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anakuroma 's review for:
Don't Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
by R.L. Stine, Jonathan Maberry
TW: Misogyny, cultural insensitivity (racism), animal abuse, ableism and ableist slurs, fatphobia
As with most anthologies, this is difficult to rate, as some stories were wonderful and others I would have DNF-ed and tossed across the room if they were standalone.
First though, the criminally under-credited paintings by Iris Compiet. They. Are. Breathtaking. Beautiful, creepy, eerie, and absolutely a perfect tribute to the creepy illustrations of the Alvin Schwartz's original collection. Why did the artist get no credit, aside from the fine print in the copyright page? This is a crime and I will not stand for it!
On to the stories. We had some stand out ones, my favourites being:
The Carved Bear by Brendon Reichs
Strange Music by Kim Ventrella
The Bottle Tree by Kami Garcia
Mud by Linda Addison
But we also had some duds, and I'm not talking disappointing scares, but ones that perpetuated so many uncomfortable tropes or stereotypes that I had hoped an updated anthology from 2020 would fix (as I know Alex Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark had it's fair share of dated materiel).
Lost to the World by John Dixon: "She was very pretty, even though she wasn't smiling"
Ugh.
The Bargain by Aric Cushing: I'm white as the driven snow and stalest cracker, but golly, I do not believe the author read up on what actually happens or one does on Día de los Muertos.
Brain Spiders by Luis Alberto Urrea and Rosario Urrea: This one I really felt could have had some great horror, but the horrible ableism and racism by the antagonists went way to far for me to be comfortable, plus the horrible use of a person from near Chernobyl being 'diseased' is not something kids need to further stigmatise to young readers.
Hachishakusama by Catherine Jordan: As far as I can tell, Catherine Jordan is not Japanese, and while in the right hands a non-Japanese person could write about Japanese urban legends, this one missed for me. The main character, Kobe's family comes from Japan but now live in New York, but he cannot pronounce Hachishakusama? Also I think the author meant to cover the more common spelling of Hasshaku-sama, I do not know where the alternate spelling the author uses comes from. Aside from the name of the yokai, the Hachishakusama in this story isn't the same as the Hasshaku-sama I did my 5 min research on. This story would have been better if the author had just made up her own monster.
As with most anthologies, this is difficult to rate, as some stories were wonderful and others I would have DNF-ed and tossed across the room if they were standalone.
First though, the criminally under-credited paintings by Iris Compiet. They. Are. Breathtaking. Beautiful, creepy, eerie, and absolutely a perfect tribute to the creepy illustrations of the Alvin Schwartz's original collection. Why did the artist get no credit, aside from the fine print in the copyright page? This is a crime and I will not stand for it!
On to the stories. We had some stand out ones, my favourites being:
The Carved Bear by Brendon Reichs
Strange Music by Kim Ventrella
The Bottle Tree by Kami Garcia
Mud by Linda Addison
But we also had some duds, and I'm not talking disappointing scares, but ones that perpetuated so many uncomfortable tropes or stereotypes that I had hoped an updated anthology from 2020 would fix (as I know Alex Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark had it's fair share of dated materiel).
Lost to the World by John Dixon: "She was very pretty, even though she wasn't smiling"
Ugh.
The Bargain by Aric Cushing: I'm white as the driven snow and stalest cracker, but golly, I do not believe the author read up on what actually happens or one does on Día de los Muertos.
Brain Spiders by Luis Alberto Urrea and Rosario Urrea: This one I really felt could have had some great horror, but the horrible ableism and racism by the antagonists went way to far for me to be comfortable, plus the horrible use of a person from near Chernobyl being 'diseased' is not something kids need to further stigmatise to young readers.
Hachishakusama by Catherine Jordan: As far as I can tell, Catherine Jordan is not Japanese, and while in the right hands a non-Japanese person could write about Japanese urban legends, this one missed for me. The main character, Kobe's family comes from Japan but now live in New York, but he cannot pronounce Hachishakusama? Also I think the author meant to cover the more common spelling of Hasshaku-sama, I do not know where the alternate spelling the author uses comes from. Aside from the name of the yokai, the Hachishakusama in this story isn't the same as the Hasshaku-sama I did my 5 min research on. This story would have been better if the author had just made up her own monster.