Customer Reviews

Thirteen: 13 Tales of Horror by 13 Masters of Horror

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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

The book Thirteen is not just one story. There are 13 short extremely scary stories. They are a variety of horrifying events. For example there is this one story called The Doll. This story was the scariest to me. It was about a girl who found a doll in her attic and she thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. So she brought it down to her room and kept it there. But ever since then strange things started happening. The doll would move its head without anyone touching it, and it also caused nightmares. These nightmares would come true. In the dream it would always have someone get hurt or die. And you wouldn't see that it's the doll. You would just see a little girl and hear gigiling. If you like scary stories then i highly recommend this book to you. It's an amazing book that will make you want to scream with fear!!!!!

Well, technically, there are 14 short stories, since Christopher Pike's contains two parts, set at the beginning and end of "Thirteen." The first part ("Collect Call I") is about two girls who drive home after a party, except they get into an accident and one of them dies. Then the remaining girl starts receiving messages on her answering machine from the dead girl. The second part ("Collect Call II: The Black Walker") begins some time after the fatal accident, when the remaining girl starts dating the mysterious Bobby Walker--only to be reunited with the other dead girl. Now, I'm a big Christopher Pike fan, but I didn't think this two-part short story was his best work; in fact, these two stories are somewhat weaker compared to some of the other 12 stories shown below (if you'd rather not know what they're about, just skip the following three paragraphs and read the last paragraph--don't worry; I didn't give away the endings):

"Lucinda" by Lael Littke -- A 16-year-old girl and her older brother return to their hometown to investigate the six-year-old death of his girlfriend. As explained in Littke's bio at the end of this book, the location for this story was based on real events--of "a real town that was moved when the nearby river was damned and the valley flooded." I really liked the original setting; it gives the whole story a remote, ghost town quality--and even an Atlantis feel when the town had been under water. >> "The Guiccioli Miniature" by Jay Bennett -- Set in Venice, Italy, a young college student is approached by a poor painter to buy one of his copies of the Guiccioli miniature. This 8-paged story is not your typical horror fare; it kind of sticks out because of its more "intelligent" horror and open ending. >> "Blood Kiss" by D.E. Athkins -- Elizabeth and her two girl friends fall for the new boy who everybody thinks is a vampire. This story has a lighter, more humorous mood than the rest. >> "A Little Taste of Death" by Patricia Windsor -- A 15-year-old girl reads an eerie ad in the newspaper that requests she contact someone about a 10-year-old event. This one was okay, but leaves a few questions unanswered. Restates the obvious: Never take candy from a stranger.

"The Doll" by Carol Ellis -- After moving in to her family's new home, 16-year-old Abby finds a doll in the attic that tries to harm Abby's friends and family. >> "House of Horrors" by J.B. Stamper -- While working as a guide at the House of Horrors, Mark is invited to an after-hours party in the wax museum. This was another good one; it vaguely reminded me of the movie "Waxworks," though it was based on Stamper's experience at a famous wax museum in London. Readers will certainly be able to relate to Mark's claustrophobia. >> "Where the Deer Are" by Caroline B. Cooney -- Walking to school one day with her four friends, Tiffany has a premonition that Nature (which consists of the nearby deer, woods, and cliff known as Dead Kid Curve) has decided to claim one of them after 25 years. But who will it be? This one has a Nature vs. Human theme, and reminded me a little of Cooney's Losing Christina trilogy, with the paranoia, isolation, and her darker, more spare writing. Definitely one of the weirder ones. >> "The Spell" by R.L. Stine -- A young girl's boyfriend gets interested in hypnotism and uses his new talent to get even with his friends who had teased him about it. I'm not a big Stine fan, but this one was good. The ending--though left open--was effectively scary.

