What do you think?
Rate this book
Bedtime Horrors
Written for a new generation of fans, Bedtime Horrors is the first volume of a unique collection of dark stories, served with a twist and delivered in exactly one page. From author Nic Kristofer Black and illustrated by Jorge Gonzalez, the collection is written for the 140 character, web surfing, binge watching, Snapchat generation.
Perfect for the short attention span, each tale is exactly 1000 words in length - easily readable in the time it takes to watch a YouTube video. And because 'a picture is worth a thousand words' every story is graced with chillingly illustrated artwork. From mindless zombies to insidious vaporghouls, each work fiendishly drags the reader, kicking and screaming, into its dark, decaying world.
Bedtime Horrors transports classic creatures from fog-laden hamlets to contemporary settings and the glare of modern life. The collection also introduces new creatures, eager to make the reader's acquaintance, with hopes of someday becoming the subject of new tales told around the campfire.
Crafted for maximum potency, Bedtime Horrors is a smart and quirky update to the horror genre. The collection is a daily dose of horror, the reason to go to sleep with one eye open and almost worth dying for.
Perfect for the short attention span, each tale is exactly 1000 words in length - easily readable in the time it takes to watch a YouTube video. And because 'a picture is worth a thousand words' every story is graced with chillingly illustrated artwork. From mindless zombies to insidious vaporghouls, each work fiendishly drags the reader, kicking and screaming, into its dark, decaying world.
Bedtime Horrors transports classic creatures from fog-laden hamlets to contemporary settings and the glare of modern life. The collection also introduces new creatures, eager to make the reader's acquaintance, with hopes of someday becoming the subject of new tales told around the campfire.
Crafted for maximum potency, Bedtime Horrors is a smart and quirky update to the horror genre. The collection is a daily dose of horror, the reason to go to sleep with one eye open and almost worth dying for.
- GenresHorrorYoung Adult
50 pages, Hardcover
Published September 6, 2016
20 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 20, 2018
You can see my video review HERE...
Nic Kristofer Black has come to rescue teens and adults with short-attention spans everywhere with Bedtime Horrors, a horror anthology with ten all-new 1,000 word stories... one page and no more! Each story is designed to be quick enough to hold the attention of people who might rather watch a YouTube video than read a book... and that is what I appreciate most about Bedtime Horrors. Black is trying to make readers out of today's binge-watching generation and that is something to applaud. I feel that teens in particular will dig this book because it's cool, spooky, current, and a breeze to read. It might also be a good entry point to make them want to read longer works of horror.
On the other hand, as someone who has been reading my whole life, I have a very wide attention span and prefer stories that are richer with more build-up. If that's what you're looking for, this might not be the right book for you. The stories are very simple and over before you know it. But if you want something quick and to the point with really cool illustrations, then give Bedtime Horrors a shot. I'd compare the stories to CreepyPastas, only if they were written by H. P. Lovecraft with a cool monster-against-monster battle or two.
Nic Kristofer Black has come to rescue teens and adults with short-attention spans everywhere with Bedtime Horrors, a horror anthology with ten all-new 1,000 word stories... one page and no more! Each story is designed to be quick enough to hold the attention of people who might rather watch a YouTube video than read a book... and that is what I appreciate most about Bedtime Horrors. Black is trying to make readers out of today's binge-watching generation and that is something to applaud. I feel that teens in particular will dig this book because it's cool, spooky, current, and a breeze to read. It might also be a good entry point to make them want to read longer works of horror.
On the other hand, as someone who has been reading my whole life, I have a very wide attention span and prefer stories that are richer with more build-up. If that's what you're looking for, this might not be the right book for you. The stories are very simple and over before you know it. But if you want something quick and to the point with really cool illustrations, then give Bedtime Horrors a shot. I'd compare the stories to CreepyPastas, only if they were written by H. P. Lovecraft with a cool monster-against-monster battle or two.
September 5, 2018
I was hoping for more twists and scares in these horror shorts. My review is posted here ---> https://wp.me/p5t5Tf-1G9
October 4, 2018
I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
You need to read this book!
