Customer Reviews

Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters

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Strangers is a collection of horror and suspense stories centered around the theme of strange encounters. And, besides for the few inevitable misses, the stories collected in this book are great. Some of the best names in horror and suspense fiction are collected in here; Jack Ketchum, Patricia Highsmith, Muriel Gray, Ray Bradbury, Lovecraft... The book collects both old and new and the result works surprisingly well.

The real reason to get this book is for Jack Ketchum's brilliant story The Box, about a man who sees his family deteriorate after they encounter a strange individual who has something to share. But there is also a brilliant story by Christopher Fowler here, where a man's worst nightmare becoems reality. Patricia Highsmith's tale mixes fantasy and horror quite masterfully. And Tabitha King's story, although a little too long, is a frantic portrayal of a woman in panic.

Thomas Tessier, Alex Hamilton, Lisa Tuttle, Edith Wharton, Muriel Gray and Jay Russell and John Wyndham all present stories that are very entertaining, imaginative and, at times, brilliant.

Unfortunately, the book does also present a few misses. Bradbury's tale of a man lost in an unknown town is very predictable and boring. Mark Helprin's Letters From The Samantha goes round and round in circles and never stops anywhere. And Victoria Rothschild gets in way over her head with her strange little tale.

But overall, this book is a keeper. Michele Slung has collected a slew of memorable story that are often suspenseful, often scary and mostly entertaining.

Editor Michelle Slung has put together a collection of success wise, major and minor authors selecting stories first published in a time period ranging from 1927 to some first published at this anthology's own date of publication 2002. The stories within revolve around the theme of sudden encounters with someone that ultimately change the expected or everyday path of the central character of each story. Like any various author anthology the quality of stories varies as does the writing style so some you will love, others you'll forget as soon as you get to their last page. The best anthologies are ones where you'll enjoy the majority and discover new authors to check out. This collection does that.

The only detrimental aspect of this collection is that the editor gives a little spiel at the start of each story which you quickly learn not to read until you've finished as she's really into giving away spoilers.

Since no one else has, I will provide a complete list of the stories and their authors at the bottom of this review. The best stories in this collection in my opinion are -

The Two-Headed Man written by Nancy Collins in 1990. This eerie tale has a bored, ageing waitress working in an isolated back highway dinner of Arkansas. She is desperate for her prince charming to come and take her away from the place. Upon closing she is creeped out when an extremely handsome man comes into the place, claiming his car has a flat tyre, who upon taking of his parka seems to have a second hand on his shoulder.

Thomas Tessier's 1993 written In the Desert of Deserts is also quite good. A man in a 4WD is travelling across remote parts of the Sahara Desert getting freaked out as he discovers the same footprints surrounding his camp every night wherever he goes.

Ray Bradbury's The Town Where No One Got Off, easily is the best of the older stuff (first published 1958). A talk between strangers on a train of what you would find if you randomly got off at some of the isolated non tourist small towns along the railway line convinces one of them to do just that. An encounter of an old man has the traveller quickly realising no one knows he's there if someone were to disappear.

G.K. Wuori's 1999 first published The General Store, is another what would you do thriller, where a small town service station owner first believes he is being robbed but no money is asked for, he is beaten and tied up and his wife taken out to the men's car at the pumps.

Christopher Fowler's 1995 tale Hated is also quite interesting. A male version of the really attractive girl who strangers will do anything for and are always nice to, finds that when a bicyclist runs into his Mercidees at night then asks him for money for his supposed injuries, which the man refuses. What happens when the male version of the "beautiful girl" factor is removed from everyone he meets' perception.

Jack Ketchum's 1994 story The Box is good, about a family who meet a man on the subway who is carrying a box. Their nosey son wants to know what is inside. The man shows him, the son won't tell what was inside but from that moment on looks forward to death and refuses to eat a thing. As others learn its secret they also choose this path. Only thing is you the reader will still be wondering what was in the box at the end of the tale.

Likewise probably the biggest author in this collection Richard Matheson's Button, Button is a brilliant idea for a story and more of a philosophical question than a story, as other than the characters coping with the dilemma of being asked if they would push the button on a device delivered to their home which will give them $50 000 at the expense of someone they don't know being killed every time they push it. There is really not much substance to this story, it is actually one of the weaker stories of Matheson's own anthology collection of the same name first published in 1970.

A good collection, check it out! Stories inside are -
The Women's Room, 2002 by Tabitha King
In the Desert of Deserts, 1993 by Thomas Tessier
The Baby-sitters, 1966 by Alex Hamilton
After You've Gone, 2002 by John Peyton Cooke
He, 1927 by H.P. Lovecraft
The Nature of the Thing, 1993 by Patricia Highsmith
The General Store, 1999 by G. K. Wuori
Honey I'm Home, 1992 by Lisa Tuttle
Letters from Samantha, 1976 by Mark Helprin
The Box, 1994 by Jack Ketchum
Hated, 1995 by Christopher Fowler
Being Kind, 2002 by Victoria Rothschild
Meteor, 1941 by Jack Wyndham
Shite-Hawks, 2002 by Muriel Gray
Jack the Ripper, 1997 by Shirley Jackson
Button, Button, 1970 by Richard Matheson
The Asian Shore, 1970 by Thomas Disch
The Hobby, 1987 by Eric McCormack
The Two-Headed Man, 1990 by Nancy A. Collins
Hides, 2002 by Jay Russell

The best three various author thriller anthology collections I've come across are Dangerous Women edited by Otto Penzler, Death Do Us Part edited by Harlan Coben and The Best American Mystery Stories 2006 (The Best American Series) edited by Scott Turrow.

This was possibly THE worst book I have ever read in my life. Each stupid, "eerie" tale is just that: stupid. The stories start out good and wind around a great plot, but then just end, with no explanations. At first, I thought the authors just want to leave us guessing.... but piecing back the stories, you realize the stories don't have any explanation what so ever.

I opened this book expecting great tales about ghost like or actual eerie encounters. The only thing eerie about this book is whoever enjoys reading it.