Welcome to a world where everything seems normal. At least, at first. But the sinister and truly terrifying lurk just beneath the surface. Like a bathtub with a history so haunted, no one dares get in it. . . or an ordinary-looking camera that does unspeakable things to its subjects. . .or a mysterious computer game that has terrible consequences if you lose. . . .
From the creator of the blockbuster Alex Rider Adventures and The Diamond Brothers Mysteries, Horowitz Horror is a wicked collection of macabre tales sure to send shivers up your spine.
Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear -- "My father was a very secretive man," he says-- so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls. A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands&. I was an astoundingly large, round child&." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.
Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. He has written a television series Foyle's War, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. His film script The Gathering has just finished production. And&oh yes&there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series.
This review is from: Horowitz Horror: Stories You'll Wish You Never Read (Hardcover)
The back cover promises that "Horowitz Horror is a wicked collection of macabre tales sure to send shivers up your spine" and for the most part this is quite true. This particular book was originally published in 1999 in Great Brittan, so all the tales are set there and have a decidedly English feel to them. This lends an additional kind of creep to the tales, as one gets a very genteel and proper feel from the language, but the stories are anything but genteel and proper!
In Horrowitz Horror, we are treated to nine twisted tales...each is brief (good for read aloud if you are so inclined) and the entire book is short enough to read in one sitting...though I suspect this is best read one tale at a time on chilly autumn and winter nights...curled up in bed with a good cup of tea! The stories include a rather nasty haunted bath tub (who would have thought...lol); the perfect birthday gift that has rather dastardly effects; a computer haunted by a sports writer; a spoiled brat who gets exactly what she deserves, in a rather grisly tale that I think all parents of spoiled rotten brats might be tempted by; an unruly teen who discovers exactly what happens when you go off the beaten path; a computer game so real it's deadly; a rather sad photo premonition; and the tale of the monkey's ear (similar to the monkey's paw, but more messed up)!
I most liked Bath Night, Harriet's Horrible Dream and The Monkey's Ear and least liked Scared and The Man with the Yellow Face...but I will say this, all of them were suitably macabre and twisted!! I don't know that I'd personally read this to children in the age range listed above (4-8), the tales are a little gruesome...I think I'd shoot for 8-12 myself, depending on your child of course. Due to the subtlety of some of the stories, they'd probably be best appreciated by the 10-12 year old age range. I give it a B+, the stories were all well done, but none were truly outstanding...and while some of the kids here got what they deserved, others were just kind of sad and depressing. Overall, if you like horror stories, you won't be disappointed to have spent some time one this!
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This review is from: Horowitz Horror: Stories You'll Wish You Never Read (Hardcover)
Our 8-year-old son bought this at his primary school book fair. We're putting it on a back shelf until he's a teenager. The first two stories alone include casual sexist and anti-gay references, group suicide and a naked girl being hauled off to a mental institute as her father plans to buy an axe and kill her mother. All good fun of course but NOT appropriate for younger kids.
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This review is from: Horowitz Horror: Stories You'll Wish You Never Read (Hardcover)
My 10 year old son initially loved the book and enthusiastically wrote up a great book review for class. However, he has been afraid to go into his bedroom and bathroom alone since reading this book. If your child has never encountered this genre before, think about previewing the contents first. The book is true to its title!
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