100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories

by Al Sarrantonio (Editor, Contributor), Martin H. Greenberg (Compiler)

Horror can come at any moment, from any direction, and in any form; even the most seemingly innocent person or object can suddenly turn into a being or device that will terrify. Many of our finest writers have been fascinated with horror, and this unique collection gives one hundred examples of what the masters of the short story can do to our minds and nerves. Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, E.F. Benson, H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen Crane, Robert Barr and many others are represented in 100 Little Hair-Raising Horror Stories, a very special book that editor Al Sarrantonio calls “one hundred carnival rides of terror.”

How many times can you die? Let the count start at one hundred.


CONTENTS
Adventure of my grandfather / Washington Irving
Adventure of my aunt / Washington Irving
Adventure of the German student / Washington Irving
Ants / Chet Williamson
Assembly of the dead / Chet Williamson
At the bureau / Steve Rasnic Tem
Babylon : 70 M. / Donald A. Wollheim
Berenice / Edgar Allan Poe
Beyond the wall / Ambrose Bierce
Boarded window / Ambrose Bierce
Boxes / Al Sarrantonio
Candidate / Henry Slesar
Cemetery dance / Richard T. Chizmar
Certificate / Avram Davidson
Cheapskate / Gary Raisor
China bowl / E. F. Benson
Cobweb / Saki
Come to the party / Frances Garfield
A curious dream / Mark Twain
Dark wings / Phyllis Eisenstein
Dead call / William F. Nolan
Different kinds of dead / Ed Gorman
Displaced person / Eric Frank Russell
Disintegration of Alan / Melissa Mia Hall
Down by the sea near the great big rock / Joe R. Lansdale
Dragon Sunday / Ruth Berman
Duck hunt / Joe R. Lansdale
Dust / Al Sarrantonio
Evil clergyman / H. P. Lovecraft
Examination day / Henry Slesar
Faceless thing / Edward D. Hoch
Facts in the case of M. Valdemar / Edgar Allan Poe
Feeding time / James Gunn
Feeding time / Robert Sheckley
Final quest / William F. Nolan
Fish night / Joe R. Lansdale
Four-fingered hand / Barry Pain
A ghost story / Mark Twain
Give her hell / Donald A. Wollheim
Giveaway / Steve Rasnic Tem
Glove / Fritz Leiber
Grab / Richard Laymon
Haunted mill or the ruined home / Jerome K. Jerome
He kilt it with a stick / William F. Nolan
Heading home / Ramsey Campbell
Hollow of the three hills / Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hollow man / Norman Partridge
Holly, don't tell / Juleen Brantingham
Hound / H. P. Lovecraft
Hour and the man / Robert Barr
House at evening / Frances Garfield
Idea / Barry N. Malzberg
Identity crisis / Thomas F. Monteleone
In the Corn [as by Al Sarrantonio] · Robert Fox ·
An Incident on Route 12 · James H. Schmitz
Interview · Frank A. Javor ·
The Jam · Henry Slesar ·
The Kirk Spook · E. G. Swain ·
Making Friends · Gary Raisor ·
The Marble Hands · Bernard Capes ·
Mariana · Fritz Leiber ·
Masque · Ed Gorman ·
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot · Ambrose Bierce ·
Moving Night · Nancy Holder ·
Naples · Avram Davidson ·
Night Visions · Jack Dann ·
Night Deposits · Chet Williamson ·
Nightshapes · Barry N. Malzberg ·
No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman [“The Signalman”] · Charles Dickens ·
The Old Black Hat · Gary Raisor ·
Out of the Storm · William Hope Hodgson ·
Out of Africa · David Drake ·
The Oval Portrait · Edgar Allan Poe ·
Party Time · Mort Castle ·
The Passenger · E. F. Benson ·
Peekaboo · Bill Pronzini ·
The Pitch · Dennis Etchison ·
The Poor · Steve Rasnic Tem ·
The Rag Thing [as by David Grinnell] · Donald A. Wollheim ·
Rendezvous [as by Edward Gorman] · Daniel Ransom ·
The Same Old Grind · Bill Pronzini ·
The Skeleton · Jerome K. Jerome ·
Something There Is · Charles L. Grant ·
Spring-Fingered Jack · Susan Casper ·
Sredni Vashtar · Saki ·
The Statement of Randolph Carter [Randolph Carter] · H. P. Lovecraft ·
The Story of Muhammad Din · Rudyard Kipling ·
The Thing in the Forest · Bernard Capes
Threshold · Sharon Webb ·
Today’s Special · Dennis Etchison ·
Topsy · F. Paul Wilson ·
Toy · Bill Pronzini ·
Transfer · Barry N. Malzberg ·
Treats · Norman Partridge ·
Under My Bed · Al Sarrantonio ·
Up Under the Roof · Manly Wade Wellman ·
The Upturned Face · Stephen Crane ·
We Have Always Lived in the Forest · Nancy Holder ·
Where Did She Wander? [John] · Manly Wade Wellman ·
Witness · Avram Davidson ·

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Fantasy, Mystery, Paranormal

496 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Al Sarrantonio was an American horror and science fiction writer, editor and publisher who authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He also edited numerous anthologies.

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

100 stories in 500 pages, so this is a collection of horror flash fiction. No editorial explanation of the choices are given, and indeed there’s no introductory material of any sort for the stories themselves. The authors are almost entirely American, with the odd Brit thrown in here and there, and while a lot of big names are included, very few of the stories are their acknowledged masterpieces. The uniform length and genre leads to a lot of repetition - a little setup, then a nasty surprise (the protagonists tend not to fare well in these stories). There’s a lot of filler, but some great stuff too - I need to get much better acquainted with Steve Rasnic Tem and Avram Davidson and Nancy Holder.


