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Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales
"Get ready to sleep with the lights on!" — GIRLS' LIFE
A lovesick count and the ghost of his brutalized servant . . . a serial killer who defies death . . . a house with a violent mind of its own and another that holds a grotesque secret within its peeling walls. Here are witches who feast on faces, changeling rites of passage, a venerable vampire
contemplating his end, and a fanged brat who drains the patience of a bumbling teenage boy. Here too are a flamboyant young novelist in search of a subject more compelling than his own eerie existence and
the daughter of a sorcerer fighting to free her lover — and her will — from sinister bonds. Enter the world of GOTHIC!, a celebration of the literary form made famous by such writers as Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.
Lungewater / Joan Aiken
Morgan Roehmar's boys / Vivian Vande Velde
Watch and wake / M.T. Anderson
Forbidden brides of the faceless slaves in the nameless house of the night of dread desire / Neil Gaiman
The dead and the moonstruck / Caitlin R. Kiernan
Have no fear, crumpot is here! / Barry Yourgrau
Stone tower / Janni Lee Simner
The prank / Gregory Maguire
Writing on the wall / Celia Rees
Endings / Garth Nix
A lovesick count and the ghost of his brutalized servant . . . a serial killer who defies death . . . a house with a violent mind of its own and another that holds a grotesque secret within its peeling walls. Here are witches who feast on faces, changeling rites of passage, a venerable vampire
contemplating his end, and a fanged brat who drains the patience of a bumbling teenage boy. Here too are a flamboyant young novelist in search of a subject more compelling than his own eerie existence and
the daughter of a sorcerer fighting to free her lover — and her will — from sinister bonds. Enter the world of GOTHIC!, a celebration of the literary form made famous by such writers as Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.
Lungewater / Joan Aiken
Morgan Roehmar's boys / Vivian Vande Velde
Watch and wake / M.T. Anderson
Forbidden brides of the faceless slaves in the nameless house of the night of dread desire / Neil Gaiman
The dead and the moonstruck / Caitlin R. Kiernan
Have no fear, crumpot is here! / Barry Yourgrau
Stone tower / Janni Lee Simner
The prank / Gregory Maguire
Writing on the wall / Celia Rees
Endings / Garth Nix
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2004
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1300 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Noyes
30 books76 followersDeb writes for adults and children and is also an editor and photographer. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
May 24, 2015
This was, like most anthologies, a mixed bag. It's called 'Gothic', but most of the stories here really aren't, the exceptions being Watch and Wake, Neil Gaiman's story, and The Dead and the Moonstruck. Most of these stories were simply horror, and incessantly bland horror at that. The anthology mostly consisted of a large onslaught of mediocre stories, and only one of them was even a little scary. But, nevertheless, here's a story by story review:
Lungewater by Joan Aiken: 2/5
This story consisted almost entirely of a very dry story, told to the narrator by an old man. The story he tells isn't particularly interesting, and the format is set up so that we don't see enough of anyone - not the narrator, not the old man, not the characters in the story - to relate to anyone. This would've been fine if the story was only a few pages long, but at almost 30 pages, it wore thin quickly. Because the story took place in the long past, none of the danger feels urgent or immediate - it's all in the long past. The premise itself never had much potential, really; the story that the old man tells our narrator is pretty cliched, and even if we had seen it more closely, I doubt it would've been very scary. But Aiken's execution is made perfectly so that nothing that could've made the story interesting is present - the danger isn't immediate, the storytelling aspect isn't interesting, and we can't connect to any of the characters. Apart from the not-bad prose and dialogue, there's not much to like here.
Morgan Roehmar's Boys by Vivian Vande Velde: 2/5
This story leans so heavily on horror cliches that I'm surprised it doesn't violate any copyrights. There's nothing that won't be familiar to even a casual horror reader; the story takes place in a haunted house, it involves the power going out, , ect. Our narrator was the typical horror protagonist, trying to be resourceful, but still ends up falling victim to the enemy. Not even the writing was very good - it wasn't awful, but it was awkward enough to be noticeable. The only thing I can really say about it is that the cliches are downplayed, so that the story isn't quite as predictable as you'd expect. I did recognize the cliches, but not until the twist had already played itself out - I'll give Velde props for that. But other than that, there's nothing of note here.
Watch and Wake by M.T. Anderson: 3/5
I really wanted to like this one. Since reading this story, I read Anderson's book Feed, and it is amazing. And there are plenty of hints of Anderson's immense talent on display here. The world here was bizarre, the perfect setting for a gothic story. After so many stories that simply pull on horror cliches for their worldbuilding, it was a relief to see something this downright strange. (I'm being vague, to avoid spoiling it for you.) Not to mention, it's built entirely without infodumps, quite a feat in a short story. The story itself was successfully suspenseful, and while the ending was slightly anticlimatic, it's one of the most memorable here. So why the three-star rating? Because it appears to have been written by a fifth grader. Apparently, Anderson's style was intentional, modeled after The Stranger. But if you haven't read The Stranger, as I haven't, prepare for a baffling experience. Sentence fragments and repetition are the norm, with hardly a compound or a complex sentence to liven things up. I never knew quite what Anderson was trying to communicate with this style - the story gained nothing that I could see from it. It's such a shame that it was so distracting, because the story would've been easily the best one here without that style.
Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by Neil Gaiman: 3/5
Neil Gaiman was the entire reason I read this anthology. This is the first short story of his I read, although I’ve also read Creatures of the Night, which had comics based on two of his short stories. From what I can tell, this was one of his weaker short stories. The premise is kind of gimmicky: the main character lives in a fantasy world, and he keeps writing what appears to us as dramatic fantasy scenes, but what appears to him as writing that’s so close to real life that it’s boring. Gaiman doesn’t really do anything with the premise; once you get the joke, there’s not much else to the story, plot-wise. Gaiman doesn’t go very much into his protagonist’s psyche, and very little actually happens. The thing that saved this story, however, was the excellent prose. This is Neil Gaiman we’re talking about, so I’m not exactly surprised that the writing was so good. But this is some of the best I’ve seen from him - the prose was atmospheric, it flowed well, and it perfectly captured the world that Gaiman writes about here. It also greatly added to the structure of the story. The story infuses the protagonist’s writings with the events that happen in his daily life. Gaiman writes differently when he’s showing our protagonist’s work, and it added layers to the story, particularly towards the end. This is one of the better stories here, simply because it’s so well-written - indeed, it contains the best prose of the book. But I know Gaiman could’ve written a better story to back it up, and it’s a shame he fell short.
The Dead and the Moonstruck by Caitlin R. Kiernan: 4/5
This was one of only two stories here that I actually kind of liked, although admittedly, it was more for lack of problems than any particularly outstanding qualities. Still, the worldbuilding was pretty good. The world that Kiernan builds here is done entirely without infodumps, and it’s a pretty interesting world at that. I’m normally kind of forgiving of infodumps when a world has to be built this quickly, so it’s quite impressive that Kiernan managed to build her world so quickly. Her protagonist was also pretty engaging. Even though Kiernan had so little time to build up her life and backstory, we still got a fairly complete idea of what she’s like as a person. The plot was where this story fell a bit short. Sure, the buildup was pretty engaging, but there was ultimately very little payoff. The end of the story was very anticlimatic, with a villain that was far easier to defeat than Kiernan had made him out to be. It was the most predictable and least interesting Kiernan could’ve chosen to cap off her potentially-thrilling buildup. Still, this was one of the best stories here, one of the few that wasn’t boring, and one of the few that was pretty well-written.
Have No Fear, Crumpot is Here by Barry Yourgrou: 1/5
Calling this one of the worst short stories I’ve ever read feels too generous. This was an amateurish mess. It tries to use humor to its advantage, but the gags were stupid to begin with, and they don’t get any funnier as Yourgrou repeats them over and over. There are only two or three actual jokes here, but they’re repeated at least two or three times per page, to the point where it gets completely unbearable. Our protagonist’s voice is entirely unbelievable. He’s supposed to be thirteen or fourteen, if I recall, but he read more like a third grader trying to imitate what a cool teenager would sound like. The voice uses ridiculous slang, it’s painfully childish, and it doesn’t capture anything about him. I can only assume that Yourgrou has never written for teenagers before, because this is horrendous. The story, which I’ve already forgotten - I think it had something to do with babysitting and bats - gets lost in all the bad humor and repetitive gags. It wasn’t the least bit scary or evocative. This was just a waste of paper, and I can’t imagine anyone gained anything from this stupid mess.
