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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
OH MY GOODNESS!!!! This book was definitely one, if not my utmost favorite book of the year.
This book is told in thirteen stories from different character's point of views all throughout the book along with bits of mysterious narration in between. It the perfect suspenseful fall read that makes you want to drink tea and cuddle up under a blanket. I loved all the characters as they were unique and fantabulous and perfect. This book was so lovely and I recommend it to everyone. The last story was my fave and all the mini stories in between were told in so many different and striking voices that I just couldn't take the thrill of pleasure my writer's mind was getting from reading! Everyone should definitely add this to their TBR right now!!
This book is told in thirteen stories from different character's point of views all throughout the book along with bits of mysterious narration in between. It the perfect suspenseful fall read that makes you want to drink tea and cuddle up under a blanket. I loved all the characters as they were unique and fantabulous and perfect. This book was so lovely and I recommend it to everyone. The last story was my fave and all the mini stories in between were told in so many different and striking voices that I just couldn't take the thrill of pleasure my writer's mind was getting from reading! Everyone should definitely add this to their TBR right now!!
I had trouble, initially, getting into this book. I don’t know if I was just a bit too distracted or what. However, once I actually got through the first story, I was officially hooked, and just read it straight through.
I liked how all the stories had their own flavor / were truly told in the ‘voice’ of the person presenting them. My favorite was probably the Woodsman one, simply because trying to read it out loud made me laugh. There are nods to classic horror stories in some of the tales, but also some refreshingly modern ones. A particularly creepy one, to me, was “Unputdownable”. It tells the tale of a book that truly hooks. While none of the stories are particularly unique, they’re well-written and easy to read.
Thirteen Chairs is definitely a solid collection of ghost stories, which kind of surprises me because it’s aimed at 12-17 year olds. I like how it was all tied together via just a few pages in between each story. Shelton does a good job of building the tension in the young boy. The ending, which is a little bit of a surprise even though it really shouldn’t have been, was interesting and disconcerting. Plus, the idea of a bunch of ghosts getting together to try to scare each other is just a fun, unique idea.
Overall, Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton didn’t quite live up to my expectations (I think I was thinking it’d be a bit more adult than it was), but it was a good read nevertheless. The stories are definitely appropriate for the intended age range, and perhaps even a bit younger (depending upon the maturity level of the child.) Obviously, its one adults can enjoy, too, if they keep in mind that it is aimed at a younger audience. After all, a good ghost story never gets old.
I liked how all the stories had their own flavor / were truly told in the ‘voice’ of the person presenting them. My favorite was probably the Woodsman one, simply because trying to read it out loud made me laugh. There are nods to classic horror stories in some of the tales, but also some refreshingly modern ones. A particularly creepy one, to me, was “Unputdownable”. It tells the tale of a book that truly hooks. While none of the stories are particularly unique, they’re well-written and easy to read.
Thirteen Chairs is definitely a solid collection of ghost stories, which kind of surprises me because it’s aimed at 12-17 year olds. I like how it was all tied together via just a few pages in between each story. Shelton does a good job of building the tension in the young boy. The ending, which is a little bit of a surprise even though it really shouldn’t have been, was interesting and disconcerting. Plus, the idea of a bunch of ghosts getting together to try to scare each other is just a fun, unique idea.
Overall, Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton didn’t quite live up to my expectations (I think I was thinking it’d be a bit more adult than it was), but it was a good read nevertheless. The stories are definitely appropriate for the intended age range, and perhaps even a bit younger (depending upon the maturity level of the child.) Obviously, its one adults can enjoy, too, if they keep in mind that it is aimed at a younger audience. After all, a good ghost story never gets old.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!! This book was definitely one, if not my utmost favorite book of the year.
This book is told in thirteen stories from different character's point of views all throughout the book along with bits of mysterious narration in between. It the perfect suspenseful fall read that makes you want to drink tea and cuddle up under a blanket. I loved all the characters as they were unique and fantabulous and perfect. This book was so lovely and I recommend it to everyone. The last story was my fave and all the mini stories in between were told in so many different and striking voices that I just couldn't take the thrill of pleasure my writer's mind was getting from reading! Everyone should definitely add this to their TBR right now!!
