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garthranzz's review
3.5
2024 - The 52 Book Club Challenge
Week 4: Lowercase letters on the spine
“You and your Poe fixation. I still don’t understand how a technophile like you can be hung up on Poe.” - Not the exact words but I’ve been asked the same thing.
Week 4: Lowercase letters on the spine
“You and your Poe fixation. I still don’t understand how a technophile like you can be hung up on Poe.” - Not the exact words but I’ve been asked the same thing.
reflexandresolve's review
2.0
I, like a number of women who once were angsty-goth-wanna-be-weirdo-teenagers had a Poe phase, although I don't remember actually reading much of his work. But, given this collection ALSO had a short story by Margaret Atwood, I figured -- what could go wrong?
A lot, as it turns out.
Now, not every story in the book is terrible. Some of them are pretty decent, but they are far outweighed by the wretched ones. I'm not entirely convinced that some of them weren't actually written by authors when they were angsty-goth-wanna-be-weirdo-teenagers with no literary talent.
I did, however, learn about the Poe Toaster. Which is kind of neat.
A lot, as it turns out.
Now, not every story in the book is terrible. Some of them are pretty decent, but they are far outweighed by the wretched ones. I'm not entirely convinced that some of them weren't actually written by authors when they were angsty-goth-wanna-be-weirdo-teenagers with no literary talent.
I did, however, learn about the Poe Toaster. Which is kind of neat.
kellswitch's review
4.0
A collection of short stories based and inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.
I have gotten used to anthologies in honor of specific authors mostly trying to mimic or invoke the feel and style of said author, I did not get that feel from this collection. Many were clearly based on his stories or his life and death, but they all felt more like expressions on how Poe had inspired the authors own writing style instead of them trying to imitate him.
The book opens with a brief history of Edgar Allan Poe and his writings and I appreciated that, there were a few new things in there I had not known that not only gave me new information but gave me some new perspective on his writings, which I always enjoy.
Like most short story collections not all of the stories will work for each reader and some are stronger than others, but I found all of them interesting, some of the disturbing and most of them enjoyable in their own way and most of them made me stop and try to figure out just how Poe had inspired each authors style.
For most of these stories you don't have to be a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe to enjoy them but I think fans will definitely enjoy reading this book and get the most out of it.
I have gotten used to anthologies in honor of specific authors mostly trying to mimic or invoke the feel and style of said author, I did not get that feel from this collection. Many were clearly based on his stories or his life and death, but they all felt more like expressions on how Poe had inspired the authors own writing style instead of them trying to imitate him.
The book opens with a brief history of Edgar Allan Poe and his writings and I appreciated that, there were a few new things in there I had not known that not only gave me new information but gave me some new perspective on his writings, which I always enjoy.
Like most short story collections not all of the stories will work for each reader and some are stronger than others, but I found all of them interesting, some of the disturbing and most of them enjoyable in their own way and most of them made me stop and try to figure out just how Poe had inspired each authors style.
For most of these stories you don't have to be a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe to enjoy them but I think fans will definitely enjoy reading this book and get the most out of it.
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