Stone Tower by Janni Lee Simmer: 5/5
The one saving grace of this otherwise mediocre anthology. In fact, I wouldn't blame you for buying the entire anthology just for this one short story. This story's premise is largely unexplained to the end, which could've been confusing, if everything wasn't so intentional. Simmer knows how to give us just enough information to understand what's going on, but withholding absolutely everything else, so we're compelled until the ending. The plot is driven forward with an intensity unmatched by anything else here. Simmer writes every word here with a purpose, every word building up to the climatic ending. But whereas The Dead and the Moonstruck's ending fell flat from its buildup, the twist at the end of this story was entirely warranted by the buildup. But most engaging of all is the strong narrative voice that Simmer gives to our protagonist. She perfectly captures the mentality of someone who's lost their memory, and uses it to great effect in building the suspense of the story. In short, this was easily the best short story here. Simmer has impressed me in the past, by writing one of the few stories from Welcome to Bordertown that wasn't awful, so I'm thinking I should check out more of her work. It looks like she might be an outstanding writer.
The Prank by Gregory Maguire: 3/5
I can't say this was as bad as I expected. I tried reading Wicked years ago, probably when I was too young. I don't really remember much about it, but I do recall it being incredibly boring. I'm not sure what I expected from this, but a fairly readable and normal YA story wasn't it. In fact, this story is fairly unmemorable. I might've thought back on it more fondly if I had understood the twist at the end. But because I couldn't follow the ending, I wasn't sure what to think of this. Certainly, Maguire writes an interesting and unique protagonist with a strong narrative voice. But I guess I just wasn't sure what the plot was supposed to be, what it was I was supposed to be scared by. Maguire didn't write a clear story. Plus, the writing could be awkward in places - in particular, the transitions tended to be very sudden, cutting off scenes before they felt finished. I expected to have strong feelings on Gregory Maguire one way or another; I'm surprised how indifferent I am to this story.
Writing on the Wall by Celia Rees: 2/5
There's honestly not much to say about this one. It's centered entirely on cliches, more than any other story here. (And considering this is a horror anthology, that's saying a lot). When you find yourself literally writing about an old abandoned house that's haunted in vague ways, you might want to reconsider what you're doing. And there's little to focus on other than that. There's no real protagonist here whose development I can evaluate, and there's just... not much going on here. The writing is fine, I guess. But there's very little to say about such an unememorably cliched story.
Endings by Garth Nix: 1/5
I've read a couple short stories from Garth Nix, in Geektastic and Zombies vs. Unicorns. I didn't like either of those stories, but at least he was trying. I've never seen anything this downright lazy out of him. It's only three pages long, and it's all vague, virtually meaningless existential shit. It feels like Nix wrote it in five minutes and sent it off without reading it over afterward. I didn't get any idea of the person narrating the story, or why he/she was saying these seemingly-random existential things. I didn't even know the protagonist was a vampire until I looked it up on Wikipedia. There's no deeper meaning here; Nix is just too lazy to write an actual story with actual characters. This is easily the worst short story here - other than Primate the Prom by Libba Bray, this might just be the worst short story I've ever read. I haven't read any novels by Nix, but from his short stories, I can only assume he's an overrated hack.
Like most anthologies, this is a mixed bag, weighing somewhat towards the negative. Unless you happen to like the authors in the anthology, there's no reason to read it.
Lungewater by Joan Aiken: 2/5
This story consisted almost entirely of a very dry story, told to the narrator by an old man. The story he tells isn't particularly interesting, and the format is set up so that we don't see enough of anyone - not the narrator, not the old man, not the characters in the story - to relate to anyone. This would've been fine if the story was only a few pages long, but at almost 30 pages, it wore thin quickly. Because the story took place in the long past, none of the danger feels urgent or immediate - it's all in the long past. The premise itself never had much potential, really; the story that the old man tells our narrator is pretty cliched, and even if we had seen it more closely, I doubt it would've been very scary. But Aiken's execution is made perfectly so that nothing that could've made the story interesting is present - the danger isn't immediate, the storytelling aspect isn't interesting, and we can't connect to any of the characters. Apart from the not-bad prose and dialogue, there's not much to like here.
Morgan Roehmar's Boys by Vivian Vande Velde: 2/5
This story leans so heavily on horror cliches that I'm surprised it doesn't violate any copyrights. There's nothing that won't be familiar to even a casual horror reader; the story takes place in a haunted house, it involves the power going out, , ect. Our narrator was the typical horror protagonist, trying to be resourceful, but still ends up falling victim to the enemy. Not even the writing was very good - it wasn't awful, but it was awkward enough to be noticeable. The only thing I can really say about it is that the cliches are downplayed, so that the story isn't quite as predictable as you'd expect. I did recognize the cliches, but not until the twist had already played itself out - I'll give Velde props for that. But other than that, there's nothing of note here.
Watch and Wake by M.T. Anderson: 3/5
I really wanted to like this one. Since reading this story, I read Anderson's book Feed, and it is amazing. And there are plenty of hints of Anderson's immense talent on display here. The world here was bizarre, the perfect setting for a gothic story. After so many stories that simply pull on horror cliches for their worldbuilding, it was a relief to see something this downright strange. (I'm being vague, to avoid spoiling it for you.) Not to mention, it's built entirely without infodumps, quite a feat in a short story. The story itself was successfully suspenseful, and while the ending was slightly anticlimatic, it's one of the most memorable here. So why the three-star rating? Because it appears to have been written by a fifth grader. Apparently, Anderson's style was intentional, modeled after The Stranger. But if you haven't read The Stranger, as I haven't, prepare for a baffling experience. Sentence fragments and repetition are the norm, with hardly a compound or a complex sentence to liven things up. I never knew quite what Anderson was trying to communicate with this style - the story gained nothing that I could see from it. It's such a shame that it was so distracting, because the story would've been easily the best one here without that style.
Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by Neil Gaiman: 3/5
Neil Gaiman was the entire reason I read this anthology. This is the first short story of his I read, although I’ve also read Creatures of the Night, which had comics based on two of his short stories. From what I can tell, this was one of his weaker short stories. The premise is kind of gimmicky: the main character lives in a fantasy world, and he keeps writing what appears to us as dramatic fantasy scenes, but what appears to him as writing that’s so close to real life that it’s boring. Gaiman doesn’t really do anything with the premise; once you get the joke, there’s not much else to the story, plot-wise. Gaiman doesn’t go very much into his protagonist’s psyche, and very little actually happens. The thing that saved this story, however, was the excellent prose. This is Neil Gaiman we’re talking about, so I’m not exactly surprised that the writing was so good. But this is some of the best I’ve seen from him - the prose was atmospheric, it flowed well, and it perfectly captured the world that Gaiman writes about here. It also greatly added to the structure of the story. The story infuses the protagonist’s writings with the events that happen in his daily life. Gaiman writes differently when he’s showing our protagonist’s work, and it added layers to the story, particularly towards the end. This is one of the better stories here, simply because it’s so well-written - indeed, it contains the best prose of the book. But I know Gaiman could’ve written a better story to back it up, and it’s a shame he fell short.
The Dead and the Moonstruck by Caitlin R. Kiernan: 4/5
This was one of only two stories here that I actually kind of liked, although admittedly, it was more for lack of problems than any particularly outstanding qualities. Still, the worldbuilding was pretty good. The world that Kiernan builds here is done entirely without infodumps, and it’s a pretty interesting world at that. I’m normally kind of forgiving of infodumps when a world has to be built this quickly, so it’s quite impressive that Kiernan managed to build her world so quickly. Her protagonist was also pretty engaging. Even though Kiernan had so little time to build up her life and backstory, we still got a fairly complete idea of what she’s like as a person. The plot was where this story fell a bit short. Sure, the buildup was pretty engaging, but there was ultimately very little payoff. The end of the story was very anticlimatic, with a villain that was far easier to defeat than Kiernan had made him out to be. It was the most predictable and least interesting Kiernan could’ve chosen to cap off her potentially-thrilling buildup. Still, this was one of the best stories here, one of the few that wasn’t boring, and one of the few that was pretty well-written.
