Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway - Scary Out There

Book info:

Title:  Scary Out There  
Author:  Various YA authors
Editor:  Jonathan Maberry
Genre:  YA Horror
Published:  August 30, 2016
Source:  e-galley from Edelweiss

ABOUT SCARY OUT THERE:
Multiple Bram Stoker Award–winning author Jonathan Maberry compiles more than twenty stories and poems—written by members of the Horror Writers Association—in this terrifying collection about worst fears.

What scares you? Things that go bump in the night? Being irreversibly different? A brutal early death? The unknown?

This collection contains stories and poetry by renowned writers such as R. L. Stine, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, and Ellen Hopkins—all members of the Horror Writers Association—about what they fear most. The stories include mermaids, ghosts, and personal demons, and are edited by Jonathan Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker award winner and author of the Rot and Ruin series.

LINKS: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Indiebound | iBooks

My Review:
I'm very grateful that I got to read this, as I am a fan of Jonathan Maberry, the editor, for one thing, and secondly because there were several other authors I really enjoyed who contributed to this scary story collection.   I have to admit, that being a fan of Stephen King, scary story collections are usually my favorite.  And overall, the majority of the stories in this collection did not disappoint.  Of course there were some that I enjoyed more than others, and one or two that just didn't work for me, but altogether it is a collection I will be highly recommending to people, including my high school students.  

Some of my favorites were the video game story by Brenna Yovanoff, The Doomsday Glass.  I'm not the hugest fan of video game stories, other than the two books by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One and Armada, but Yovanoff, a favorite author of mine, totally blew this first story in the collection out of the ball park.  Neal and Brendan Shusterman also wrote a pretty good video game story, the twist in it being that it was the parents who had been sucked into the video game instead of their kid.

The Christopher Golden story, What Happens When the Heart Just Stops, was really good, and it left me hoping that maybe the author would take it and develop it into a longer story, there was so much more I wanted to know about this world.  Of course the RL Stine story was good.  

As I was finishing the book, there were two that stood out as favorites.  First was Kendare Blake's Chlorine-Damaged Hair, and Other Pool Hazards, which I could totally see made into a horror movie.  The second was Corazon Oscuro, by Rachel Caine.  There was a bit of a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, and I could definitely see it as a horror movie as well.

Finally, the one by an author who I hadn't heard of before, Steve Rasnic Tem, that I liked the best was called The Boyfriend.  This book included clowns, or one main one, and it was reminiscent to me of when I first read about the clown Pennywise in Stephen King's It.  

The majority of the ones that disappointed me or that I didn't enjoy as much were the ones that were prose, other than Ellen Hopkins of course, she knows how to do those.  And there was another author that is a favorite author of mine that had a story that just didn't quite grab me for a change, and that was the story by Zac Brewer.  It wasn't bad, just not as good as Brewer's past stories. 

About Jonathan Maberry:

JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning horror and thriller author, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. His books have been sold to more than a dozen countries.

LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook




Giveaway:

• 3 Finished Copies of SCARY OUT THERE (US Only)  

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
8/22: Life According to a Bibliophile - Review
8/23: Take Me Away to a Great Read - Mood Board
8/24: Never Too Many to Read - Review
8/25: Reading Is Better With Cupcakes - Guest Post
8/26: Bookish Lifestyle - Review

Week 2:
8/29: Kara the Redhead - Q&A
8/30: Here's to Happy Endings - Review
8/31: Books, TV, and More - Top 10
9/1: Lisa Loves Literature - Review - You are here!
9/2: The Irish Banana Review - Top 10 

Review - Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions - A collection of short stories by 16 different authors

I checked this book out from the high school library where I work because I really wanted to read it.  I'm glad I did, as I can now say I have read a story by one of the authors I'll be moderating a panel with in May, just in case I don't get a chance to read her newest book before then.  That author is Kelley Armstrong.  Along with some authors I haven't read before, there were a few of my favorite authors in this book:  Sarah Rees Brennan, Ally Condie, Carrie Ryan, and Rachel Vincent to name a few.  One of my new favorites, Kimberly Derting was also a part of this.

Some of the stories go along with series of books, such as Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series, and Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series.  Even Carrie Ryan's story fits into the world of her Forest of Hands and Teeth series.  While I haven't read the Morganville Vampire series, and still don't know that I will, I really did like the story in this book, Automatic.  It reminded me a bit of the whole True Blood idea of making synthetic blood.  Only in this story, they were putting the blood into cans, and into a vending machine.  But something went wrong with it.  The recipe/formula was more calculated for the vampires that had been around longer, and caused the younger ones to lose themselves to the monster inside.

