"For fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Lois Duncan, and Daphne Du Maurier comes a powerhouse anthology featuring some of the best writers of YA thrillers and horror
A host of the smartest young adult authors come together in this collection of scary stories and psychological thrillers curated by Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’s April Genevieve Tucholke.
Each story draws from a classic tale or two—sometimes of the horror genre, sometimes not—to inspire something new and fresh and terrifying. There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat. From bloody horror to supernatural creatures to unsettling, all-too-possible realism, this collection has something for any reader looking for a thrill.
Fans of TV’s The Walking Dead, True Blood, and American Horror Story will tear through tales by these talented authors" - Goodreads
I'm sure most of you know how excited I was for this book/anthology to be released. I couldn't get my hands on it quick enough, so inevitably I was a little disappointed with some of the stories.
I'm going to tell you now that there are some stories that as soon as I read them, I completely forgot what they were about.. so I apologise if my reviews for those ones are a little lacking.
Anyway, let's go in the order the stories were written:
1. The Birds of Azalea Street by Nova Ren Suma
As it was the first story, I was so excited, I raced through this one and did enjoy it quite a lot. I thought it would be a lot creepier than it was, but I didn't mind too much as it was just the beginning. There were some aspects of the story (particularly the end) that I just didn't really understand but other than that, it was okay.
2/5*
2. In the Forest Dark and Deep by Carrie Ryan
I think this was one of my favourites. I absolutely loved it, it was creepy and weird, and just everything you want in an anthology like this. I loved the twist they put on Alice in Wonderland, and honestly, probably preferred this to the original. I wish it was a full novel!
4.5/5*
3. Emmeline by Cat Winters
Historical fiction and horror? What more could a girl ask for. I wouldn't say this was scary, or even creepy for that matter but it was a dark and mysterious paranormal story and I wanted more. That was the problem with this, I wanted their backstories, I wanted more detail and more events, I wanted more. But I guess that goes to show what a good story it was! Again, this wasn't very creepy and probably would have been better as it's own novel than in a horror anthology but it was good nonetheless.
4/5*
4. Verse Chorus Verse by Leigh Bardugo
At the beginning, I wasn't sold. I didn't think it was anything different or special, I didn't think it was particularly creepy or scary at all.. and it was kind of predictable. But the end of this story is probably why I've given it the rating that I did. The ending was creepy and I just wish the whole story was like that.
3.5/5*
5. Hide and Seek - Megan Shepherd
I really enjoyed this story, I thought it was different, unique and interesting. I loved the whole premise, but I didn't think it was particularly creepy or scary, like a story in a horror anthology should be.
4/5*
6. The Dark, Scary Parts and All - Danielle Paige
I'm not going to lie to you, I would never do that - but I honestly can't remember anything about this story. I've read other people's mini-summaries, but I still can't remember reading this at all. Goes to show how much I didn't like it I guess. Yeah, no... I should have probably made some notes. Oops.
7. The Flicker, The Gingers, The Beat, The Sigh by April Genevieve Tucholke
This reminded me of 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' which is an effing scary movie. But I didn't get the fear factor in this story, I thought it was more sad and emotional than it was scary. It was an okay story, nothing to write home about to be honest. Meh.
2/5*
8. Fat Girl With A Knife by Jonathan Maberry
I've never really read anything about zombies, I just didn't ever think that the horrors could come across the same as they do in movies/tv shows.. but I actually really enjoyed this. There was a mix of humour, gore and horror. It didn't scare me like a paranormal story would scare me, but one thought about being in that situation for real and I'm terrified. I would love to see a longer version!
3/5*
9. Sleepless by Jay Kristoff
I loved this. Hands down it was my favourite story. I'm a massive fan of Criminal Minds and this pretty much could have been taken from an episode, it was really really good. I kind of forgot what book I reading at a point, and fell into the 'it's a cute online love story' kind of phase, but once I remembered, I knew it couldn't end well. And my god, some twists just really got me.
5/5*
10. M by Stefan Bachmann
I didn't really understand this one at the beginning, it was a little slow, a little boring. The pace did pick up later on but I needed more. I feel like it would have been a better story had it been a full novel, with the backstory and more detail so we could really care for the characters.
2/5*
11. The Girl Without A Face by Marie Lu
These kinds of stories are what creep me out. I honestly couldn't sleep after reading this, it was as terrifying as words are ever going to get. It's your typical 'monster in the closet' kind of story but with a major twist and it's fantastic. It's very psychological, it's smart and it's scary. Again, I wanted more but let's stop with all of that now!
4/5*
12. A Girl Who Dreamed of Snow by McCormick Templeman
Okay. So here's the truth.... I kind of skimmed/skipped this one. I started the beginning and I couldn't really get into it, I found myself skimming it a lot and by around 15% of the way through the story, I ended up just skipping through the pages.
13. Stitches by A.G. Howard
I quite enjoyed this one too, I really liked the goriness of it. I'm quite a squeamish person, so the graphic detail used to describe some of the... chopping? Honestly made me cringe and pretty much unable to read the horribly descriptive words. But that's great, I love that. Who knows why, but I do. It wasn't great, it was good, but it was also readable.
3/5*
14. On the I-5 by Kendare Blake
This is my kind of story. I really liked it, but it felt so rushed. I wanted more detail, I wanted to know the ins and outs of our MC and I felt like what we got, wasn't enough. The problem with this one is, it's the most recent one I've read, and I remember liking the story - but I'm struggling remembering exactly what happened- so I'm not too sure what that tells me, but I would definitely pick this up if it were to ever become a longer, full novel.
3/5*
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As some of you may know, it took me a long time to finish this book (uni, family events, work etc to be the blame) but I really enjoyed the majority of these stories and definitely would have read it in around 2/3 days had I not been so busy! I rated this book 3* on Goodreads!
Have you read this? What was your favourite story?!
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