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shero582's review
5.0
I find this excellenet collection of horror stories really surprised me, it was alot better then i expected scary wise and I would really recomend it to enyone who enjoys horror stories. The lenght of each story was great for my part as i often read on my commute to work of almost always finnished a story right before I got there, as a person who hates to leave off in the middle this was great.
kaylor_guitar's review
4.0
It was a decent horror read. Most of the stories were connected to the forest or at the very least, some form of wilderness. Some were truly nightmarish, but there were a few that were actually quite tame and even a few that didn't make a whole lot of sense.
archergal's review against another edition
3.0
This was a freebie Kindle book. I'm interested in stories that explore how forests and woods can affect us.
Most of these pieces were little vignettes, like stories told over a campfire, rather than complete stories. That means they were good for dipping into whenever you needed to read something undemanding. Most of the horror is on the level of "and she got out and there was a HOOK handing from her door handle!!!!!!11!!1!" variety. But that's not necessarily bad. Some are genuinely creepy.
A good book for filling up bits and bobs of time.
Most of these pieces were little vignettes, like stories told over a campfire, rather than complete stories. That means they were good for dipping into whenever you needed to read something undemanding. Most of the horror is on the level of "and she got out and there was a HOOK handing from her door handle!!!!!!11!!1!" variety. But that's not necessarily bad. Some are genuinely creepy.
A good book for filling up bits and bobs of time.
resut's review against another edition
3.0
I really, really, really wanted to give this book a five-star review, and so I will start by saying one disclaimer. The stories in this book that are good are really, really good. There are many that I will be revisiting time and time again either because the storytelling, imagery, or concepts have stuck with me and gotten under my skin. The stories written by Blair White, Tara A. Devlin, and P. Oxford deserve special mention here. Every single story by all three of these authors was one that I enjoyed whole-heartedly and will be re-reading again.
I also truly love the concept of this book. Forests are a great setting in horror and have been used to great effect in visual works of fiction (such as Twin Peaks or Marble Hornets), so I was very excited to see a selection of stories in such a great setting.
However, I am disappointed to say that about half of the stories in this book are truly bad. Most of these have great concepts and ideas, and maybe even decent storytelling, but grammar that makes them nearly unreadable. There were several that I had trouble finishing for no other reason than that the grammar was too hard to parse. In one story, "Camp Credence", two characters (a teacher and a camp counsellor) start being referred to by each other's names and back. When errors this blatant fill a story it ceases to matter how good the idea is because the reader will inevitably be frustrated to hell and back. I don't think most of these were written by bad writers; I think all of these writers had interesting stories to tell. I do, however, think that some of the authors in this book are inexperienced in writing, make silly mistakes, and deserve to have been given better editing so that their tales could shine to the reader. I understand that this publisher is dedicated to putting works out there by less-experienced storytellers, and I love that project and idea. However, publishing these stories as-is makes these authors look very bad, even if they do have a lot of good ideas, and so the lack of proper editing is unfair for the readers and the authors alike.
That being said, I do recommend reading the good stories in this book. Usually, it's fairly easy to tell which ones are good or bad by the grammar and spelling fairly early on, so if you start encountering consistent errors I recommend skipping the story and moving on to the next one. Like I said, the good stories here are really, really good and deserve to be appreciated. Just make sure you're aware that you're paying for only around half of the works in the book's length.
BEST IN THE BOOK, in my opinion, are:
-Bill Owens III
-World's Oldest Tree
-Crosses in the Field
-Scarecrow
-Rain
-Children of the Forest
-Blizzard Warning
-Police Suspect Foul Play
-The Siren and the Hound
-The Sunset Doorway
-The Devil's Cauldron
-Don't Go Swimming in Long Lake
Weakest in the book, in my opinion, are:
-Faces in the Woods (great concept, good writing, poor execution)
-Tongue's Bondage
-California Dreaming (and let me just note, this story does not take place in the forest at all, makes very little sense, has a fairly sexist portrayal of women [a line about being under 22 making a woman more valuable], and some racist tropes. I don't think this one should have been included at all, and even if you're reading the weaker stories you should still skip this. It's really bad).
-Camp Credence
-Outback Oblivion
-The Elevator in the Woods
Of course, you might agree or disagree with me. I do recommend checking the book out for yourself.
I also truly love the concept of this book. Forests are a great setting in horror and have been used to great effect in visual works of fiction (such as Twin Peaks or Marble Hornets), so I was very excited to see a selection of stories in such a great setting.
