Scan barcode
deearr's review
4.0
On the first day of a college class for creative writing I was in a conversation with other students. One turned to me and asked, “What sort of things do you write about?” I gave a quick answer that included words like “science fiction” and fantasy.” She peered over her nose at me and gave me her short verdict: “Oh, a genre writer” before dismissively turning away.
Reading “The Shadow Booth” reminded me of that moment. The actual writing here is full and rich, and the individuals who submitted their short stories have a definite command of the English language. What I was looking for, based upon the cover and the short story intro was something that would ooze with terror, that would be scary and possibly cause me (when reading into the dead of night) to turn on a few more lights.
Unfortunately, that never happened. For me, the book was an esoteric trip, a vision of what happens when the literary world meets horror fiction head-on. What fears I began to feel on rare occasions were like sparks in a campfire, stubbornly refusing to light the shavings and become something bigger and more powerful. Thus, I traveled from story to story, continuing to hope that the next story would award me with what I wished.
Most difficult was to finish the book and now write a review and determine the number of stars. The book is not terrible, I simply did not enjoy it. For that, I would choose three stars. However, as I stated before, the authors are extremely talented, and what I expect from this book may be different than others and so I bump the stars to four. Bottom line: Good writing absent of the horror I thought I would find.
Reading “The Shadow Booth” reminded me of that moment. The actual writing here is full and rich, and the individuals who submitted their short stories have a definite command of the English language. What I was looking for, based upon the cover and the short story intro was something that would ooze with terror, that would be scary and possibly cause me (when reading into the dead of night) to turn on a few more lights.
Unfortunately, that never happened. For me, the book was an esoteric trip, a vision of what happens when the literary world meets horror fiction head-on. What fears I began to feel on rare occasions were like sparks in a campfire, stubbornly refusing to light the shavings and become something bigger and more powerful. Thus, I traveled from story to story, continuing to hope that the next story would award me with what I wished.
Most difficult was to finish the book and now write a review and determine the number of stars. The book is not terrible, I simply did not enjoy it. For that, I would choose three stars. However, as I stated before, the authors are extremely talented, and what I expect from this book may be different than others and so I bump the stars to four. Bottom line: Good writing absent of the horror I thought I would find.
More...