Customer Reviews

Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories Presented by the Horror Writers Association

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I mostly got this book for the offering by Jim Butcher, but I felt it a disservice to the other authors if I didn't read the rest. Granted, the other stories are a mixed bag in terms of quality, and some of the humor is of the splatter and potty-joke variety, but it's still worth a reading if you want an easy giggle and a mild case of the shudders:

"The Ungrateful Dead" -- A Necromancer finds a clever way to ward off a pesky spirit and his zombie cousin.

"Mr. Bear" -- The unnerving true story of a celebrity bear gone bad.

"Hell in a Handbasket" -- A surprise delivery to the infernal gates winds up more than the nether regions can handle

"The Eldritch Pastiche from Beyond the Shadow of Horror" -- Part tongue-in-cheek parody of H.P. Lovecraft's works, part shivery meta-fiction.

"Elvis Presley and the Bloodsucker Blues" -- What happens when the King of Rock and Roll becomes a king of the night...

"No Problem" -- A mad scientist's descendant discovers his heritage and starts to experiment with his findings... with disastrous results.

"Old School" -- A ritual gone wrong when the practitioners failed to read the fine print...

"A Sound of Blunder" -- A gleefully splatter-laden parody of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" featuring two inept gangster-wannabes' attempts to make a bad deal go away.

"An Evening with Al Gore" -- A satiric look at going green -- and what happens when the preternatural fights back to protect the natural.

"Dear Prudence" -- A blackly witty tale in letters as a man contemplates offing his shrewish wife...

"A Good Psycho is Hard to Find" -- A spoof on chainsaw murderer flicks -- and a rip on who the real psychos might be..

"High Kicks and Misdemeanors" -- A skeezy talent scout finds a strange use for a gift left to him by his Native American uncle.

"PR Problems" -- A ghoul gives us a look into the sorry lot he has in being overshadowed by other, cooler preternatural beings.

"Where Angels Fear to Tread" -- An office worker is called to a higher order when he picks up a mysterious sacred coin.

"A Very Special Girl" -- A group of Damon Runyon-esque paranormal gangsters juggle a sticky bit of bookmaking with a dame you don't want to mess with.

"Love Seat Solitaire" -- A shivery duel between a group of slackers and an angry old poltergeist.

"I Know Who You Ate Last Summer" -- A pair of washed-up rock stars' foray into the Other white meat comes up to bite them.

"Bitches of the Night" -- Ever wondered what it must really be like for Dracula and his brides? Here's a sneak peek into the other side of the coffin lid...

"The Bell... FROM HELL!" -- A nerve-jangler featuring a man with a shockingly simple demonic artifact... and where the real horrors lurk.

"Dead Hand" -- A car-racing crew member tries to get his team ahead by resorting to Cherokee magic, but only annoys the spirit he calls up.

"Day Off" -- Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden is looking forward to a relaxing day with his lady friend... but life on both sides of the Never-Never has other plans for him.

What a great idea for an anthology! I picked up this book because I am a big fan of Kevin J. Anderson, -- I was disappointed he doesn't have a story here. These stories range from laugh-out-loud antics (Joe Lansdale, Dond'Amassa, Christopher Welch) to cute twists (Eric James Stone, Jeff Strand, Mark Onspaugh), to just plain enjoyable romps (Lucien Soulban, Jim Butcher). I had never read Jim Butcher before, but I'm sold after reading his "Day Off" in the Harry Dresden series. Since humor is a subjective thing, you probably won't like ALL of the stories here, but you'll certainly find something to tickle your funny bone.

I picked this up at the bookstore on a lark. I'm a dedicated Charlaine Harris and Jim Butcher fan, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. This is a book for entertainment; it's very light-hearted, and yes, it's full of the "gross" factor, but it was fun to read some of my favorite authors take a side trip from their usual series that I know and love. It was also a great way to experience some previously unread authors for me so I can be on the lookout for their books. All in all, it was worth purchasing and even the few that were just not my bag were far outnumbered with enjoyable stories.

Blood Lite is an anthology of short stories from some of today's most prominent horror writers. The stories in Blood Lite all have a dark humor edge to them which I think makes them more enjoyable than just pure horror. Some of the stories were really good but some were just okay. That's pretty typical of the anthologies I've read. My favorite stories in the book were "Day Off" by Jim Butcher (I'm a huge Dresden Files fan), "Hell in a Handbasket" by Lucien Soulban, "Elvis Presley and the Bloodsucker Blues" by Matt Venne, and "Dear Prudence" by Steven Savile. I was really looking forward to Charlaine Harris' contribution since I like her other work, but I was a bit disappointed with it.

What better time to read horror stories than during Halloween season? Blood Lite features twenty-one short stories that will make you laugh as well as spook you. These stories show a more humorous side to things that go bump in the night, but that doesn't mean that you won't get frightened as well. In Charlaine Harris's "A Date with Al Gore," a couple of environmentalists take their save-the-earth cause very seriously. Kelley Armstrong's "The Ungrateful Dead," features necromancer Jamie Vargas (from the Women of the Otherworld series) and her unfortunate run-in with a very stubborn ghost. Some stories have ironic humor, like Mark Onspaugh's "Old School," Don D'Ammassa's "No Problem" (a modern Frankenstein storyline), and Nancy Kilpatrick's "Bitches of the Night." And then there are some that feature some dark (or should I say darker?) humor, like "Dear Prudence," by Steven Savile. The aforementioned story is my favorite in the book. It is quite disturbing the way the male character unleashes his feelings to his girlfriend in writing. Definitely a big spooker. All of the stories in Blood Lite are great. My least favorites are Nancy Holder's "I Know Who You Ate Last Summer" and Eric James Stone's "PR Problems." Jim Butcher's "Day Off" is good, but I couldn't finish it because I stopped reading the Dresden Files years ago and I was completely lost. All in all, this is a great anthology. So, pick this up if you're in the bargain for some scary fun.

It was fun to read. I'm not crazy about short stories. I really enjoyed these.

I loved getting sample bites from authors that I've only heard about. It's a great read to help you see if you would be interested in other works by these authors.

This was a fun look at the Vampire mythos by a lot of good horror writers. The one that stuck in my mind as something different was one that clears up how Elvis really died. Charlaine Harris has dealt with Elvis in her books but this is completely different. I enjoyed most of the stories and had fun reading it. The title tells you the stories take a lighter view of vampires.

I was dying to read this for the Jim Butcher story (a Harry Dresden one); it was Ok - just OK, probably the weakest of his short stories to date. They are usually well-paced and involving, this was neither. But still it was one of the strong points of the book. The Armstrong story was a good opener and I was hopeful for the rest of the book, but the next 4 stories just got progressively worse. It is by far the single worst anthology I have ever read. Some of the stories were so bad I don't know how they got published, they were neither funny or scary and several read like they had been written by teenage boys trying to shock their English teacher. Terrible

I bought this anthology because I am a big fan of Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris. I failed to look close enough at the sponsor though. Most of these stories are much heavier on the "horror" and not nearly as humorous as promised. Only a couple of them deal with any alternate universe or paranormal storylines. I was disappointed with Charlaine Harris's offering, although Jim Butcher did not let me down. Several of these stories were just downright disgusting. Maybe my sense of humor is not macabre enough, but the only thing "lite" about this book was the length of the stories.