The Adventure of My Grandfather • (1824) • Washington Irving
The narrator’s grandfather stays at an inn in Bruges in a haunted room, with a ghostly musician and dancing furniture. Of the type of story in which there is no real resolution or conflict - he sees the haunt and that is that. 1/5
The Adventure of My Aunt • (1824) • Washington Irving
The narrator’s aunt, a widow, moves into a new mansion, in which a dastardly servant has hidden himself behind a portrait, intending to murder and rob her. Of the type of story plumbed so meticulously by Scooby Doo. Dialogue from the frame story is sometimes interspersed in the same tense and person as the story, which is quite jarring. 1/5
The Adventure of the German Student • (1824) • Washington Irving
A melancholic German student studying in Paris during the revolution makes the acquaintance of a beautiful guillotine victim. Although it’s an anti-Enlightenment tale at heart, it’s a more effective tale of creepiness than the prior two. As always, although it was also in Straub’s “American Fantastic Tales,” I liked it better here. 3/5
Ants • (1987) • Chet Williamson
A man mistreats ants, so the ants mistreat him. The antagonist (get it?) is compellingly sketched in a very short amount of time, although the ending is a bit goofy for my taste. 3/5
The Assembly of the Dead • (1990) • Chet Williamson
An American congressman visits an unnamed country to retrieve the body of one of his constituents. A shady character offers to return the body for a sum of money, but when the congressman sees it, he realizes only some of the body parts are from the man he is looking for. He goes through with the deal, but this causes him no small amount of existential dread. 4/5
At the Bureau • (1980) • Steve Rasnic Tem
An incredible Kafkaesque story of dead-end jobs and inhumane officescapes. Even if I don’t like any of the rest of the stories in this book, which seems unlikely, this one makes the whole thing worthwhile. 5/5
Babylon: 70 M. • (1963) • Donald A. Wollheim
Predicated on a coincidence too ridiculous to work - a scholar receives an ancient Babylonian urn to restore and research just as his neighbor is reading a Babylonian-related nursery rhyme to her child. Putting the two together, he stumbles into an ancient bit of magic. Very (M. R.) Jamesian, but not effectively so. 2/5
Berenice • (1835) • Edgar Allan Poe (variant of Berenice—A Tale)
Poe and I just don’t really get along - this pulls from his usual grab bag of tricks (being buried alive, a guilty conscience, mental illness and bizarre fixation on a beautiful woman), none of which do much for me, and his hysterical writing style continues to grate on me. 1/5
Beyond the Wall • (1907) • Ambrose Bierce
A man visits a childhood friend and finds him decrepit and living in the presence of a ghost who knocks on the outside of an upper story wall. The friend proceeds to fill the narrator in on the back story - the ghost is that of a woman who was once his neighbor, and they flirted by tapping on the wall separating their bedrooms. The narrator leaves and the friend dies. That’s it. 1/5
The Boarded Window • (1889) • Ambrose Bierce
The narrator recounts the folklore behind a local haunted cabin - seems that during Ohio’s frontier days, a man was preparing his wife’s body for burial when a panther put in an unexpected appearance. Actually uses a lot of the same themes as Poe, but without the irksome prose. 3/5
Boxes • (1982) • Al Sarrantonio
Two boys invade the home of a local hermit who collects boxes. One boy escapes, but the other doesn’t. Much is made of the contrast of the comforts of home and childhood with the creepy appeal of the collection of boxes. Vaguely reminiscent of both Bradbury and R. Campbell, but falls short of both, perhaps due largely to the fact that I fail to see the appeal (or menace) of a room full of boxes. 2/5
The Candidate • (1961) • Henry Slesar
A young executive engaged in a feud with an older colleague is contacted by a mysterious group that uses the collective willpower of its members to wish targets dead. His assumption that he’s a prospective client proves unfounded. 2/5
Cemetery Dance • (1992) • Richard T. Chizmar
Firmly in the Poe tradition - a young man believes himself to have received a note from a teenage girl he murdered years before, and kills himself on her grave thinking it will earn her forgiveness. Turns out he wrote the note himself. 1/5
The Certificate • (1959) • Avram Davidson
50 years after an alien invasion, a man navigates their bureaucracy in order to escape the only way he can. Wasn’t really expecting science fiction in this collection, but why not, I guess. I swear I’ve read this one before, although none of the places ISFDB has it appearing are familiar to me. 3/5
Cheapskate • (1987) • shortfiction by Gary L. Raisor
A boy, upset that his parents gave him a camera instead of roller skates for his birthday, uses said camera to take pictures of his dad fooling around with the babysitter, which he then uses to extort a pair of roller skates. The story closes with the rollerskating boy being pulled by the dad in the car, but he doesn’t think he can keep up for much longer… A modern conte cruel, this is not my thing at all. 1/5
The China Bowl • (1916) • E. F. Benson
What is the weird equivalent of a “cosy catastrophe” story? Whatever the phrase, this is is one - a man buys a house vacated by a widower, and the ghost of the wife helps bring her murderous husband to justice. The husband meets a gruesome end (accidentally…?) but otherwise this is all very staid and unremarkable. 2/5
The Cobweb • (1914) • Saki
The young wife of the new owner of a farm waits for the 90-something-year-old cook to die so that she can modernize the kitchen, only to find that death does not always come to the ones we expect. I certainly wouldn’t have described this as a horror story, although it’s certainly about the weight of the past and misplaced faith in the present. I think that all of the Saki stories that I’ve read have been a few pages long, did he write anything lengthier? 3/5
Come to the Party • (1983) • Frances Garfield
Four friends, lost while looking for a publisher’s party, end up at a creepy mansion that they assume to be the correct site, although no one they recognize is there and everything seems increasingly off-kilter. When one runs away, she stumbles onto the correct house, where she’s told the creepy mansion (home of some sort of human-sacrificing cultists) burned down years ago, and, indeed, there’s nothing there when she looks back. This one would not be out of place in a Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection - aside from a little bit of characterization, there’s little to no effort to set up anything other than the “shocking” ending, although the suffocating feeling of being at an unwelcoming party is captured effectively. 2/5
A Curious Dream • (1882) • Mark Twain
A curious dream in which the narrator sees a stream of skeletons cadavers vacating a nearby cemetery, which their descendents have allowed to lapse into disrepair. Folksy, not too serious, very Mark Twain. Does the presence of a talking cadaver immediately place something in the horror genre? I would say not. 2/5
Dark Wings • (1982) • Phyllis Eisenstein
An aging spinster, liberated by the recent deaths of her overbearing parents, takes advantage of her newfound freedom to try to paint a mysterious giant bird she sees at night on the beach. The bird eventually feeds her to its young. A relatively well-written story. 3/5
Dead Call • (1976) • William F. Nolan
A man takes a call from a dead friend, who talks him into joining this passive, relaxing state. Probably the highest ratio of ellipses to words that I have ever encountered. 3/5
Different Kinds of Dead • (1990) • Ed Gorman
Another one that could have come straight out of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - a man picks up a mysterious, beautiful woman by the side of the road who turns out to be a ghost - but the barebones plot is used here to illustrate the similarities between death and a wasted, lonely life. Perfectly paired with the preceding story. 4/5
Displaced Person • (1948) • Eric Frank Russell
A man sits on a park bench, and an artistic-looking European immigrant joins him. They chat and we learn the displaced person is so because of his fomenting of a rebellion against a despot. Our narrator, a good American, agrees that tyrants bring it upon themselves. Turns out the foreigner is Lucifer. The devil as the first revolutionary is an old trope on the Left, but it is certainly a good one. 5/5
The Disintegration of Alan • (1985) • Melissa Mia Hall
An artist’s husband begins to mysteriously disintegrate one morning. The things we lose when a relationship ends refigured as weird. 3/5
Down by the Sea Near the Great Big Rock • (1984) • Joe R. Lansdale
A family vacations down by the sea near the great big rock - which turns out to be some sort of monster that incites and feeds on negative emotions. The family ends up slaughtering each other. A bit too focused on humans torturing and butchering each other for my taste. Lansdale is another icon of the field that just doesn’t speak to me. 2/5
Dragon Sunday • (1979) • Ruth Berman
You begin to see dragons infesting LA - are you crazy, or has no one else noticed because of the fog? More of a prose poem about the beauty of dragons than a story, but I do have a soft spot for writing in the 2nd person. 3/5
Duck Hunt • (1986) • Joe R. Lansdale
A rite of passage into manhood turns out to be much more brutal than expected. The male bonding ritual is skillfully skewered, although this one also basically boils down to human beings torturing each other. 3/5
The Dust • (1982) • Al Sarrantonio
Much like “Boxes,” this one hinges on childhood, but even less effectively so here: a developmentally-disabled (?) man, figuratively haunted by the time his childhood “friends” dumped dust all over him, is literally haunted by the dust in his home. I’m having a hard time putting my finger on exactly what didn’t work here, but work it did not. 1/5
The Evil Clergyman • (1939) • H. P. Lovecraft
Looked this one up after finishing it to see that it was an excerpt from a letter describing a dream, published posthumously as a story - and that’s how it reads. 1/5
Examination Day • (1958) • Henry Slesar
Exactly the sort of thing present in the Year’s Best anthologies that has killed my interest in science fiction. A boy, on his 12th birthday, goes to a government-mandated exam, but his level of intelligence has been outlawed, and he is killed. Somehow the boy (who reads more like a 5-year-old than a 12-year-old) has never heard of these tests before. 1/5
The Faceless Thing • (1963) • Edward D. Hoch
Mostly great - a very old man returns to his childhood home to confront the monster that killed his sister when they were young, only to find that old age is not an exclusively human malady. The fact that said “very old man” is actually only 60 kind of makes the message a little hard to swallow. 4/5
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar • (1845) • Edgar Allan Poe
I’ve read this one several times recently and, while it’s probably one of the Poes I’m most favorable toward, I didn’t feel the need to read it again at this point.
Feeding Time • (1955) • James E. Gunn
We are told right off the bat how beautiful our female protagonist is, which, in combination with the title, gave me a bad, bad feeling about where this was headed. That turned out to be ill-founded, though - instead, she just happens to have some sort of psychic connection with an alien in a zoo in the future that she tricks into eating psychiatrists. You heard me. 1/5
Feeding Time • (1953) • Robert Sheckley
A nerd finds a book on the care and feeding (virgins) of griffins. He assumes, of course, that that means female virgins, right up until the point that he is eaten by a griffin. Clever, Sheckley. In the broadest strokes, this story is identical to “Babylon: 70 M.” 3/5
The Final Quest • (1981) • poem by William F. Nolan
This sure is a poem.
Fish Night • (1982) • Joe R. Lansdale
Two salesman stranded in the desert encounter spectral, time-traveling fish from the world before humanity. The older one, longing to be a part of this simpler world, strips himself of everything modern to swim off through the air with them, but the younger one, with fillings in his teeth and a rod in his back, understands that this is his world. Shockingly, things don’t work out for the man floating off with the giant fish. I enjoyed this one thematically, and it was well-written (and wasn’t about people torturing one another!) but the image of a man swimming through the air is a bit too Disney for me. 3/5
The Four-Fingered Hand • (1911) • Barry Pain
The hereditary vision of a four-fingered hand that warns the men of the family when there’s danger afoot doesn’t take kindly to being ignored. 2/5
A Ghost Story • (1875) • Mark Twain
Starts off as a legitimately scary story, with a massive presence pulling the covers off of the narrator, blood dripping, chains being dragged about, and so on. Takes a turn when it’s revealed the the massive presence is the ghost of the Cardiff Giant and proceeds as a humorous Twain story. 3/5
Give Her Hell • (1969) • Donald A. Wollheim
Again, the story of humans torturing other humans - this time a man physically and emotionally abusing his wife and daughter. When they almost escape him, he makes a deal with the Devil, not realizing his wish for a second life would render him reincarnated as his own daughter - a hell of his own making. Not pleasant to read. 2/5
The Giveaway • (1981) • Steve Rasnic Tem
A childhood taunt (“if you’re bad, your dad’s going to give you away”) turns out to be true. After seeing her mother carried off (by some truly terrifying entities that strongly echo John Collier’s “Evening Primrose”), a daughter vows to herself never to upset her father again. A much better handling of the same thematic material as the preceding story. 4/5
The Glove • (1975) • Fritz Leiber
As good as a story about the sexual assault of a woman written by a man of his generation could be? This may sound like (or be) damning with faint praise. The supernatural elements are entirely different, but the emphasis on the community of an apartment building (and the exclusion of any other setting) is very reminiscent of Leiber’s later “Horrible Imaginings.” 3/5
The Grab • (1982) • Richard Laymon
A man takes an old college buddy (who is going through a cowboy phase) to a local redneck bar where the titular game is taking place - trying to grab a ring out of the mouth of a decapitated head kept in a jar. There’s a shocking surprise! 2/5
The Haunted Mill; or, The Ruined Home • (1891) • Jerome K. Jerome (variant of The Haunted Mill)
Starts with a bit of metafiction about ghost stories and Christmastime before moving on to the secondhand story of a man who buys a haunted mill and thinks the ghost therein must be trying to reveal some hidden treasure to him. This results in a ruined home. 3/5
He Kilt It with a Stick • (1968) • William F. Nolan
A man has a lifelong antagonistic relationship with cats. The cats get catastrophic revenge. 1/5
Heading Home • (1978) • Ramsey Campbell
A mad scientist awakens in his basement, having been assaulted and tossed down there by his wife’s lover. He crawls back upstairs to wreak his revenge. The twist ending is given away by the title. I expected better from Campbell. 2/5
The Hollow of the Three Hills • (1830) • Nathaniel Hawthorne
Starts off seeming like a story of a Weird Place, which has been sorely lacking in this collection, but ends up being instead about a witch showing a younger woman scenes with distant times and places until she dies. 1/5
The Hollow Man • (1991) • Norman Partridge
Some sort of parasitic reptilian monster replaces one human captive with another. A run-of-the-mill creature feature, but a well-written one, and I’d take that sort of thing over a contes cruel any day. 4/5
Holly, Don't Tell • (1979) • Juleen Brantingham
A girl is stuck with her awful shrew of a mother after her father leaves without saying goodbye. Her favorite keepsake of his is the trunk in which he kept his magic tricks, and in a somewhat bizarre twist a boy comes over intending to assault her and she tricks him into falling into the trunk, which turns to be a bottomless pit (where her father is also hiding). 3/5
The Hound • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1924) • H. P. Lovecraft
Very minor Lovecraft - two graverobbers bring a must unholy doom upon their own heads. 3/5
The Hour and the Man • (1894) • Robert Barr
A bandit is sentenced to death. Heavily prefigures some of Borges’ and Robbe-Grillet’s work. 4/5
The House at Evening • (1982) • Frances Garfield
A coven of vampiric ladies of the evening still inhabit a brothel in a neighborhood that has mostly died out. It’s still visited by the occasional college boy, though. 2/5
The Idea • (1971) • Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell ]
A TV man comes up with some sort of new idea for a pilot and ends up alienated from his family and on trial. I am confident enough in myself to admit that this one sailed right over my head, although I enjoyed reading it well enough. 3/5
Identity Crisis • (1982) • Thomas F. Monteleone
A man seeks revenge against his shady employer by killing the employer’s newborn infant. When he realizes none of the children in the maternity ward have nametags, an unpleasant solution presents itself. 1/5
In the Corn • (1982) • Robert Fox
A pseudonym for Al Sarrantonio - given away by the fact that it is, yet again, concerned with a traumatic childhood incident. A young man tells his doctor about the time his governess accidentally blinded him by dropping him on dried corn stalks when he was a child. Wrong, the doctor says, your brother did it on purpose and you have repressed the memory. Then it turns out the doctor is the brother and he’s back to finish the job. The gore is dwelled on incessantly. Totally nonsensical, this was perhaps my least favorite story in the book. 1/5
An Incident on Route 12 • (1962) • James H. Schmitz
With the lack of prefatory material, it’s kind of weird being thrown into each story with no idea when it was written, and I would have pegged this one as a decade or two prior to 1962. A bank robber waylays some passersby to steal their car, only to find they had already
Interview • (1963) • Frank A. Javor
A takedown of predatory, sensationalistic journalism as science fiction where the subject’s (a grieving mother) emotional response is artificially enhanced. 2/5

