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ntrlycrly's review
2.0
Stephen Kings' take on Poe's Tell Tale heart was well done but the other stories were rather tedious. I would recommend going for the Ellen Datlow edited collections when it comes to horror short stories.
charshorrorcorner's review
4.0
4.5 stars!
Dark Screams: Volume Six was the best installment of this series so far! My favorites this time around were from the lesser known authors, most especially Tim Curran, who deserves to be as famous as Stephen King.
Tim Curran's The Corpse King was easily the best story, in my book. Being novella length, Mr. Curran got to do what he does best, which is putting his imagination to work, side by side with his knowledge of history. The result is this nasty, disgusting, and fun story about grave-robbers and what things, (other than corpses), might be waiting for them down below. A resounding 5 stars with applause!
Norman Prentiss' The Comforting Voice was a beautifully told story about baby Lydia and how she loves the sound of her grampa's voice. But what happens when grampa passes away? You'll have to read this to find out. 5 FAT stars!
The Rich Are Different by Lisa Morton was a nice story, but for me, lacked a good punch. Plus, the insta-love, (a term I learned from my romance-loving friends), didn't really work for me. It was still a cool premise though. 3.5 stars!
I liked King's story, The Old Dude's Ticker. It had that feel of a classic SK story, and that's always a good thing. 3 stars!
Overall, this anthology was above average, and I highly recommend it, especially if these stories sound interesting to you. There's something here for every type of horror lover, and it's rare that a collection have such a wide range of appeal.
*Thanks to NetGalley and to Hydra for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it!*
Dark Screams: Volume Six was the best installment of this series so far! My favorites this time around were from the lesser known authors, most especially Tim Curran, who deserves to be as famous as Stephen King.
Tim Curran's The Corpse King was easily the best story, in my book. Being novella length, Mr. Curran got to do what he does best, which is putting his imagination to work, side by side with his knowledge of history. The result is this nasty, disgusting, and fun story about grave-robbers and what things, (other than corpses), might be waiting for them down below. A resounding 5 stars with applause!
Norman Prentiss' The Comforting Voice was a beautifully told story about baby Lydia and how she loves the sound of her grampa's voice. But what happens when grampa passes away? You'll have to read this to find out. 5 FAT stars!
The Rich Are Different by Lisa Morton was a nice story, but for me, lacked a good punch. Plus, the insta-love, (a term I learned from my romance-loving friends), didn't really work for me. It was still a cool premise though. 3.5 stars!
I liked King's story, The Old Dude's Ticker. It had that feel of a classic SK story, and that's always a good thing. 3 stars!
Overall, this anthology was above average, and I highly recommend it, especially if these stories sound interesting to you. There's something here for every type of horror lover, and it's rare that a collection have such a wide range of appeal.
*Thanks to NetGalley and to Hydra for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it!*
shotsky's review
4.0
Review for Monster Librarian forthcoming. This is a short but great collection.
mikekaz's review
4.0
DARK SCREAMS: VOLUME SIX won't take away the "Best of the Series" award from Volume Four but it is still a solid player. I would say that two of the stories were slightly disappointing but then the volume also included six stories instead of the usual five. Plus since one of the disappointing stories was an early unsold story by Stephen King, which kind of negates the negative aspect. Once again I like the smaller size of the volume; it allows me to finish it relatively fast though real life interruptions still made it too long. I've been reading some longer collections that are taking me forever to finish; I'm looking at you Stephen Jones and your MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR. Longer novels build that excitement and tension which helps to accelerate the reading during the second half of the book. Short stories, by definition, aren't going to get the length to build that acceleration. By the same token though, I can sample more flavors of authors with short stories than I can with a book by a single author. Anyway, I've digressed. Here are the stories of this volume in order of least favorite to most.
"The Manicure" by Nell Quinn-Gibney - While the story is pretty straight forward (woman with finger issues goes in for a manicure), there are many cringe-worthy moments during the telling. Times where you have been in a similar situation and either the pain happened for real or you feared that it would happen. Unfortunately it felt more like a collection of memories and not an engaging story.
"The Old Dude's Ticker" by Stephen King - The story itself didn't really pull me in. Maybe it was the seventies slang. Maybe it was not being able to identify with the main character. I don't know. However, what I did like was that Chizmar and Freeman allowed Stephen King to provide a Forward to the story. He talked briefly about what led to him writing the story which was pretty cool. I've always liked when authors tell a little about the inspiration behind the story.
"The Rich Are Different" by Lisa Morton - This was a good story but not a standout one. The mood and style were good but the story was a little too convenient at points. The different events happened a little too easily.p>
"The Situations" by Joyce Carol Oates - This was one of those stories where the topic is dark and the character reprehensible but at the same time you can't look away. Like the daughters in the story, you hope for something happier and better to happen. Unfortunately this is what the father in the story wants too.
"The Comforting Voice" by Norman Prentiss - This was another dark story. This time though it was disguised as something much happier. As I was reading it, I was wondering where the story was going and where the horror was going to come in. Then after I was fully engaged in the character's life, I got to a part where I thought "Oh no, that's not a smart decision." Then almost immediately afterwards I went "Oh crap!" And then the other shoe dropped and the story ended. At first, I was left wanting a bit more. But then five minutes later, the story and the horror still hung with me. And then a few days later, it still hung with me. Prentiss ended it exactly right.
"The Corpse King" by Tim Curran - Curran benefited by having his story be novella length instead of just a short story. This let him really build out the world in his story and it shows. The amount of details he included in the story shows the research that he must have done. The world is disgusting and gross but realistic for grave-robbers in that time period.
"The Manicure" by Nell Quinn-Gibney - While the story is pretty straight forward (woman with finger issues goes in for a manicure), there are many cringe-worthy moments during the telling. Times where you have been in a similar situation and either the pain happened for real or you feared that it would happen. Unfortunately it felt more like a collection of memories and not an engaging story.
"The Old Dude's Ticker" by Stephen King - The story itself didn't really pull me in. Maybe it was the seventies slang. Maybe it was not being able to identify with the main character. I don't know. However, what I did like was that Chizmar and Freeman allowed Stephen King to provide a Forward to the story. He talked briefly about what led to him writing the story which was pretty cool. I've always liked when authors tell a little about the inspiration behind the story.
"The Rich Are Different" by Lisa Morton - This was a good story but not a standout one. The mood and style were good but the story was a little too convenient at points. The different events happened a little too easily.p>
"The Situations" by Joyce Carol Oates - This was one of those stories where the topic is dark and the character reprehensible but at the same time you can't look away. Like the daughters in the story, you hope for something happier and better to happen. Unfortunately this is what the father in the story wants too.
"The Comforting Voice" by Norman Prentiss - This was another dark story. This time though it was disguised as something much happier. As I was reading it, I was wondering where the story was going and where the horror was going to come in. Then after I was fully engaged in the character's life, I got to a part where I thought "Oh no, that's not a smart decision." Then almost immediately afterwards I went "Oh crap!" And then the other shoe dropped and the story ended. At first, I was left wanting a bit more. But then five minutes later, the story and the horror still hung with me. And then a few days later, it still hung with me. Prentiss ended it exactly right.
"The Corpse King" by Tim Curran - Curran benefited by having his story be novella length instead of just a short story. This let him really build out the world in his story and it shows. The amount of details he included in the story shows the research that he must have done. The world is disgusting and gross but realistic for grave-robbers in that time period.
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