This book is told in thirteen stories from different character's point of views all throughout the book along with bits of mysterious narration in between. It the perfect suspenseful fall read that makes you want to drink tea and cuddle up under a blanket. I loved all the characters as they were unique and fantabulous and perfect. This book was so lovely and I recommend it to everyone. The last story was my fave and all the mini stories in between were told in so many different and striking voices that I just couldn't take the thrill of pleasure my writer's mind was getting from reading! Everyone should definitely add this to their TBR right now!!
10/20. The stories themselves in this book weren't especially creative, or especially scary. The plot of almost all of them was cliche, urban legend fodder, and the endings were exactly what you might expect them to be. However, as I got further in the book, the stories got better. They were still mediocre at best in terms of plot, concept, and resolution, but I found that the voice of each character was captured well. The stories really felt like they were told by different people, which I appreciated. Also, quite a few of them did unsettle me, not due to their content, but the way they were told. The voices of the narrators, and specific details used, made the reading experience of some stories pretty uneasy for me. The sailor story was by far the best story. Unique. Interesting. Touching. Somewhat implausible but we're willing to forgive that.
I would give this book a better rating if the frame itself had wrapped up in a more satisfactory manner. The explanation for the gathering was weak, and the final story added nothing.
I would give this book a better rating if the frame itself had wrapped up in a more satisfactory manner. The explanation for the gathering was weak, and the final story added nothing.
A collection of thirteen ghost stories masquerading as a novel, Thirteen Chairs isn’t a very scary book. This might be because it’s aimed at a slightly young audience, or it might be because I’m not easily frightened, but it disappointed me a little bit. The premise is very good – a young boy explores a house which is rumoured to be haunted, discovering a room containing thirteen chairs filled by twelve people, each of whom tell a spooky story – but the quality of the stories fluctuates wildly.
The first few short stories are bland. Let Me Sleep is painfully average, Oswald has hardly any atmosphere and The Wrong Side of the Road is predictable, although there’s a good moral to that tale. However, things pick up in the middle of the collection: The Red Tree has an extremely strong narrative voice, Tick, Tick, Tick… is a tad too open-ended but is a less traditional ghost story, while Beneath the Surface is a painfully honest exploration of loss from the perspective of a young child.
A couple of the stories are awfully farfetched – namely The Patchwork Sailor and Razor – but there are a few that deserve to be expanded into full-length novels (The Girl in the Red Coat, Unputdownable and Snowstorms, respectively).
However, the plot that weaves throughout is blatantly obvious from the start, and I found myself rolling my eyes at the reveal of the ‘twist’ at the end of the book. Again, a good idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
Thirteen Chairs is an extremely fast read – I read it in a couple of hours, and found myself flying through each of the stories – but it’s not the most satisfactory book of ghostly tales that you’ll ever encounter.
This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Blogger.
The first few short stories are bland. Let Me Sleep is painfully average, Oswald has hardly any atmosphere and The Wrong Side of the Road is predictable, although there’s a good moral to that tale. However, things pick up in the middle of the collection: The Red Tree has an extremely strong narrative voice, Tick, Tick, Tick… is a tad too open-ended but is a less traditional ghost story, while Beneath the Surface is a painfully honest exploration of loss from the perspective of a young child.
A couple of the stories are awfully farfetched – namely The Patchwork Sailor and Razor – but there are a few that deserve to be expanded into full-length novels (The Girl in the Red Coat, Unputdownable and Snowstorms, respectively).
However, the plot that weaves throughout is blatantly obvious from the start, and I found myself rolling my eyes at the reveal of the ‘twist’ at the end of the book. Again, a good idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
Thirteen Chairs is an extremely fast read – I read it in a couple of hours, and found myself flying through each of the stories – but it’s not the most satisfactory book of ghostly tales that you’ll ever encounter.
This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Blogger.