Have No Fear, Crumpot is Here by Barry Yourgrou: 1/5
Calling this one of the worst short stories I’ve ever read feels too generous. This was an amateurish mess. It tries to use humor to its advantage, but the gags were stupid to begin with, and they don’t get any funnier as Yourgrou repeats them over and over. There are only two or three actual jokes here, but they’re repeated at least two or three times per page, to the point where it gets completely unbearable. Our protagonist’s voice is entirely unbelievable. He’s supposed to be thirteen or fourteen, if I recall, but he read more like a third grader trying to imitate what a cool teenager would sound like. The voice uses ridiculous slang, it’s painfully childish, and it doesn’t capture anything about him. I can only assume that Yourgrou has never written for teenagers before, because this is horrendous. The story, which I’ve already forgotten - I think it had something to do with babysitting and bats - gets lost in all the bad humor and repetitive gags. It wasn’t the least bit scary or evocative. This was just a waste of paper, and I can’t imagine anyone gained anything from this stupid mess.
Stone Tower by Janni Lee Simmer: 5/5
The one saving grace of this otherwise mediocre anthology. In fact, I wouldn't blame you for buying the entire anthology just for this one short story. This story's premise is largely unexplained to the end, which could've been confusing, if everything wasn't so intentional. Simmer knows how to give us just enough information to understand what's going on, but withholding absolutely everything else, so we're compelled until the ending. The plot is driven forward with an intensity unmatched by anything else here. Simmer writes every word here with a purpose, every word building up to the climatic ending. But whereas The Dead and the Moonstruck's ending fell flat from its buildup, the twist at the end of this story was entirely warranted by the buildup. But most engaging of all is the strong narrative voice that Simmer gives to our protagonist. She perfectly captures the mentality of someone who's lost their memory, and uses it to great effect in building the suspense of the story. In short, this was easily the best short story here. Simmer has impressed me in the past, by writing one of the few stories from Welcome to Bordertown that wasn't awful, so I'm thinking I should check out more of her work. It looks like she might be an outstanding writer.
The Prank by Gregory Maguire: 3/5
I can't say this was as bad as I expected. I tried reading Wicked years ago, probably when I was too young. I don't really remember much about it, but I do recall it being incredibly boring. I'm not sure what I expected from this, but a fairly readable and normal YA story wasn't it. In fact, this story is fairly unmemorable. I might've thought back on it more fondly if I had understood the twist at the end. But because I couldn't follow the ending, I wasn't sure what to think of this. Certainly, Maguire writes an interesting and unique protagonist with a strong narrative voice. But I guess I just wasn't sure what the plot was supposed to be, what it was I was supposed to be scared by. Maguire didn't write a clear story. Plus, the writing could be awkward in places - in particular, the transitions tended to be very sudden, cutting off scenes before they felt finished. I expected to have strong feelings on Gregory Maguire one way or another; I'm surprised how indifferent I am to this story.
Writing on the Wall by Celia Rees: 2/5
There's honestly not much to say about this one. It's centered entirely on cliches, more than any other story here. (And considering this is a horror anthology, that's saying a lot). When you find yourself literally writing about an old abandoned house that's haunted in vague ways, you might want to reconsider what you're doing. And there's little to focus on other than that. There's no real protagonist here whose development I can evaluate, and there's just... not much going on here. The writing is fine, I guess. But there's very little to say about such an unememorably cliched story.
Endings by Garth Nix: 1/5
I've read a couple short stories from Garth Nix, in Geektastic and Zombies vs. Unicorns. I didn't like either of those stories, but at least he was trying. I've never seen anything this downright lazy out of him. It's only three pages long, and it's all vague, virtually meaningless existential shit. It feels like Nix wrote it in five minutes and sent it off without reading it over afterward. I didn't get any idea of the person narrating the story, or why he/she was saying these seemingly-random existential things. I didn't even know the protagonist was a vampire until I looked it up on Wikipedia. There's no deeper meaning here; Nix is just too lazy to write an actual story with actual characters. This is easily the worst short story here - other than Primate the Prom by Libba Bray, this might just be the worst short story I've ever read. I haven't read any novels by Nix, but from his short stories, I can only assume he's an overrated hack.
Like most anthologies, this is a mixed bag, weighing somewhat towards the negative. Unless you happen to like the authors in the anthology, there's no reason to read it.
October 4, 2017
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.
November 8, 2019
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
March 24, 2019
Really great collection of horror tales. Not terrifying - more like creepy. Some twists on the classic tropes. Perfect for a short story collection. I’ll look into some of the authors for further reading.
April 1, 2008
this is a collection of 10 'gothic' tales. I only found one of them to be scary, and that was the third one. Again, predictable, but OMG, that didn't make it any less CREEEEEPYYYYYYY!!!!!!! But, everyone's scared of different things. There are some stories about ghosts, a silly story about a vampire child, some more vampires, werewolves, etc. Some of the stories, while not scary, were still really good and interesting, and SHOCK not predictable!
October 22, 2015
Different perspectives of gothic. If you like gothic, then you should find at least a couple good stories in this book.
November 6, 2017
Like any short story collection, you get a mixed bag here - some are scarier or darker than others, but there were some authors in here that I had never read before and wanted to try them out. An over all good collection for Halloween time. The Dead and the Moonstruck was my favorite in this collection.
March 7, 2015
It's very hard to write a story in 20 pages or less. And I have to say that most, in my opinion didn't do so well. And I have to say that most stories weren't even scary or "dark" as was stated in the Intro and summary.
1)"Lungewater" by: Joan Aiken-
It was...okay. Unlike some stories, the pacing was fairly good. The story was interesting, but again, not dark. It was the classic ghost story, but it wasn't cliché, which is always a good thing.
2)"Morgan Roehmar's Boys" by: Vivian Vande Velde-
This story was one of the creepy and/or scary ones. It's mostly because the ending was so unexpected and that Morgan Roehmar was so freaken evil. It also didn't have flow problems. I was very happy with this story. Plus the first line is really cool: "Ashley rearranged the dead bodies, because there's nothing worse than a messy dead body."
3) "Watch and Wake" by: M. T. Anderson-
This was the only other story that was creepy and/or scary. It think it was because the whole idea of your face being ripped off, just creeps/grosses anyone out. Okay, two English class referances here: One being the whole magical realism setting here, and from what I read in the 'about the authors' part at the end of the book, it's kind of the same setting as another of his books Thirsty. So now I'm interesting in reading that book. And the other referance is the fact that this story was written in the same style as in The Stranger. What with that same short choppy sentences,all the physical descriptions with no emotion descripitions, and everything written like a list. It fit the story though, so I like it. This story also had a nice flow. So I really like this one.
4) "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" by: Neil Gaiman
Long title right? Well the title really doesn't have much to do with the story. As always with Neil Gaiman, the story is very well written. It's not that creep/scary, but it is a really COOL concept, so of course I liked it. The flow wasn't the best, but it was better than some.
5) "The Dead and the Moonstruck" by: Caitlin R. Kiernan-
That was....okay. Kind of forgetable. There were no flow problems...but it didn't really leave an impression on me.
6) "Have No Fear. Crumpot is Here!" by: Barry Yourgrau-
It was fun. A cute little story. But it there was a bit of flow problems. But it was overal a good story.
7) "Stone Tower" by: Janni Lee Simner-
It was a good start. It hooked me, that's for sure. But as it went on the flow got worse and worse, and it ended up kind of confusing. Oh, well. They can't be all good.
8) "The Prank" by: Gregory Maguire-
I really liked the writing. The voice of the girl is just plain cool, despite the what she did to this girl with a lead pipe. She a rebel, and the writing really displays that. Sad that the flow at the end wasn't that good....
9) "Writing on the Wall" by: Celia Rees-
It was okay. Not really my favorite though. Again the flow at the end was off.
10) "Endings" by: Garth Nix-
It was the shortest of all the stories. Seriously it was like only three pages long. And the good thing is that there was no flow problems. It was short and sweet and to the point, with a lot of deeper meaning. I liked it.
