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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2340 KP) rated Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder in Books
Oct 7, 2020
Accept this Invitation to Seventeen Murders
In the seventh short story anthology from the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, each story revolves around an invitation. Some are the obvious invitations for events, but others are a more casual invitation. Either way, they lead to danger of some kind. There’s a mother whose young son is writing a hard-boiled mystery, an escape room that ends in death, a guest who overstays her welcome, bedbugs and murder in London, and a debutant ball in early 1900’s South Carolina. The stories are as varied as their locations, and many are fun. As with every short story collection, not every story will be for every taste. Personally, I found a couple of them too dark to be enjoyable. But the majority of the seventeen stories were a delight. If you are searching for bite sized stories, you’ll be glad you picked up this collection.
This is the third and final book I was given for Christmas, another collection of classic crime stories. It's similar to Murder On Christmas Eve, so I'm not going to write too much in this review. Out of the two, though, this is my favourite collection.
The stories in this collection are, for the most part, very good. The last couple weren't as engaging, but there's always going to be one or two you don't like. This collection even includes a tale about Sherlock Holmes (and Watson, of course) bt Arthur Conan Doyle himself. It was actually the first I've read of his work, and it was definitely as fantastic as I'd hoped.
Like the other book, the ten stories very from missing jewels hidden inside geese, to missing candle sticks, to death-by-radio. They're all very interesting mysteries, again seemingly simple on the surface but always a lot more incricate than they seem.
A nice collection of classic "festive" crimes. 3.5 stars.
The stories in this collection are, for the most part, very good. The last couple weren't as engaging, but there's always going to be one or two you don't like. This collection even includes a tale about Sherlock Holmes (and Watson, of course) bt Arthur Conan Doyle himself. It was actually the first I've read of his work, and it was definitely as fantastic as I'd hoped.
Like the other book, the ten stories very from missing jewels hidden inside geese, to missing candle sticks, to death-by-radio. They're all very interesting mysteries, again seemingly simple on the surface but always a lot more incricate than they seem.
A nice collection of classic "festive" crimes. 3.5 stars.
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Debbiereadsbook (1434 KP) rated A Cold Christmas and the Darkest of Winters in Books
Dec 17, 2021
not bedtime reading but very good!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
A collection of 23 different authors come together to bring you short stories set around the winter season or Christmas.
Not a single one of these authors have I read before, and there is a varied bunch of tales here. Some are just sad but some are downright scary!
Loosely, they are "holiday" stories, but more are winter ones, rather than Christmas.
An eclectic bunch of tales that can be read at any time, but I'd recommend NOT at bedtime! You might stop on one of the scary ones, and get some weird dreams as a consequence, like I did!
I didn't read them all, I will be honest, but the ones I read were very good, or excellent. Just on the short side. but 23 stories across 360 odd pages is never going to produce novel length books.
4 stars
*same worded review will appear elsewhere
A collection of 23 different authors come together to bring you short stories set around the winter season or Christmas.
Not a single one of these authors have I read before, and there is a varied bunch of tales here. Some are just sad but some are downright scary!
Loosely, they are "holiday" stories, but more are winter ones, rather than Christmas.
An eclectic bunch of tales that can be read at any time, but I'd recommend NOT at bedtime! You might stop on one of the scary ones, and get some weird dreams as a consequence, like I did!
I didn't read them all, I will be honest, but the ones I read were very good, or excellent. Just on the short side. but 23 stories across 360 odd pages is never going to produce novel length books.
4 stars
*same worded review will appear elsewhere
Lee (2222 KP) rated Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) in Movies
Aug 21, 2019
Obviously I'm not familiar with the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books that this movie is based on - a series of three books containing short horror stories for children and drawing heavily on urban legend and folklore for it's subject matter, first published in 1981. Apparently, the series is listed by the American Library Association as being the most challenged series of books from the 1990s, with complaints relating to the violence and disturbing subject matter portrayed within them not being suitable for the children it was aimed at. The illustrations within the book also drew criticism, vividly portraying the nightmare creatures and scenes contained within the stories. Perfect material for a movie version!
