Even Odder

by Steve Burt

15 ghost stories and weird tales from Bram Stoker Award winner Steve Burt. Second in the Stories to Chill the Heart series (Odd Lot, Even Odder, Oddest Yet, Wicked Odd). The book was a Bram Stoker Award Nominee/Finalist (losing to Harry Potter). It also won a New England Book Festival Award.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

144 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2003

About the author

Steve Burt's 2019 gargoyle novel, The Bookseller's Daughter, has won the NY Book Festival Grand Prize and the gold Mom's Choice Award. He is a retired minister and multi-award-winning writer who is best-known for his FreeKs psychic teen detectives series (FreeK Camp, FreeK Show, FreeK Week) and his Stories to Chill the Heart story collections (Odd Lot, Even Odder, Oddest Yet, Wicked Odd). He has won the Bram Stoker Award, several Ray Bradbury writing prizes, and the Benjamin Franklin Award, plus a bunch of book festival awards (Paris, London, NY, New England, San Francisco, Hollywood, Halloween, Beach Book Festival awards). His novel FreeK Week was named the Grand Prize winner at the 2015 Florida Book Festival Awards and the Best Y.A. at the New England Book Festival Awards; it also won the 2014 Mom's Choice Award. His latest books include Wicked Strange, Vermont Ghost Busters, Horrors, and a collection titled Vampires, Ghost, and Graveyards. He also writes inspirational books, including Unk's Fiddle and the bestseller, A Christmas Dozen, and has published stories in Family Circle, Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and others, many of which he performs on radio. Before turning to fiction he wrote numerous church-related books. His 2016 books include Publish Your Book Free: Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide to Create Space Print-on-Demand Publishing, First Worst Joke Book, Second Worst Joke Book, and Christmas Soup for the Soul: 10 Hearty Helpings.

Reviews

[Richard L. Haas III · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOTE: This is more of a review of Chill the Heart series as a whole.

When I was a kid, I believe in 6th grade, my parents had taken me to either The Big E or some expo/fair and Steve Burt was there presenting his Odd Lot series. I believe he had just written the fourth novel and he was talking about the series to my mother and I. Since I was getting into horror novels and we like to support New England authors, my mother decided to get them all. (Now as I write this review, I will say this is more a reminiscent review as I remember the feeling reading it.) This series is a fantastic way to start off kids into the realm of horror. Feels a bit more mature than Goosebumps but with everything written as short stories it is a good taste. I forget if it was this one or perhaps the first, but I was reading it in my math class while we had a short break and I was so into the book that a classmate had to throw a book at me to snap out of it; my teacher and all the students had been nearly yelling my name but I didn't even realize it. That is an awesome story because it truly shows the magic of reading. Like any short story collection some stand out more than others, but overall they were great. Even Odder was perhaps the best, Odd Lot was second to it and Oddest Yet and Wicked Odd were great too. In the future I expect to reread them so an updated review may happen then; I wouldn't be surprised if I introduce this to my children down the line too.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift many years ago, and figured it would be a good October read. The style of the stories is similar to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, short and with a twist ending. I often found the endings to be a bit vague or nonsensical and in general unsatisfying, although there were some creepy situations, like the fisherman who found his predecessor to have used cats as lobster bait, or the marionette store. I also wouldn't call this a "YA" book - although the content would be fine for teens to read, there were some oddities (haha) and a general tone that made this read as general adult for me.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did the illustrations. :)