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bmacenlightened's review
4.0
Entertaining Short Collection
This was a fun short collection relating to young children and babies. The stories are horror, but they're weird and often subtle more so than visceral. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
This was a fun short collection relating to young children and babies. The stories are horror, but they're weird and often subtle more so than visceral. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
verkisto's review
4.0
Man, Prentiss knows how to write horror. He doesn't go for anything overly graphic, but his stories are dark. His prose is remarkably understated, but he manages to say so much with it. Then there's the atmosphere he creates....
The highlights of this collection are "The Covered Doll" and "The Well-Adjusted Child", but the other four stories are top-of-the-line, too. Don't miss out on this author if you're a horror fan.
The highlights of this collection are "The Covered Doll" and "The Well-Adjusted Child", but the other four stories are top-of-the-line, too. Don't miss out on this author if you're a horror fan.
kkehoe's review
4.0
Some genuinely creepy stories interspersed with some that just barely miss the mark or come off a little too predictably. Worth a read for sure!
5hadow_girl's review
5.0
Great collection!
There's not one story that I didn't enjoy, but there is one that stands out from the rest, (IMO). “The Well-Adjusted Child” is HORROR on so many levels. I'll never forget it.
There's not one story that I didn't enjoy, but there is one that stands out from the rest, (IMO). “The Well-Adjusted Child” is HORROR on so many levels. I'll never forget it.
mikekaz's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is a perfect example of not judging a book by the cover. I know that I did. Not completely since I did buy the book while not needing to pick a baby name. However, I did have a degree of trepidation about starting the book. The title was only part of it though; I've also not had the best of luck with books by Prentiss. I haven't really enjoyed them or I would finish them and think "meh". After reading the Foreword which acknowledged and addressed the title, I felt a bit better. I don't know if the Sandra in the Foreword who gave this book unopened as a baby shower gift was real or not but I could see it happening. And if I could believe that, then the stories inside gave me hope. Once started, I quickly realized that the short stories in the book all involved a child as the protagonist or as the scary element. In fact, I found that I quite enjoyed the collection. The stories were disturbing and off-putting. They had that touch of unreality that makes for a good scary story that eats at you and leaves you feeling a bit uneasy. I feel a little bit unfair pointing out my three favorite stories when there were only six in the entire collection but the line between favorites and solid stories has to be drawn somewhere. Happily, there was no "meh" to find in the entire book.
"The Baby Truck" - A woman is desperate to have a baby and takes some extreme measures to do so.
"The Albright Sextuplets" - Like most conspiracy theories, this idea starts small but quickly grows.
"The Covered Doll" - A unique and extreme twist on Schrödinger's cat.
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