I only basically read this because it had a story by Neil Gaiman in it. (What can I say? I like Neil Gaiman.) So, I really wasn't exepecting much. There were some good stories, but most were just okay (sadly). Only two were creepy/scary and only like four I really liked. *sigh* Better luck next time....
1)"Lungewater" by: Joan Aiken-
It was...okay. Unlike some stories, the pacing was fairly good. The story was interesting, but again, not dark. It was the classic ghost story, but it wasn't cliché, which is always a good thing.
2)"Morgan Roehmar's Boys" by: Vivian Vande Velde-
This story was one of the creepy and/or scary ones. It's mostly because the ending was so unexpected and that Morgan Roehmar was so freaken evil. It also didn't have flow problems. I was very happy with this story. Plus the first line is really cool: "Ashley rearranged the dead bodies, because there's nothing worse than a messy dead body."
3) "Watch and Wake" by: M. T. Anderson-
This was the only other story that was creepy and/or scary. It think it was because the whole idea of your face being ripped off, just creeps/grosses anyone out. Okay, two English class referances here: One being the whole magical realism setting here, and from what I read in the 'about the authors' part at the end of the book, it's kind of the same setting as another of his books Thirsty. So now I'm interesting in reading that book. And the other referance is the fact that this story was written in the same style as in The Stranger. What with that same short choppy sentences,all the physical descriptions with no emotion descripitions, and everything written like a list. It fit the story though, so I like it. This story also had a nice flow. So I really like this one.
4) "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" by: Neil Gaiman
Long title right? Well the title really doesn't have much to do with the story. As always with Neil Gaiman, the story is very well written. It's not that creep/scary, but it is a really COOL concept, so of course I liked it. The flow wasn't the best, but it was better than some.
5) "The Dead and the Moonstruck" by: Caitlin R. Kiernan-
That was....okay. Kind of forgetable. There were no flow problems...but it didn't really leave an impression on me.
6) "Have No Fear. Crumpot is Here!" by: Barry Yourgrau-
It was fun. A cute little story. But it there was a bit of flow problems. But it was overal a good story.
7) "Stone Tower" by: Janni Lee Simner-
It was a good start. It hooked me, that's for sure. But as it went on the flow got worse and worse, and it ended up kind of confusing. Oh, well. They can't be all good.
8) "The Prank" by: Gregory Maguire-
I really liked the writing. The voice of the girl is just plain cool, despite the what she did to this girl with a lead pipe. She a rebel, and the writing really displays that. Sad that the flow at the end wasn't that good....
9) "Writing on the Wall" by: Celia Rees-
It was okay. Not really my favorite though. Again the flow at the end was off.
10) "Endings" by: Garth Nix-
It was the shortest of all the stories. Seriously it was like only three pages long. And the good thing is that there was no flow problems. It was short and sweet and to the point, with a lot of deeper meaning. I liked it.
I only basically read this because it had a story by Neil Gaiman in it. (What can I say? I like Neil Gaiman.) So, I really wasn't exepecting much. There were some good stories, but most were just okay (sadly). Only two were creepy/scary and only like four I really liked. *sigh* Better luck next time....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2015
Lungewater by Joan Aiken ★★☆☆☆
Ein Mädchen trifft einen alten Mann im Bus, der ihr eine alte Geschichte erzählt, die mit ihrer eigenen Familie zusammenhängt.
Gut geschrieben, aber inhaltlich eher unspektakulär.
Morgan Roehmar's Boys by Vivian Vande Velde ★★★☆☆
Ein Mädchen bleibt bei schlechtem Wetter allein in einer Scheune und trifft dort auf jemanden...
Woah, überraschende Wendung am Ende! O_O
Watch and Wake by M.T. Anderson ★★☆☆☆
Ein weggelaufener Junge soll die Totenwache eines Verstorbenen übernehmen und darf nicht einschlafen.
Das Ende war überraschend-gruselig, aber mir ein wenig zu unerklärt.
Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by Neil Gaiman ★★★☆☆
Ein Mann verzweifelt fast daran eine Geschichte zu schreiben, weil er sie viel realitätsferner schreiben möchte als von ihm erwartet wird.
Coole Auflösung am Ende, kannte ich aber schon aus Fragile Things.
The Dead And The Moonstruck by Caitlin R. Kiernan ★★☆☆☆
Ein Mädchen muss ihr drittes Mondritual bestehen, um bei den Ghoulen (?) aufgenommen zu werden.
Schön geschrieben, aber die Welt und ihre Figuren und Riten kam mir zu gewaltig für so wenig Seiten vor.
Have No Fear, Crumpot Is Here! by Barry Yourgrau ★★★☆☆
Ein Junge, der am liebsten laut Musik hört und Geschichten über einen Superhelden erfindet, soll auf einen kleinen Jungen aufpassen, um Verantwortungsbewusstsein zu beweisen. Leider ist der kleine Junge nicht ganz, was er zu sein scheint...
Gut geschrieben, ich mochte Walter und seine Crumpot-Superhelden-Buchtitel total gern, aber das Finale bzw. Ende waren mir zu mau.
Stone Tower by Janni Lee Simner ★★★☆☆
Ein Mädchen wacht in seinem Turmzimmer auf und durchlebt den ganz normalen Alltag. Die ganze Zeit hat sie das Gefühl etwas Wichtiges vergessen zu haben.
Total guter Anfang, sehr märchenhaft, aber auch hier ist das Ende viel zu simpel und unspektakulär.
The Prank by Gregory Maguire ★★★☆☆
Ein Mädchen begeht ein Verbrechen und muss zur Strafe das Wochenende bei einer Verwandten verbringen, die ihr eigenes Geheimnis birgt.
Cool geschrieben und interessant, aber das Ende wurde mir zu schnell abgewickelt und hat gar nicht so richtig in diese Geschichte mit sozialem Brennpunktthema gepasst.
Writing On The Wall by Celia Rees ★★☆☆☆
Ein Vater kauft ein altes Haus für sich und seine Kinder. Bei den Renovierungsarbeiten kommen Botschaften an den Wänden zu Tage...
Unterhaltsam geschrieben, aber am Ende wieder zu unspektakulär.
Endings by Garth Nix ★★☆☆☆
Ein Mann wartet auf sein Ende.
Cooles, stilistisches Konzept, inhaltlich aber zu wenig.
Insgesamt
Viel besser als ich erwartet hatte! Auf Grund des Themas habe ich gedacht, die Geschichten würden eher trocken-antik sein, aber sie waren total zugänglich, haben oft in moderner Umgebung gespielt und Teenager als Protagonisten gehabt. Eine echt schöne Sammlung mit guten Gruselgeschichten, die einen zwar nicht am Einschlafen hindern, aber trotzdem gut unterhalten.
Besonders interessant sind die Autorenvitas am Endes Buches, in denen nicht nur etwas über das Leben der Verfasser sondern auch etwas zu ihren Geschichten steht.
Ein Mädchen trifft einen alten Mann im Bus, der ihr eine alte Geschichte erzählt, die mit ihrer eigenen Familie zusammenhängt.
Gut geschrieben, aber inhaltlich eher unspektakulär.
Morgan Roehmar's Boys by Vivian Vande Velde ★★★☆☆
Ein Mädchen bleibt bei schlechtem Wetter allein in einer Scheune und trifft dort auf jemanden...
Woah, überraschende Wendung am Ende! O_O
Watch and Wake by M.T. Anderson ★★☆☆☆
Ein weggelaufener Junge soll die Totenwache eines Verstorbenen übernehmen und darf nicht einschlafen.
Das Ende war überraschend-gruselig, aber mir ein wenig zu unerklärt.
Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by Neil Gaiman ★★★☆☆
Ein Mann verzweifelt fast daran eine Geschichte zu schreiben, weil er sie viel realitätsferner schreiben möchte als von ihm erwartet wird.
Coole Auflösung am Ende, kannte ich aber schon aus Fragile Things.
The Dead And The Moonstruck by Caitlin R. Kiernan ★★☆☆☆
Ein Mädchen muss ihr drittes Mondritual bestehen, um bei den Ghoulen (?) aufgenommen zu werden.
Schön geschrieben, aber die Welt und ihre Figuren und Riten kam mir zu gewaltig für so wenig Seiten vor.
