A review by michellekiara
Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror by R.L. Stine

Shoutout to my friend Gwen for recommending this book and buddy reading it with me! As someone who loved scouring for creepypastas online as a teenager and is now a Junji Ito fan, I love a good collection of short horror stories. I’ve been searching for something to recapture the feeling of The Creepover series I adored as a kid, and this book absolutely scratched that itch.

One thing to note though, I’m not used to reading horror for kids, so I kept expecting things to take a much darker turn. Every time a story pulled back right before going full nightmare fuel, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Not because the book did anything wrong, but because my horror expectations have been shaped by much more unsettling, no-holds-barred storytelling. It was an interesting experience, constantly adjusting my mindset and reminding myself that these stories weren’t meant to go that dark.

As Gwen said, “You win some, you lose some”, so here is my ranking of my favorite to least favorite stories:

The Black Mask (4.5 ⭐️)

I’m Not Martin (4.25 ⭐️)

Alien Candy (4 ⭐️)

Make Me a Witch (3.25 ⭐️)

Pumpkinhead (3 ⭐️)

The Dead Body (3 ⭐️)

The Nightmare Inn (2.5 ⭐️)

The Most Evil Sorcerer (2 ⭐️)

The Ghostly Stare (1.75 ⭐️)

Afraid of Clowns (1.5 ⭐️)