"Dedicated to the One I Love" by Diane Hoh -- One by one, three friends hear a radio dedication to them, made by their two-timing (or, in this case, three-timeing) ex-boyfriend Richie--and one by one, each girl has a tragic accident. This one gets better as you read; there's a twist halfway through it. >> "Hacker" by Sinclair Smith -- A young student becomes a serial killer's next victim when she starts receiving messages from him on her class computer. This one was rather disappointing because of how easy it is to guess the killer; there aren't very many characters in it. >> "Deathflash" by A. Bates -- As mentioned in Bates' bio, this one is about good vs. evil--about a young girl who fears a soul-consuming creature is after her. >> "The Boy Next Door" by Ellen Emerson White -- A young girl working in an ice cream parlor (during winter, of all times) is robbed and threatened by one of her childhood friends. This is another favorite of mine; it's very suspenseful and has a great ending.

As shown above, the majority of stories in "Thirteen" involve ghosts, the supernatural, curses and superstitions, vampires, murderous dolls, scary wax museums, hypnotism, and--what horror anthology wouldn't be complete without--serial killers. Some of these stories are bloody, but even notorious gore writers like R.L. Stine are able to tame it a bit. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on your taste of horror, I guess. But no matter what your level of horror is, "Thirteen" is definitely worth owning, especially if you're a fan of one or more of the authors in this book.

I bought this book at a little used book store by my house, interested in checking it out for a long time. So, I got it and it's a month or two later, and I've read all the stories. (I think) Well, each story was pretty interesting, I must say that. Well, maybe not all of them. I dread all R.L. Stine novels, and his story bored the hell out of me, even though the idea was kinda cool. Christopher Pike wrote the most amazing story of that whole book. His talent is amazing, and he scared the hell out of me. Then there was "Deathflash," by A. Bates, which had the most radically stupid story of them all. She's not a bad writer, but that story was so odd. Same with Caroline Cooney's "Where the Deer Are." Soemthing about that story that I can't put my finger on didn't sit write with me. "Dedicated to the One I Love" by Diane Hoh was impressive, and it indeed scared me, unlike "The Train," one of her novels. "House of Horrors" by J.B. Stamper was another good one. "The Guiccioli Miniature" by Jay Bennett, who I never read anything of, was creative. Carol Ellis is one of my favorite authors, and "The Doll" was pretty cool, even though the story is rather monotonous and predictable. It had a certain something that made it great, and that's why I like her work so much. Those are the only ones I can remember reading of the top of my mind, and I think I only read those. So far, I was impressed. The rest of the stories should also be good.

its 13 tales of Horror by 13 masters of Horror!
collect call by Christoper Pike
Lucinda by lael littke
the guiccioli miniature by jay bennett
blood kiss by d.e. athkins
a little taste of death by patricia windsor
the doll by carol ellis
house og horrors by j.b. stamper
where the deer are by caroline cooney
the spell by r.l. stine
dedicated to the one i love by diane hoh
hacker by sinclair smith
deathflash by a. bates
the boy next door by ellen emerson white

These are all great storys all about the new guy in town who is very handson, very sexy and very deadly!
read it its great!

I read the book "Thirteen" and thought it was great! All of the short, scary stories were filled with mysterious twists and unpredictable endings. The authers of this book came together to make a great book of horror. I liked one story inpreticular, it was the one called "The Doll" and it was great. I had to stop reading it so I could get to sleep that night. I would recomend this book for middle school reading and high school reading because littler kids might be too scared. I encourage anyone who loves horror stories to get their hands on this book, because it is definitly worth reading.

This book was enjoyable for me, especially since I'm just polishing up my own book of short horror stories. Every tale was unique in some way or another, but Christopher Pike really took the cake with his two-part story--highly original. I think this is one of the best collection of horror stories for young adult readers. Even though some stories may be just plain "eerie", that's what I like about them. They're entertaining.

These stories are so original and haunting that they will stay with the reader for years. I read this book when I was in seventh grade, and now that I am a 30 year old man, I hunted a new copy down online, because I want to pass this treasure of stories along to my nieces and nephews and children. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy ASAP!