raven168's review against another edition
3.0
I feel bad being the first one to give this collection less than four stars. It wasn't bad, but I can't say that I really liked it. I liked it, but not that much. I won this book thru a contest on here and it really wasn't what I was expecting. I think I was hoping for stories that were darker (like evil dark maybe) not just ones about zombies, plagues, monsters, dragons and such. There were a few of the stories that I did enjoy, like the first one and a couple of the end ones. But so many of them were either ridiculously predictable or simply boring to me. And often times there were so many things that weren't explained or elaborated enough that would have made the stories make more sense if nothing else. Which I know was probably because they were short stories and just not long enough though. My favorites were "Debt Collector" and "Dawg Days". I kind of liked "A Love, Darkly" but hated how it ended. A 'happy' ending in a darkling book? Really? I had been looking forward to the poems but was surprised at how few there were. There was only three of them I think, and none of them were all that great to me. But to be fair, I'm a rhyme type of person and don't know anything about poetry, so they could really have been great and I just don't know it. All in all it was an interesting collection but I guess it just wasn't for me.
booknerd44's review
2.0
It's always a mixed bag when you have an anthology of stories. There were some fantastic ones in this volume, and some I didn't care for. I enjoyed the poetry scattered throughout.
librarianelizabeth's review
3.0
If you like horror, you need to read this.
I’m impressed by how many different styles of writing and kinds of horror were represented in this anthology. And possibly how many times reading startled me and made me make rather high pitched noises of alarm, fright, all-out disgust. Demons, vampires, nasty psychological twists. Even, and this took me by surprise, a few nicely dark poems.
My favorite kind of scary story is the subtly chilly kind- I prefer psychological scares and ghost stories to gruesome tales. Stories that I found satisfyingly creepy included “Debt Collectors,” by Gregory K. Shipman; “Double Vision” by Anisa A. Claire. I also really liked the shadowy atmosphere of the poem, “Requiem,” by Theresa Briscoe Tschetter. “Queen of the Night,” by Kelleigh Elizabeth Perry was both funny and spooky, which works for me. The detailed level of description in “Lily of the Valley” by Shaun Alexander made it almost too scary for me. But just this side of almost.
Read the complete review on my blog
I’m impressed by how many different styles of writing and kinds of horror were represented in this anthology. And possibly how many times reading startled me and made me make rather high pitched noises of alarm, fright, all-out disgust. Demons, vampires, nasty psychological twists. Even, and this took me by surprise, a few nicely dark poems.
My favorite kind of scary story is the subtly chilly kind- I prefer psychological scares and ghost stories to gruesome tales. Stories that I found satisfyingly creepy included “Debt Collectors,” by Gregory K. Shipman; “Double Vision” by Anisa A. Claire. I also really liked the shadowy atmosphere of the poem, “Requiem,” by Theresa Briscoe Tschetter. “Queen of the Night,” by Kelleigh Elizabeth Perry was both funny and spooky, which works for me. The detailed level of description in “Lily of the Valley” by Shaun Alexander made it almost too scary for me. But just this side of almost.
Read the complete review on my blog
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