catladylover94's review against another edition
2.0
rather boring gothic stuff, was more dull then, good, i know most of the authors and their books are much better, they should have stuck to books,
theknepper's review against another edition
3.0
I tend to read Edgar Allan Poe every year around Halloween. This year I decided to pull this book off the shelf and give it a go. It was something a little different but still in the same vein of my annual custom. I didn't realize until I read the introduction that this collection is geared towards teen readers. That was fine by me, because I definitely belong to that group of the faint of heart.
Ten authors pay obeisance to the Gothic style in this set of original short stories. The book is a quick, easy read and a nice curation of eerie tales. Some are traditionally dark, some are humourous, and some are just plain bizarre. I mostly enjoyed all of them, but a few in particular were standouts for me:
"Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" by Neil Gaiman
"The Dead and the Moonstruck" by Caitlín R. Kiernan
"The Prank" by Gregory Maguire
"Writing On the Wall" by Celia Rees
"Endings" by Garth Nix
Ten authors pay obeisance to the Gothic style in this set of original short stories. The book is a quick, easy read and a nice curation of eerie tales. Some are traditionally dark, some are humourous, and some are just plain bizarre. I mostly enjoyed all of them, but a few in particular were standouts for me:
"Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" by Neil Gaiman
"The Dead and the Moonstruck" by Caitlín R. Kiernan
"The Prank" by Gregory Maguire
"Writing On the Wall" by Celia Rees
"Endings" by Garth Nix
victor90's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't know when I picked it up at a used bookstore that it wasn't meant to scare an adult; it didn't. But the stories were well-written and I liked them even when they reminded me of Goosebumps. Some had enough structure to seem to fit in a larger world/story.
The best story by far in my opinion was the "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" by Neil Gaiman. I knew it would be when I read the author's name and I saved the best story for last. Without spoilers I would say it's funny as well as Gothic. Very Neil Gaiman.
Endings by Garth Nix was also very good. For being the shortest story it seemed to be the most meaningful.
The best story by far in my opinion was the "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" by Neil Gaiman. I knew it would be when I read the author's name and I saved the best story for last. Without spoilers I would say it's funny as well as Gothic. Very Neil Gaiman.
Endings by Garth Nix was also very good. For being the shortest story it seemed to be the most meaningful.
casey887's review against another edition
3.0
I love scary stories and this is a great collection of them. I was actually really disappointed with Neil Gaiman's entry though considering I love reading his stuff but the story he added to this book was my least favorite of all in this book. The stories I enjoyed the most were the ones by Vivian Vande Velde, Janni Lee Simner and Celia Rees.
ladygeekface's review against another edition
2.0
None of the stories were frightening, but I did enjoy a couple of them.
tricapra's review against another edition
3.0
Very few standouts and more than a few duds. I wish the editor had made different decisions as to arrangement, and had put the individual author blurbs with the stories instead of bunched all at the end, that really bothered me throughout. Also, I hated that my favorite story in this is by Garth Nix? I've been putting off reading the Abhorsen series forever.
williamsdebbied's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of creepy stories. I enjoyed the whole collection, but several stories stood out for me.
“Morgan Roehmar’s Boys” by Vivian Vande Velde was genuinely scary.
“Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire” by Neil Gaiman has a story-within-a-story thing going on and the ending made me laugh out loud.
“Stone Tower” by Janni Lee Simner was such an interesting take on Rapunzel. My favorite from the collection.
“Writing on the Wall” by Celia Rees was another pretty scary one, with the added bonus of some excellent girl power.
“Endings” by Garth Nix worked on multiple levels, both on its own and as the final tale in the collection. I loved the way it played with reader assumptions.
“Morgan Roehmar’s Boys” by Vivian Vande Velde was genuinely scary.
“Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire” by Neil Gaiman has a story-within-a-story thing going on and the ending made me laugh out loud.
“Stone Tower” by Janni Lee Simner was such an interesting take on Rapunzel. My favorite from the collection.
“Writing on the Wall” by Celia Rees was another pretty scary one, with the added bonus of some excellent girl power.
“Endings” by Garth Nix worked on multiple levels, both on its own and as the final tale in the collection. I loved the way it played with reader assumptions.
milla_k's review against another edition
3.0
I read this one mostly for the Neil Gaiman story in it, and while that story was fairly clever, it didn't make up for the stereotypical gothic stories in this collection. I know, I know, the book is called Gothic, but one can hope that it would have at least had the decency to re-invent the genre even a little bit.