[GoldGato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a compendium of a bunch of supernatural/horror shorties. Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Washington Irving, H.P. Lovecraft, and E.F. Benson are all here but so are many other authors of whom I was ignorant.

I prefer supernatural-themed short stories to outright horror stories. Atmosphere and suspense and potential twists keep me interested more than graphic violence. So there are a few tales in this book which describe bones being cut or someone being ripped apart. Not my thing. But then there are other stories in which the writing got me so worked up, I would prick my ears to make sure I didn't just hear someone enter my home. All in all, not a bad read, especially when one is doing the reading late at night with just the reading light on and...wait, did that priest just turn into a werewolf?

And that last story by Nancy Holder, We have always lived in the forest...oh my.

Book Season = Autumn (creaky attics)

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a little something for everyone in this anthology. There's the more classic, leave much to the imagination scare (my favorite kind), and on the other end of the spectrum, there is the more overt, in your face kind of horror. I first encountered who has been come a favorite author of mine, Manly Wade Wellman in this anthology. It was love at first sight, reading his story about John the Balladeer. I knew I wanted to collect more of his fantastic southern gothic meets occult detective stories. I found some of the stories rather disgusting, like the one about the very obese man who was a compulsive eater in a manner that goes to horrifying extremes. There are a few that didn't make much of an impression on me, but most were definitely written to give the reader the jolt of horror they were looking for. If you like short stories and want a book that will keep you occupied until the last story is finished, you'd like this one, if you like horror, that is.

