auntsarah's review
Not in the mood for short stories, I would come back to this in the future though
agirlsnightbookbash's review
4.0
Wonderful collection of classic poems and stories from Edgar Allan Poe paired with reimaginations of those stories. With the exception of "The Raven" and "The Cask of Amontillado," I had never read any Poe before. I cannot claim to be a huge fan so maybe this isn't a book for the die-hard Poe fan. I cannot make that assessment.
I can say that of the 13 redo's none of them were bad. My favorites of the retellings were Lamar Giles variation of "The Oval Portrait" and Stephanie Keuhn's version of "The Tell-Tale Heart." I adore Amanda Lovelace but the "Raven" retelling was a bit lacking. All in all it was a good set of stories though.
I can say that of the 13 redo's none of them were bad. My favorites of the retellings were Lamar Giles variation of "The Oval Portrait" and Stephanie Keuhn's version of "The Tell-Tale Heart." I adore Amanda Lovelace but the "Raven" retelling was a bit lacking. All in all it was a good set of stories though.
braynard's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
One major thing to note is that these are specifically Young Adult retellings. All of the authors featured are Young Adult authors and they are written in a Young Adult style. There is a lot focus on relationships, diverse characters, and teenaged characters. None of this is necessarily bad (in fact, I think retelling old literature from a diverse perspective can add a whole new element to a wonderful story). But you can tell it’s written with teenagers in mind, and that means the quality can fluctuate a lot.
Honestly, I think the best stories are the ones that stick closest to Poe’s original styles. The one’s that are murky and eerie, with unclear details and the feeling that the narrator cannot be trusted. These often stick to the heart of what makes Poe so great—it’s about the emotions, the turmoil of the characters, and not why the creepy thing is happening. Among the best ones are “It’s Carnival!” (a retelling of “The Cask of Amontillado”), “Night-Tide” (a retelling of “Annabel Lee”), and “Lygia” (a retelling of “Ligeia”). They all have the vibe of a classic Poe story while making their own mark.
Vice versa, the weaker stories are ones that try too hard to explain how the strange thing is occurring. For example, “The Glittering Death” is a rewrite of “The Pit and Pendulum”. One of the great aspects of Poe’s story is how insane the tortures are, how impossible they would be for humans to replicate. Yes, he makes the Inquisition the perpetrators, but they are treated more as a vague, inhuman force than a real enemy. The mythic impossible quality of the punishment is part of what makes the story so intense. In “The Glittering Death”, however, the perpetrator is a serial killer who kidnaps a girl, locks her in a cage, and tortures her while spouting religious sayings. Its more Criminal Minds than Edgar Allan Poe. The torture is awful, but does not have that same impossible, inescapable quality that the original had. It completely removes the vague supernatural elements.
Other stories go the exact opposite direction. Rather than remove the surreal details, they go full fantasy/sci-fi to explain them. “The Fall of the Bank of Usher” (guess which story this is retelling) takes the sickly Usher siblings and makes them…futuristic cyber thieves working to take down an AI fungus? “A Drop of Stolen Ink” and “The Murders in the Rue Apartelle, Boracay” both take a Dupin mystery and turn into a sci-fi/fantasy adventure. Which is completely unnecessary since the Dupin mysteries are some of the only Poe stories which are 100% set in reality.
Which does not mean that the fully modernized stories are all bad. “The Oval Filter” takes the enchanting portrait from the original story and turns into the social media profile of a murdered girl. And rather than just being a story about a young dying because of her husband’s obsession, it is about her murder being avenged. Now, it could arguably fall into the stereotype of a woman being ‘fridged’ (horrifically murdered to advance a man’s plot line), but it still did something interesting with the original idea. Rather than remove the surreal aspects or completely change an established plot, the author took a vague idea Poe wrote about and expanded it to work in a modern story. And, notably, it never tried to explain how the dead girl’s social media kept working.
It’s not a bad collection. It was trying something new for a new audience, and I appreciate that they put the original stories in the back so readers can compare the retellings. That said, I’m not keeping it. I feel no need to reread it and I don’t think I’ll be recommending it all that often. If you like Poe, you could read it, but don’t expect perfection.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/10
j3mm4's review
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Some of these read more generically YA than others; the focus on adapting into and taking inspiration for stories which focus on the perspectives of lesbians and people of color does genuinely go super hard and make for very engaging and artfully crafted stories; the inclusion of the inspiring works in the back is solid, but I think inserting them in closer proximity to the stories they inspired would make for a better entrée into Poe's work for the uninitiated. All in all, definitely a worthwhile read!
bookishbay's review
3.0
She Rode a Horse of Fire- 4/5
It's Carnival- 3/5
Night Tide- 5/5
The Glittering Death- 4/5
Happy Days Sweetheart- 5/5
The Raven Remix- 1/5
Changeling- 3/5
The Oval Filter- 1.5/5
Red- 2/5
Lygia- 4.5/5
The Fall of the Bank of Usher- DNF
The Murders in the Rue Apartelle, Boracay- DNF
(2.76 Avg)
It's Carnival- 3/5
Night Tide- 5/5
The Glittering Death- 4/5
Happy Days Sweetheart- 5/5
The Raven Remix- 1/5
Changeling- 3/5
The Oval Filter- 1.5/5
Red- 2/5
Lygia- 4.5/5
The Fall of the Bank of Usher- DNF
The Murders in the Rue Apartelle, Boracay- DNF
(2.76 Avg)
taramoon06's review
1.0
this didnt keep me roped in like i'd hoped...i lost interest pretty quickly and ended up dnf. may be not my kind of book, so take it with a grain of salt.
sagittariusreads_'s review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0