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The Artist of the Beautiful by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have not read Hawthorne since The Scarlet Letter in high school. This story had promise at the beginning, but ultimately did not go in the direction that I thought it might. However, that is probably not unusual for speculative fiction from so long ago. It was also overly wordy and meandering in a few places, but likely just the style of the author/times.

Polaris of the Snows by Charles B. Stilson. I was not familiar with the author prior to reading this story. It is a fun, pulpy adventure story that takes place in the Arctic - perhaps somewhat of a polar Tarzan. This was nothing special, just a fun read.

The Door in the Wall by H.G. Wells. This one is about a door to some sort of alternate reality where life is simple and peaceful. It definitely seems to be a metaphor for different paths in life and making decisions.

Under the Knife by H.G. Wells. A story about a man undergoing an operation, yet is able to perceive what is happening on both a small scale and large scale via an outer body experience. Interesting for a story written in the 19th century. No doubt it was terrifying going into an operation back then, with a very high mortality rate, especially for anything major.

One Time Around? by John Helfers. A pretty basic and uninspired time machine/time travel story.

Three Power Play by Wes Nicholson. This is an alternate history simulation story that basically says, how would history play out differently had Japan attacked southeast Asia instead of Pearl Harbor during World War II. I am skeptical as to the way that the author envisioned this playing out, but it was an interesting story, especially for anyone knowledgeable on that period in history.

Yeshua's Choice by Nancy Virginia Varian. This is an alternate history of sorts about Jesus Christ, had things gone differently for him. Somewhat interesting for that reason, but overall rather underwhelming in my opinion.

Try and Try Again by Pierce Askegren. Somewhat of a sub-par time travel story where different people travel to the same time/place and nothing really happens? I probably missed something important.

Voluntary Committal. This is by far the longest story in the collection, and one of my favorites. It is a story about a teen boy and his autistic younger brother, who has a unique and somewhat mystical hobby. This one also captures a lot of the style and substance that I think would feel very familiar to a Stephen King reader.

My Father's Mask. Maybe the most difficult story to decipher in this collection. It is somewhat of a family story with some bizarre and off-putting content, and it will have you questioning what is actually real. Who is really wearing the masks and why?

Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead. This is a fun story about working as zombie extras filming a George Romero movie. At its heart though, it is a relationship story with a heavy does of comedy. I like that it adds some levity to this collection.

The Widow's Breakfast. Another story that is not exactly horror, but it does evoke an atmosphere of gloominess, and I liked it quite a bit. This is a depression era story about people severely down on their luck and just doing their best to get by during hard times.

Dead-Wood. I am not sure that this even qualifies as a story, many poems are longer than this. Just a very brief folk tale about some phantom trees. I guess it was okay?

Last Breath. A brief story about a curator who is a bit off and collects some odd items for his museum.

The Cape. I suppose that you could call this a supernatural story about a guy who does not seem to be going much of anywhere in life. It is not horror, but dark from a psychological perspective. Apparently this also inspired a series of graphic novels.

In the Rundown. Interesting story. It has somewhat of a true crime aesthetic to it. I was at first a little bit unsatisfied with the ending, but it is one of those where the ending is intentionally left open, leaving the reader to ponder on the possibilities for how it will play out and who will be believed.

The Black Phone. Here it is, the story that was made into a film and expanded the popularity of this collection. A good kidnapping story with a slight supernatural twist. The story is solid, but the movie really expanded upon the source material, while managing to stay within its framework, and also made it darker and creepier. Quite interesting to read Hill's original vision for this story.

Better Than Home. A father-son relationship story, which feels a bit out of place in this collection. Not bad, but also nothing special. It does contain a good dose of baseball (Tiger Stadium was especially nostalgic for me), and there is a somewhat subtle reference to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, which I had just watched quite recently.

Abraham's Boys. This is a fun and darkly atmospheric story that takes place in times past. I am keeping it very vague because there is a certain joy in discovery while reading it.

You Will Hear the Locust Sing. This is clearly Hill's take on Kafka's The Metamorphosis. This story though, is definitely grosser and becomes very dark. I cannot say that I liked where the author went with this or what the narrative seems to say about certain topics.

Pop Art. A story about an inflatable? So strange, I am not sure that I can get behind this one.

20th Century Ghost. Nothing groundbreaking here, but a nice old theater haunting ghost story.

Best New Horror. This is a story about an editor trying to track down an author to include a story in the publication he is preparing. This probably does not sound much like horror, but...you will just have to read it.

One Rainy Day in Paris by Skip and Penny Williams. This is a time travel/time alteration story about Marie Curie, the discovery of radiation, and its weaponization. Not a particularly memorable story, but I found it pretty entertaining and interesting after a somewhat of a slow start.

Standing Still by Donald J. Bingle. This one starts as a rather implausible that I was certain would be fairly predictable and bland. However, it took some dark and surprising turns toward the end that elevated the story quite a bit. This is another time-traveling, history-altering story that has some similarities to the first story in this collection, Pierson's "Pruning the Tree."

Oyer and Terminer by Joe Masdon. This is a story set during the Salem witch trials. Honestly, it did nothing for me. Also, oddly, it had a lot of typos, which has not been the case with any of the other stories in this collection.

The Man in Cell 91 by Gene DeWeese. A condemned man is forced to experience dreams/visions with the hope that it will cause him to change his views and help to alter the course of humanity. It was okay. I was not familiar with this author, but it appears that he has written predominately Star Trek and some other shared world fiction.

Chaos Theory by Stephen Leigh. Well, this had all the makings of the beginning of amateur erotica or male fantasy. It had one main talking point, historical determinism, so I am not sure that I would even classify the story as science fiction. Pretty unmemorable.

A Better Place by Linda P. Baker. A story about the nature of treasure and the nature of people in a post-apocalyptic United States. Quite a well-realized world for a short story of only 20 pages, but I am unsure how this one really qualifies as a "time twister". Alternate history I suppose?