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection of short stories, more than a couple that will stay with you longer than you want them to. Its been a couple years since I read this but I still remember some stories with more detail than I'd like. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys horror or short stories in general, when I find my copy, definitely post a better review.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.82⭐

Introduction by Martin H. Greenberg and Al Sarrantonio ✔
The Adventure of My Grandfather • (1824) by Washington Irving (variant of The Bold Dragoon) 4⭐
The Adventure of My Aunt • (1824) by Washington Irving 3.5⭐
The Adventure of the German Student • (1824) by Washington Irving 5⭐
Ants • (1987) by Chet Williamson 4⭐
The Assembly of the Dead • (1990) by Chet Williamson 2⭐
At the Bureau • (1980) • Steve Rasnic Tem 3⭐
Babylon: 70 M. • (1963) • Donald A. Wollheim 3.25⭐
Berenice • (1850) by Edgar Allan Poe (variant of Berenice—A Tale 1835) 5⭐
Beyond the Wall • (1907) by Ambrose Bierce 4⭐
The Boarded Window • (1889) by Ambrose Bierce 4⭐
Boxes • (1982) • Al Sarrantonio 4⭐
The Candidate • (1961) • Henry Slesar 4.5⭐
Cemetery Dance • (1992) • Richard Chizmar 4⭐
The Certificate • (1959) • Avram Davidson 5⭐
Cheapskate • (1987) • Gary L. Raisor 5⭐
The China Bowl • (1916) by E. F. Benson 3.5⭐
The Cobweb • (1914) • Saki 4⭐
Come to the Party • (1983) • Frances Garfield 4.25⭐
A Curious Dream • (1882) • Mark Twain 3.5⭐
Dark Wings • (1982) • Phyllis Eisenstein 4⭐
Dead Call • (1976) • William F. Nolan 3.5⭐
Different Kinds of Dead • (1990) • Ed Gorman 3.25⭐
Displaced Person • (1948) • Eric Frank Russell 4⭐
The Disintegration of Alan • (1985) • Melissa Mia Hall 3.5⭐
Down by the Sea Near the Great Big Rock • (1984) • Joe R. Lansdale 4.5⭐
Dragon Sunday • (1979) • Ruth Berman 2.5⭐
Duck Hunt • (1986) • Joe R. Lansdale 4.5⭐
The Dust • (1982) • Al Sarrantonio 3⭐
The Evil Clergyman • (1939) by H. P. Lovecraft 3.5⭐
Examination Day • (1958) • Henry Slesar 4.25⭐
The Faceless Thing • (1963) • Edward D. Hoch 4.25⭐
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar • (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe 5⭐
Feeding Time • (1955) • James E. Gunn 3.5⭐
Feeding Time • (1953) • Robert Sheckley 4.5⭐
The Final Quest • (1981) • poem by William F. Nolan 5⭐
Fish Night • (1982) • Joe R. Lansdale 4.5⭐
The Four-Fingered Hand • (1911) • Barry Pain 4⭐
A Ghost Story • (1875) • Mark Twain 4⭐
Give Her Hell • (1963) • Donald A. Wollheim 4.5⭐
The Giveaway • (1981) • Steve Rasnic Tem 3⭐
The Glove • (1975) • Fritz Leiber 3.25⭐
The Grab • (1982) • Richard Laymon 4⭐
The Haunted Mill; or, The Ruined Home • (1891) • Jerome K. Jerome 3.5⭐
He Kilt It with a Stick • (1968) • William F. Nolan 2⭐
Heading Home • (1978) • Ramsey Campbell 3.25⭐
The Hollow of the Three Hills • (1830) • Nathaniel Hawthorne 4⭐
The Hollow Man • (1991) • Norman Partridge 3⭐
Holly, Don't Tell • (1979) • Juleen Brantingham 4.5⭐
The Hound • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1924) by H. P. Lovecraft 5⭐
The Hour and the Man • (1894) by Robert Barr 4⭐
The House at Evening • (1982) • Frances Garfield 3.25⭐
The Idea • (1971) • Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell] 3.5⭐
Identity Crisis • (1982) • Thomas F. Monteleone 4⭐
In the Corn • (1982) • (Robert Fox?) Al Sarrantonio 3.25⭐
An Incident on Route 12 • (1962) • James H. Schmitz 4.25⭐
Interview • (1963) • Frank A. Javor 3⭐
The Jam • (1958) • Henry Slesar 3⭐
The Kirk Spook • (1912) • E. G. Swain 3⭐
Making Friends • (1985) • Gary L. Raisor 4⭐
The Marble Hands • (1915) • Bernard Capes 3.5⭐
Mariana • (1960) • Fritz Leiber 4.25⭐
Masque • (1990) • Ed Gorman 4⭐
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot • (1890) by Ambrose Bierce 3.5⭐
Moving Night • (1986) • Nancy Holder 3.75⭐
Naples • (1978) • Avram Davidson 4.5⭐
Night Visions • (1979) • Jack Dann 3⭐
Night Deposits • (1987) • Chet Williamson 4.5⭐
Nightshapes • (1979) • Barry N. Malzberg 2.5⭐
No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman • (1927) by Charles Dickens (variant of The Signalman 1866) 4⭐
The Old Black Hat • (1986) • Gary L. Raisor 3.5⭐
Out of the Storm • (1909) • William Hope Hodgson 5⭐
Out of Africa • (1983) • David Drake 3.5⭐
The Oval Portrait • (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe 4⭐
Party Time • (1984) • Mort Castle 3.25⭐
The Passenger • (1917) by E. F. Benson 4.5⭐
Peekaboo • (1979) • Bill Pronzini 5⭐
The Pitch • (1978) • Dennis Etchison 3.25⭐
The Poor • (1982) • Steve Rasnic Tem 2.5⭐
The Rag Thing • (1951) • Donald A. Wollheim [as by David Grinnell] 3.25⭐
Rendezvous • (1985) • Ed Gorman 3.25⭐
The Same Old Grind • (1978) • Bill Pronzini 5⭐
The Skeleton • (1892) • Jerome K. Jerome (variant of A Ghost Story) 4⭐
Something There Is • (1981) • Charles L. Grant 3.5⭐
Spring-Fingered Jack • (1983) • Susan Casper 4.25⭐
Sredni Vashtar • (1910) • Saki 5⭐
The Statement of Randolph Carter • (1920) by H. P. Lovecraft 4.5⭐
The Story of Muhammad Din • (1886) • Rudyard Kipling 5⭐
The Thing in the Forest • (1915) • Bernard Capes 4⭐
Threshold • (1982) • Sharon Webb 3⭐
Today's Special • (1972) • Dennis Etchison 3.5⭐
Topsy • (1990) • F. Paul Wilson 4⭐
Toy • (1985) • Bill Pronzini 3.25⭐
Transfer • (1975) • Barry N. Malzberg 3.5⭐
Treats • (1990) • Norman Partridge 3.5⭐
Under My Bed • (1981) • Al Sarrantonio 5⭐
Up Under the Roof • (1938) • Manly Wade Wellman 5⭐
The Upturned Face • (1900) • Stephen Crane 3.5⭐
We Have Always Lived in the Forest • (1987) • Nancy Holder 2.75⭐
Where Did She Wander? • [John the Balladeer] • (1987) • Manly Wade Wellman 4.5⭐
Witness • (1986) • Avram Davidson 4.5⭐

[Angela]

A short little review on each story in the book -

1. The Adventure of My Grandfather by Washington Irving: (ghosts) 3/12/08 - Well, the writing is ancient, and truthfully a little confusing...some of it is story telling, and then the listener interjects, and well, sometimes it was confusing.
And really, not much of a horror story...the furniture dances. Not scary at all, not even to "grandfather" who tried to dance with the clothes press. eh

2. The Adventure of My Aunt by Washington Irving: (no category) 3/13/08 - I think I have decided that I don't need to hunt down any Irving stories, because UG. I so do not like his writing style. And this one was another NOT horror story. It ends
up being an intruder, not a ghost. UG. really not impressed with this anthology yet.