However, I am disappointed to say that about half of the stories in this book are truly bad. Most of these have great concepts and ideas, and maybe even decent storytelling, but grammar that makes them nearly unreadable. There were several that I had trouble finishing for no other reason than that the grammar was too hard to parse. In one story, "Camp Credence", two characters (a teacher and a camp counsellor) start being referred to by each other's names and back. When errors this blatant fill a story it ceases to matter how good the idea is because the reader will inevitably be frustrated to hell and back. I don't think most of these were written by bad writers; I think all of these writers had interesting stories to tell. I do, however, think that some of the authors in this book are inexperienced in writing, make silly mistakes, and deserve to have been given better editing so that their tales could shine to the reader. I understand that this publisher is dedicated to putting works out there by less-experienced storytellers, and I love that project and idea. However, publishing these stories as-is makes these authors look very bad, even if they do have a lot of good ideas, and so the lack of proper editing is unfair for the readers and the authors alike.
That being said, I do recommend reading the good stories in this book. Usually, it's fairly easy to tell which ones are good or bad by the grammar and spelling fairly early on, so if you start encountering consistent errors I recommend skipping the story and moving on to the next one. Like I said, the good stories here are really, really good and deserve to be appreciated. Just make sure you're aware that you're paying for only around half of the works in the book's length.
BEST IN THE BOOK, in my opinion, are:
-Bill Owens III
-World's Oldest Tree
-Crosses in the Field
-Scarecrow
-Rain
-Children of the Forest
-Blizzard Warning
-Police Suspect Foul Play
-The Siren and the Hound
-The Sunset Doorway
-The Devil's Cauldron
-Don't Go Swimming in Long Lake
Weakest in the book, in my opinion, are:
-Faces in the Woods (great concept, good writing, poor execution)
-Tongue's Bondage
-California Dreaming (and let me just note, this story does not take place in the forest at all, makes very little sense, has a fairly sexist portrayal of women [a line about being under 22 making a woman more valuable], and some racist tropes. I don't think this one should have been included at all, and even if you're reading the weaker stories you should still skip this. It's really bad).
-Camp Credence
-Outback Oblivion
-The Elevator in the Woods
Of course, you might agree or disagree with me. I do recommend checking the book out for yourself.
biblio_beth's review against another edition
2.0
These stories were more miss than hit. And the book seemed interminable.
catgirl_luna's review
2.0
I received an advanced reader digital copy from the author's website for an honest review
Like with all anthologies there will always be stronger stories and weak stories. I found myself really kind of wondering when I was going to get to the end of the book at one point because a lot of the stories just seemed to drag on even though they were fairly short. The overall theme of the book was stories dealing with the woods or the unknown. The forest, like the ocean, has always held a fascination with what could be hiding between the trees or could be stalking us while we sleep soundly in our tents. Which is and can be a fun topic and idea to explore. In this anthology, however, I felt like it was just dragging on. While each story was unique and had interesting twists and turns, I felt like there were only maybe three to four stories really worth it in this book. There are 44 different stories in this book and I can only recall those three or four that I enjoyed and remembered. It might be that all of them while exploring the same topic of the woods or the unknown, were so varying that it didn't hold my attention or kept me as interested as I could have been. Some stories too were a little unnecessarily gory. While I am perfectly fine with gore in my horror both visual and read when it just goes on and on describing every little detail it loses me. While I love exploring new authors this way, this one was a little bit of a miss for me.
2.5 Stars
Like with all anthologies there will always be stronger stories and weak stories. I found myself really kind of wondering when I was going to get to the end of the book at one point because a lot of the stories just seemed to drag on even though they were fairly short. The overall theme of the book was stories dealing with the woods or the unknown. The forest, like the ocean, has always held a fascination with what could be hiding between the trees or could be stalking us while we sleep soundly in our tents. Which is and can be a fun topic and idea to explore. In this anthology, however, I felt like it was just dragging on. While each story was unique and had interesting twists and turns, I felt like there were only maybe three to four stories really worth it in this book. There are 44 different stories in this book and I can only recall those three or four that I enjoyed and remembered. It might be that all of them while exploring the same topic of the woods or the unknown, were so varying that it didn't hold my attention or kept me as interested as I could have been. Some stories too were a little unnecessarily gory. While I am perfectly fine with gore in my horror both visual and read when it just goes on and on describing every little detail it loses me. While I love exploring new authors this way, this one was a little bit of a miss for me.
2.5 Stars
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