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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
The title is apt. I never used to read as a teenager and somehow I ended up reading this. The stories were more disturbing than scary, and who's got time for disturbing stories as a teen? The 'sunbathing' story still freaks me out to this day!
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I loaned this book from the library expecting horror-themed short stories, and what I got was indeed horrible, but in the badly written, blatantly prejudiced way rather than pleasantly spooky.
The most egregious sin of this novel is the prevalent, disgusting racism which is bad even for the book’s 2008 release.
“Harriet’s Horrible Dream” is about a rich young white girl being sold by her bankrupt parents to a shady restaurant owner, where she assumes she will be put to work. It turns out however that she has been sold as meat to a restaurant for cannibals, in a very uninspired twist. Upon arrival she is turned over to the head chef, who is an Asian man (suggested to be Japanese) who is described as having “pale orange skin and slanting eyes” and “a strong oriental accent”, which the author then tops off later by using the J-slur.
The villains of ‘A Career in Computer Games’ are a Japanese couple (what does Horowitz have against Japanese people??!) who described as very unpleasant looking with strange accents, and who manipulate the main character into having his soul transferred into an arcade game or something. Just another story where people of colour exploit and manipulate a white child I guess.
‘The Monkey’s Ear’ is about another white family who visit a market in Morocco where the son buys a cursed monkey’s ear that grants wishes from a money-hungry sales person, who is a conglomeration of racist stereotypes. Later in the story a mysterious Japanese man appears with sushi, and the man himself is openly hated by the white family, who then proceed to describe the sushi as “disgusting” and feed it to their cat.
The racism is amplified further by the fact the audiobook’s narrator felt the need to affect extremely stereotypical, awful “Asian” accents one would expect in a horrible shock comedy show from the 90s.
There’s also a lot of casual fatphobia in this book as well, where being fat is used as a very common indicator of somebody being unpleasant. The main character of ‘Bath Night’ speaks badly about her best friend who is overweight, and says how she herself used to be fat when she was 9 but now is “getting in shape” and dieting at the age of 12. I don’t think I need to explain how harmful it is to perpetuate the idea that young children, girls in particular, should be concerned with their weight, let alone be engaging with toxic diet culture when they are literally still growing and developing.
These are just the most glaring issues that stood out to me, not even touching on how juvenile the writing style was, and the extremely lacklustre, predictable stories that weren’t even a little chilling. The scariest thing about Horowitz Horror is the glaring racism and the fact it somehow made it through the publishing process. I genuinely wish I could un-read this.
The most egregious sin of this novel is the prevalent, disgusting racism which is bad even for the book’s 2008 release.
“Harriet’s Horrible Dream” is about a rich young white girl being sold by her bankrupt parents to a shady restaurant owner, where she assumes she will be put to work. It turns out however that she has been sold as meat to a restaurant for cannibals, in a very uninspired twist. Upon arrival she is turned over to the head chef, who is an Asian man (suggested to be Japanese) who is described as having “pale orange skin and slanting eyes” and “a strong oriental accent”, which the author then tops off later by using the J-slur.
The villains of ‘A Career in Computer Games’ are a Japanese couple (what does Horowitz have against Japanese people??!) who described as very unpleasant looking with strange accents, and who manipulate the main character into having his soul transferred into an arcade game or something. Just another story where people of colour exploit and manipulate a white child I guess.
‘The Monkey’s Ear’ is about another white family who visit a market in Morocco where the son buys a cursed monkey’s ear that grants wishes from a money-hungry sales person, who is a conglomeration of racist stereotypes. Later in the story a mysterious Japanese man appears with sushi, and the man himself is openly hated by the white family, who then proceed to describe the sushi as “disgusting” and feed it to their cat.
The racism is amplified further by the fact the audiobook’s narrator felt the need to affect extremely stereotypical, awful “Asian” accents one would expect in a horrible shock comedy show from the 90s.
There’s also a lot of casual fatphobia in this book as well, where being fat is used as a very common indicator of somebody being unpleasant. The main character of ‘Bath Night’ speaks badly about her best friend who is overweight, and says how she herself used to be fat when she was 9 but now is “getting in shape” and dieting at the age of 12. I don’t think I need to explain how harmful it is to perpetuate the idea that young children, girls in particular, should be concerned with their weight, let alone be engaging with toxic diet culture when they are literally still growing and developing.
These are just the most glaring issues that stood out to me, not even touching on how juvenile the writing style was, and the extremely lacklustre, predictable stories that weren’t even a little chilling. The scariest thing about Horowitz Horror is the glaring racism and the fact it somehow made it through the publishing process. I genuinely wish I could un-read this.
Horowitz Horror is a book filled with short stories designed to make you scared. This book is obviously more suited towards young teens, I only read it because it was recommended to me by a friend, but I did enjoy it. My favourite story was the first one, Bath Night, and it was the only one that managed to scare me. I’m probably going to hate looking in mirrors for a long time now. Every other story was good but I’m likely to forget them soon enough.
1 1/2 stars. Terrible ! The use of so many inappropriate words--fat to constantly describe a girl, porn, retard, Japs--is this really meant for kids??
These short stories were really good! I read this book a few years ago hopefully I remember it well to write up a review.
Bath Night: Very interesting story and creepy.
Killer Camera: The ending of this story was just crazy! I remember being like 'oh noooooo!'
Light Moves: Not my fave story but still a good story.
The Night Bus: This story was okay.
Harriet's Horrible Dream: This story was a shocker and truly frightening.
Scared: This story was slow, but a good and haunting kind which led to a horrifying end.
A Career in Computer Games: I was really into this story, it was action packed but it was creepy.
The Man With the Yellow Face: For me this has to be the scariest story because my mind just pictured it so well and vividly.
The Monkey's Ear: This was a funny take on the original story of the monkey's paw, I believe. I forgot the author's name of the original story. The ending to this story was so effed up.
So, my fave stories were Killer Camera, Harriet's Horrible Dream, A Career in Computer Games, The Man With the Yellow Face and The Monkey's Ear.
Bath Night: Very interesting story and creepy.
Killer Camera: The ending of this story was just crazy! I remember being like 'oh noooooo!'
Light Moves: Not my fave story but still a good story.
The Night Bus: This story was okay.
Harriet's Horrible Dream: This story was a shocker and truly frightening.
Scared: This story was slow, but a good and haunting kind which led to a horrifying end.
A Career in Computer Games: I was really into this story, it was action packed but it was creepy.
The Man With the Yellow Face: For me this has to be the scariest story because my mind just pictured it so well and vividly.
The Monkey's Ear: This was a funny take on the original story of the monkey's paw, I believe. I forgot the author's name of the original story. The ending to this story was so effed up.
So, my fave stories were Killer Camera, Harriet's Horrible Dream, A Career in Computer Games, The Man With the Yellow Face and The Monkey's Ear.