Scaring and Daring: Terrifying Takes on 15 Classic Tales—A Horror Writers Association Anthology

 Abandon all hope, ye who enter here! 

Get ready for a terrifying spin on some of literature’s most beloved tales—no story is safe! From Captain Hook’s run-in with dark magic to Sherlock Holmes narrowly escaping graveyard spirits to a happily never after for Cinderella, this horror anthology is anything but a bedtime story. In this terrifying new collection for young readers, the best-loved stories from the literary canon are revisited and reimagined with a deadly twist by some of the top authors working in middle grade today. 

Featuring tales from New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Maberry and Kelley Armstrong, Carlos Hernandez, Lisa Morton, Maurice Broaddus, and many others, this collection will haunt you long after you turn the last page. Read on—if you dare!

Created by award-winning editor Eric J. Guignard.

• In “The Hound of the Basking Villas," a wily girl teams with young Sherlock Holmes to search for a missing boy in a fae-haunted cemetery.

• In “The Boy of La Mancha Rides a Ghost Horse," a young Don Quixote, along with his stalwart companions, seeks honor and recognition by capturing (before time of his mother’s curfew) a ghost horse that terrorizes all of La Mancha.

• In “Hook and the Hand of Fate," Captain Hook trades a promise for the return of his hand, but learns that barters cannot be broken in Neverland.

• In “Prince Badi az-Zaman and the Ogress Fattan," a young prince sets out to find an ogress responsible for mayhem among his people, only to learn not all is as seems.

. . . and more!

Some of my favorite writers have breathed new life into classic tales to delight young readers and the young at heart. My favorites were based on the stories I loved best as a child.

The Glass Slipper by Sherrilyn Kenyon imagines a very different fate for Cinderella after she marries her prince.

The Hound of the Basking Villas by Kelly Armstrong leads young sleuths to a graveyard in a spooky search for a missing boy.

The GruelMaster by Nathan Carson could have saved Oliver Twist from going hungry.

The plight of missing people is blamed on an Ogress in Prince Badi Az-Zaman and the Ogress Fattan by Tanvir Ahmed, but who is the real culprit?

The Secret Thing in the Garden by Delilah S. Dawson is a far spookier version when young friends attempt to dig a pond.

Wolf In The Mirror by Sarwat Chadda pays homage to The Jungle Book where Mowgli should have been left alone.

Freckle and Hide by Jonathan Mayberry is about a boy with anger issues and his timid adopted dog.

The Shadows in The Rock by Joe R. Lansdale is a Huck Finn rafting adventure.

These were my favorites, yours may differ. The recommended reading age is 8-12 years old, but there is no reason older children wouldn't relish these tales. I think younger kids may struggle with some of the words and may be better suited to have the stories read to them.

My thanks to Eric J. Guignard for the hardcover copy.

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The Devil Take the Blues by Ariel Slick

During the 1920s, Beatrice Corbin just wants to keep her general store afloat and keep an eye on her younger, newly married sister, Agnes, in the small town of Azoma, Louisiana. Until she is approached by the Devil, Frank Charbonneau, and learns that her sister will be murdered. At first, she doesn't believe Frank until one of his predictions comes true. To save her sister, she makes a bet with him, staking her soul on the wager that she can find her sister's would-be killer in seven weeks. Meanwhile, Agnes is hiding her own secret, and Beatrice ignores her growing feelings for a Black blues musician, with whom Frank has also made a deal.

Unbeknownst to Beatrice, the true target is someone in her own family. As her time runs out, Beatrice becomes desperate and unknowingly pushes Agnes toward her inevitable fate. And everyone knows that the Devil doesn't play fair...but in this case, is he?

In the 1920s in a small southern town where racism runs rampant and the KKK has taken a foothold, there are two things that Beatrice cares about. Her only priorities are making sure her sister Agnes is safe, and keeping her general store in business.  When it is predicted that Agnes will be murdered, there is nothing Beatrice won't do to find and stop the would-be killer, even if she has to make a deal with the devil himself.

The devil, recently released from a trap, is more than happy to oblige. For Beatrice, it's a race against the clock. She has 7 weeks to find out who will kill her sister or she will not only lose her, but herself as well.

Atmospheric and dark, the writing style pulled me in from page one. It wasn't long before I began to worry for Agnes as much as Beatrice did. This gothic, historical fiction spins a tale of hot southern nights when moonshine, magic, and blues music fill the humid evening air, and the devil appears in human form seeking a good time. It's a tale of grief and loneliness with a bit of romance and forbidden love in a time and place when Anti-miscegenation laws could lead to imprisonment or being murdered for "consorting" with someone outside of your race. The author envisions a devil who is as charming as you've ever been warned about, with a passion for music and vulnerable to human emotion. 

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to the author for the paperback copy.

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Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce

 

Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her daughter live a life other than the one she dictates, Phee yearns to demonstrate she's capable of more than simply marrying well.

When word arrives that her Aunt Cleo, long estranged from the family, has passed away, Phee risks her mother's wrath to step up and accept the role of pomp―the highly honored duty of planning the funeral service. Traveling alone to the town of Horizon and her aunt's unsettling home, Phee soon discovers that visions and shadows beckon from every reflective surface, and that some secrets transcend the borders of life and death.

This book was a struggle for me to get through. It is a combination of historical fiction and fantasy that was clever in theory, but the execution left a lot to be desired. It takes place during reconstruction after the Civil War, but with magical creatures that I had never heard of, and were not really brought to life for me with much explanation of what they are. I did not expect this from the synopsis and it was an unwelcome surprise.

Phee has never been allowed to do much of anything without her mother's overbearing presence, so such a complicated undertaking as what they call a homecoming is a huge deal for her.
So much of this book is Phee's repetitive thought process as she worries over whether she is up to the task of planning and executing a funeral worthy of Aunt Cleo, a woman she loved dearly but who had been ostracized from the family. There is also her guilt over not having visited her when she was alive. I mean, I get it. Don't keep telling me. In such a short novel, it is best to just get on with it rather than repeat the same things. 

Then there is Aunt Cleo's house, which I was expecting to be spookier, and the writing style that I did not find appealing.

You may enjoy it more than I did, but this book was not for me.

My thanks to Tordotcom for the finished copy.

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The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong

When Samantha Payne’s grandfather dies, she figures she won’t even get a mention in the will. After all, she hasn’t seen him in fourteen years, not since her father took his own life after being accused of murdering a child at their lakefront cottage. Her grandfather always insisted her father was innocent, despite Sam having caught him burying the child’s body, his clothing streaked with blood.

But when she does attend the reading of the will at the behest of her aunt, she discovers that her grandfather left her the very valuable lakefront property where the family cottage sits. There’s one catch: Sam needs to stay in the cottage for a month. To finally face the fact she was wrong and her father was innocent, in her grandfather's words.

Traveling to Paynes Hollow, Sam is faced with the realities of her childhood and the secrets kept hidden in the shadows of her memories. When her aunt goes missing a couple days into their stay, Sam begins to question everything again. Plagued by nightmares and paranoia, she begins hearing sounds in the forest and seeing shapes crawling from the water as the rippling waves of the lake promise something unspeakably dark lurking just below their surface.

The Paynes family has always had good fortune and better luck than most people. Until that day when Samantha Payne saw her father burying a dead child. Samantha became an outcast as the child of a murderer. Her grandfather cut her off for having told what she saw her father do. After being estranged from him for so many years, she never expected to be remembered in his will. She is shocked to learn that she has inherited the most valuable part of his estate. All of the lakefront land, where the old family cottages still stand, is worth millions of dollars. But of course, there is a catch: Gramps has placed a stipulation in the will that states she must live on the property for a full month because he claims he wants her to remember what really happened to the murdered boy.

As a child, Sam was warned to stay away from the lake at night. She was told nighttime swimming was forbidden and that even dipping your toes in the water's edge was dangerous after dark due to rip currents and undertow. She was too young to question how a lake would have giant waves to sweep her away as if it were an ocean. She was told when she awakened to the sound of hoof beats at night that she was only dreaming.

The author weaves a chilling story of folklore, legend, domestic drama, and supernatural horror in an isolated woodsy setting where people have a tendency to go missing. There is just the right amount of tension between Sam, her fiercely protective aunt Gail, and the reluctant caretaker, Ben. The spooky occurrences begin almost immediately upon Sam and Gail's arrival at the oddly preserved family cottage and the eerie atmosphere is deliciously dark.

5 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for the advance copy through Netgalley.

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I'll Quit When I'm Dead by Luke Smitherd

 

In this page-turning, provocative horror novel, two desperate souls attempt to turn their lives around, with nightmarish consequences if they fail.

Madison has seen better days. Reeling from a bad breakup, self-soothing with junk food, and totally consumed by her lack of direction, she’s in need of a big reset. When she runs into an old acquaintance at the gym, Madison is shocked by how fit they’ve suddenly become. The cause? An all-female fitness boot camp led by ex-military guru Ellie Fellowes. The course is characterized by grueling reps and minimal contact with the outside world, and when Madison signs up to experience it herself, something doesn’t feel right. The other students keep acting strangely; Ellie seems almost superhuman, and her intense motivational methods are becoming bizarre, even dangerous. But Madison is getting results. How can she stop now?

Musician Johnny Blake has been struggling with a pain pill addiction after a very public, very bad fall. At the encouragement of loved ones, he retreats to a secluded cottage to detox. But Johnny isn’t alone. Something is lurking in the shadows of his new home—a creature unnatural and hungry, one that traps Johnny in a frightening bargain. If Johnny doesn’t stay off his pills and keep his end of the deal, he will be eaten alive.

