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A review by storysteph
Scream and Scream Again!: Spooky Stories from Mystery Writers of America by Chris Grabenstein, R.L. Stine, Bruce Hale
4.0
To begin, let me confess: I read this ONLY because of the title, which is also the title of a 1970 horror film starting Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. I am, above and beyond just about anything else, a devotee of 1) horror movies, 2) cult films, and 3) Vincent Price (and also Christopher Lee, but only horror-era. I mean, his post-horror filmography is fantastic in its own right, I'm just salty about how he renounced his horror stuff later on. Anyway), so this title *immediately* grabbed me. I have absolutely no doubt that R. L. Stine intended the homage, so that lands it at an instant 3-stars. I see you.
Stine explains in the forward that each story begins and ends with a scream, and sure enough, it's like crossing a jungle full of your standard (and often weird) horror fare on scream-vines, like a thrill-seeking Tarzan except reading. That's a neat trick...until it isn't. To their credit, the authors made it work, and I did enjoy all the twists and turns and verbal jump-scares from start to finish. It just kinda went from scream to groan over the course of the book, and that was kind of a let-down. Thumbs-up for sticking to the schtick, but dang.
HOWEVER! I'm a jaded old woman. Middle-school Steph would've eaten this UP and asked for seconds, and that's what matters here.
Stine explains in the forward that each story begins and ends with a scream, and sure enough, it's like crossing a jungle full of your standard (and often weird) horror fare on scream-vines, like a thrill-seeking Tarzan except reading. That's a neat trick...until it isn't. To their credit, the authors made it work, and I did enjoy all the twists and turns and verbal jump-scares from start to finish. It just kinda went from scream to groan over the course of the book, and that was kind of a let-down. Thumbs-up for sticking to the schtick, but dang.
HOWEVER! I'm a jaded old woman. Middle-school Steph would've eaten this UP and asked for seconds, and that's what matters here.