HelEinir's Books

Such a good compilation of stories and great writing (okay with the exception of a couple of stories which almost made me ditch the book and which I believe greatly diminished the overall quality of the anthology)

Here are my ratings for each story:

"The Birds of Azalea Street" 4 stars This story was a great start to the anthology. I loved the writing and how it depicted a very real issue. Also, I love me some divine (or not so divine) justice.

"In the Forest Dark and Deep" 4.5 stars Alice's adventures in Wonderland with a twist! God, I loved this MC so much and her relationship with the Hare. It was so twisted and perfect.

"Emmeline" 5 stars The writing, the romance, the paranormal elements and the historical background. I loved it to bits. I'm definitely checking out this author.

"Verse Chorus Verse" 2.5 stars I didn't quite get this story? Sure it was slightly creepy but in the end I was like... huh? Maybe I'll re-read it once again but I'm not sure there's anything else to it and it left me feeling quite disappointed.

"Hide and Seek" 5 stars This story! This freaking story. It was easily my favorite from the entire anthology. I don't know what it was about it, probably the characters: Annie, Crow Cullom, Suze! I fell in love with them instantly, and the unique situation and plot. I loved how it was executed and I hope I could keep reading about them, or at least about Crow, I want to know so much about him. Oh God. I loved it.

"The Dark, Scary Parts and All" 1 stars This is when the anthology took a dive. Annoying, special snowflake MC and her not so perfect crush. This story could have been told in one or two pages and saved me the drawn out disappointment brough on by that ending. Not creepy or scary at all.

"The Flicker, the Fingers, the Beat, the Sigh" 1 star or -5 stars, rather. I watched the movie? What's so original about this story? I felt like this story has been told a thousand times. They should've taken it out of the anthology. Nothing new to be read here. Waste of space and time.

"Fat Girl with a Knife" 1 star Pointless. Another annoying MC. Kind of a decent ending. Again, this could have been told maybe in 3 or 4 pages. No more. Zombie fans, do yourselves a favor and skip this one because it gives you nothing new.

"Sleepless" 3 stars Finally something worth my time after those last three stories, I was about to give up on the rest of the book thinking the stories were only getting worse. This story reminded me of another movie, of course, it was very obvious, but at least I enjoyed seeing it unfold. The writing was nothing exceptional but I liked the MC well enough and was pretty satisfied with the ending.

"M" 2 stars Eh... The story was going pretty okay until that ending. I expected more. The children were creepy though.

"The Girl Without a Face" 1 star Another crap story. Honestly? I won't even bother going into why I disliked it. Predictable. No twist. I felt nothing.

"A Girl Who Dreamed of Snow" 2.5 stars This wasn't a great story either. I didn't find it creepy whatsoever. It felt out of place in this anthology. BUT the writing was good, and it felt way more original than at least three or four of the other stories in this book.

"Stitches" 4 stars Finally some gory goodness. This story was delicious. The writing, the plot, the execution. Another one of the stories in this anthology which had to do some heavy lifting after reading the previous ones. I definitely recommend this one (if you want to skip the crappy ones).

"On the I-5" 4.5 stars I'm glad this was the last story as it didn't leave me disappointed or unsatisfied in the least. Kendare Blake knows her creepy girls with a sad background. I want more.

Even though the book had several stories that were a disservice to the authors who actually seemed to put some effort into their work and tried hard to make them spooky enough for the reader, I decided to give it 4 stars and take only the good of this anthology. In fact, I'll pretend those 1 star stories never existed. So consider that a 4.5.