Perfect for any reading level but definitely for a reader aged 13 and up. Not that there is any inappropriate content but I can just see an imaginative child being frightened or disturbed by some of the stories.
I got this advanced reader copy in August but decided to wait until October to read because I really wanted to get myself in that spooky mood and believe me when I say that it did. As an overall collection, I give this book a 5 star rating. The idea behind a one page story is really cool. The illustrations are really well done and the stories really are creepy. I wouldn’t say that I was scared at any point reading the book but I felt that the stories had enough of a creep factor that I wouldn’t recommend reading them at night. Unless you are purposely looking to get scared! I also felt that each story was very unique while still having some classical horror elements.
For each individual story, the rating and a brief reason are below:
A Claw at the Closet Door: 4 stars- Classic scary story tale of a potential monster hiding in the closet. The reason I rated this one so high is because I really enjoyed the twist at the end. It reminded me a lot of the Goosebumps series I used to read as a child.
Creature, I: 3 stars- This one had a little bit more of a slower build up. A dive team going to recover the bodies of a sunken naval ship. The action comes closer to the end and leaves us with a cliffhanger.
Greyhound Bus-: 2 stars- Probably my least favorite one. I think probably because the “monster” didn’t seem too scary to me. The story of a high jacking gone wrong was okay.
Job Order: 5 stars- This was my personal favorite. You couldn’t help but feel bad for the monster in this book. I enjoyed learning about all of the different monsters of the world and was relieved that my beloved monster had a happy ending.
Monster in the Brush: 4 stars- This one was pretty creepy. An escaped inmate looking for unsuspecting campers. If I were to be reading this story at night while camping, I would be so scared of every little sound after this story.
Creature, II: 4 stars- Unsurprisingly, based on the title, this is a continuation of Creature I. The story does become more complex with new characters and new creatures being introduced and picking up right where the other left off. The ending of this one does leave it fairly open.
Spare Parts: 5 stars- Another favorite for similar reasons. Again, I really felt bad for the child in this book and how he is being treated by his father. Classic story of a scorned child taking revenge.
The Life Raft: 3 stars- Even though this is my own personal worst nightmare, the story fell short for me. The thought of surviving a plane crash in the ocean and being stranded on a raft is literally everyone’s fear. The twist at the end was not a good one in my opinion and I thought the ending was very anticlimactic.
Glass Jars: 4- I really liked this one, it’s a classic revenge tale in which the bad guy of the story gets what’s coming to him. I also liked that one of the monsters that we are introduced to in a previous story makes a surprise appearance.
Creature, III: 5- The final story of the Creature trilogy. The one thing I was confused about was the monster of the story, the bad one. I think that it is a hybrid somehow of all of the ones that have come before but I’m unsure. All I know is that my beloved monster from before makes an appearance and he is so cool that I fell in love with the story. Lots of action and fighting in this story.
If you are considering reading this book, I would get a hard copy over a digital one. The formatting I think would work better in print and the desired outcome for the book will be accomplished that way. On my digital reader, I struggled with the white print on black background but don’t think I would have this problem with a print copy.
You need to read this book!
Perfect for any reading level but definitely for a reader aged 13 and up. Not that there is any inappropriate content but I can just see an imaginative child being frightened or disturbed by some of the stories.
I got this advanced reader copy in August but decided to wait until October to read because I really wanted to get myself in that spooky mood and believe me when I say that it did. As an overall collection, I give this book a 5 star rating. The idea behind a one page story is really cool. The illustrations are really well done and the stories really are creepy. I wouldn’t say that I was scared at any point reading the book but I felt that the stories had enough of a creep factor that I wouldn’t recommend reading them at night. Unless you are purposely looking to get scared! I also felt that each story was very unique while still having some classical horror elements.
For each individual story, the rating and a brief reason are below:
A Claw at the Closet Door: 4 stars- Classic scary story tale of a potential monster hiding in the closet. The reason I rated this one so high is because I really enjoyed the twist at the end. It reminded me a lot of the Goosebumps series I used to read as a child.
Creature, I: 3 stars- This one had a little bit more of a slower build up. A dive team going to recover the bodies of a sunken naval ship. The action comes closer to the end and leaves us with a cliffhanger.