That movie version comes from Troll Hunter director André Øvredal and producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro and attempts a Goosebumps style movie, taking some of the better known stories from the 80+ contained within the books and weaving them into a larger narrative, set in Mill Valley Pennsylvania during the fall of 1968.
It's Halloween and a group of teens are preparing to go out for an evening of trick or treating - applying makeup, getting into their costumes, fishing in the toilet for turds in preparation for a Halloween trick. They head out on their bikes but it's not long before they run into some idiot jocks from their local school, and that turd trick suddenly comes in handy! We've already been introduced to the jocks earlier in the movie, out in a cornfield where they were hitting a creepy looking scarecrow about the head with a baseball bat. Yep, they're certainly going to regret that a little bit later on!
The teens manage to escape the jocks, working their way into a drive through movie that's showing "Night of the Living Dead" and into the car of another teen called Ramón. The group strike up a bond with Ramón after he helps them out and they all decide to go and break into an abandoned local house which is reportedly haunted. They find their way into the basement where legend has it that Sarah Bellows, the daughter of a prominent local family, was locked away in the late 1800s. Horror nerd Stella comes across a book containing short scary stories that were written in blood by Sarah, and she decides to take it with them. As Stella opens the book’s pages, she sees that Sarah’s stories are literally beginning to write themselves - stories that put her friends in some pretty unpleasant situations, stories which immediately become reality the moment they're written. As Stella later puts it, "You don't read the book, the book reads you".
The setup and the scenarios within each story are enjoyable enough and are certainly creepy, however the execution doesn't always work so well and the payoffs aren't quite as scary as I would have liked. The movie also suffers from some slightly dodgy CGI at times too, which doesn't help. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the final story, and the return to the house in order to try and stop Sarah Bellows worked really well for me. It all ends with a definite opportunity for a sequel and with plenty more scary stories to choose from within the source material, I'm sure we'll be seeing another one soon. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark taps nicely into the "It" and "Stranger Thing" vibe, with it's group of teens rising up together against evil, and despite it's faults I did have a lot of fun with it. I'm definitely interested in seeing more.
That movie version comes from Troll Hunter director André Øvredal and producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro and attempts a Goosebumps style movie, taking some of the better known stories from the 80+ contained within the books and weaving them into a larger narrative, set in Mill Valley Pennsylvania during the fall of 1968.
It's Halloween and a group of teens are preparing to go out for an evening of trick or treating - applying makeup, getting into their costumes, fishing in the toilet for turds in preparation for a Halloween trick. They head out on their bikes but it's not long before they run into some idiot jocks from their local school, and that turd trick suddenly comes in handy! We've already been introduced to the jocks earlier in the movie, out in a cornfield where they were hitting a creepy looking scarecrow about the head with a baseball bat. Yep, they're certainly going to regret that a little bit later on!
The teens manage to escape the jocks, working their way into a drive through movie that's showing "Night of the Living Dead" and into the car of another teen called Ramón. The group strike up a bond with Ramón after he helps them out and they all decide to go and break into an abandoned local house which is reportedly haunted. They find their way into the basement where legend has it that Sarah Bellows, the daughter of a prominent local family, was locked away in the late 1800s. Horror nerd Stella comes across a book containing short scary stories that were written in blood by Sarah, and she decides to take it with them. As Stella opens the book’s pages, she sees that Sarah’s stories are literally beginning to write themselves - stories that put her friends in some pretty unpleasant situations, stories which immediately become reality the moment they're written. As Stella later puts it, "You don't read the book, the book reads you".
The setup and the scenarios within each story are enjoyable enough and are certainly creepy, however the execution doesn't always work so well and the payoffs aren't quite as scary as I would have liked. The movie also suffers from some slightly dodgy CGI at times too, which doesn't help. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the final story, and the return to the house in order to try and stop Sarah Bellows worked really well for me. It all ends with a definite opportunity for a sequel and with plenty more scary stories to choose from within the source material, I'm sure we'll be seeing another one soon. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark taps nicely into the "It" and "Stranger Thing" vibe, with it's group of teens rising up together against evil, and despite it's faults I did have a lot of fun with it. I'm definitely interested in seeing more.
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