New Scary Stories to Read in the Dark

by R.J. Lawrence

A thrilling collection of pulse-quickening scary stories and bizarre tales.

"Dark, immersive short stories with surprises around every corner."
— Sarah McDaniels, The Candid Book Review

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Short Stories

68 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 14, 2019

About the author

RJ Lawrence is a journalist, magazine feature writer and an author. His current fiction works include The Fortunate Only, The Xactilias Project and The Xactilias Stratagem, available for download and in print at Amazon. He makes his home in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and young son. He is currently at work on the third book in the Xactilias Saga.

Reviews

[♡ Dakota ♡ (Sarcasm is my middle name)]

“It sounded like a cry of relief, like the sound their father made after a bowel movement”…. And with that I’m out. DNF at 5%. No Rating.

[Paige Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun collection to read before bed and that's just what I did! I love reading these horror shorts it's relaxing to me. I know, I'm weird, but that's for another day.

The two stories that stood out to me the most were The Mannequin and Toothache. Give this collection a go and to make it even more enjoyable be sure to read in the dark and or before bed for the extra creepiness.

[Randi Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read but not worthy of the well-known, highly revered title

Interesting. Suspenseful, gory, cringe-worthy. The spelling and grammatical errors, while few, were enough to make me lose respect for the book. The stories, while interesting, were not what I had hoped when I saw the title and left me a little disappointed.

[Sierra Houston · Rating 3 out of 5]

So odd, it was good at first but then the last half of the book was one story and it was a whole different vibe and it was basically just teasing a different book. Most of the stories said things that I would assume people would write in the 70s but to write in 2019 is kinda crazy. It was good though, a bit graphic but I like that

[Dark And Smutty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since it’s spooky season, I wanted to read some scary horror anthologies, and I saw this one heavily recommended on TikTok. I was like, hell yeah, let’s gooo! But then I was left feeling disappointed for most of it and wished I didn’t actually spend the $7 on it 😕 it wasn’t bad, some parts of the stories did give me the creeps, but I just felt like I was forcing myself to finish the book just cause I spent money on it… So here are my reviews for each short story in this book:

“The Well” - Definitely gave me the creeps and felt like it was very in tune for spooky season. It was quite eerie and gave me another reason to not go near wells. 3/5

“The Box” - Decently creepy. I’m now avoiding purchasing random small boxes from any thrift store or garage sale. 3/5

“The Mannequin” - Disturbing and bizarre. Had a good true crime vibe going which is the only reason I liked this one. 4/5

“Toothache” - I was very bored with this one. I skipped it barely halfway in cause I didn’t wanna torture myself. 0/5

“The Invertebrate” - Creepy. Disturbing. Fucked up. I love me some scary folklore. 5/5

“The Natural High” - Weird. But in a good way. Don’t eat random berries you find in random places! 4/5

“The Girl Who Lived” - Another one that bored me. I had to skim 90% of this story cause I had zero interest. Then the good shit started happening right towards the end, and that’s what finally caught my attention! Another story that had a true crime spin to it. 2/5 overall but 5/5 ending

[Suzee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Toothache and Natural High were quite good, The Invertebrate was solid, the last one was a weird snippet from a full-length novel, and I don't remember the others despite reading this 2 minutes ago. Very forgettable overall except the three mentioned by name-- those earned 4 stars, 4 stars, and 3 stars respectively, and the rest were somewhere between 1 and 2. The Well was fun but very NoSleep-esque and I'm tired of that particular monster design. I'm not mad that I read this collection, but I'm not happy either. The entire latter half being a random novel snippet was very odd.

[Sarah Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I had a bit too high of expectations because I saw this book getting such high praise for being one of six most messed up books on quite a few TikTok videos on my fyp page. But I will say I liked The Mannequin, The Natural High, and Toothache out of all the stories. The Mannequin was definitely my favorite!

[laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories all felt too random. Some were pretty decent but most were a bit boring and not scary at all. Felt like a bunch of different authors WIPs smushed into one book, with some of the short stories being better written than others. Not a huge fan, however some of the stories did have potential. Just NOT scary, which was what I was looking for in a book with this sort of cover and title.

[Aysha Taranto · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few stories in this book were really good! Had me hooked and even had me thinking about them a few days after finishing them. But as the book went on, the last few stories just seemed dragged out/not as good as the first few stories!!!

[Veronik Durocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

Some fine horror stories that aren't a variation of well worned themes that, too often, you find in short novels' collections.

[♡♡☠️▪︎AveReads▪︎⚰️♡♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay🙄

[Asha Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm...

Not sure I feel about these short stories... I think there purpose is to leave you confused. I don't know what to think about this

[Kk · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star is generous because the roaches almost made me vom.

[Elisabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full offense, what the fuck was that. This author doesn't have know how to end a story.

[Cara Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were good, others not so much. I also miss the illustrations that went along with these stories in past books, that’s what really made the plot stand out to me.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2

[Suzanne Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly light read. I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but it was a good way to get back to the business of reading

[sabrina :D · Rating 3 out of 5]

i guess i don't really care for compilation-style books :/ but the short stories were entertaining!

[Charity · Rating 1 out of 5]

NOPE.

[lupinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Kath · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read just the first story and it didn't scare me at all. It was lame, sorry.

[Winona Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

hm. bad.

[Latoya Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book Of Suspenseful Short Stories
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2024
I was on Amazon a week ago and came across New Scary Stories to Read in the Dark.

The moment I saw the cover and read the title the book sparked my interest. I had a feeling it would turn out to be a delightful read.

So, I went to read the book's overview and ordered a copy.

I read the book in its entirety in one day and I really enjoyed the stories very much.

New Scary Stories to Read in the Dark is a page-turner. Very well-written and creative. At the end I was looking for more!

I liked the book from beginning to end and my favorite tales were Toothache, Invertebrate, The Natural High, and The Girl Who Lived.

I hope the author publishes another book of thrilling analogies like this one. And I am interested in the Claire Foley character from the final story--I must eventually check out Girl in The Rabbit Hole.