Greyhound Bus-: 2 stars- Probably my least favorite one. I think probably because the “monster” didn’t seem too scary to me. The story of a high jacking gone wrong was okay.
Job Order: 5 stars- This was my personal favorite. You couldn’t help but feel bad for the monster in this book. I enjoyed learning about all of the different monsters of the world and was relieved that my beloved monster had a happy ending.
Monster in the Brush: 4 stars- This one was pretty creepy. An escaped inmate looking for unsuspecting campers. If I were to be reading this story at night while camping, I would be so scared of every little sound after this story.
Creature, II: 4 stars- Unsurprisingly, based on the title, this is a continuation of Creature I. The story does become more complex with new characters and new creatures being introduced and picking up right where the other left off. The ending of this one does leave it fairly open.
Spare Parts: 5 stars- Another favorite for similar reasons. Again, I really felt bad for the child in this book and how he is being treated by his father. Classic story of a scorned child taking revenge.
The Life Raft: 3 stars- Even though this is my own personal worst nightmare, the story fell short for me. The thought of surviving a plane crash in the ocean and being stranded on a raft is literally everyone’s fear. The twist at the end was not a good one in my opinion and I thought the ending was very anticlimactic.
Glass Jars: 4- I really liked this one, it’s a classic revenge tale in which the bad guy of the story gets what’s coming to him. I also liked that one of the monsters that we are introduced to in a previous story makes a surprise appearance.
Creature, III: 5- The final story of the Creature trilogy. The one thing I was confused about was the monster of the story, the bad one. I think that it is a hybrid somehow of all of the ones that have come before but I’m unsure. All I know is that my beloved monster from before makes an appearance and he is so cool that I fell in love with the story. Lots of action and fighting in this story.
If you are considering reading this book, I would get a hard copy over a digital one. The formatting I think would work better in print and the desired outcome for the book will be accomplished that way. On my digital reader, I struggled with the white print on black background but don’t think I would have this problem with a print copy.
February 19, 2017
I write this review after reading an advance reader copy of this book.
First things first: the title of the book speaks by itself. The book contains a series of short stories, which easily and quickly can be read right before sleeping -at the risk of certain readers of possibly getting nightmares with some of the stories! Some of them are creepier than others, which of course depends much on the reader. So I think that the book clearly meets its goal in this sense.
I would say that the public should not be young kids, but more older kids and teens, and maybe young adults, as some stories could be too explicit for small children. That said, the book does not have contents which should be exclusively for adults, so no panic.
The writing style is nice to read, does not overwhelm with descriptions and at the same time lets the reader get immersed in the -physical and psychological- environment of each story. Although just to clarify something that I read elsewhere, in my opinion the style is not 'Lovecraftian', since in Bedtime Horrors the descriptions are more evident and direct, and the mental scenarios that they awaken are much less complex: the reader is not taken on a journey into the protagonist's mind and feelings like in Lovecraft's stories, and the 'horrors'/'monsters' in this book are not like the ones of the said author's stories neither. Nevertheless, I don't consider this to be something that diminishes the value of this book, just makes it different than those descriptions that I have previously seen.
The illustrations are like the one in the cover of the book. They are attractive and come after each story, so the plot does not really get spoiled before reading. It is also nice and fitting to read from black pages with words in white.
First things first: the title of the book speaks by itself. The book contains a series of short stories, which easily and quickly can be read right before sleeping -at the risk of certain readers of possibly getting nightmares with some of the stories! Some of them are creepier than others, which of course depends much on the reader. So I think that the book clearly meets its goal in this sense.
I would say that the public should not be young kids, but more older kids and teens, and maybe young adults, as some stories could be too explicit for small children. That said, the book does not have contents which should be exclusively for adults, so no panic.
The writing style is nice to read, does not overwhelm with descriptions and at the same time lets the reader get immersed in the -physical and psychological- environment of each story. Although just to clarify something that I read elsewhere, in my opinion the style is not 'Lovecraftian', since in Bedtime Horrors the descriptions are more evident and direct, and the mental scenarios that they awaken are much less complex: the reader is not taken on a journey into the protagonist's mind and feelings like in Lovecraft's stories, and the 'horrors'/'monsters' in this book are not like the ones of the said author's stories neither. Nevertheless, I don't consider this to be something that diminishes the value of this book, just makes it different than those descriptions that I have previously seen.