Have No Fear, Crumpot Is Here! by Barry Yourgrau ★★★☆☆
Ein Junge, der am liebsten laut Musik hört und Geschichten über einen Superhelden erfindet, soll auf einen kleinen Jungen aufpassen, um Verantwortungsbewusstsein zu beweisen. Leider ist der kleine Junge nicht ganz, was er zu sein scheint...
Gut geschrieben, ich mochte Walter und seine Crumpot-Superhelden-Buchtitel total gern, aber das Finale bzw. Ende waren mir zu mau.
Stone Tower by Janni Lee Simner ★★★☆☆
Ein Mädchen wacht in seinem Turmzimmer auf und durchlebt den ganz normalen Alltag. Die ganze Zeit hat sie das Gefühl etwas Wichtiges vergessen zu haben.
Total guter Anfang, sehr märchenhaft, aber auch hier ist das Ende viel zu simpel und unspektakulär.
The Prank by Gregory Maguire ★★★☆☆
Ein Mädchen begeht ein Verbrechen und muss zur Strafe das Wochenende bei einer Verwandten verbringen, die ihr eigenes Geheimnis birgt.
Cool geschrieben und interessant, aber das Ende wurde mir zu schnell abgewickelt und hat gar nicht so richtig in diese Geschichte mit sozialem Brennpunktthema gepasst.
Writing On The Wall by Celia Rees ★★☆☆☆
Ein Vater kauft ein altes Haus für sich und seine Kinder. Bei den Renovierungsarbeiten kommen Botschaften an den Wänden zu Tage...
Unterhaltsam geschrieben, aber am Ende wieder zu unspektakulär.
Endings by Garth Nix ★★☆☆☆
Ein Mann wartet auf sein Ende.
Cooles, stilistisches Konzept, inhaltlich aber zu wenig.
Insgesamt
Viel besser als ich erwartet hatte! Auf Grund des Themas habe ich gedacht, die Geschichten würden eher trocken-antik sein, aber sie waren total zugänglich, haben oft in moderner Umgebung gespielt und Teenager als Protagonisten gehabt. Eine echt schöne Sammlung mit guten Gruselgeschichten, die einen zwar nicht am Einschlafen hindern, aber trotzdem gut unterhalten.
Besonders interessant sind die Autorenvitas am Endes Buches, in denen nicht nur etwas über das Leben der Verfasser sondern auch etwas zu ihren Geschichten steht.
January 23, 2008
This anthology of short modern gothic tales is an older litgeek's version of that "Scary Stories" trilogy that was published in the 1980s by Alvin Schwartz. (The illustrations in those books were creepier than the stories)
Most of the stories are well worth reading in the dark by yourself. They don't hold a candle to the heebie-jeebies that horror stories evoke, the kind that make you uncomfortable in your own skin and lead you to jump at shadows, but the gothic genre is a kissing-cousin and makes a noble effort. I finished the story "Morgan Rodhmar's Boys" while smoking out on a cold porch at 1 in the morning, then came back inside and huddled under the covers for a bit--but not because I was all that cold or tired. The story's ending evoked ancient childhood fears of the Vampire in the closet and made me feel like I had to protect my neck.
Silly, yes? But that's what proper gothic tales do. They make you fear the unknown that you know doesn't really exist.
Not all the stories are mystically magical and mind-blowing, hence the three stars.
Most of the stories are well worth reading in the dark by yourself. They don't hold a candle to the heebie-jeebies that horror stories evoke, the kind that make you uncomfortable in your own skin and lead you to jump at shadows, but the gothic genre is a kissing-cousin and makes a noble effort. I finished the story "Morgan Rodhmar's Boys" while smoking out on a cold porch at 1 in the morning, then came back inside and huddled under the covers for a bit--but not because I was all that cold or tired. The story's ending evoked ancient childhood fears of the Vampire in the closet and made me feel like I had to protect my neck.
Silly, yes? But that's what proper gothic tales do. They make you fear the unknown that you know doesn't really exist.
Not all the stories are mystically magical and mind-blowing, hence the three stars.
July 16, 2009
These stories are neither gothic nor particularly good. Many of these tales are, frankly, cute. Not once did I feel scared. Not once did I feel wrapped up in a gothic atmosphere. Gothic can mean many things, but not once did I feel like I was reading a Tim Burton movie or reading a Bram Stoker book or listening to a Bauhaus song or anything. By and large, these stories are tame, sometimes confusing, and never particularly dark or spooky. Never once was I scared.
M.T. Anderson's "Watch and Wake," Caitlin R. Kiernan's "The Dead and the Moonstruck," and Neil Gaiman's satirical "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" are the only stories here that feel particularly gothic. It's fitting, then, that they're sort of the standouts. But Kiernan's tale can also be found in her collection "To Charles Forte, With Love," and Gaiman's tale can also be found in his collection "Fragile Things"--both of which are more consistent and far more worth reading.
Not recommended.
M.T. Anderson's "Watch and Wake," Caitlin R. Kiernan's "The Dead and the Moonstruck," and Neil Gaiman's satirical "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" are the only stories here that feel particularly gothic. It's fitting, then, that they're sort of the standouts. But Kiernan's tale can also be found in her collection "To Charles Forte, With Love," and Gaiman's tale can also be found in his collection "Fragile Things"--both of which are more consistent and far more worth reading.
Not recommended.
January 18, 2018
It was very hard to write about this book because there was not one main character, but because of the different story lines, it made the book fun to
read because its always different
read because its always different
May 7, 2009
Another re-read. I've read a lot of anthologies of horror/dark fiction over the years, and, as weird as it sounds to say, Gothic! may be my favorite. I don't love every story, but most of them are creepy and solid and fun, which is everything I ask for from a story. Plus, this is the first place I ever read anything by M. T. Anderson, and his story in here remains a favorite of mine.
Read
December 7, 2012A lovesick count and the ghost of his brutalized servant . . . a serial killer who defies death . . . a house with a violent mind of its own and another that holds a grotesque secret within its peeling walls. Here are witches who feast on faces, changeling rites of passage, a venerable vampire
contemplating his end, and a fanged brat who drains the patience of a bumbling teenage boy. Here too are a flamboyant young novelist in search of a subject more compelling than his own eerie existence and the daughter of a sorcerer fighting to free her lover — and her will — from sinister bonds.
contemplating his end, and a fanged brat who drains the patience of a bumbling teenage boy. Here too are a flamboyant young novelist in search of a subject more compelling than his own eerie existence and the daughter of a sorcerer fighting to free her lover — and her will — from sinister bonds.
August 2, 2024
With all short story collections, there's going to be some hits and misses, but I felt this one had a good amount of hits, or at least stories that were interesting to read. I liked about half of them and felt okay for a few more and only truly disliked 2. I thought most were well-written and depicted interesting ideas that made you think a bit. A few of these short stories weren't exactly gothic; however, I didn't have the biggest problem with that as the storytelling was still good, and I can understand why they were nonetheless put in a gothic book as they encapsulated some aspects of the genre but built upon them in more modern ways. Overall, this book was a fun casual read that was good, and that's about it. Below, I will provide my ratings of each individual story and a short review.
Lungewater: 2/5; I found this story to be extremely boring plot-wise, but I did enjoy the atmosphere it built. It absolutely was gothic. The plot just didn't do much of anything for me (nor the characters). It, at least, set a gothic tone for the rest of the stories.
Morgan Roehmar's Boys: 4/5; This was one of the aforementioned stories that didn't really fit the gothic genre, in my opinion, but I thought the story was still quite spooky and interesting. I liked the twist at the end, and the writing style was great, and the characterization of the main character was well done. I was thoroughly taken in by the story throughout.
Watch and Wake: 1/5; This was my least favorite short story from the novel. The writing style was awful to get through. If this was a full novel, I would not have finished it. It was all very straightforward with no vivid imagery. It was frank and only such. I swear almost every sentence was simply an independent clause. The twist at the end was good, but I feel that any other story could have done it so much better with writing that I didn't despise. Though, I would call this story gothic.
Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves In The Nameless House of The Night of Dread Desire: 3/5; It was a fun and ironic look into gothic storytelling that I thought was quite tongue and cheek. It was well-written and a bit funny as well. I don't think the plot was executed the best it could have been, though. It felt it was missing any type of impact or punch at times. It was still a fun read, though. This was quite gothic (and ironic).
The Dead and The Moonstruck: 3.5/5; With such a little amount of writing, this story made me care a lot about all of the characters introduced, which I thought was great. The world building was extremely well done and made me very curious about what was occurring. I would have rated this higher if the ending had been more interesting and impactful. Very much gothic.
Have No Fear, Crumpet is Here!: 3/5; This story was quite devisive for people, but I just thought it was cute and funny. I liked the characterization of the main character, especially as someone who made up my own stories in my head as a child to deal with boredom. It was also intriguing at times, and whilst not extremely gothic, I think it definitely still emulated some of the basic ideas. However, I understand people going into this book to find serious literature being upset when they see a more humorous take on the genre. I was just not one of those people, so I enjoyed it lightly instead.
Stone Tower: 4/5; This may have been my favorite story of this collection? It was very well done, and I loved how it dealt with coping with trauma but through a magical lense. It kept up the suspense and mystery until the end, and I liked the writing and realism to the story. It has a modern gothic feel, which I think is a fun thing to experiment with.
The Prank: 1.5/5; I really just needed this story to stop using the word lesbo. It was an odd story without any clarity to the plot or what was going on. It was confusing and unclear and bordered the line of being offensive simply to be offensive. The ending and big reveal made barely any sense and was quite predictable in its set-up. I am just happy the writing style was interesting enough. This is another story in this collection that I wouldn't call gothic as easily, though it does have some possible southern gothic elements (at least more than Morgan Roehmar's Boys).
Writing on the Wall: 2.5/5; It was alright. I liked the idea, but I think the execution was a bit boring for what it was. It didn't do much to develop the story of even the horror aspects of it. It was fine. It was... slightly gothic? And that's being generous.
Endings: 3/5; Quite short, but I did generally like it. It was cool and quite abstract in its presentation. The story idea was also interesting, and the ending had some good impact that makes you wonder. I thought it was a nice end to the collection. Definitely gothic.
Overall, it was a pretty good collection of stories that were a fun read to get both some gothic literature in but also some more fresh ideas in the face of dark tales. I wouldn't say any of these stories are all that scary, but I don't think that was the point of any of them (they're dark, not horror). I recommend going into this book with an open mind about what you think gothic literature is and not expecting only horror aspects. Overall, it was a fun read! Reading in the middle of the night and also during a blackout helps add to the atmosphere as well! (That is when I did most of my reading.)
Lungewater: 2/5; I found this story to be extremely boring plot-wise, but I did enjoy the atmosphere it built. It absolutely was gothic. The plot just didn't do much of anything for me (nor the characters). It, at least, set a gothic tone for the rest of the stories.
Morgan Roehmar's Boys: 4/5; This was one of the aforementioned stories that didn't really fit the gothic genre, in my opinion, but I thought the story was still quite spooky and interesting. I liked the twist at the end, and the writing style was great, and the characterization of the main character was well done. I was thoroughly taken in by the story throughout.
Watch and Wake: 1/5; This was my least favorite short story from the novel. The writing style was awful to get through. If this was a full novel, I would not have finished it. It was all very straightforward with no vivid imagery. It was frank and only such. I swear almost every sentence was simply an independent clause. The twist at the end was good, but I feel that any other story could have done it so much better with writing that I didn't despise. Though, I would call this story gothic.
Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves In The Nameless House of The Night of Dread Desire: 3/5; It was a fun and ironic look into gothic storytelling that I thought was quite tongue and cheek. It was well-written and a bit funny as well. I don't think the plot was executed the best it could have been, though. It felt it was missing any type of impact or punch at times. It was still a fun read, though. This was quite gothic (and ironic).
The Dead and The Moonstruck: 3.5/5; With such a little amount of writing, this story made me care a lot about all of the characters introduced, which I thought was great. The world building was extremely well done and made me very curious about what was occurring. I would have rated this higher if the ending had been more interesting and impactful. Very much gothic.
Have No Fear, Crumpet is Here!: 3/5; This story was quite devisive for people, but I just thought it was cute and funny. I liked the characterization of the main character, especially as someone who made up my own stories in my head as a child to deal with boredom. It was also intriguing at times, and whilst not extremely gothic, I think it definitely still emulated some of the basic ideas. However, I understand people going into this book to find serious literature being upset when they see a more humorous take on the genre. I was just not one of those people, so I enjoyed it lightly instead.
Stone Tower: 4/5; This may have been my favorite story of this collection? It was very well done, and I loved how it dealt with coping with trauma but through a magical lense. It kept up the suspense and mystery until the end, and I liked the writing and realism to the story. It has a modern gothic feel, which I think is a fun thing to experiment with.
The Prank: 1.5/5; I really just needed this story to stop using the word lesbo. It was an odd story without any clarity to the plot or what was going on. It was confusing and unclear and bordered the line of being offensive simply to be offensive. The ending and big reveal made barely any sense and was quite predictable in its set-up. I am just happy the writing style was interesting enough. This is another story in this collection that I wouldn't call gothic as easily, though it does have some possible southern gothic elements (at least more than Morgan Roehmar's Boys).
Writing on the Wall: 2.5/5; It was alright. I liked the idea, but I think the execution was a bit boring for what it was. It didn't do much to develop the story of even the horror aspects of it. It was fine. It was... slightly gothic? And that's being generous.
Endings: 3/5; Quite short, but I did generally like it. It was cool and quite abstract in its presentation. The story idea was also interesting, and the ending had some good impact that makes you wonder. I thought it was a nice end to the collection. Definitely gothic.
Overall, it was a pretty good collection of stories that were a fun read to get both some gothic literature in but also some more fresh ideas in the face of dark tales. I wouldn't say any of these stories are all that scary, but I don't think that was the point of any of them (they're dark, not horror). I recommend going into this book with an open mind about what you think gothic literature is and not expecting only horror aspects. Overall, it was a fun read! Reading in the middle of the night and also during a blackout helps add to the atmosphere as well! (That is when I did most of my reading.)
September 25, 2009
A fun anthology of spooky & dark fiction. A great read for October!
May 11, 2013
Gothic!
Ten Original Dark Tales
I don't remember how long ago I bought
this book. I picked it up because a
friend had a short story published in it,
and also because there was a Neil Gaiman
piece, and I'm a sucker for his work. The
other names on the over did not ring any
bells for me. Since this is a collection
it's only fair if I give a mini-review of
each story, and I might as well do it in
the order that they appear in this book.
1) Lungewater by Joan Aiken
I believe I read in the artist bio part of
this book that this author was dead, and
as I have no wish to speak ill of the dead
I'll keep my comments on this story short.
I think it was probably a mistake to put
this first in this collection. It is not
the strongest by far, and really I think
the effect it most engenders in the mind of
the reader is one of confusion. The story
meanders and halts and doesn't seem to
have a definite conclusion. It's hard to
tell if it's a parable or a ghost story or
the ramblings of a bored person. I don't
recommend seeking this one out.
2) Morgan Roehmar's Boys by Vivivan Vande
Velde
I certainly hope that name is a nom de
plume. If not than this writers
alliterative parents have much to answer
for. It's been awhile since I read this
book and this story title isn't bringing
anything to my memory. Ah! OK, a glance
at the first page brings the whole piece
back to me. It's a fairly innocuous
haunting story with elements of historic
crime fiction and a nice framing device of
having the horror occur on the set of a
haunted straw ride. As an individual who
has worked in the haunt industry for over
10 years I appreciated some of the details
the author included about the boredom of
resetting and waiting in between scares. A
better story than the first in this
collection, but since I didn't have any
memory of it based on it's title it
obviously didn't leave too much of an
impression on me.
3) Watch and Wake Retold from a story by
Lucious Apuleius by M. T. Anderson
OK now this story I liked a lot. In fact,
I believe the bio section said that this
author has another series of tales set in
the same peculiar universe that this
story was set and I am making a note right
now to keep an eye out for it. This story
hits just the right note of dark fantasy
that I was hoping to find in this book.
The world of the story is similar to ours
but certain details are a few degrees of
strangeness that really adds a good flavor
to everything that takes place. Some of
the details might seem confusing on first
read through, but the tale as a whole is
very interesting, and as I said it makes
me want to read more by this author which
should be the goal of all short stories.
4) Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves
In the Nameless House of the Night of
Dread Desire by Neil Gaiman.
Neil knows the rules of dark fantasy, he's
done enough of them. And when you know
the tropes and you know the ropes you get
to play with the conventions a bit. And
in this story he goes hog wild. I found
myself laughing a few times at the
absurdity of the Gothic fantasy turned
back on itself. Well worth the price of
admission, this story made me glad I'd
picked up the book and given it a read,
even if it took me 6 years to get around
to it.
5) The Dead and the Moonstruck by Caitlin R
Kiernan.
And here we have the other reason I picked
this book up. I met Caitlin at my first
Dragon Con in 2000 and I'm glad to say
that we've remained in contact via various
social sites ever since and that I had the
opportunity to see her at many other
conventions and hear readings of various
stories, including I believe this one.
I'm nearly positive this story has
appeared in a few other collections which
I own, possibly "From Weird and Distant
Shores." I can verify that, just a
moment... or not, I really need to organize
my bookshelves... or I could just google
it. This story also appears in "To
Charles Fort, with Love" (which I own) and
in "Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of
Caitlin R Kiernan" which I do not own.
So, if you can't find a copy of this
collection and do want a really good dark
fantasy story you'd do well to pick up
either of those. As to the story itself
the main character of this story, Starling
Jane, shows up a number of times in
Caitlin's other books and I believe this
is her first ever appearance so, yeah
definitely check it out.
6) Have no Fear. Crumpot is here! by
Barry Yourgrau.
This story I had not really
forgotten. This story I had tried to
scrub from my brain because it was just
so... execrable and pedantic. It takes
that old Walter Mitty device of having an
ordinary character who has a rich dream
life... I think the main character of this
story is even named Walter, or "Wally."
Anyway, it's not handled very well since
"Wally's" imagination is even more
pathetic than he is and the whole mess
careens right past farce before wrecking
in the land of best forgotten tales.
We're done here.
7) Stone Tower by Janni Lee Simner
This story was actually kind of poetic and
sweet. It's sort of a bildungs roman tale
crossed with an enchanted princess at the
mercy of an evil enchanter, but told from
a slightly off center perspective so the
tropes are not immediately recognizable.
I actually don't want to say too much
about this story because it's worth
letting it reveal itself. This one was
very refreshing after the preceding one.
8) The Prank by Gregory Maguire.
This is a weird one and I didn't exactly
like it, but I didn't exactly hate it
either. You know that feeling? I wasn't
indifferent about it, while I was reading
I felt like the author was building up to
something trying to make a lesson, but
when I finished I wasn't really sure what
that was. This story is best described as
a look at one of the dark secrets in a
family life. We all have skeletons in our
closets and I guess it's appropriate if
some of those skeletons are literal... and
maybe not completely dead.
9) Writing on the Wall by Celia Rees
By this point I was kind of wanting to be
done with the book. This story isn't bad,
but it doesn't particularly stand out or
have very much that recommends it. It's a
haunted house story and a possession story
and at the end there's a death, these
things happen. The story is told
competently, I was just feeling kind of
hollow by the time I got to it. But I
guess that's kind of the point of reading
dark depressing stories? To build a
resonance with the darkness within... eh.
Maybe I would have liked it more if I had
read it when I first got the book and was
a bit younger and less world weary.
10) Endings by Garth Nix.
I'm sure this was put at the end due to
it's title. It's a mercifully short 4
page story told in a sort of eloquent
poetic script. The speaker is some dark
great evil waiting to give an end to those
who would confront it, but in reality
waiting for it's own end. And in that
respect, it has a bit in common with this
collection.
So yeah, all in all a mixed bag. Three
stories I really liked, one of which I had
already read. Four others which were OK,
but didn't leave a lasting impression on
me. Two which I legitimately did not
like, and a long form poem to finish it
all off. You could do worse.
Ten Original Dark Tales
I don't remember how long ago I bought
this book. I picked it up because a
friend had a short story published in it,
and also because there was a Neil Gaiman
piece, and I'm a sucker for his work. The
other names on the over did not ring any
bells for me. Since this is a collection
it's only fair if I give a mini-review of
each story, and I might as well do it in
the order that they appear in this book.
1) Lungewater by Joan Aiken
I believe I read in the artist bio part of
this book that this author was dead, and
as I have no wish to speak ill of the dead
I'll keep my comments on this story short.
I think it was probably a mistake to put
this first in this collection. It is not
the strongest by far, and really I think
the effect it most engenders in the mind of
the reader is one of confusion. The story
meanders and halts and doesn't seem to
have a definite conclusion. It's hard to
tell if it's a parable or a ghost story or
the ramblings of a bored person. I don't
recommend seeking this one out.
2) Morgan Roehmar's Boys by Vivivan Vande
Velde
I certainly hope that name is a nom de
plume. If not than this writers
alliterative parents have much to answer
for. It's been awhile since I read this
book and this story title isn't bringing
anything to my memory. Ah! OK, a glance
at the first page brings the whole piece
back to me. It's a fairly innocuous
haunting story with elements of historic
crime fiction and a nice framing device of
having the horror occur on the set of a
haunted straw ride. As an individual who
has worked in the haunt industry for over
10 years I appreciated some of the details
the author included about the boredom of
resetting and waiting in between scares. A
better story than the first in this
collection, but since I didn't have any
memory of it based on it's title it
obviously didn't leave too much of an
impression on me.
3) Watch and Wake Retold from a story by
Lucious Apuleius by M. T. Anderson
OK now this story I liked a lot. In fact,
I believe the bio section said that this
author has another series of tales set in
the same peculiar universe that this
story was set and I am making a note right
now to keep an eye out for it. This story
hits just the right note of dark fantasy
that I was hoping to find in this book.
The world of the story is similar to ours
but certain details are a few degrees of
strangeness that really adds a good flavor
to everything that takes place. Some of
the details might seem confusing on first
read through, but the tale as a whole is
very interesting, and as I said it makes
me want to read more by this author which
should be the goal of all short stories.
4) Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves
In the Nameless House of the Night of
Dread Desire by Neil Gaiman.
Neil knows the rules of dark fantasy, he's
done enough of them. And when you know
the tropes and you know the ropes you get
to play with the conventions a bit. And
in this story he goes hog wild. I found
myself laughing a few times at the
absurdity of the Gothic fantasy turned
back on itself. Well worth the price of
admission, this story made me glad I'd
picked up the book and given it a read,
even if it took me 6 years to get around
to it.
5) The Dead and the Moonstruck by Caitlin R
Kiernan.
And here we have the other reason I picked
this book up. I met Caitlin at my first
Dragon Con in 2000 and I'm glad to say
that we've remained in contact via various
social sites ever since and that I had the
opportunity to see her at many other
conventions and hear readings of various
stories, including I believe this one.
I'm nearly positive this story has
appeared in a few other collections which
I own, possibly "From Weird and Distant
Shores." I can verify that, just a
moment... or not, I really need to organize
my bookshelves... or I could just google
it. This story also appears in "To
Charles Fort, with Love" (which I own) and
in "Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of
Caitlin R Kiernan" which I do not own.
So, if you can't find a copy of this
collection and do want a really good dark
fantasy story you'd do well to pick up
either of those. As to the story itself
the main character of this story, Starling
Jane, shows up a number of times in
Caitlin's other books and I believe this
is her first ever appearance so, yeah
definitely check it out.
6) Have no Fear. Crumpot is here! by
Barry Yourgrau.
This story I had not really
forgotten. This story I had tried to
scrub from my brain because it was just
so... execrable and pedantic. It takes
that old Walter Mitty device of having an
ordinary character who has a rich dream
life... I think the main character of this
story is even named Walter, or "Wally."
Anyway, it's not handled very well since
"Wally's" imagination is even more
pathetic than he is and the whole mess
careens right past farce before wrecking
in the land of best forgotten tales.
We're done here.
7) Stone Tower by Janni Lee Simner
This story was actually kind of poetic and
sweet. It's sort of a bildungs roman tale
crossed with an enchanted princess at the
mercy of an evil enchanter, but told from
a slightly off center perspective so the
tropes are not immediately recognizable.