3. The Adventure of the German Student by Washington Irving: (ghost/evil spirit) 3/14/08 - PLEASE let this be the last Irving tale...please!!! This one was more along the lines of what I think of for horror stories. I figured it out long before
we got to the end, but I think it is a technique that is over used now, but when Irving wrote it, perhaps not. The best tale of the anthology so far.

4. Ants by Chet Williamson: (Gaia's Revenge) 3/15/08 - YEAH!!! A true horror story, that still has me itching. This is how a short short story should be. Just, wow!! and beware the ANTS.....And now this one is the best tale so far!!

5. The Assembly of the Dead by Chet Williamson: (?) 07/03/08 - I don't think i understood this one...no, scratch that, i am SURE i didn't understand this one. It is quite....odd.

6. At the Bureau by Steve Rasnic Tem: (?) 09/24/08 - an odd little tale, where you really don't "get" what is happening until the end, and even then....

7. Babylon: 70 M. by Donald A. Wollheim: (monsters) 09/24/08 - Liked this one, gave a little laugh at the end, because if you pay attention, you know how it must end.

8. Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe: (teeth?) 10/9/08 - Edgar was a sick man, but also a genius. A tale about being obsessed with his fiance's teeth.

9. Beyond the Wall by Ambrose Bierce: (love lost) 10/9/08 - not so much a horror tale as a sad tale, of a love lost, but perhaps regained.

10. The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce: (love lost) 10/9/08 - I am sensing a theme to Mr. Bierce's work. Again, not so much horror, although there is a bit of the element. It is about a man who goes mad after the loss of his wife, although she may not have been as dead as he thought.

11. Boxes by Al Sarrantonio: (?) 11/27/09 - A story of two boys off for an adventure (ala The Body by Stephen King) -- only, things don't go exactly as they expected, although it is left much to your imagination on how it all ends and on who or what exactly is "The Man who collects boxes"

12. The Canidate by Henry Slesar: (voodoo) 11/27/09 - I saw the idea of the ending coming, but not how they put it together. I quite like the idea of wishing someone dead (not actually to do it, but in my religion, if you put something out there, it can come true -- the more people you have behind the thought means it is more likely to become truth), as this tale falls into what my beliefs are. Nice story.

13. Cemetery Dance by Richard T. Chizmar: (?) 07/01/10 - A sad tale of a stalking murder and the murderer's suicide. Delusion can take us many places, even into death.

14. The Certificate by Avram Davidson: (aliens) 07/01/2010 - another sad tale, in a world where no one is allowed to die (or get a new overcoat), what would you do to escape? Apply to die of course.

15. Cheapskate by Gary Raisor: (family issues) 7/6/2010 - You have to actually turn the page to get the zinger (nice how they arranged that in the book) -- and wow..nice story. a bit darker than some of the other ones, but...nice. I am going to remember to not ask for roller skates for my birthday.

16. The China Bowl by E.F. Benson: (ghost) 08/19/10 - a nicely told ghost story. Not overly horror, except for the last line :-)

17 . 04/21/2011 The Cobweb by Saki...a little tale about being careful what you wish for..death doesn't always come for the old.

18. 04/26/2011 Come to the Party by Frances Garfield - a nice little haunted house story..i liked this one

19. 01/04/2013 A Curious Dream by Mark Twain .. A little too whiny..no wonder I didn't comment on this before, quite a forgetable tale

20. 05/10/2011 Dark Wings by Phyllis Eisenstein...a beautifully written tale full of imagery, became real horror in the last sentence.

21. 05/10/2011 Dead Call by William F. Nolan...a creepy ghost story. I quite liked it. Hey, isn't that you're phone ringing?

22. 05/10/2011 Different Kinds of Dead by Ed Gorman...1991, I expected this story to be older as it is relatively recent it is just the retelling of a hitchhiker story. I would have been more impressed had it been 40 years older.

23. 01/07/2013 Displaced Person by Eric Frank Russell odd that I missed this story, I believe I missed it as after reading it I think it would have stuck with me. Not quite horror, even if it does have Lucifer, in fact a little sad

24. 05/10/2011 The Disintegration of Alan by Melissa Mia Hall...an interesting story I didn't fully understand.

25. 06/23/2011 Down by the Sea near the Great Big Rock by Joe R. Lansdale ... I have long thought Lansdale was whacked, this story did not change my mind. Entertaining little tale.

26. 6/23/2011 Dragon Sunday by Ruth Berman..weird story. About being off your meds possibly? Or maybe ON your "meds".

27. 09/01/2011 Duck Hunt by Joe R. Lansdale .. sick and wrong and disturbing...a lovely addition to this collection

28. 09/01/2011 The Dust by Al Sarrantonio .. loved this tale about what the dust can do. My favorite story thus far.

29. 09/01/2011 The Evil Clergyman by H.P. Lovecraft .. eh. Not all that impressed though the language was lovely

30. 09/19/2011 Examination Day by Henry Slesar ..not what I expected, the sign of a great horror story -when it surprises you in a slightly scary way

31. 09/19/2011 The Faceless Thing by Edward D. Hoch..anti-climatic. Not all that exciting of a tale. In fact, a rather boring tale about getting older

32. 12/31/2011 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe..there is a reason he is considered such a great horror writer, this is one of his lesser known tales but is super creepy

33. 01/27/2012 Feeding Time by James Gunn..i saw the ending before it happened, but still a cute story

34. 01/27/2012 Feeding Time by Robert Sheckley..again I saw it coming, but enjoyed the story anyway. Interesting to read two stories about essentially the same thing, but told so differently.

35. 01/27/2012 The Final Quest by William F. Nolan ..a poem about King Arthur's final battle, with Death

36. Fish Night by Joe R. Lansdale..no idea when I read this odd tale about parallel universes..an odd tale by an odd man

37. The Four-Fingered Hand by Barry Pain..no idea when I read this story...a poker story and a premonition tale. It was okay

38. 12/25/2012 A Ghost Story by Mark Twain.as would be expected this ghost story is more humorous than horror..cute though

39. 12/31/2012 Give Her Hell by Donald A. Wollheim .. A story proving that one should not trust the Devil

40. 12/31/2012 The Giveaway by Steve Rasnic Tem..a creepy story with some psychological marital abuse

41. 12/31/2012 The Glove by Fritz Leiber..eh. An okay story of a ghostly glove

42. 01/01/2013 The Grab by Richard Laymon...cute and horrible. Gotta love Laymon

43. 01/11/2013 The Haunted Mill or the Ruined Home by Jerome K. Jerome...this story had zero purpose, no resolution, no ending, just dumb

44. 2/1/13 He Kilt It with a Stick by William F. Nolan disturbing tale

45. 2/22/13 Heading Home by Ramsey Campbell ... HEADing Home indeed, tale of a mad scientist, who while mad is not dumb

46. 2/22/13 The Hollow of the Three Hills by Nathaniel Hawthorne...old. Writing style not to my liking. Okay story about an evil witch

47. 5/2/13 The Hollow Man by Norman Partridge..just weird, I didn't understand this one at all

48. 5/2/13 Holly, Don't Tell by Juleen Brantingham .. Who doesn't love creepy kids with a secret? Done a little differently though. Not a favorite, but not bad

49. 5/14/13 The Hound by H.P. Lovecraft ... hmmm, I really got into the creepiness of this story, and I can't say it disappointed. Makes me want to read more Lovecraft :-)

50. 5/14/13 The Hour and the Man by Robert Barr ... not really sure this was a true horror novel, was a bit more of a irony story I think. Something not expected. I am not sure giving someone hope is torture, but maybe it is....

