Welcome to The Real World According To Sam!! This is the very first Halloween 2020 post. All month long, every day, I will be reviewing or showcasing different books that I think may be good for the Halloween season. Today, we're starting things off with a collection of three books that were pretty popular in the youth of my generation. These books have been challenged by parents and people wanting kids to read things that aren't so horrifying and grotesque. First, I'll present the image and synopsis of each book, and then we'll do one big review for all three.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Author: Alvin Schwartz
Genre: Horror
Year: 1981
Synopsis:
This spooky addition to Alvin Schwartz's popular books on American folklore is filled with tales of eerie horror and dark revenge that will make you jump with fright.
There is a story here for everyone -- skeletons with torn and tangled flesh who roam the earth; a ghost who takes revenge on her murderer; and a haunted house where every night a bloody head falls down the chimney.
Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories -- and even scary songs -- all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark.
IF YOU DARE!
More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Author: Alvin SchwartzGenre: HorrorYear: 1984
Synopsis:
All those who enjoyed shuddering their way through Alvin Schwartz's first volume of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will find a satisfyingly spooky sequl in this new collection of the macabre, the funny, and the fantastic. Is it possible to die -- and not know it? What if a person is buried too soon? What happens to a thief foolish enough to rob a corpse, or to a murderer whose victim returns from the grave? Read about these terrifying predicaments as well as what happens when practical jokes produce gruesome consequences and initiations go awry. Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories -- and even a scary song -- all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark.
IF YOU DARE!
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones
Author: Alvin SchwartzGenre: HorrorYear: 1991
Synopsis:
Storytellers know -- just as they have for hundreds and hundreds of years -- that everyone enjoys a good, scary story!
Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories 3 joins his other popular collections of scary folklore, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, to give readers spooky, funny and fantastic tales guaranteed to raise goose bumps.
Who is the Wolf girl? Why is a hearse filled with men with yellow glowing eyes? Can a nightmare become reality? How do you avoid an appointment with Death?
Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories -- and even a scary song -- all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark.
Review:
I remember this trilogy being very popular with my friends in school, but I never read it. I was never one for scary stories really, beyond the occasional Goosebumps book. For Halloween this year though, I've decided to read a variety of horror books. Therefore, I had to include it and see how it actually is.
It's alright. The stories are definitely very macabre, and I can see how kids would be freaked out by them. I found to be a bit disturbing visually, but there is nothing overly scary. The one thing that really gave me chills was the artwork across these three books. Now those are pretty creepy. Some are freakier than others, but those really capture some of the more grotesque details. For the tone of the book, the illustrations really hit the nail on the head. I found them to be one of my favorite things about the book in terms of trying to feel a creep factor.
Some stories are decently creepy, while others barely teeter on the edge of scary. There were a lot of corpses, a lot of macabre imagery throughout all three books (hearses, skeletons and graves). I thought the variety of stories and the shortness of each one kept things moving along quickly. It would be easy to read or tell a story and move to the next, or drop it entirely for a moment before coming back. There isn't a continuous storyline across any of the books, so you really can read a story a day if you want. You don't have to read it in one sitting, although it's definitely short enough to do so. I read the second and third books in one day. These books are very short, so it is easy to do a binge read.
Each book is divided into sections that break down what kinds of stories are being told. These are done thematically and it helps to serve as a divider in the stories for breaks in reading. The first section of the first book, for example, is all about stories with jump scares in them. A lot of the stories are only a couple pages long and the sections are between ten to twenty pages long. If you wanted to use this for a fun Halloween activity, you could definitely do a section in a day, or tell a story a day for one of the books.
The one thing that really throws me off about these books is the interrupting narrator that encourages HOW to tell a story out loud. At times, a story will come towards the end and the narrator will say something like, "now would be the time to throw your hands in the air and say boo" or something to that effect. Instead of just keeping within the story and keeping the creep factor, it encourages sharing of stories. Now, I think it's great for kids to share scary stories and have fun memories together whether it be reading with just a flashlight or sitting at a campfire. However, when you're just reading by yourself, it becomes very jarring and even irksome at times. It pulls out some of the creep factor and feels like an instruction manual on how to tell a story in a scary way at a kid level. I would have preferred there being a page after the story ends, or a note at the end that does this, instead of having it mid-story. It would have allowed the creep factor to exist fully through, not be cut-off prematurely.
As far as the stories go, some are very grotesque, some are strange, and some might be pretty familiar. For example, one included story is "The Hook." This of course is the story in which someone with a hook for a hand is said to be on the loose and a pair of teenagers hear noise outside their car. Anyone who has heard this story may know how it ends or may have heard some variation on the ending. It is a pretty common folktale. Not all of the stories are incredibly creepy, they're just peculiar. There are some that are very creepy however, such as "High Beams" in the first book.
Overall, I thought this was a rather diverse collection of stories. Some are good, some are lackluster. Some succeed in being creepy, others just make you blink in confusion for a moment. I liked the variety and the illustrations at times were very freaky. This would be a good book to use for a Halloween activity if you have a couple of kids/young teens or a group of them together. All three books have a variety of stories, but are all short enough in length to not be tiresome or time consuming. If you want longer stories, this is not the book for you. These are very short. Ultimately, I give the Scary Stories collection a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯. They are entertaining to read through, but I wouldn't necessarily make this my Halloween go-to year after year. I think a read-through once or twice is enough on these.
This concludes another review here at The Real World According To Sam, where I bring the books straight to your screen and even provide my own two cents about them. See you tomorrow!
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