The illustrations are like the one in the cover of the book. They are attractive and come after each story, so the plot does not really get spoiled before reading. It is also nice and fitting to read from black pages with words in white.
October 7, 2016
Reviewed By Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite
Bedtime Horrors is a collection of dark flash-fiction horror stories written by Nic Kristofer Black and illustrated by Jorge Gonzalez. The creators of this collection designed their work with those who have short attention spans in mind. Each of the ten tales is exactly 10,000 words in length and is accompanied by a detailed illustration. Some tales explore the well-known territory of the zombie, albeit with new touches of horror, and often a blending of horror genres as found in The Life Raft. A Claw at the Closet Door is an intriguing take on that legendary monster in the closet who's captured the imagination and fear of so many children. The Greyhound Bus takes the UFO genre on a rustic detour. Glass Jars is the story of a town's sole and vindictive shopkeeper, and the terrifying way he controls his unruly customers.
Nic Kristofer Black's dark flash-fiction horror story collection, Bedtime Horrors, is designed for more contemporary readers, but many readers who grew up looking forward to that week's production of the Twilight Zone will find themselves enjoying the darkly humorous and edgy tales found within this glossy, well-written and attractive work. Jorge Gonzalez's illustrations are masterful and work to amplify each tale, polishing each one to an even darker sheen. While I particularly enjoyed those tales that were set at sea, I would still have to say that my favorite story is the opening tale: A Claw at the Closet Door. Abandoned by his mother on his eighth birthday, with her rather abrupt and unkind version of tough love, Kiki has a guardian still looking out for him. The best horror tales seem to conjure up traces of mocking eldritch horror filtering through the reader's imagination, barely heard but still undeniable nonetheless. Black and Gonzalez' Bedtime Horrors delivers that special effect -- and more. It's highly recommended.
Bedtime Horrors is a collection of dark flash-fiction horror stories written by Nic Kristofer Black and illustrated by Jorge Gonzalez. The creators of this collection designed their work with those who have short attention spans in mind. Each of the ten tales is exactly 10,000 words in length and is accompanied by a detailed illustration. Some tales explore the well-known territory of the zombie, albeit with new touches of horror, and often a blending of horror genres as found in The Life Raft. A Claw at the Closet Door is an intriguing take on that legendary monster in the closet who's captured the imagination and fear of so many children. The Greyhound Bus takes the UFO genre on a rustic detour. Glass Jars is the story of a town's sole and vindictive shopkeeper, and the terrifying way he controls his unruly customers.
Nic Kristofer Black's dark flash-fiction horror story collection, Bedtime Horrors, is designed for more contemporary readers, but many readers who grew up looking forward to that week's production of the Twilight Zone will find themselves enjoying the darkly humorous and edgy tales found within this glossy, well-written and attractive work. Jorge Gonzalez's illustrations are masterful and work to amplify each tale, polishing each one to an even darker sheen. While I particularly enjoyed those tales that were set at sea, I would still have to say that my favorite story is the opening tale: A Claw at the Closet Door. Abandoned by his mother on his eighth birthday, with her rather abrupt and unkind version of tough love, Kiki has a guardian still looking out for him. The best horror tales seem to conjure up traces of mocking eldritch horror filtering through the reader's imagination, barely heard but still undeniable nonetheless. Black and Gonzalez' Bedtime Horrors delivers that special effect -- and more. It's highly recommended.
February 3, 2017
A quick read, read this book on the way back from DC to Atlanta after finishing another book. Less than 10 stories, each less than a page in length. The version that I had you had to zoom in on each page as it showed the full page view and took several moments to get the page to match the screen. Each of the stories built on the previous in one way or another, and was either about zombies, werewolves, or a creature that Black created for this book. This book may be worth a look if you have a kid that wants you to read him a horror story before he goes to sleep, as you would have a week's worth of stories that can be reread multiple times.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews