A review by motherhorror
Tales from a Talking Board by Nadia Bulkin, Amber-Rose Reed, Kristi DeMeester, Matthew M. Bartlett, S.P. Miskowski, Tiffany Scandal, Nathan Carson, Wendy N. Wagner, David Templeton, Scott R. Jones, Ross E. Lockhart, Orrin Grey, Anya Martin, J.M. McDermott, David James Keaton
3.0
It's hard to rate this collection. I buddy read it with a friend on #bookstagram and I even messaged her to see how she was going to break this collection down. I was sent a copy by the editor of the collection at Word Horde for an honest review. I was 100% sold out on the cover. I *love* the cover.
But this collection has some issues. There are some real gems mixed in with some near misses and some stories that just were good--they were not awful but unfortunately, they weren't very memorable or great, either. I decided to just do a breakdown of star rating for each story and then do an average for an overall score of 3-3.5 stars.
Tales from a Talking Board opens with the story, “YesNoGoodbye,” by Kristi DeMeester and it's my opinion that this is the best story the collection had to offer. Really, really great story--5 stars
“The Devil and the Bugle Boys,” by J.M. McDermott--2 stars
“WeeGee WeeGee, Tell Me Do.” by Anya Martin--2 stars
“When The Evil Days Come Not” by Nathan Carson--3.5 stars
“Grief" by Tiffany Scandal--3.5 stars (this one was pretty strong despite a slow start
“Spin the Throttle" David James Keaton--2 stars (I was just confused by this story honestly)
“Pins” by S.P. Miskowski--5 stars I want to look up more writing by this author
“Deep Into the Skin”Matthew M. Bartlett-- 4.5 stars
“Burnt Sugar Stench” by Wendy N. Wagner-- 3 stars
“Worse Than Demons,” by Scott R. Jones-- 4 stars
“The Empress and the Three Swords” by Amber-Rose Reed-- 2 stars
“Questions and Answers” by David Templeton--3.5 stars
“Harpuspicate or Scry” by Orrin Grey- 4 stars
"May You Live in Interesting Times,” by Nadia Bulkin--5 stars
This is a collection to have in your collection for the Nadia Bulkin and Kristi DeMeester stories alone, along with the 4 star stories in the collection but it's tough to get through some of the not-so-stand-out stories, making this a middle of the road anthology for me, unfortunately.
But this collection has some issues. There are some real gems mixed in with some near misses and some stories that just were good--they were not awful but unfortunately, they weren't very memorable or great, either. I decided to just do a breakdown of star rating for each story and then do an average for an overall score of 3-3.5 stars.
Tales from a Talking Board opens with the story, “YesNoGoodbye,” by Kristi DeMeester and it's my opinion that this is the best story the collection had to offer. Really, really great story--5 stars
“The Devil and the Bugle Boys,” by J.M. McDermott--2 stars
“WeeGee WeeGee, Tell Me Do.” by Anya Martin--2 stars
“When The Evil Days Come Not” by Nathan Carson--3.5 stars
“Grief" by Tiffany Scandal--3.5 stars (this one was pretty strong despite a slow start
“Spin the Throttle" David James Keaton--2 stars (I was just confused by this story honestly)
“Pins” by S.P. Miskowski--5 stars I want to look up more writing by this author
“Deep Into the Skin”Matthew M. Bartlett-- 4.5 stars
“Burnt Sugar Stench” by Wendy N. Wagner-- 3 stars
“Worse Than Demons,” by Scott R. Jones-- 4 stars
“The Empress and the Three Swords” by Amber-Rose Reed-- 2 stars
“Questions and Answers” by David Templeton--3.5 stars
“Harpuspicate or Scry” by Orrin Grey- 4 stars
"May You Live in Interesting Times,” by Nadia Bulkin--5 stars
This is a collection to have in your collection for the Nadia Bulkin and Kristi DeMeester stories alone, along with the 4 star stories in the collection but it's tough to get through some of the not-so-stand-out stories, making this a middle of the road anthology for me, unfortunately.