8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A couple of must-reads; you can take or leave the rest, October 31, 2001
This review is from: Thirteen: 13 Tales of Horror by 13 Masters of Horror (Mass Market Paperback)
For teen horror, this is pretty good; fans of horror in general will enjoy a couple of the stories. Here are the must reads, with comments:
'Collect Call': A weird one. (Pike's a wizard at chronicling the soft underbelly of the high school social scene.) The first part is better, but the second is necessary to completely understand the story.
'The Guccioli Miniature': One of the three stories in this collection which lacks a supernatural element; a crime story with a tragicomic twist.
'A Little Taste of Death': A genuinely original idea, imperfectly developed, but tantalizing nonetheless. Tasty.
'House of Horrors': This falls into the fairly narrow subgenre of wax-museum horrors (either the wax coming alive or the living turning to wax - I won't tell you which this is), but there're plenty of chills nonetheless.
'Deathflash': Another really original idea. The vague, eerie telling (which intentionally leaves a lot to the imagination), combined with the pseudoscientific premise, gives it a slightly Lovecraftian flavor, and the ending is only a little implausible.
Of all the stories, the only one I really object to is 'The Spell' by R. L. Stine. He's written a lot of good stuff - his Goosebumps series shows him to excel at childrens' gross-out horror, and the Fear Street books at their best are as good as anything by Pike - but 'The Spell' is a sloppy, contrived, confusing mess, a sad addition to an otherwise appealing collection.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly great stories., February 29, 2004
This is a collection of mostly very good stories. I like The Hacker and the Collect Call chapters the best. I gave it four out of five because there is one or two stories that bore me and I couldn't finish it. One was something like the Gutilici or something. Lucianda was a little interesting but also nothing special.
Pick it up if you like horror books but aren't sure you're ready for Stephen King/John Saul horror!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Thirteen - Tales of Horror by Masters of Horror, May 29, 2000
This review is from: Thirteen: 13 Tales of Horror by 13 Masters of Horror (Mass Market Paperback)
Good Book. I say that this book is a great way to find new authors. The stories of the book go both ways, from good to bad. Christopher Pike is a great author, with a beautiful way of writing, while D.E. Athkins, (in my opinion) is writing more for a little kid, than a young adult. Although your opinion will switch from story to story, this is a great instrument to gain new insight to authors you never would think of reading. I give this book 3 stars. I feel it could have more suspense and sometimes better writers. None the less, I feel it is a great 'light' book. You can use this book on a trip or just if you want to relax. The short stories are a great way of letting go for a little while. Sit back and enjoy
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