor: 4 stars. Definitely was a great story, didn't expect it to be so long though. As there are only 253 pages, and with 12 stories I expected each to be quite short, however this one took 31% of the book.
I could have told them that this was a bad idea, and I think Gina wanted to tell Matt, but Matt was too stubborn. I didn't like Matt that much. POV switched all over the place. The ending was o.0.
February: Fear of Torture: 4 stars. Ah, this one was a short one, and pretty good. I didn't like the woman that much, she could just have waited for a divorce, but eh. Poor guy. It was a pretty creepy story, and the ending was good.
March: Squish: 2.5 stars. Ewwwww, this was a bit too much for me. The ending, well it seems someone else is also getting a portion of Karma. I felt sorry for those motor people. :(
April: Purgatory: 3 stars. A decent story, though I was confused up until the ending, then every piece of puzzle clicked and I understood what happened. Still don't really get why the truck was following them/hurting them, but eh. Poor Cassie. :(
May: A Knock in the Night: 2 stars. What the hell? What the hell? WHAT THE HELL? The story was quite good, but a bit too much for me, especially that ending. o.0 No one deserves that. I thought they were friends. o.0
June: The Closet Monster: 4 stars. Oh my, this was a good story. Creepy, spooky, haunting, and definitely awesome! I would have just gone for the Terry Pratchett way though, bring a baseball bat or a fire poker and kick some butt. :P
July: The Tank: 1 star. Sorry, but what? This one was too weird and even the ending didn't make sense. It could have been good, but nothing was explained, and I just wanted to know more about why he got in that tank, why him, who is that masked person that feeds him, and so many other questions.
August: Welcome to Paradise: 2.5 stars. That was just a weird story. It also felt a bit too long, too stretched out. I just knew from the get-go it would be a bad idea to go to that town. The pastor guy was also insta-creepy. The ending was good, but I am worried for Hannah now.
September: Skinwalkers: 0.5 stars. Meh. That is all. Meh. Not really my kind of story. It had some good elements, but it just kept on going and going and didn't seem to go anywhere. My least favourite story, I mostly just skimmed through it hoping it would be over soon.
October: The Spirit of Halloween: 3 stars. Whut? Why suddenly a poem? I also didn't like the formatting, on my reader it was just one wall of text, not really making it easy to read it. Still it was a nice idea, and I did like what happened in there, it was quite creepy.
November: Rattrap: 3.5 stars. That was quite good, right up to the end. Then it started to go down the drain. :| It was still exciting, but sorry, the ending was just a bit too weird for me. How do you not notice THAT in your house.
I also didn't like the characters that much, but their petty arguments did add to the story and the excitement. I was also kind of thinking it might be just one of them doing all this.
December: The Vending Machine: 4.5 stars. Ohhh I liked this one. A vending machine that doesn't only give you cola, but also fulfils wishes! I was worried about the ending, but in the end it turned out to be a very nice ending. It wasn't as creepy as the others were. OK, sure, there was some excitement, but in the end it was just a cute Xmas story.
All in all, a pretty good story collection. There were some that I quite liked, and some I just couldn't like at all. Would I recommend this book? Yes. It may be a bit mixed bag, but the stories I did like were good and I want others to read them as well. :)
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
cheartfred's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
garthranzz's review
4.0
Since I can’t find Four Dark Tales on Apple Books right now (I’ll grab the Kindle version later) I’m going to start with this Lukens collection first, reading a story each month as they are broken down into.
Crow Manor (January): Great start. Just two things. Too many mentions of Gina taking a bath, almost as if she were OCD. And the mention of Mr. Crow’s hobby totally telegraphed what was to come. Great ending, though. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fears of Torture (February): Good short story about hiring a hit man. Just hope the mob doesn’t get any ideas from it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Squish (March): Thump. Squish. Disappearing accident victims. Trashy, TMZ-esque journalism. Could have been a bit better. ⭐️⭐️
Purgatory (April): A bit of a twist, not too bad. A few more pages to flesh out the story would have been nice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Knock in the Night (May): Another you see it coming style ending but a great cabin in the woods story. Perfectly paced for its length. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Closet Monster (June): Typical monster in the closet story but told from the father’s point of view. Some of the wording felt added to pad the word count but it was good. Would have made a nice Tales from the Darkside. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Crow Manor (January): Great start. Just two things. Too many mentions of Gina taking a bath, almost as if she were OCD. And the mention of Mr. Crow’s hobby totally telegraphed what was to come. Great ending, though. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fears of Torture (February): Good short story about hiring a hit man. Just hope the mob doesn’t get any ideas from it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Squish (March): Thump. Squish. Disappearing accident victims. Trashy, TMZ-esque journalism. Could have been a bit better. ⭐️⭐️
Purgatory (April): A bit of a twist, not too bad. A few more pages to flesh out the story would have been nice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Knock in the Night (May): Another you see it coming style ending but a great cabin in the woods story. Perfectly paced for its length. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Closet Monster (June): Typical monster in the closet story but told from the father’s point of view. Some of the wording felt added to pad the word count but it was good. Would have made a nice Tales from the Darkside. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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