Christmas Evil by Mark L'Estrange

 

Pretty disappointed with this on the whole. It wasn't awful but there were three key things which stopped me enjoying it as much as I could:

1. Too many exclamation marks! Writers should use these very rarely and it felt like every story had at least five. They were unnecessary and became very annoying to me

2. The stories followed a pattern of 'x goes somewhere, encounters weird people, weird people or x end up being a secret monster'. This wasn't every story but it was a huge chunk of them and it became very repetitive

3. Finally, one of the stories had a weird scene where some lesbians pretend to be straight to make a guy buy them expensive champagne, then mock him and make out in front of him. This added nothing to the story and just alienated me as a reader because it was presented as such a typical thing to happen and like, people don't do that?? The sexual content wasn't huge in this horror collection and certainly not compared to some others I've read, but sometimes it cropped up in weird ways (like a young boy looking up the skirt of a young girl, again for no reason) and it was always distracting when it did. I have nothing against sexual content but it has to add something and not just be a confusing aside

Overall, there are far worse horror collections out there but I still feel this needed a good editor to clean it up.

Overall Rating:

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Orion Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

I was incredibly hyped to read this book and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I think the blurb is rather misleading and it gave me the wrong impression of what this book was. Rather than it being a set of alibis/ghost stories presented after the billionaire has died mysteriously, it is instead a short story collection of various people in the building encountering various ghosts before being invited to a dinner with the billionaire. The short stories themselves are only connected by a few characters and the building, so this book resembles more of an anthology than one cohesive narrative. It is only the final story where the billionaire dies and you find out what happens at the dinner party, tying the stories together.

Having said that, once I got over my disappointment with the premise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The stories can get a little repetitive with the structure, but some of the ghost ideas are exceptionally cool. I particularly liked the haunted smart house, the concierge one and the imaginary friend. Apart from the smart house story, the final one is easily the best. It was a brilliant payoff to the premise promised by the blurb and had much needed (if a bit heavy handed) social commentary.

I do really wish this had been a full length novel. You could have taken 3 or 4 of the characters and focused on them, plus the billionaire. It would have allowed for more interaction between the characters and a deeper exploration of the ghost stories and social themes. But for what it is, Thirteen Storeys is decent. It's a shame the anthology format did it no favours.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys ghost stories and is looking for one with a more modern/unusual twist. There are plenty of interesting ghost concepts and goings on to enjoy, and the bonus of the last story tying everything together really does make this collection worth a look.

Overall Rating:

.5

Full Throttle by Joe Hill

I received a free copy of this book for review thanks to publisher William Morrow and Edelweiss.

Despite Heart-Shaped Box being one of my all-time favourite horror books, I have yet to read another book by Joe Hill. I was so excited to receive an ARC of his short story collection and I am happy to say that it lived up to my expectations fantastically. Full Throttle is a brilliant collection of horror/fantasy stories and each one is incredibly unique. Hill's writing really is up there with his father's in terms of skill for writing short stories and this is definitely a collection I can see myself rereading again and again.

As per usual with my anthology reviews, I will give an overview of the collection as a whole before talking about each short story.

Number of stories: 13
Great stories: 6
Good stories: 3
Okay/not for me stories: 4

Throttle-A group of motorcyclists encounter trouble when a truck decides to mow them all down. This one took ages to get going and I wasn't particularly invested until the action happened. Once it did though, there were some good moments and I liked how it ended.

Dark Carousel-Four teenagers get more than they bargained for when they accuse a carousel owner of stealing from one of them. This one was pretty surreal with its horror but I really enjoyed that aspect, and Hill made it work well.

Wolverton-A man gets on a train and discovers he's suddenly in a lot of danger. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. It's got kind of a silly premise almost but it was executed so well and there was real tension in it. This has also stuck with me the most out of all the stories which is somewhat surprising.

By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain-Two children find a dead dinosaur next to a lake. This one was really underwhelming for me sadly. The execution of the twist was a bit clumsy and I didn't quite get what was going on. It had potential but just missed the mark.

Faun-A group of hunters hear about the opportunity to pay a lot of money for a mysterious special hunt. Kudos to this story for not doing the obvious and going where I expected it to. I did lose interest a little bit towards the end but it was interesting enough and I couldn't predict what was going to happen.

Late Returns-A man takes over driving a library Bookmobile and discovers he has visitors from the past. I LOVED this story. It's light on the horror but it has such a nice concept and it was a much-needed break from the darkness of the other ones. It still has enough of an edge to fit with the rest of the anthology which is also important as it doesn't feel like it sticks out or is misplaced.

All I Care about is You-A girl living in the future (?) pays to have a robot companion for an hour to help her out. There was some clumsy worldbuilding in this one and I found it a little hard to get into because of that. However, as the story unfolded I started to really love it and by the end, it was one of my favourites. Very weird, unique and so interesting.

Thumbprint-A woman comes back from Iraq after committing some atrocities. I sadly couldn't get into this story and more skim-read it than anything. It might work for some people but it just wasn't for me.

The Devil on the Staircase-I tried to read this story but just couldn't get into it and I'm honestly not sure what it was about.

Twittering from the Circus of the Dead-A teenager takes up Tweeting to annoy her mum and records her experience visiting a very unique circus. This is told entirely through Tweets and I thought it would be annoying but I actually ended up really enjoying it. The format helps build a lot of tension and it strengthens the dramatic irony the plot relies on without being grating.

Mums-A boy's mother dies and he acquires some unusual seeds from a stranger. This one had such potential but it kept missing the mark for me. Mostly it was confusing and I found it hard to follow, which may have been intentional but wasn't enjoyable for me. There are some cool moments and some creepy ideas going on here but I wish it had been executed differently.

In the Tall Grass-Two twins stop to help a child and mother lost in some tall grass and get more than they bargained for. This was definitely one of my joint favourites (along with the next story and Late Returns). It's co-written with King and you can see his influence which only makes the story stronger. An easy to follow tale with some good old-fashioned weirdness.

You are Released-I have read and reviewed this story previously so here is my original review: A very powerful story about a plane that runs into trouble, framed by swapping the focus to a different passenger every few paragraphs or so. This wasn't really horror in my opinion but I am so so glad I read it. It has a lot of really thought-provoking moments and was just excellently done.

~

Overall, I am delighted to say this collection cements Joe Hill as one of my favourite authors. It has all the skill and originality of a King short story collection but rather than feeling derivative, Hill brings his own talent and his own ideas. It's definitely a must-try for fans of horror anthologies.

Overall Rating: