Category: Short Story Reviews

“The End of the Whole Mess” By Stephen King Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , Leave a comment

Short story contained in the larger volume Nightmares and Drramscapes.

This short story is included in the “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” which I will be reviewing pretty soon.

To be fully honest here, short stories written by Stephen King always miss the mark with me. I always end up not liking his short stories and I don’t know why it is so. 

And this short story isn’t any different from Stephen King’s other short stories ive read in the past. 

The characters in this short story in my opinion were very boring and uninteresting. 

The plot in this one is meh as well because it was very slow, boring and uninteresting. And to be honest writing I’m writing this review the next day after reading this short story and I cant recall what the short story was about because I just didn’t bother remembering this short story because I didn’t like it so much.

The writing style here in my opinion didn’t feel like something written by the one and only master of horror. But rather by someone who have never written any books or short stories before

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“The Night Flier” By Stephen King Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , 1 Comment

This short story is included in the “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” which I will be reviewing pretty soon.

To be fully honest here, short stories written by Stephen King always miss the mark with me. I always end up not liking his short stories and I don’t know why it is so. 

And this short story isn’t any different from Stephen King’s other short stories ive read in the past. 

The characters in this short story in my opinion were very boring and uninteresting. 

The plot in this one is meh as well because it was very slow, boring and uninteresting. And to be honest writing I’m writing this review the next day after reading this short story and I cant recall what the short story was about because I just didn’t bother remembering this short story because I didn’t like it so much.

The writing style here in my opinion didn’t feel like something written by the one and only master of horror. But rather by someone who have never written any books or short stories before

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“The Spectacles” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , Leave a comment

The narrator, 22-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte Froissart, changes his last name to “Simpson” as a requirement to inherit a large sum from a distant cousin, Adolphus Simpson. At the opera he sees a beautiful woman in the audience and falls in love instantly.

Overall the plot behind this short story was pretty decent and at some part it reminded me of an episode from Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Which I really enjoyed. Im a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock if you didn’t know.

The writing style however was kind of poor, as someone who have read all of Edgar Allan Poe’s literature work and as someone who have reviewed most of them I gotta say that Edgar Allan Poe was able to write better than he did in this one.

This one had a huge Gothic vibe to it which I give it extra points for doing that.

In this short story Edgar Allan Poe makes again an attempt at being humorous and as some of you might know I’m not a big fan of that. Because every time he tries to be humorous in his short stories or poems they don’t go well with me for whatever reason. 

But also it was too long and it would be better if the short story was like 4-5 pages long and not as long as it was.

And gotta say that this one is different from the rest of Edgar Allan Poe’s work because it sort of wasn’t about death. 

The ending was surprising which I give it extra points for.

But in the end this short story didn’t go well with me for whatever reason. It was a okay short story, it was fun to read.

I give it 1 / 5

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , Leave a comment

The tale centers around a black cat and the subsequent deterioration of a man – from one of enjoying family life with his wife and numerous pets through his radical change for the worse.

This short story is one of the most darkest stories written by Edgar Allan Poe. So keep that in mind, if you are easily scared. This story is also very disturbing but at the same time very interesting and entertaining.

This story is very similar to “The Tell-Tale Heart”, which I have reviewed one month ago. However I personally feel like there is much more into this story than the “The Tell-Tale Heart” have. 

We have only 4 characters in this story, which again Edgar Allan Poe doesn’t fail us on the “Quilty over quantity” term. Every character in this story is unique in some way. 

There are death involved in this story as well as animal abuse and alcohol abuse, which isn’t for everyone. So keep that in mind as well before you read this story.

There is a scene in this story where the killing of a cat is very brutally described. Which might be triggering for some readers. 

This book doesn’t fail to show the process of someone very stable slowly going madder and madder, and how someone can suffer from hysteria or something very close to hysteria. This tale also shows how a pet or a small thing can make you lose your sanity. 

The writing style is just brilliant, it is written in again a very typical 1800s style. A horror story together with the 1800s writing style is really something which more authors should do now on days.

This story is told from a distant and very calm + very sane perspective. Which makes this story even more interesting especially when you are an Edgar Allan Poe lover like me.

