Tag: 1 Star Reviews

All 1 Star Reviews In One Place

“The Empty House” by Algernon Blackwood Review

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In the story, a man accompanies his adventurous aunt to a notorious house where, a century ago, a servant was murdered by her jealous suitor. What will the man and his aunt experience in this house ? any ideas ? 

To be fully honest with you here i need to tell you that this story have a lot of dry ice packed around that meat for atmosphere but its still fun to read this story. Because it was published back in 1906 and it’s sort of seeing the journey of the modern day horror we have today. 

This story isn’t bad as most of the horror movies / games / books we have today but it isn’t either nothing original for todays standards because it is an average haunted house story.

Atmosphere in this story is a typical horror story atmosphere nothing unique but also nothing boring. The atmosphere good and sort of moody and old timely, and as we all know these two things together brings much more to the story. So I give this story points for the moody and old timely part in this story.

Ending was oh boy. It was very disappointing, it ruined the whole story. If I go into details then it will turn into a review with spoilers and this blog isn’t about this. So let’s move into something different. 

The introduction into this plot and whole story was actually oddly fantastic, wasn’t expecting this but here we are. But still the introduction doesn’t help the whole story that much because we are looking at the whole book / story not just parts of it.

In the end the whole story is a pretty good morning read, where you just have good time and nothing better to do. 

The main things why this story was so bad are 1) too short 2) too little descriptions + details. And thats all. The whole story and plot could have been million times better if the story was longer and events in this story would have been given more descriptions and details. 

The writing style is okay, but nothing to talk about. The writing style is survivable but it will not stick around with you for a long time. And it is far, far away from Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe level. 

I give this story 1 / 5

“The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

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Two people, who have been renamed Eiros and Charmion after death, discuss the manner in which the world ended. Eiros, who died in the recent apocalypse, explains the circumstances to Charmion, who died ten years previously.

This poem is bad, like really bad. 

The whole point of this poem is confusing and hard to understand at least for me. It really didn’t make much sense one way or another.

The writing style isn’t better, its not the typical Edgar Allan Poe as you would have expected. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“Romance” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

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This poem is about finding love and how Edgar Allan Poe thinks that he didn’t have the time to care for romance or love. He thinks that it might even be a bad thing if he did, but he couldn’t stop his heart if it trembled.

I need to be honest with you and say that this one is actually one of the few poems that I found enjoying while reading.

This poem is a nice easy and quick read, which is definitely worth reading. But it is not in the classic Edgar Allan Poe style as you might expect.

However this poem isn’t bad nor good. It’s for the most part a decent poem.

The easiest way to explain this poem is that it basically an ode to romance in a personified form with a little gothic vibe to it.

The writing style is pretty good, but as a die hard Edgar Allan Poe fan I know that he was able to do much better than what he did in this poem. 

However in this poem Edgar Allan Poe is able to contemplate the contrast between the world as perceived in his childhood to the world as viewed “of late” in his adulthood.

I give this poem 1 / 5

“To” (1833) by Edgar Allan Poe Review

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The title of this poem refers to 2 other poems carrying the same name as this one. 

This one is pretty dividend but it’s not like it is one of the top poems from Edgar Allan Poe.

The entire poem has 8 sentences, which means that you can read the entire poem within a minute or so. 

This poem was first attributed to Edgar Allan Poe by a man named John C. French.

This poem, despite its many reprinting it did get, never had any significant revisions.

I’m not the biggest fan of poems so it might be why I give this poem so low rating as I did. But I’m trying to break the ice between me and poems and that’s why I’m trying to read more poems.

The narrator of this poem equates breaking with his love as one of several failures which I personally liked. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“The Gentle Vultures” by Isaac Asimov Review

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This Science Fiction Short Story is set during the Cold War, postulating an alien race acting as Circling Vultures. Hurrians, an alien species, have set a small Moon base in secret, and have been waiting for fifteen years, much longer than they ever expected.

