A review by carkxy
HORROR STORIES by Tunku Halim
2.0
a couple of years back (maybe 2-3 years ago), i would have rated this as one of my favourite horror books to date. 'horror stories' by tunku halim is a compilation of some of his 'top' short stories, most of which is set in malaysia and revolves around malaysian characters, myths and the language. i've read this book 3 times now, this being my third read and i have to say... i am utterly disappointed.
the first 2 stories started out fine: 'biggest baddest bomoh' and ‘night of the pontianak'. and i was thinking to myself, 'yeah! i knew this book deserved to be one of my favourites,' but as usual, i was wrong. the rest of the book was a horrible drag. excluding 15 other stories that didn't go too well, there are 3-5 stories that are pretty exceptional.
since this is a compilation of short stories with themes and characters that are independent of each other, i figured it wouldn't be too fair to review the book as a whole. so i decided to create a ranking system based on two main characteristics: 1) the story, writing style, characters (mainly focusing on the contents of the story here) and 2) the scare factor. from there, each story gets an overall score out of 10 points and a corresponding grade.
bear in mind, this ranking system was developed spontaneously and is not exactly the most valid/reliable system. apart from that, this is also MY opinion. some stories which I find irksome may turn out to be one of your all-time favourites so my only word of advice to you if you haven't read 'horror stories' yet is: borrow the book first. and only buy the book if you like it lah. can?
here goes my system:
a) contents of the story (0-6)
- 0: lousy, shitty, a disgrace to the horror community that it shouldn't even receive a score! please get this out of the book, sir!
-1: horrible. i would have to say the stories with a score of 1 were pretty much irrelevant. the contents were pretty jumbled up and i don't see much point and purpose of the story being written.
-2: um, i mostly don't know how to feel about this. but I'm bordering on a 'nah' on this one.
-3: there's potential but it's not used. bordering between a below average to a close average/pass.
-4: mediocre. average, but getting there. a score of 4 or more is already considered to be an achievement, in my opinion. i've seen some pretty angry, critical reviews made of his book as a whole which isn't completely wrong but i feel that these stories demonstrate how the author's ability shouldn't be completely undermined.
-5: good! i like it. maybe a few tweaks here and there but otherwise, well done!
-6: one of my favourites. pretty damn good. these are the stories YOU need to read!
b) scare factor (0-4)
*DISCLAIMER*: my rating is pretty simplified in terms of how scary a story can be. i don't like to complicate things either, so i've more or less decided to go for a shorter scale compared to the story content scale.
i have also decided to exclude 'this Page is left intentionally blank' from my review as the author had said in the preface, it was meant to be a light story just placed in there for a change of mood. having to give it a 0 on the scare factor wouldn't be too fair as well, hence another reason for the exclusion.
-0: is this even considered to be horror? sir, you can’t be serious. i mean, this is probably on par with a kid’s show or something.
-1: little to no scare.
-2: slight chills, could have been scary if developed more. nonetheless, the chills are there.
-3: creepy. now this is what I consider as horror!
-4: this is the real deal. chills, goosebumps… i actually had to look behind my back after reading this. although it’s unfortunate that this score is extremely rare as you’ll see later on.
c) grade (just like your exam results)
80-100 A
70-79 B
60-69 C
50-59 D
40-49 E
<40 BLACKLISTED AND BANNED. nope, nope, nope. never reading these stories ever again in my life.
with the explanation of the ranking systems done, we’re good to go.
i hereby present you the final ranking from best to worst.
night of the pontianak 100% 6/6+4/4 (A)
ladiah 95% 6/6+3.5/4 (A)
mr petronas 90% 6/6+3/4 (A)
strangling the soul 75% 4.5/6+3/4 (B)
malay magick 70% 5/6+2/4 (B)
plane load 60% 5/6+1/4 (C)
the woman who grew horns 55% 4.5/6+1/4 (D)
a sister’s tale 55% 4.5/6+1/4 (D)
biggest baddest bomoh 50% 3/6+2/4 (D)
watching the doll 40% 3/6+1/4 (E)
the width of a circle 40% 4/6+0/4 (E)
a labor day weekend 30% 2/6+1/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
four numbers for eric kwok 30% 2/6+1/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
the rape of martha teoh 20% 1/6+1/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
mr insurance man 10% 1/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
gravedigger’s kiss 10% 1/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
the laughing buddha 0% 0/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
44 cemetery road 0% 0/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
haunted apartment 0% 0/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
i cannot stress enough on how difficult it was to seriously rank the last three stories on this list. i understand they all scored a big fat zero but the stories were just so terrible i couldn’t and didn’t know which was the ultimate WORST. finally, i decided to leave haunted apartment as the last on the list. that’s the only title this story is going to get.
choosing the BEST story was a far easier process. even from the first time i read this collection, i already knew night of the pontianak was already going to be top on the list. i actually love ladiah just the same but because the story doesn’t actually focus on real classic scares, i decided to leave it this way for the sake of this review.
overall, the collection of short stories get a total score of 830/1900 which is a 43.7%. barely reaching a grade E there but better than getting BLACKLISTED AND BANNED.
the first 2 stories started out fine: 'biggest baddest bomoh' and ‘night of the pontianak'. and i was thinking to myself, 'yeah! i knew this book deserved to be one of my favourites,' but as usual, i was wrong. the rest of the book was a horrible drag. excluding 15 other stories that didn't go too well, there are 3-5 stories that are pretty exceptional.
since this is a compilation of short stories with themes and characters that are independent of each other, i figured it wouldn't be too fair to review the book as a whole. so i decided to create a ranking system based on two main characteristics: 1) the story, writing style, characters (mainly focusing on the contents of the story here) and 2) the scare factor. from there, each story gets an overall score out of 10 points and a corresponding grade.
bear in mind, this ranking system was developed spontaneously and is not exactly the most valid/reliable system. apart from that, this is also MY opinion. some stories which I find irksome may turn out to be one of your all-time favourites so my only word of advice to you if you haven't read 'horror stories' yet is: borrow the book first. and only buy the book if you like it lah. can?
here goes my system:
a) contents of the story (0-6)
- 0: lousy, shitty, a disgrace to the horror community that it shouldn't even receive a score! please get this out of the book, sir!
-1: horrible. i would have to say the stories with a score of 1 were pretty much irrelevant. the contents were pretty jumbled up and i don't see much point and purpose of the story being written.
-2: um, i mostly don't know how to feel about this. but I'm bordering on a 'nah' on this one.
-3: there's potential but it's not used. bordering between a below average to a close average/pass.
-4: mediocre. average, but getting there. a score of 4 or more is already considered to be an achievement, in my opinion. i've seen some pretty angry, critical reviews made of his book as a whole which isn't completely wrong but i feel that these stories demonstrate how the author's ability shouldn't be completely undermined.
-5: good! i like it. maybe a few tweaks here and there but otherwise, well done!
-6: one of my favourites. pretty damn good. these are the stories YOU need to read!
b) scare factor (0-4)
*DISCLAIMER*: my rating is pretty simplified in terms of how scary a story can be. i don't like to complicate things either, so i've more or less decided to go for a shorter scale compared to the story content scale.
i have also decided to exclude 'this Page is left intentionally blank' from my review as the author had said in the preface, it was meant to be a light story just placed in there for a change of mood. having to give it a 0 on the scare factor wouldn't be too fair as well, hence another reason for the exclusion.
-0: is this even considered to be horror? sir, you can’t be serious. i mean, this is probably on par with a kid’s show or something.
-1: little to no scare.
-2: slight chills, could have been scary if developed more. nonetheless, the chills are there.
-3: creepy. now this is what I consider as horror!
-4: this is the real deal. chills, goosebumps… i actually had to look behind my back after reading this. although it’s unfortunate that this score is extremely rare as you’ll see later on.
c) grade (just like your exam results)
80-100 A
70-79 B
60-69 C
50-59 D
40-49 E
<40 BLACKLISTED AND BANNED. nope, nope, nope. never reading these stories ever again in my life.
with the explanation of the ranking systems done, we’re good to go.
i hereby present you the final ranking from best to worst.
night of the pontianak 100% 6/6+4/4 (A)
ladiah 95% 6/6+3.5/4 (A)
mr petronas 90% 6/6+3/4 (A)
strangling the soul 75% 4.5/6+3/4 (B)
malay magick 70% 5/6+2/4 (B)
plane load 60% 5/6+1/4 (C)
the woman who grew horns 55% 4.5/6+1/4 (D)
a sister’s tale 55% 4.5/6+1/4 (D)
biggest baddest bomoh 50% 3/6+2/4 (D)
watching the doll 40% 3/6+1/4 (E)
the width of a circle 40% 4/6+0/4 (E)
a labor day weekend 30% 2/6+1/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
four numbers for eric kwok 30% 2/6+1/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
the rape of martha teoh 20% 1/6+1/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
mr insurance man 10% 1/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
gravedigger’s kiss 10% 1/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
the laughing buddha 0% 0/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
44 cemetery road 0% 0/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
haunted apartment 0% 0/6+0/4 (BLACKLISTED AND BANNED)
i cannot stress enough on how difficult it was to seriously rank the last three stories on this list. i understand they all scored a big fat zero but the stories were just so terrible i couldn’t and didn’t know which was the ultimate WORST. finally, i decided to leave haunted apartment as the last on the list. that’s the only title this story is going to get.
choosing the BEST story was a far easier process. even from the first time i read this collection, i already knew night of the pontianak was already going to be top on the list. i actually love ladiah just the same but because the story doesn’t actually focus on real classic scares, i decided to leave it this way for the sake of this review.
overall, the collection of short stories get a total score of 830/1900 which is a 43.7%. barely reaching a grade E there but better than getting BLACKLISTED AND BANNED.