As Madison and Johnny’s predicaments spiral into the unthinkable, they will have to look within to find the true and terrifying answer to the age-old  How badly do you want it?

Nerve-shredding and compulsively readable, I’ll Quit When I’m Dead marks Luke Smitherd as a major voice in horror to watch.

Madison is feeling lost, with no sense of purpose or control over her life. She wants to be stronger, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. It is for this reason she commits herself to a month-long course of strenuous activities with the risk of harsh punishments if she fails to complete the assigned tasks. 

"With your permission, I'd like to slap you in the face."

Johnny became addicted to painkillers after an injury. Rather than go to rehab, he plans to detox in a secluded cottage owned by a friend who wants to help him. But this is no ordinary cottage. It lies in a thin place, where monstrous beings can and do easily slip through.

"Don't go into the shallows alone."

This psychological and supernatural horror is told from two points of view in separate plotlines that at first appear to have nothing to do with each other, but eventually converge in an ingenious way.

Chapters switch back and forth, from Johnny's supernatural alternate universe terror, to Madison's almost cult like situation with a small group of women that gets smaller and smaller as the activities they are forced to complete go from difficult, to dangerous, to deadly.

All in all this was a suspenseful and well written plot but I found it harder to relate to Johnny's reasoning than Madison's. Madison was in a fragile state and saw an acquaintance who had amazing results with this month-long course, which made her want to try it too. Johnny wanted to kick his drug addiction so badly, yet made the weird decision to skip proven rehab methods in order to force the supernatural aspects of the book.

For the majority of the time, this felt like reading two different books at once. I was more invested in Madison's story than Johnny's. I was probably at the halfway mark before I figured out how they were connected, which I thought was very clever because I usually figure these things out way too soon. 

My thanks to Mulholland Books.

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25 Days by Per Jacobsen

 25 days, 25 chapters. This December, the countdown to Christmas will chill you to the bone.

Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.

Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling discovery that they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.

A peaceful family vacation in an isolated country cabin turns into a harrowing fight for survival in this holiday horror.

The scenic location and lack of internet or cell service seems like the ideal way to bring this family of four closer together. At first, it does just that, until the Christmas stocking appears on the barn with a new threatening gift each day. 

I love Christmas horror so this seemed like it would be right up my alley! I also love when stories take place in snowy, isolated conditions with no way to call for help.

What I do not love is never being told who the perpetrator is or even the why of it all. So I find myself torn. 

I was all in for the first half of this book. The claustrophobic feeling of being trapped with an unknown threat was so creepy! At some point in the second half is when I began to get annoyed. I wanted to know the who and the why of this threat. 
Just when I thought the answers were finally coming it was a letdown when they never materialized. I think the author may also have lost track of some of the injuries that occurred.
In the author's notes at the end of the book is his explanation for this choice to leave us hanging. I was less than satisfied with the reason.

My thanks to HumbleBooks for the gifted e-copy.

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Keep This for Me by Jennifer Fawcett

 One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again.

That woman was Fiona Green’s mother.

When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave of bodies is discovered in his backyard but Fiona’s mother isn’t there. Thirty years later, on his prison deathbed, Ward insists that he didn’t kill her, so Fiona finds herself back in the small town where her mother disappeared. Fighting demons of her own, she’s shocked when history repeats another woman, another roadside breakdown, and another disappearance. Only this time the primary suspect is Jason Ward, Eddie’s son. Desperate, Fiona hunts down answers, unaware that she is being drawn into a dangerous trap.

With Jennifer Fawcett’s signature “suspenseful and immersive” (Library Journal) prose, Keep This for Me is a fresh, spellbinding exploration of what we unwillingly inherit from our parents and how one random act can send ripples years into the future.

30 years ago, when Fiona Green was a baby, her father was left for dead and her mother was abducted by a serial killer. Her body was never found. It was only due to her father's survival that the killer was brought to justice. After decades in prison for the multiple murder victims found buried in his yard, he continues to insist that he didn't kill Fiona's mother. Now that he is sickly and dying, Fiona travels to see him in prison, in hopes that he will finally tell the truth about what he did to her mother. 

Instead, she gets pulled deeper into a dangerous mystery with more questions than answers. Another young woman has gone missing, and the serial killer has a son. Is it starting again? Is the son copying his father's monstrous activities?

This was a suspenseful mystery/thriller with themes of abuse, grief, and mental health. The pacing was perfect and the climax was exciting, even if a bit predictable too early on. Still, I loved how all the pieces finally fit together, although I solved the puzzle before the main character did. The dual timelines were well done and added to the suspense as we gradually get the details of the night of the abduction and of what it was like to grow up as the son of a murderer.

"Keep this for me." Chilling words when you learn their context in this exhilarating read.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Atria Books for the paperback ARC

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