This book is a science fiction book which happens during cold war. Pretty unique take on it isn’t it? But in the end this book isn’t even close to the best science fiction books out there. Though it is a good one to read to sort of get a new breeze into the science fiction field. 

This book needs to get points for its unique and deeply fascinating critique of society and a peculiar analysis of our history which we had until this book was written. 

And the whole perspective or rather said view in this book on stuff like how small monkey-like aliens from space let one man and how they can change the entire structure their society is based with one word.

In the end this book is a typical science fiction book about intergalactic species which makes contact with humans and analysis the history of our species. 

The writing style was meh, it wasn’t good or bad. It was between good and bad but much closer tot he bad side than to the good side. 

I give this book 1 / 5

“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

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This incantatory poem examines bell sounds as symbols of four milestones of human experience—childhood, youth, maturity, and death.

This another okay poem written by Edgar Allan Poe. It is far as epic as some other work of Edgar Allan Poe but still it is a poem which every Edgar Allan Poe fan should read. 

This poem in the end is quite melodical and the beat truly nearly sounds like tolling bells.

The writing style is okay for the most part. But it is also very clever writing style in this poem. But on this one come on, we are talking about a poem which was written about Edgar Allan Poe.

For the most part it is a nice, simple  poem that follows the stages of life of the narrator. This poem needs to get points for the unique capture which Edgar Allan Poe have give us in this poem. Edgar Allan Poe had captured in a very good and nice way the feeling of the stages of life in just four simple verses.

This poem really doesn’t fail to show that Edgar Allan Poe isn’t just a gothic, dark and sinister writer. This poem shows that Edgar Allan Poe was able to write some light and different kind of tales and poems. 

In this one Edgar Allan Poe have molded his words to reflect the bells. And gave this poem a rhyme, rhythm together with joy, grief, elation and panic.

I give this poem 1 / 5

“A Descent into the Maelström” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

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It is a tale of fear and terror.  In this piece, the narrator and his guide ascend a high peak on the coast of Norway, which overlooks a section of ocean where a great whirlpool is formed by the changing tide.

The whole story is not particularly creepy as some other tales written by Edgar Allan Poe. However the story is  interesting and vividly written and makes you almost feel like you are actually there and like you are living the story.

The whole plot of this story is a fascinating, because it covers the experience of a man’s near-death experience in a giant maelstrom or whirlpool at sea.

This tale is told from the perspective of an old man who is looking back at his near-death experience. 

The description in this tale is absolutely brilliant. Most of the times the descriptions are so good that you almost feel like you see the whole imagine in your head while you are reading this tale. Because of the description you really see and hear the fellows drawn into the eye of the storm and you feel the rage of the elements.

It is safe to say that this tale have one of the best depiction of a natural phenomenon I’ve at least read so far. 

This tale is considered by some critics to be a science fiction tale based upon an actual maelstrom off the coast of Norway in the Lofoten Islands. 

This tale really shows that Edgar Allan Poe have the huge ability to take all your senses into a story and make you live it. 

However this tale isn’t a horror tale as most tales written by Edgar Allan Poe. This is more or less science fiction tale, and as we all know science fiction isn’t something everyone likes and wants to read. 

This tale will also show you why some people might be afraid of sea and oceans. And if you are not afraid of the sea and oceans it might you give you a little paranoid about it. 

I give this tale 1 / 5

“Eleonora” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

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The story follows an unnamed narrator who lives with his cousin and aunt in “The Valley of the Many-Colored Grass”, an idyllic paradise full of fragrant flowers, fantastic trees, and a “River of Silence”.  It remains untrodden by the footsteps of strangers and so they live isolated but happy.

The best thing about this tale is that it is sort of a mix between horror tale and a romantic tale. But it is far from Edgar Allan Poe’s best tale / story. This tale is sort of a true love story mixed with a lots of horror elements in it.

The writing style is okay, sentimental and for the most part pompous. Some people will love the writing style in this tale and some will hate it.

Morella and Ligeia are related to this story in some way or another. So if you liked it then maybe consider reading these two as well. 

Ending in this one really surprised me because most tales written by Edgar Allan Poe doesn’t have happy endings but this one had. 