I actually don't want to say too much
about this story because it's worth
letting it reveal itself. This one was
very refreshing after the preceding one.
8) The Prank by Gregory Maguire.
This is a weird one and I didn't exactly
like it, but I didn't exactly hate it
either. You know that feeling? I wasn't
indifferent about it, while I was reading
I felt like the author was building up to
something trying to make a lesson, but
when I finished I wasn't really sure what
that was. This story is best described as
a look at one of the dark secrets in a
family life. We all have skeletons in our
closets and I guess it's appropriate if
some of those skeletons are literal... and
maybe not completely dead.
9) Writing on the Wall by Celia Rees
By this point I was kind of wanting to be
done with the book. This story isn't bad,
but it doesn't particularly stand out or
have very much that recommends it. It's a
haunted house story and a possession story
and at the end there's a death, these
things happen. The story is told
competently, I was just feeling kind of
hollow by the time I got to it. But I
guess that's kind of the point of reading
dark depressing stories? To build a
resonance with the darkness within... eh.
Maybe I would have liked it more if I had
read it when I first got the book and was
a bit younger and less world weary.
10) Endings by Garth Nix.
I'm sure this was put at the end due to
it's title. It's a mercifully short 4
page story told in a sort of eloquent
poetic script. The speaker is some dark
great evil waiting to give an end to those
who would confront it, but in reality
waiting for it's own end. And in that
respect, it has a bit in common with this
collection.
So yeah, all in all a mixed bag. Three
stories I really liked, one of which I had
already read. Four others which were OK,
but didn't leave a lasting impression on
me. Two which I legitimately did not
like, and a long form poem to finish it
all off. You could do worse.
June 20, 2017
I don't read books of short stories... usually. I'd make myself read them all in series and then give up, because reading the ones I don't like ruins the concept of the whole collection.
So this time I didn't read the ones that bored me or irritated me, and actually enjoyed reading. Silly me!
I liked Neil Gaiman's story (creepy and delightfully humorous), and Garth Nix's (thoughtful and brooding and elegant) -though since I already like these two authors this probably isn't surprising- M. T. Anderson (never read this author before) had a story I could praise for the fact that it is quite 'catch you by surprise' frightening- and Vivian Vande Velde's story was pretty good. That's four out of ten...
So this time I didn't read the ones that bored me or irritated me, and actually enjoyed reading. Silly me!
I liked Neil Gaiman's story (creepy and delightfully humorous), and Garth Nix's (thoughtful and brooding and elegant) -though since I already like these two authors this probably isn't surprising- M. T. Anderson (never read this author before) had a story I could praise for the fact that it is quite 'catch you by surprise' frightening- and Vivian Vande Velde's story was pretty good. That's four out of ten...
January 29, 2021
I read the book Gothic, The Original Dark Tales. It is written by 10 different authors. This book has 10 different scary stories. Some stories are about scary stuff happening on Christmas. Other stories are about dead bodies, and haunted places.
The author tries to make the stories scary by feeling like the words are yelling at me by capitalizing them or using !. The authors put words in so I know what is happening like the floor is creaking. The author said the soul is slipping from the person page 73.
I recommend this book to people who like scary stories. I laughed at some of the stories because sometimes scary things are funny.
The author tries to make the stories scary by feeling like the words are yelling at me by capitalizing them or using !. The authors put words in so I know what is happening like the floor is creaking. The author said the soul is slipping from the person page 73.
I recommend this book to people who like scary stories. I laughed at some of the stories because sometimes scary things are funny.
November 21, 2022
Overall, the average was a 2.7/5, so I rounded it up to a 3.
*Lungewater by: Joan Aiken - 5/5
*Morgan Roehmar's Boys by: Vivian Vande Velde - 4/5
*Watch and Wake by: M.T. Anderson - 1/5 (sentences were short and choppy; didn't flow well)
*Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by: Neil Gaiman - 1/5 (didn't really understand this at all)
*The Dead and the Moonstruck by: Caitlin R. Kiernan - 1/5 (confusing)
*Have No Fear, Crumpot us Here! by: Barry Yourgrau - 3/5
*Stone Tower by: Jennifer Lee Simner - 1/5
*The Prank by: Gregory Maguire - 2/5
*Writing on the Wall by: Celia Rees - 5/5
*Endings by: Garth Nix - 4/5
*Lungewater by: Joan Aiken - 5/5
*Morgan Roehmar's Boys by: Vivian Vande Velde - 4/5
*Watch and Wake by: M.T. Anderson - 1/5 (sentences were short and choppy; didn't flow well)
*Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by: Neil Gaiman - 1/5 (didn't really understand this at all)
*The Dead and the Moonstruck by: Caitlin R. Kiernan - 1/5 (confusing)
*Have No Fear, Crumpot us Here! by: Barry Yourgrau - 3/5
*Stone Tower by: Jennifer Lee Simner - 1/5
*The Prank by: Gregory Maguire - 2/5
*Writing on the Wall by: Celia Rees - 5/5
*Endings by: Garth Nix - 4/5
July 31, 2023
"I have been waiting a long time for this ending.
Waiting for someone to choose me.
To give me Joy, instead of Sorrow."
I love that last line of the short story Mr. Garth Nix put, and it also fits the book for the ending. An audiobook might have helped but overall, the gothic theme is really stretched into the different genres, how these authors created their own way of gothic with the element still in there. Listening to a gothic playlist helped: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3V0...
Setting the mood and all...
Overall, I think I a great book the start with if getting into the gothic genre, then expanding.
Waiting for someone to choose me.
To give me Joy, instead of Sorrow."
I love that last line of the short story Mr. Garth Nix put, and it also fits the book for the ending. An audiobook might have helped but overall, the gothic theme is really stretched into the different genres, how these authors created their own way of gothic with the element still in there. Listening to a gothic playlist helped: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3V0...
Setting the mood and all...
Overall, I think I a great book the start with if getting into the gothic genre, then expanding.
April 25, 2020
My original rating was 2 stars, but there were some stories that were ok. Which means I didn’t not not like them. A phrase from Book Club days. 🙃.
Morgan Roehmar’s Boys, Stone Tower, Writing on the Wall & Endings were all pretty good.
I’m not sure Gothic is a genre for me. Pretty much predictable & definitely not scary.
A nice quick weekend read.
Morgan Roehmar’s Boys, Stone Tower, Writing on the Wall & Endings were all pretty good.
I’m not sure Gothic is a genre for me. Pretty much predictable & definitely not scary.
A nice quick weekend read.
March 17, 2021
I probably bought this book because, a). I'm a Goth and felt like I should own this and b). there's a Neil Gaiman story (the only authour, I might mention, I recognized). There were maybe 2 stories that I was really into and was like, oh my gosh how is this going to end?! Other ones were okay and the rest were, in my opinion, not good. I mean, maybe this book is for tweens?! I don't mind reading YA novels, so not saying anything negative about tween targeted writing. I may have gone into it with the wrong mind set. If I had known these stories weren't overall tragic in a true Gothic sense (more so in a Goosebump way) I may feel differently.
December 30, 2024
Granted this turned out to be targeted at teen readers and so I am probably not the ideal demographic, I do enjoy horror and gothic horror fiction. This book, though, was a mixed bag. I really liked four of the ten stories. The other six ranged anywhere from okay-ish to bad. Probably better suited for teen horror readers as it was intended.
June 24, 2020
Some of these stories were almost too creepy for me! I think there were just a couple of stories that didn't trip my trigger but most of them did. Really liked the book. Liked that there was a little something on each of the authors. That's always a nice touch.
November 30, 2021
I felt that some of the stories were very poorly written. Some were so poorly written that I'm not even entirely sure what they were supposed to convey to readers. Some of the stories were okay, but there weren't any that will last in my memory.
November 13, 2022
A fun little YA journey through ten gothic tales. Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire is the standout with its deliciously humorous take on gothic tropes.
Read
December 28, 2024just thinking about this book randomly as it was one of the first books I remember taking out from the teen section at our local library lol. Read so long ago I can't really remember the stories other than the neil gaiman one which I loved at the time
June 18, 2018
These stories were more cute than creepy but nevertheless I enjoyed this fun and fast read.
July 30, 2018
Actual rating: 3,5.
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