I give this story 4 / 5

“Hop Frog” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , Leave a comment

94Hop-Frog and his friend Trippetta have been captured by one of the king’s generals and brought back to the King as servants. Hop-Frog serves as jester to the king and Trippetta helps to plan and decorate for social events. She is also forced to dance for the king and his court. Both Hop-Frog and Trippetta are dwarves. The King and his ministers enjoy laughing at and abusing Hop-Frog. Even his name is the result of their making fun of the way he walks. When the abuse becomes unbearable, Hop-Frog devises and carries out an ingenious but horrific plan of revenge upon the King and his ministers.

This is a very short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. This is sort of a horror / fiction short story, which for the most part is like survivable. Of course it can’t be compared with “raven” by Edgar Allan Poe but  after all this was a pretty decent revenge story.

This short story was one of the lesser known story written by Edgar Allan Poe. And whole story can be wrap up with only 3 words which are “Revenge, retribution and dark”.

It was a pretty unique story about a dwarf.  However the narrator of this story wasn’t named, and it wasn’t said what relation the narrator had to this story. I personally like to know what relation to the story the person who narrates the story have. There are a point in the story where you will think that the narrator was actually the dwarf himself.

I mean this book wasn’t that great, so that I could talk for 2 hours about it but nether it wasn’t so bad that I would put horse shit on it.

There are few characters in this story. Which for the record is fine as long as the characters are good.

I give this book 2 / 5

“The Oblong Box” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , Leave a comment

Typical of mystery stories of the Victorian Period. The narrator is an observer to the main action, while trying to solve the mystery of the oblong box. The reader follows the narrator’s view point as he makes assumptions and finally learns the truth.

For the most part this is a short and captivating read. Which once more can be read in 1-2 hours.

The narrator is on a sailing trip from Charleston to New York. Aboard is a friend of his, an artist named Wyatt and his entourage. A very inquisitive unknown narrator tells the story of his voyage, which happens again in a Edgar Allan Poe tale.

Baffling right from the beginning with a delayed voyage, a mysterious box, strange nightly noises followed by muffled sobbing, and then dead stillness.

At first it seemed like a detective story with a touch of supernatural. But it turned out to be of a completely different type. Even though this one is predictable.

However this tale dont feel like the typical work written by Edgar Allan Poe. Because instead of the foreboding atmosphere of horror, this felt more inquisitive.

I give this book 3 / 5

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , , , 1 Comment

A murderer is convinced that the loud beating of his victim’s heart will give him away to the police.

Another incredible tale written by no other than Edgar Allan Poe.

It is more or less a perfect haunting short story that will allow you to examine madness and wickedness at the depths of the human soul. I wouldn’t call this tale a horror story, because it is more a psychological tale.

It is a strange story, but it is an easy and good read. And no less it is a quick tale, which again can be read in just 1-2 hours.

This tale is a written from the first-person storytelling. And the writing style is almost too perfect to be true.

The story itself is intense and will make you ponder for a long time. The whole tale is a typical Edgar Allan Poe tale.

An unnamed narrator who is telling this story plots to kill an elderly man because he hates his horrible and scary “vulture eye” makes this story unique at least .

More or less this tale is a dark tale, which is about a man’s descent into madness

I give this tale 3 / 5

“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

Posted in Short Story ReviewsTagged , , , , Leave a comment

The story follows Prince Prospero’s attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. The story follows many traditions of Gothic fiction and is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, though some critics advise against an allegorical reading. Many different interpretations have been presented, as well as attempts to identify the true nature of the titular disease

This whole tale is realistic, it almost sounds like the Black Death case. Because one family member could be perfectly healthy in the morning, start feeling sick at noon, spit blood and be in excruciating pain in the evening and be dead by midnight. 

This book shows the Classic Edgar Allan Poe foreshadowing of denial. Which is brilliant, if you want to taste the classic work of Edgar Allan Poe this tale is something to pick up after “Raven”.

This one was short, straight to the point. It is also creepy and it is giving an unsolved murder vibe, which could have happen now on days.

Fascinating and lurid allegory about a group of people who, on the invitation of “Prince Prospero,” lock themselves within a “castellated abbey” to escape the Red Death.  The whole story is unique and very fun to read. It is short which means that you can read it in 1 hour or so. And the mysterious illnes ravaging the country and a rich leader decides to deny reality by partying with his croonies adds even more to the story.

This tale is really good at showing that death waits for no man.  Time can’t stop the inevitable; it can only delay it

I give this book 3 / 5