51. 06/04/13 The House at Evening by Frances Garfield ... I saw something coming, and although I didn't figure out exactly what, this was still a pretty predictable tale

52. 06/04/13 The Idea by Barry N. Malzberg .. HUH? I read it twice and still don't get it

53. 02/28/14 Identity Crisis by Thomas F. Monteleone - way disturbing. I guess when it is babies taking the brunt of the horror it makes it more disturbing for me

54. 02/28/14 In the Corn by Robert Fox - after the story got going, you knew how it was going to end, still a great story.

55. 02/28/14 An Incident on Route 12 by James H. Schmitz - alien story. Not quite an abduction.

56. 03/10/14 Interview by Frank A Javor - creepy, interesting to have a disclaimer on an interview

57. 01/07/15 The Jam by Henry Slesar - a nice little tale of Hell...an eternal traffic jam

58. 01/09/15 The Kirk Spook by E. G. Swain - just a ghost story..I was expecting something more when the story just ended

59. 01/12/15 Making Friends by Gary Raisor - wowza...I felt the horror creeping over me as I realized where this little short piece of terror was going. A fantastic short (2 pages) story. My favorite of the book so far.

60. The Marble Hands by Bernard Capes - not sure when I read this one...a story about imagination...or is it??

61. Mariana by Fritz Leiber - what would you do if you found out you were just an illusion. Created by someone, and easily turned on, or off, at their whim?

62. (05/15/15) Masque by Ed Gorman - a lot is left to your imagination, but it is a story of what a mom will do for her child...

63. (05/15/15) The Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce - classic ghost story...includes a spooky house, and the reveal at the end.

64. (07/11/15) Moving Night by Nancy Holder - creepy because for most of the story you are not sure what has happened, even at the end you are not sure...

65. (07/11/15) Naples by Avram Davidson - eh. I was not a fan of the writing style, so I admit I skipped bits and pieces which may have made the story not make sense to me

66. (07/12/15) Night Visions by Jack Dann - what if you wanted to kill yourself, but technology wouldn't let you? interesting premise.

67. (07/12/15) Night Deposits by Chet Williamson - really just sad. a story of how mistakes never really let you go

68. (07/13/15) Nightshapes by Barry N. Malzberg..weird werewolf story. Not a fan

69. (07/14/15) No. 1 Branch Line, The Signalman by Charles Dickens - I remember listening to an audio version of "The Signalman", good story, creepy

70. (07/14/15) The Old Black Hat by Gary Raisor - the hat DOES NOT belong to Frosty

71. (07/22/15) Out of the Storm by William Hope Hodgson - an okay story. You wonder was it the storm or was it really a THING??

72. (07/22/15) Out of Africa by David Drake - I liked this story well enough. A tale of hunting, and really catching "the one"

73. (08/05/15) The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe - truly a short story at three pages. Good for what it was

74. (8/05/15) Party Time by Mort Castle - creepy. Happy Food indeed. (I get that our narrator is a circus geek...but is kept in the basement and is only brought out for parties)

75. The Passenger by E.F. Benson (090715) - a bit of a ghost story..where the ghost is still around because of unfinished business

76. Peekaboo by Bill Pronzini (091015) - so good!! Maybe struck me as better than usual because I just read a bunch of two sentence horror stories, and this one a similar feel (even tho it was longer than two sentences )

77. The Pitch by Dennis Etchison (9/11) - a bit like "Making Friends" without the caring. Was a good story, not a great one

78. The Poor by Steve Rasnic Tem (9/14) - the nightmare of a social worker

79. The Rag Thing by Donald A. Wollheim (9/16) seems several shorts I have read lately have left the ending a bit ambiguous. Really, it makes it scarier when your imagination takes over

80. Rendezvous by Daniel Ransom (9/16) this one is another ambiguous one...and a little to true to life for me

81. The Same Old Grind by Bill Pronzini (9/17) horror like Sweeny Todd

82. The Skeleton by Jerome K. Jerome (9/17) just a ghost story... Where the ghost embodied his own skeleton

83. Something There Is by Charles L. Grant (9/22) - a writer anxiously awaiting a muse...though it is a case of be careful what you wish for

84. Spring-Fingered Jack by Susan Caspar (9/23) - what an interesting concept about today's world (1983). Practicing in real-life to win the video game. Creepy.

85. Sredni Vashtar by Saki (090115) - not sure exactly when I read this, but it is part of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories they wouldn't let me do on TV collection I am reading in the month of September - I have never liked ferrets and their like. This story just reinforces that feeling.

86. The Statement of Randolph Carter by H. P. Lovecraft (9/24) a creepy tale...two friends enter the swamp, but only one returns

87. The Story of Muhammad Din by Rudyard Kipling (9/24) a horror story in that this world is horrible, maybe too much truth.

88. The Thing in the Forest by Bernard Capes (9/25) a bit of the your salvation is also your doom feeling

89. Threshold by Sharon Webb (9/29) at what point do animals become human...how much do we want to teach them?

90. Today's Special by Dennis Etchison (9/30) frustration with coworkers could lead anyone to cannibalism, right?

91. Topsy by F. Paul Wilson (10/1) a mental patient tale, an okay story

92. Toy by Bill Pronzini (10/2) sci Fi horror ... What happens when you play with unknown

93. Transfer by Barry N. Malzberg (10/3) a bit of Dr Jeckyll in this tale of murder

94. Treats by Norman Partridge (10/5) just creepy.

95. Under My Bed by Al Sarrantonio (10/6) a good story about a "monster" protecting an abused boy...also a bit creepy

96. Up Under the Roof by Manly Wade Wellman (10/7) a story that encourages one to face their fears

97. The Upturned Face by Stephen Crane (10/8) more creepy as you think about it, but the story was just a story

98. We Have Always Lived in the Forest by Nancy Holder (10/9) surprise. I actually gasped as I read this story. I am not sure completely how to take it, but it did have that moment of pure horror for me

99. Where Did She Wander? by Manly Wade Wellman (10/9) an interesting twist on the ghost story

100. Witness by Avram Davidson - another one with a nice twist. something I could see being done on Twilight Zone back when. I don't think it would hold much surprise for the jaded world of today

I can't believe I am finally done with this book. It feels like it has been hanging around waiting for years (oh wait...it has).

[Dan Fitzmaurice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any book of short stories is going to have both hits and misses. For me, this one definitely had more hits than misses, and only one story that I truly thought was bad.

[Sparrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten years later, and I'm checking out my notes I made in this book as I was reading it...I was going to get rid of it since I haven't read it since, but...reading these notes again, I wonder if I should read my old favourites again first, at the very least.

My favourites:

"The Candidate" by Henry Slesar
"The Certificate" by Avram Davidson (plotline)
"Displaced Person" by Eric Frank Russell (well written)
"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" by Edgar Allan Poe (creepy and gross)
"Feeding Time" by Robert Sheckley (nice elaborate words)
"Fish Night" by Joe R. Lansdale (love this one, realistic dialogue)
"The Four-Fingered Hand" by Barry Pain (kinda spooky, well written)
"A Ghost Story" by Mark Twain (scary and funny)
"Heading Home" by Ramsey Campbell (freaking hell!)
"The Hound" by H.P. Lovecraft (I like this)
"Moving Night" by Nancy Holder (scary shit!)
"Something There Is" by Charles L. Grant (That's incredible! Indescribable!)
"Spring-Fingered Jack" by Susan Casper (scary...)
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" by H.P Lovecraft (Damn good!)
"The Upturned Face" by Stephen Crane (fuckin' scary...)
"We Have Always Lived in the Forest" by Nancy Holder (...)

