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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
Short stories were chilling. Some better than others but still a good read.
This was a lot more paranormal than I thought it would be, but still pretty creepy! I great October/Halloween novel that I read in less than a day!
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A fun and quick read, nothing overly memorable but clever and entertaining, and not "silly" which is the biggest plus, honestly. Good for the spooky season. My favorite story was Feelings, but I also quite enjoyed Apparent Motives, Whoodoo, The Ex Box and Evil Twin.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A bit of a nostalgic read because I used to read Lubar's books on a fairly regular basis. The stories were short and enjoyable.
Short stories that are spooky enough to thrill but not filled with horror-film horror.
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This book was okay. Not great, not terrible. It was a very quick read -- I finished it in maybe a couple of brief commutes around town and one lounging-on-couch-eating-pizza session. All of the stories are incredibly short, with some clocking in at just a few pages long, so it is easy to just devour the book in one sitting.
As an adult, I found the stories in here to be lacking. They were all sort of predictable and although they were gruesome at times, I didn't find them to be too shocking. I didn't find them to be scary, although a few of them had plot twists that made me go "hm". However, this is probably most likely a case of me just not being the target audience, as I think I would have loved this book as a tween/teenager. I was a big fan of Goosebumps and Fear Street and anything Christopher Pike. Sure, I read the occasional Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley High novel, but I never connected with them in the same way that I loved horror stories. Extremities would have been right up my alley -- creepy and violent enough to my teenage mind to keep me up at night, most definitely.
With the stories being so short, you don't often get a chance to know any of the characters before something horrible befalls someone. The stories function more as vignettes, for the most part: set up the scene, drop in some foreshadowing, and bam, horrible deaths. Some of my favorites of the stories included "Apparent Motives", about a teenage boy and what he says is the impending divorce of his parents; "Blood Magic", about a robbery gone wrong; "A Cart Full of Junk", about some thugs and an apparently homeless man; and "The Ex Box", about a girl starting a new relationship.
While the book is marketed as Lubar's first book for teen audiences -- his other writings have been for the middle grade and younger set -- the tone of the writing still felt very young to me. Maybe due to the violence and a few stories that involve slightly sexual situations (nothing too bad that I can recall, just some making out and talking about how hot a girl is), this would be better for teens, but I think it could still be appropriate for younger-but-mature readers, maybe those just past middle grade reading.
This book was okay. Not great, not terrible. It was a very quick read -- I finished it in maybe a couple of brief commutes around town and one lounging-on-couch-eating-pizza session. All of the stories are incredibly short, with some clocking in at just a few pages long, so it is easy to just devour the book in one sitting.
As an adult, I found the stories in here to be lacking. They were all sort of predictable and although they were gruesome at times, I didn't find them to be too shocking. I didn't find them to be scary, although a few of them had plot twists that made me go "hm". However, this is probably most likely a case of me just not being the target audience, as I think I would have loved this book as a tween/teenager. I was a big fan of Goosebumps and Fear Street and anything Christopher Pike. Sure, I read the occasional Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley High novel, but I never connected with them in the same way that I loved horror stories. Extremities would have been right up my alley -- creepy and violent enough to my teenage mind to keep me up at night, most definitely.
With the stories being so short, you don't often get a chance to know any of the characters before something horrible befalls someone. The stories function more as vignettes, for the most part: set up the scene, drop in some foreshadowing, and bam, horrible deaths. Some of my favorites of the stories included "Apparent Motives", about a teenage boy and what he says is the impending divorce of his parents; "Blood Magic", about a robbery gone wrong; "A Cart Full of Junk", about some thugs and an apparently homeless man; and "The Ex Box", about a girl starting a new relationship.
While the book is marketed as Lubar's first book for teen audiences -- his other writings have been for the middle grade and younger set -- the tone of the writing still felt very young to me. Maybe due to the violence and a few stories that involve slightly sexual situations (nothing too bad that I can recall, just some making out and talking about how hot a girl is), this would be better for teens, but I think it could still be appropriate for younger-but-mature readers, maybe those just past middle grade reading.
This is a deceptively clever book.
Imagine you're in 7th, 8th, or 9th grade. You hate reading, or you struggle with reading because books are too long, the language is too hard, there's too much detail, the books people choose for you are boring. Or maybe your attention span can't hold out, you have a learning disability, you are not interested in the kinds of emotionally mature relationship plots that happen in young adult books, or some other reason you aren't able to articulate because you're pumped full of puberty. You're forced to pick a book for silent reading time in English class, and you don't want to look like you're picking a book for a 4th grader, even though that might be your actual reading level. Plus, Goosebumps books are awesome and there are a zillion of them. Why won't your teacher let you continue to read those forever? You would probably end up choosing a book that is too hard and give up, frustrated, or stare blankly at the pages thinking you're getting one over on the teacher by pretending to read.
At my middle school library I saw kids fitting these descriptions every day, and this book is a great choice to actually get these kids to read.
Logistically, this is probably a 120 page book blown up with 18 point sans serif font with wide margins and double spacing into a 200 page book, so it's not meant for teens who devour books with intricate plots. It's also got a warning label on the back saying this is not a book for kids, which will particularly appeal to exactly the kind of reader who wants to be called a teen/young adult yet is still reading books for kids. The layout and the warning label can be reassuring confidence boosters for some kids who see their peers reading 500+ page YA tomes. There are still a lot of inflexible teachers who demand their students read books over a certain number of pages, and this is a way to help struggling kids compensate.
Not all the stories in this collection are stellar, but they each deliver a gruesome death or an unexpected twist that takes the Goosebumps format one baby step closer to Stephen King. A couple of them would make good stories to read aloud in a junior high class. This book is not sophisticated at all, but then, neither are most 13 year olds.
Imagine you're in 7th, 8th, or 9th grade. You hate reading, or you struggle with reading because books are too long, the language is too hard, there's too much detail, the books people choose for you are boring. Or maybe your attention span can't hold out, you have a learning disability, you are not interested in the kinds of emotionally mature relationship plots that happen in young adult books, or some other reason you aren't able to articulate because you're pumped full of puberty. You're forced to pick a book for silent reading time in English class, and you don't want to look like you're picking a book for a 4th grader, even though that might be your actual reading level. Plus, Goosebumps books are awesome and there are a zillion of them. Why won't your teacher let you continue to read those forever? You would probably end up choosing a book that is too hard and give up, frustrated, or stare blankly at the pages thinking you're getting one over on the teacher by pretending to read.
At my middle school library I saw kids fitting these descriptions every day, and this book is a great choice to actually get these kids to read.
Logistically, this is probably a 120 page book blown up with 18 point sans serif font with wide margins and double spacing into a 200 page book, so it's not meant for teens who devour books with intricate plots. It's also got a warning label on the back saying this is not a book for kids, which will particularly appeal to exactly the kind of reader who wants to be called a teen/young adult yet is still reading books for kids. The layout and the warning label can be reassuring confidence boosters for some kids who see their peers reading 500+ page YA tomes. There are still a lot of inflexible teachers who demand their students read books over a certain number of pages, and this is a way to help struggling kids compensate.
Not all the stories in this collection are stellar, but they each deliver a gruesome death or an unexpected twist that takes the Goosebumps format one baby step closer to Stephen King. A couple of them would make good stories to read aloud in a junior high class. This book is not sophisticated at all, but then, neither are most 13 year olds.