Reviews

His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe's Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined by Dahlia Adler

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haley_j_casey's review against another edition

3.0

There's A LOT to love about this queer YA anthology of Edgar Allan Poe retellings, and extra fun that the original stories are at the back of the book!

Overall, this wasn't my favorite book ever, just because there are always going to be stories I like less than others. However, the ones that were good were great.

emilyyyytug's review against another edition

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3.5

Poe stories get 5 stars, some of the rewrites also get 5, but others get 1s.

It was unfortunately a mixed bag on how good the rewritten stories would be.

marvelruinedmyspirit's review against another edition

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2.5

She Rode a Horse of Fire by Kendare Blake - 4/5
It’s Carnival! by Tiffany D. Jackson - 2.5/5
Night-Tide by Tessa Gratton - 3 /5
The Glittering Death by Caleb Roehrig - 3.5 /5
A Drop of Stolen Ink by Emily Lloyd-Jones - 4 /5
Happy Days, Sweetheart by Stephanie Kuehn - 5 /5
The Raven (Remix) by amanda lovelace - 1 /5
Changeling by Marieke Nijkamp - 2.5 /5
The Oval Filter by Lamar Giles - 2 /5
Red by Hillary Monahan - 1.5 /5
Lygia by Dahlia Adler - 4 /5
The Fall of the Bank of Usher by Fran Wilde - 1 /5
The Murders in the Rue by Apartelle, Boracay by Rin Chupeco - 1 /5

2.69/5

alliepeduto's review against another edition

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4.0

Who doesn’t love some Edgar Allen Poe as the nights get longer? I enjoyed these retellings and I’m spacing it out to savor the stories.

Sept 13 to Oct 4 2020
Metzengerstein
The Cask of Amontillado
Annabel Lee
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Raven

Oct 28 to Oct 29 2020
The Tell Tale Heart
The Purloined Letter

Aug 22 2021
The Oval Portrait

Jan 17 2022
Hop-Frog

Nov 1 2022
The Fall of the House of Usher

pn_hinton's review against another edition

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5.0

This is yet another one that I knew about months in advance and waited patiently for it to come out. YA and Poe? Sounds like a recipe for greatness and this book did not disappoint. Honestly, I ended up liking twelve out of the thirteen retellings. The only one I didn’t enjoy was the retelling of ‘The Raven’ and a lot of that has to do with just not being a fan of amanda lovelace’s poetry style at all. That is arguably one of Poe’s better-known poems and I feel more could have been done with retelling it. But I digress.

What really sold this for me is that you could see the nods to Poe in every single retelling; even the ones that I hadn’t ready before, and there were a few, evoked the spirit of Poe and Gothic Horror. And it was interesting to see how the themes from the originals held up in this current time. And none of them, save for ‘The Raven’, were just straight retells. They took the base of the story and put their own spin on them. I started to list the standouts but realized (again save for one) that I found all these retellings were amazing in their own way. I don’t think anyone will be disappointed if they pick this up and read it; if anything, they’d want more.

This is the perfect book to read this time of the year and, as a bonus, the originals are included in the back. I didn’t read those since I wanted to return the book to the library so that the next person in line could enjoy it, but I would recommend reading them after the retellings so you can see how the homages were paid to them. This collection shows that Poe and the stories he told are timeless and will be around for a long, long time.

cupcake_overlord's review against another edition

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3.0

Like all anthologies, there were good and bad stories. Really enjoyed It's Carnival, Happy Days, Sweetheart, The Oval Filter and Red, as far as the retellings went. Of course, all of Poe's works were enjoyable. I did think the other retellings were okay at best, or very unreadable at worst.