Customer Reviews

Half-Minute Horrors

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This is a wonderful book of short, rather disturbing stories. I purchased this book to use during a middle school writing workshop that I run and both I and the students have thoroughly enjoyed the "half-minute horrors." I can't say enough about it! With such authors as Lemony Snicket and Margaret Atwood, even as an adult you will appreciate the stories. I would recommend this book to teachers who enjoy bringing out the quirkiness and talents in young writers and to middle school range students who will enjoy being spooked by the possibilities of things under their beds, hands looking for company, and spiders ready to take their own mother away. Absolutely LOVE this book!

Over explaining the details of the plot is one of the biggest problems currently plaguing modern horror writing (and horror film making, for that matter). Chills thrive on ambiguity and mystery, and shining light into every corner of the story leaves no room for shadows. As any good writer of fearful fiction will tell you, no amount of description can live up to the shudder-inducing impressions a reader's imagination can piece together from a few dreadful hints. A concept too readily ignored by many writers, but happily embraced by the authors and artists at work here!

With extremely limited page space, these scary scribes and scribblers work wonders, creating creepiness for kids that might even give a few adults nightmares. Not all of the stories are gems, of course, and a few of them are actually so dark I wonder about their inclusion in a book marketed to the 9-12 group. But barring the odd bit of unevenness, this is still one of the most refreshing horror anthologies I've read across in a while. If you're a horror fan, young or old, this is one collection that's definitely worth your attention!

I first bought this book because of an appearance by Lemony Snicket in it, which demonstrates his usual style of being funny and creepy at the same time. The rest of the short stories (and they're extremely short) share the same sort of feel, with some funnier than others and some creepier. It also provides stories with illustrations, which will appeal to younger ones, though I warn you that some stories are pretty dark humored. I would suggest children no younger than 6 or 7 reading this book. This book is in essence a much shorter version of the Scary/Haunted Stories series that have charmed people for years. This is also a cuter version. Overall, I enjoyed the book and so did my younger sister. Great for halloween time :]

With over thirty stories, from one paragraph to two pages, these are written to scare kids and adults alike from your favorite Young Adult authors. Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, R.L. Stine, and even James Patterson have written for this frightening anthology.

Not only are there short stories within the book, but there are also comic strips, poems, and even haikus and limericks included in the mix to creep under your skin.

Some art in the book is drawn for you to make your own interpretations. There is a collage of monsters, a Ouija board sending a boy a message of fear, even vengeful animal spirits. Each drawing is beautifully illustrated no matter the subject!

Stories vary from ghost children to evil alien parents, monsters under the bed to killer pets! Great for Halloween or any time, HALF-MINUTE HORRORS is short enough to fill anyone's attention span and is worth the read if you like a frightening tale!

Reviewed by: Lesley

As with any anthology some stories are better than others. However the Lemony Snickett story is one of the best of the book. And it looks like you can read it for free right here on Amazon. I say read that story and if you like it give the whole book a shot.

I love it. Most important the grandkids kids love it. Funny and clever stories. "Read (or let me read) another one!"
Highly recommend.

Fun and creepy. Great for when you only have a few minutes to kill and want to be entertained. Not too scary, but gives you the creeps at times once you pause a second to think about what you just read.

If you're looking for a book to read aloud to your kids (or your classroom!) during Halloween time, this is the one to pick up. It includes various genres, such as short stories, haikus, comics, limericks, etc. Also, with monsters under the bed, possessed toys, alien parents, ghosts, and a handful of other things, Half-Minute Horrors pretty much covers all the bases for creepiness.

The stories are short (I think the longest one was a little over 2 pages), yet incredibly entertaining. Yes, there are some that I didn't like very much, but for the most part, I was chuckling my way through Half-Minute Horrors. If you read it to younger kids, there is a good chance some of these stories will scare them, so if you're worried about giving your kid nightmares or something, be sure to look it over. However, I definitely recommend including this book in your Halloween celebrations.

One day, I was at the library with a friend and I saw this book on the shelf. Just laying there, waiting to be picked up. And, upon picking it up, there was absolutely no contemplation on whether or not I should read it. This is probably the best short story book I've read since Jon Scieszca's Guys Write for Guys Read, which I recommend to anyone of the male category. It took one night to read and, it was so good that I put off eating dinner for a whole five minutes before putting it down. And, it take's a lot for me to not want to eat, even for a short time.

This book was pure entertainment. I had a lot of fun reading it, not putting it down (Except for dinner) until I was finished. Some of the short stories were creepy, some hilarious, some you had to think about it for a while before you understood it's creepiness or hilarity. After the book was finished, I would keep going back to read a story here and there that I couldn't get out of my head. And after I returned it to the library, there were certain stories that I kept thinking that would have been so good in novel form.

A lot of my favorite authors contributed to this book. Joseph Delaney, Lemony Snicket, Pseudonymous Bosch, Jon Scieszka. It was a lot of fun a read things that weren't related to their other works (with the exception of Mr. Delaney) and that were sometimes written in complete different styles as their novels.

I greatly liked this book and, in case you guys haven't noticed yet, I obviously have a better opinion in books then anyone else here (Yeah, I know, I'm pretty awesome) so follow my advice. Read this book. It's pretty good.

Read it or I will eat your friggen' soul.

Austin
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As the title says, every one of these stories can be read in a half minute or less. I read the whole book in one setting. There should be something for everybody in here that enjoys horror. Give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.