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a Barnes & Noble buy, copyright 1993. You get 100 short stories with the emphasis on.....horror.

A variety of authors, some famous for horror stories : Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Pierce, H.P. Lovecraft. There are 3 lame offerings by Washington Irving. Other famous authors who are (rightly) not known for horror have some stories : Mark Twain (dreadful!), Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rudyard Kipling. Ironically, Steven King isn't represented & I consider his horror stories to be the best.
The rest of the authors aren't known by me, but may be more famous in the horror genre. Some are good, others perplexing in that there isn't anything remotely horrifying about them. Some are just dumb.
It took me a long time to get through reading this. I kept putting it down to read other things.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror stories lend themselves well to flash fiction. A character or two, a concept, a climax and you're done. This anthology cleverly collects both modern horror flash fiction and short-short stories written before concept was named. Thus, you get a mix of modern authors with classics like Dickens and Benson. Many of these are quite good, and a few will linger in your head long after you put it down- I can't think of "How many miles to Babylon" without remembering the story linked to that poem here.

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

these books are very scary and hard to stop reading they might give you nightmares but it is totally worth it.

[Bill Borre]

"The Grab" by Richard Laymon - Clark and his friend walk into a bar and ask what kind of entertainment they have. The bartender indicates a metal box. When the time comes to participate the box is revealed to contain a severed head in formaldehyde. The bartender places a diamond ring in its mouth and takes Clark's ten bucks for a blindfolded try after two contestants pull their hands out early. Clark thinks it will be easy as it is only a severed head and he has handled dead bodies before but he is shocked when it bites his forefinger off. The woman standing next to Clark's friend tells him the head belongs to Alf the cannibal and the patrons force the friend to give it a go. The woman tells him he may get lucky as the head is more calm after a good meal.

"Holly, Don’t Tell" by Juleen Brantingham - Eleven year old Holly has only her magician father's footlocker to remember him by after he mysteriously vanishes. When one of the neighborhood boys threatens to sexually assault her she leads him into the storage room where she discovers that her father vanished into the footlocker in order to escape from her tyrannical mother. Her father disposes of her pursuer but frighteningly asks Holly not to tell her mother where he is. When the mother hits Holly she is tricked into the footlocker as well.

"The Assembly of the Dead" by Chet Williamson - Hutchison contracts to purchase the piecemeal remains of Thomas Locke from a man in the jungle after verifying the prints on the two fingers he receives in a zip-loc bag match the paper he has with him. When he arrives at the shed in the jungle with the money he is presented with the dismembered pieces of a corpse whose face matches Thomas Locke so he agrees to buy it even though he tells the man that Locke had no left foot so he leaves that behind. Afterward his feet bother him at night.

"The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce - Murlock is living in the woods with his wife when she dies and he does his best to prepare the body for burial the following day but during the night a panther enters through the open window of the cabin and attempts to drag off the corpse. Murlock frightens the cat away by discharging his rifle but what is strange is that the corpse has a piece of the animal's ear clenched between its teeth.

"The Skeleton" by Jerome K. Jerome - A scientist buys the skeleton of a man that he had wronged in the past and perceives it moves its hand which causes him to faint. Upon recovering he convinces himself that he was being silly and returns to the room and doesn't leave. The following morning the servants break down the door and find him dead in his chair with the impression of bony fingers around his throat.

"Witness" by Avram Davidson - The protagonist thinks he's calling a law office and offers to testify as a witness to an accident for a fee. The other end of the line confirms with details that the protagonist has indeed witnessed the accident and arrangements are made for the money to be exchanged. When he shows up he is shot dead by those who prefer there be no witnesses to the accident.

"The Thing in the Forest" by Bernard Capes - A woman takes pity on a hungry werewolf in the forest at night so she tosses it a hunk of meat. The following day she feels guilty for her action as she knows she should have nothing to do with such foul creatures and goes to confess to a priest only to discover as the sun sets in the confession booth that the priest is the werewolf.

"Give Her Hell" by Donald A. Wollheim - An abusive man makes a deal with Satan that in exchange for his soul he can regain control of his business and continue to abuse his wife and daughter. The man bargains that he gets to be reborn before Satan claims his soul but Satan tricks him and reveals in his dying moments that he's going to be reborn as his own daughter.

"Different Kinds of Dead" by Ed Gorman - Sheridan picks up a ghost that has returned on a vengeance quest after being murdered by her husband. Her comments to him that they are both dead because of his empty life hit home as he drops her off at a graveyard and she slowly vanishes as she walks toward it in the dark, snowy night.

"Displaced Person" by Eric Frank Russell - A man sitting on a bench in Central Park during the evening strikes up a conversation with a man he assumes is fleeing a European despot when he refers to himself as a displaced person. As his conversation partner walks away from the bench he causally mentions that his name is Lucifer.

"Feeding Time" by Robert Sheckley - Treggis finds a book in a bookstore detailing the diet of gryphons is a young virgin once a month. He buys the book and takes it home where he follows the instructions for arriving at the zoo. Only when he spots the gryphon does he realize too late that he matches the description of its prey.

"The Same Old Grind" by Bill Pronzini - Mitchell wonders why Giftholz can sell his sandwiches so cheap but when the old man tells him his name means "poison wood" in German Mitchell passes out from the free toothpick he has been given and his body is dragged toward the sausage grinder.

"Heading Home" by Ramsey Campbell - The protagonist of the story is a scientist who has perfected immortality and the events depicted in the story describe the challenges he faces after his wife's lover decapitates him and the head makes its way home to the body in the laboratory.

"Peekaboo" by Bill Pronzini - Roper gets out of bed because he has an unshakable sense of another human presence in the house, but after searching everywhere and finding nothing he concludes it must be his imagination after all. "Peekaboo" a voice behind him says.

"Making Friends" by Gary Raisor - Denny is victimized by someone who put a razor blade in his Halloween candy and disfigured his mouth so he decides to make new friends that he can relate to by distributing tampered candy to homes on Halloween night.

"The Evil Clergyman" by H. P. Lovecraft - The narrator summons a long dead clergyman versed in the occult who attempts to seize control of the narrator's body but is interrupted so only succeeds in altering his appearance to resemble that of the dead man.

"In the Corn" by Robert Fox - A boy blinded years ago by his brother who wants him dead thinks that he is in a therapy session with a doctor unaware that he is speaking to his brother who has returned to finish the job.

"Cheapskate" by Gary Raisor - A kid attempts to blackmail dad into getting a new pair of roller skates but it backfires when dad makes the kid wear the skates while driving home with a rope attached to the car.

"The Certificate" by Avram Davidson - Dr. Freeman applies for a death certificate on the basis of surplus after aliens enslave humanity and implant the survivor's bodies with organisms that repair all organ damage.

"The Giveaway" by Steve Rasnic Tem - Marsha worries that she'll be given away if she disappoints her father but it turns out her mother is the one that gets taken away so she resolves to please her daddy.

"Feeding Time" by James Gunn - Angela is discussing her belief about an alien zoo creature that can enter our world during feeding time with a skeptical psychoanalyst when the creature devours him.

"Examination Day" by Henry Slesar - In this grim story the government administers an IQ test to all children at the age of twelve. They execute those who score higher than allowed.

"Duck Hunt" by Joe R. Lansdale - Fifteen year old Freddie is taken by his father to his initiation into manhood by shooting a derelict superficially made out to appear as a duck.

"The Adventure of My Aunt" by Washington Irving - The narrator's aunt discovers a would-be thief lurking in her bedroom behind a large portrait of her deceased husband.

"Out of Africa" by David Drake - Holborn tells young Randall about the time he hunted a surviving dinosaur in Africa and shows him the thumb spike as proof.

