Reviews

Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay

destinydekarios's review against another edition

3.0

i borrowed this book because i was in the mood to be creeped out / a little disturbed. while the horror in this was a little too ambiguous for that, i still finished it because i enjoyed the writing and thought the stories were creative. 3 1/2 stars.

asussexlady's review against another edition

2.0

This book came highly recommended to me, with the introduction of a new author to me. While a few of these short stories left me feeling briefly unsettled (especially as I only read late at night), I can't say I particularly enjoyed this book. Bit disappointed.

my_life_full_of_stories's review against another edition

2.0

So confusing...

tmvallehoag's review against another edition

5.0

These stories are page-turners, endlessly creative and very scary. I couldn’t even read this book at night. These stories linger in your mind after you read them because they have a nasty habit of never being just ghost stories or crime thrillers, but also stories about very real and universal anxieties we spend most of our time avoiding.

Second read: this collection remains a masterpiece. On a personal note, when I first read these books in 2021, they were almost too scary for me to finish. Now, they are absolutely not scary, so I think I’m ready to upgrade to the next level of horror novels.

That being said, these stories remain haunting in their ambiguity and relatability. Every story in this collection is not only pertinent to very real fears, but unsettling in their depth. Every story revealed new details to me this time around. Particularly “nineteen snapshots of Dennisport” and “it is against the law to feed the ducks” hit extra hard this time around.

I look forward to re-reading this collection many more times in the future. Tremblay remains the gold standard of lit-fic/horror authors and I eagerly await everything he writes.

nose_ina_book's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Overall I think I need to physically read the stories. There were many I absolutely loved and a few that just didn’t work for me mainly because I couldn’t do the audio format and the sometimes short periods I listen to audio. 

taylorardoin's review against another edition

2.0

Throughout the reading process of this book, I took short simple notes of my thought process after I would finish a story. I've included those notes below as I believe that would be the best way to review this book.

Overall, there were a few shorts I did really like. Nineteen Snapshots of Dennisport was easily my favorite out of this collection. I soaked that story up and am still thinking about it, to be honest. The Getaway, The Teacher, and the untitled story were all pretty good as well. I may not have understood all of the endings for those stories, but the story itself held my attention and I had a good time reading it. Also, I absolutely loved the concept of A Haunted House is a Wheel Upon Which Some are Broken. But, the story just fell a little flat for me.

I think I would have enjoyed the overall process had I read Paul Tremblay's previous novels (the only one I've read prior was The Cabin at the End of the World - which I absolutely loved.)

- Story #1 - Growing Things: 1 star. Honestly, wasn't even paying attention.
- Story #2 - Swim Wants to Know If It's as Bad as Swim Thinks: 2 stars. Confused, not sure I understood what happened
- Story #3 - Something about Birds: 1 star. Started out interesting. Got lost along the way. don't get the ending
- Story #4 - The Getaway: 3 stars. Loved the premise. But there was no ending to it.
- Story #5 - Nineteen Snapshots of Dennisport: 5 stars. Unexpectedly loved this short story. Had a very unexpected twist that surprised me for sure. Loved everything about this story.
- Story #6 - Where We All Will Be: 1 star. Boring story. Didn't care for this one.
- Story #7 - The Teacher: 3 stars. Interesting story but I felt like there wasn't really an ending for it. Don't understand the point
- Story #8 - Notes for "The Barn in the Wild": 1 star. DNFd this one. I just couldn't get through it.
- Story #9 - Untitled: 4 stars. Weird. Creepy vibes. Enjoyed this story.
- Story #10 - Our Town's Monster: 3 stars. Wasn't bad. Wasn't amazing
- Story #11 - A Haunted House is a Wheel Upon Which Some are Broken: 3 stars. Great concept. Storyline did nothing for me.
- Story #11 - It Won't Go Away: 2 stars. Men.
- Story #12 - Notes from the Dog Walkers: 3 stars. Had higher hopes. Thought it had a good way of telling the story - with the notes from the dog walkers, but it went on a little too long for my taste.
- Story #13 - Further Questions for the Somnambulist: 1 star. so confused. what was the point? Felt like a waste of my time, but maybe I just don't understand.
- Story #14 - The Ice Tower: 1 star. well that did absolutely nothing for me
- Story #15 - The Society of the Monsterhood: 1 star. Nope.
- Story #16 - Her Red Right Hand: 1 star. Cool to see Hellboy. Otherwise, eh.
- Story #17 - It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks: 2 stars. Don't understand the point of this story, but okay. It would have been really cool to tie this one into The Cabin at the End of the World (depending on how you believe that book ended) and have the apocalypse be the same apocalypse in that book. I think I would have liked it better.
- Story #18 - The Thirteenth Temple: 1 star. DNF this story. I think I would have liked this one better if had I actually read A Head Full of Ghosts prior to this story.

I decided to rate this short story collection overall by averaging out all of the star ratings I gave the individual shorts. There were some stories that I thoroughly enjoyed. But, unfortunately, I didn't care for most of the stories, which is why this book is receiving such a low rating of 2 stars from me.

trasom's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

hb_bookworm's review against another edition

4.0

review 2: still not sure how to format reread reviews, but i enjoyed this on rereading, especially after having read another of Tremblay's books. I love his meta creepiness and the way he evokes the horror of being a kid, teen, and adult so well. i again experienced this book in a mishmash of audio and text - i highly recommend all the narrators of the audio, but it sometimes works better in print (especially notes from the dog walkers!).

so I read this book in a complicated way - listened to the first half, paused, read A Head Full of Ghosts, read the middle in the physical book, and then listened to the end again. while this is full of little references to the rest of tremblay's work, you really need to have read at least A Head Full of Ghosts to get some of the stories. I was pleasantly surprised by the choose-your-own-adventure section -- if you're like me and hate the idea that you'll miss anything in this style of story, you can really read this one mostly straight through. while I didn't absolutely love all the stories, I am a big horror short story fan and most of these hit the spot for me. I feel like you'll either love or hate the meta-ness of "notes from the dog walkers," and I was in the "love" camp -- hearing from any version of KB is so much fun! this was a perfect spooky book to read for the beginning of fall and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from tremblay!

littlehauntedlibrary's review

4.0

An all-around good collection.
Personal favorites:
-A Haunted House is a Wheel Upon Which Some Are Broken: maddening choose your own adventure story.
-Notes From the Dog Walkers: so, so uncomfortable
-It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks: ambiguous apocalypse

dishuel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Some stories are better than others but as a collection I enjoyed it.