For the most part this tale is all about true love which makes it to a unique story written by Edgar Allan Poe. This story is a love story told in the form of prose poetry.

The descriptions in this story is amazing. However the most interesting  description was of the valley where the narrator lives along with the girl he loves.

It is also important to say that this story have sort of a autobiographical touch to it. Because it has couple of links to Edgar Allan Poe’s personal life.

Even though that this story revolves around true love, you will not miss the gothic and horror-ish elements in it. But for the most part this story is emotional, chilling, and involves the question “is it ok to fall in love after the death of your first love?”

I give this story 1 / 5

“The Lawnmower Man” by Stephen King Review

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One summer, Harold Parkette is in need of a new lawn mowing service. The summer before, a neighbor’s cat was accidentally killed when another neighbor’s dog chased it under the mower. Harold has been putting off hiring new help for the summer, but when he sees an ad for a mowing service he calls. A van reading “Pastoral Greenery” soon pulls up to Parkette’s home. The man working for the service, a hairy, pot-bellied fellow, is shown the overgrown back lawn and is hired. Harold is enjoying a rest as he reads the paper, wondering about the lawnmower man mentioning Circe, when he hears the lawnmower outside. Startled, he races to the back porch and sees the lawnmower running by itself and the naked lawnmower man following it on all fours and eating the grass. The lawnmower seemingly deliberately chases and kills a mole and Harold faints.When the police arrive, they conclude that Parkette was murdered and dismembered by a schizophrenic sex maniac. As they leave, the scent of freshly cut grass hangs strongly in the air.

This short story isn’t scary or creepy. It was nothing but disgusting. Because if you write about a fat naked man on fours eating grass and add to it a green juice running down his chin and drips into his pendulous belly it wont go good with the majority of the readers.

This book will probably not be for the majority of readers. Because it involves some disgusting, which even the die hard fans of saw movies wont handle that good as they think.

The main character which is Harold Parkette is a unique character which may be hard for some readers to reality to because of all these fucked up things he does throughout this book.

I need to give this story some points for the Greek mythologies references which this story has. However most of these references comes without any explanation to the Greek mythologies or what it has to do with the story. 

This story also doesn’t give us a clear explanation to what is happening in this book. Which only confuses the reader for the most part. 

This story is far from the best Stephen King’s work, and it very bizarre and strange story for the most part. And it is very hard to pin it down to only one single opinion or genre. However thats the fun with Stephen King because every time you think that Stephen King couldn’t possibly be more bizarre he gives us even more bizarre story. 

Stephen King gives us a very moody and amazing use of Greek mythology into modern day horror story. 

But that’s the problem with this story because to fully get into this book or like it you must know at least some fact about the Greek mythology.

I give this story 1 / 5

“Battleground” by Stephen King Review

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Renshaw is a professional hit-man, who returns from his assassination of a toy-maker to find a package delivered to his penthouse apartment. The package contains a G.I. Joe Vietnam Footlocker, sent to him by the mother of the toy-maker he had recently killed. When he opens the package, he finds that the toy soldiers are alive with working copies of weapons, jeeps, and helicopters. To Renshaw’s surprise, the tiny soldiers begin to attack him

This story is involving toys coming to life and trying to take over humanity come from. Which isn’t bad but this it is super overused now on days. However Stephen King with this story was able to o reel us in and still entertain us with just 10 ish pages.

A lots of horror fans or Stephen King fans will enjoy this story however there will be some people who will don’t like it because in the end this story is very bizarre. 

However this story needs to get points for being humorous yet grotesque. This story is good when you just want to read something without putting any brain power to it. Because in the this story is Toy Story written by Stephen King.

The writing style was okay, but don’t expect the classic Stephen King style in this one because you wont get it here. Which is very disappointing.

I need to give this story points for having an interesting idea which could have been so much better than it actually was. 

The beginning itself was pretty hard to understand the concept of. So thats that, the ending is some how better but still it isnt something which is good.

I give this story 1 / 5