"The Jam" by Henry Slesar - Stukey and Mitch find themselves in a Hell of a traffic jam after their car is involved in a fatal crash passing through a tunnel.

"Interview" by Frank A. Javor - Lester uses technology to torture human subjects in order to produce human interest stories for a galactic audience.

"Masque" by Ed Gorman - A wealthy woman hides her misogynist murdering son behind bandages in the hospital she has made generous donations to.

"Rendezvous" by Daniel Ransom - Payton the serial killer pulls the car over for his next victim fifteen year old runaway Kim.

"The Pitch" by Dennis Etchison - C-Note sells appliances to women shoppers on Mother's Day with their safety guards removed.

"Ants" by Chet Williamson - Ben becomes a slave to the ant's desires after pissing them off by stamping on their anthill.

"Spring-Fingered Jack" by Susan Casper - The protagonist uses a video game based on the Ripper killings as a simulator.

"Dead Call" by William F. Nolan - Frank gets a call from a dead friend urging him to commit suicide to end his troubles.

"The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe - A painter literally captures the life of his intended bride in his portrait of her.

[Sandra Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that really doesn’t tell you what you’re going to read other than there’s 100 stories and it’s horror themed. I have to say I only enjoyed a handful of them most of them to me wasn’t scary I guess when I think of horror I think of something that’s going to scare me but for other people it could scare them. I honestly bought this book so many years ago when I was probably a teenager and realized I never actually read it so thought I’d give it a chance. I think I paid eight bucks and it was at borders when they were still around.

[Ty · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was largely disappointing. IMHO most of the stories were not of the horror genre. Despite that, there were some worthwhile selections. Here are the only 17 stories worth reading (to me):

Cheapskate 5/10
The Disintegration of Alan 8/10
Down by the Sea near the Great Big Rock 7/10
Examination Day 8/10
Feeding Time 5/10
The Final Quest 7/10
Give Her Hell 9/10
The Hollow Man 8/10
In the Corn 6/10
The Jam 7/10
Making Friends 6/10
Mariana 8/10
Masque 5/10
Night Deposits 5/10
Peekaboo 9/10
Under My Bed 10/10
The Witness 7/10

[reqbat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The classic stories by known authors are *great*, but the newer offerings are... I don't want to say terrible, but the writing is not good. It feels like Poe, Kipling, and Lovecraft might have been included to pad the book out and give it a wider audience, but it doesn't give the desired legitimacy to the new stuff. I read the few stories I hadn't known about before, and abandoned the rest after reading 10 of the newer stories.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good spread of stories.
Predominantly focused on ghostly encounters.
Would say the selection doesn't range too deeply into anything particularly dark, violent, or scary.
If that's what you are after you won't find much of it here.

There are even a good number that are particularly humorous in nature.
If you are looking for a long series of interesting quick short stories focused on ghosts and spooky stuff, this works quite nicely.

[Chris Laskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book features some classic stories it overall features lesser stories and most not really horrifying either and remarkably after a while a bit repetitive. That said there are some gems amongst the bramble and most of the stories short so a unremarkable tale is given over quickly to one down the road that is better. Overall though a disappointment.

[C.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty decent collection of horror shorts. Kept my interest throughout. Some were really good and others were just average. There were a few too many nihilistic stories for my taste but I really enjoyed the stories that had a folktale-feel to them.

[Dan Towner · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few good stories in here, and they're all short enough to keep it easy to read. The lack of context or organization (the stories are in alphabetical order) is pretty frustrating. Some stories are not horror stories at all. A few big names, but not their best work.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kids would call this mid. 100 stories but short they were. The longer stories tended to be the older authors like Lovecraft et al. Very few were what I'd consider amazing or perfect. Most of them were worthy of their appearance and not much more.

[Felipe Coundouriotis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serendipitous sidewalk find as soon as Halloween season was starting. Lots of duds, but quite a few gems. Want to read more of Ambrose Bierce, Fritz Lieber, William Hope Hodgson, Manly Wade Wellman and Stephen Crane.

[Tatjana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Very uneven.

[Chloe Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection! This book contains a wide variety of what is scary and how the tales are told. Some stories bring me back to this book year after year.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Sadina Shawver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a few of these will haunt me for a long time. "In the Corn", "Party Time", and "Ants". While "Give Her Hell" will simultaneously piss me off and make me laugh maniacally for the rest of my life anytime I think of it.

But... There are a number of entries that just weren't it for me. They weren't spooky or worth the time spent reading them. Some were too old and the atmosphere was dry.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this book since some truly gave me chills while others felt like a chore to read even a page or two of. It's a toss up, I guess.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little "spooky" stories. Most aren't all that frightening or shocking, but one VERY good one about a stranger at a bus stop. That one made a HUGE impression on me when I read this book.

[Justyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

100 Hair Raising Little Horror Stories is an anthology of 100 shorter short stories. The authors and styles range from more contemporary to more classic. So depending on personal preference it's a hit or miss collection. Normally when I review anthologies, I rate each individual story, but 100 is a bit much.
So to start, I'm not too interested in the classics, but there were a few good ones: "Berenice" by Poe is one of my favorites, and I even thought Washington Irving's "The Adventure of the German Student" was a nice classic horror tale.
Other notable ones were "Dark Wings" by Phyllis Eisenstein about a woman who lives alone and searches for an elusive eagle. Also "The Grab" by Richard Laymon had a morbid twist on a saloon game of sticking one's hand into a container. I also enjoyed "The Glove" by Fritz Leiber about a haunted glove belonging to a murderer. "Party Time" by Mort Castle was a very twisted tale about a strange mother who has a hungry son. "We Have Always Lived in the Forest" by Nancy Holder is about a child eating old woman which I enjoyed. And "Something There Is" by Charles L. Grant explores a struggling horror writer who searches for his muse.
There are plenty of entertaining stories in this anthology. A bit were too short or didn't leave much of an impression, but for any anthology, there are always a few gems and exposure to new authors.

[Riley Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book one hundred Hair-Raising Little Stories by Al Sarrantonio is overall an enjoyable book. If you are looking for a book to be awake at night hiding under the covers then this is the book for you. This book has a numerus amount of long and short stories inside of it. Some of the stories in this book has changed the way I have looked at certain things. There are plenty of stories where I thought the ending would have been different but turn a full 360 and end a unique way. The stories in this book are all different POV's, moods, and writing styles. What I like about this book is the variety and number of stories. When I read this book, I disliked how a few stories I was lost in, and I had to reread the whole short story just to understand it. This book made me think about all the things that could happen in your life. Spoiler alert for one of the short stories! One of the stories I read from this book was about a man always killing ants and one day the ants fight back and end up taking over his body. I think most of the stories in this book will stay in the back of my mind for years. If you love to read scary books, then I recommend this book to you.

[Brian Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing collection of tales! Seriously, we're talking tiny, lil' stabs at horror from authors as wide-ranging as Washington Irving and Joe R. Landsdale, to Edgar Allan Poe and Richard Laymon, to Ambrose Pierce and Ramsey Campbell, to Mark Twain and Thomas F. Monteleone, to H.P. Lovecraft and Chet Williamson, to Nathaniel Hawthorne and Dennis Etchison, to Charles Dickens and F. Paul Wilson, to Rudyard Kipling and Ed Gorman.

This is an absolute must have for both horror fiction fans and horror authors alike. Know the genre, its history and its legacy. One hundred stories you need to read...

[J Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a Barnes and Noble at least 25 years ago but this is the first time I actually read it cover to cover instead of just picking out a few stories based on name recognition.

My only real nitpick is that the collection was ordered strictly on alphabetical order. I would prefer order by theme or possibly by era. Reading cover to cover led to some jarring switches, going from Poe or Ambrose Bierce or Washington Irving to a more contemporary author.

I'm glad I kept it around in my library as some of the stories are basically impossible to find anywhere else at this point.