A review by missbookiverse
Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury by Sam Weller, Mort Castle

2.0

I love Ray Bradbury, especially his short stories, so I thought this collection of stories written in celebration of his work would be absolutely perfect. Turns out that most of the tales in here, despite including beloved names like Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, neither conveyed the typical atmosphere a Bradbury story creates nor had the heart Bradbury includes in his stories and that make them feel less bleak and more comforting. Most of the stories are bland or depressing. For some the author's note after each story is the most interesting thing to read and I kept wondering whether an essay collection about Bradbury's influence on writers wouldn't have made a better book. The two stories I would recommend from in here are By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain by Joe Hill (which writes back to one of my favorite Bradbury stories, The Fog Horn) and Two Houses by Kelly Link (which is an early draft of the later version published in [b:Get in Trouble|22125258|Get in Trouble|Kelly Link|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400856552l/22125258._SX50_.jpg|41463275]), they get it right. Overall, I also think this collection is too big and many stories would've profited from stricter editing (including the author's note that spanned from half a page to more than three).