I haven't read Claudia Gray before, unless it was another short story, but her story, Giovanni's Farewell, the first one in the book, was one I really enjoyed.  Ravenna and Cairo were twins, who have a very close connection.  But they have kind of grown apart a bit, until a class trip to Italy.  She finds out that the little episodes her brother has are because he can hear/see what everyone around him is thinking, and it is a lot to take in.  At the same time, Ravenna learns while in one of the tombs that she can see dead people.  I won't tell too much more, just wanted to point out that I really liked this story, and now will have to read the other books Claudia Gray has written.

Another of my favorite stories in the book was Red Run by Kami Garcia.  It's based on one of those old stories about there being a ghost on a stretch of road that if you stopped to pick him up, you would die in an automobile accident or something.  I enjoyed the twist on the story that Garcia put to make it different.

The final story I'll talk about is by another author I haven't read before, Jeri Smith-Ready.  It is called Bridge, and is written in a prose sort of way.  It's about a future when people born after a certain time can often see ghosts.  And there is a ghost who wants to talk to his brother, to save his brother from killing himself out of guilt that it was his fault his brother died.

Sixteen paranormal stories, some better than others, but I think everyone will like different ones based on what types of stories and writing they prefer or enjoy.

Review - The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff

This review is a long time coming.  I received an ARC of this book back at BEA in the summer of 2012.  I kept it somewhere that whenever I had just a bit of time to read, I could pick it up and read.  Which makes sense as it is a collection of short stories.   These are three authors that are kind of favorites of mine.  Maggie Stiefvater I knew from reading her book Shiver for one of the Missouri state book awards, and then loving the whole series.  When she visited Kansas City, the first time I saw her, the other two, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff both just happened to be at the signing as well.  I had read an ARC of Brenna Yovanoff's first book, The Replacement, and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, not knowing she would be there, I didn't bring it to get it signed.  I hadn't heard of Tessa Gratton until then, but as she lives in Kansas, right by Missouri where I live, she was there, and they had her book, Blood Magic, for sale, so I bought it and got it signed.  Of course I got my picture taken with all of them at that time, I believe that was fall of 2011.  Then they were all three signing this book at BEA the next summer.  So once again, I got all their signatures, and pictures with them.  The even cooler thing about the picture below?  Well, I was contacted and paid to let a publishing company use this photo in a biography for Maggie Stiefvater.  I'm still on the lookout to find a copy of it.

So, my review.  Well, these stories really made me wish that I could be a part of a writing group like this.  It seems like such a great way to pull out your creative side and just write.  And what was even more fun was all the little doodles and extra writing on each page by both the author of that story, as well as the other two often adding their own thoughts.  And some of the stories either went on to be full length books, or more likely were kind of inspiration for a future novel by one of the three.  The stories were definitely a great way to kind of get a good feel for each of the authors' writing style or voice.  I'm going to pick one favorite story from each author to tell a little bit about.

1st is the story by Tessa Gratton that led to The Lost Sun, the United States of Asgard series she is now in the midst of.  The title of this short story is:  Berserk, which of course has to do with Viking warriors.  The story tells the tale of a young girl who watches as her family is killed by trolls.  A berserker comes along and finds her burning the house, as well as her family, as the culture does with their dead.  And while he wants to take her to safety, she tricks him into following the trolls and helping her to get her revenge.  One of my other favorite stories of the book is also by Ms. Gratton, Date with a Dragon Slayer.  And in a way is a bit similar in the Norse types of themes.

Okay, I think my favorite by Maggie Stiefvater is The Deadlier of the Species, a zombie story.  It's a bit unique for a zombie story, which only makes sense for this author.  The cause of the zombies is a little parasite that must be in water or it will die when not in the host, or zombie it seems.  I love the way Ms. Stiefvater writes her characters, the banter, and even the horror of this story doesn't keep her from doing that.

Finally, my favorite story by Brenna Yovanoff in the collection is titled Neighbors.  This is a story about a ghost.  The ghost of a child.  And they don't necessarily understand that they are a ghost.  It's a short quick way, maybe not quite so shocking and scary though, of telling a story similar to the movie The Sixth Sense.  You may or may not see the end coming.  But it's still a good telling.  Ms. Yovanoff is pretty good with ghost stories.

Those are just a few of the stories, and there are others that I really liked just as well, but I didn't want to tell about all of them.  I actually feel as I looked back through to pick which ones to talk about, that I may have enjoyed many of Tessa Gratton's stories the most.

P.S. - Check back this week, as I've now passed 1900 followers on GFC, so I see another giveaway in the future!