Scan barcode
A review by rjdenney
Don't Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by R.L. Stine, Jonathan Maberry
3.0
3 STARS!!!
I’ve had a big issue for the past couple of years with Middle-Grade horror being too light and even though I think this is classified as YA because of mentions the use of curse words and alcohol, these felt like they were purposefully written for children but watered down EVEN more, which I hate. If you’re going to write any type of horror, whether it’s MG, YA, or Adult, if you’re aim isn’t to scare the crap out of someone, what’s the freaking point?
I understand these were written as a tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but Scary Stories… was pretty damn gruesome, the illustrations were twisted and gory, and a lot of the stories were pretty scary. I’d say out of the 35, a good 10 were actually spooky and none managed to SCARE me (my 10 yr old cousin listened to the audio with me and said none scared her at all).
I know I might seem like I’m being a little hard on this collection but like I said, if you’re going to write horror, your aim better be to scare someone, especially kids because the ones that LOVE horror, want to be scared. I’ve written 2 MG horror novels, with a third one on the way, and so in this instance I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, if you’re looking for Soft Horror, this is perfect for you. If you’re looking to be scared, read the original Scary Stories Treasury. Also what the hell was R.L. Stine's story??? I was legit sitting there like wtf is this LOL
***Stand out stories for me:
The Tall Ones
The Garage
Tag, You're It
The Neighbor
The Bottle Tree
Whistle by the Graveyard
The Weeping Woman
The Knock-Knock Man
***update*** I just checked and this supposedly is marketed as YA & MG, but I still stand by what I said. I said what I said. lol
– R.
I’ve had a big issue for the past couple of years with Middle-Grade horror being too light and even though I think this is classified as YA because of mentions the use of curse words and alcohol, these felt like they were purposefully written for children but watered down EVEN more, which I hate. If you’re going to write any type of horror, whether it’s MG, YA, or Adult, if you’re aim isn’t to scare the crap out of someone, what’s the freaking point?
I understand these were written as a tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but Scary Stories… was pretty damn gruesome, the illustrations were twisted and gory, and a lot of the stories were pretty scary. I’d say out of the 35, a good 10 were actually spooky and none managed to SCARE me (my 10 yr old cousin listened to the audio with me and said none scared her at all).
I know I might seem like I’m being a little hard on this collection but like I said, if you’re going to write horror, your aim better be to scare someone, especially kids because the ones that LOVE horror, want to be scared. I’ve written 2 MG horror novels, with a third one on the way, and so in this instance I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, if you’re looking for Soft Horror, this is perfect for you. If you’re looking to be scared, read the original Scary Stories Treasury. Also what the hell was R.L. Stine's story??? I was legit sitting there like wtf is this LOL
***Stand out stories for me:
The Tall Ones
The Garage
Tag, You're It
The Neighbor
The Bottle Tree
Whistle by the Graveyard
The Weeping Woman
The Knock-Knock Man
***update*** I just checked and this supposedly is marketed as YA & MG, but I still stand by what I said. I said what I said. lol
– R.