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| I'm guessing this one isn't powered by giggles and joy. |
Anyway, the YA genre has certainly come a long way and gets a lot more gruesome than it did back in my day (sorry, Mr. Pike), but it seems paranormal romance (aka "my boyfriend is hot and toothy") has gotten spread around like hybrid herpes and the horror genre itself hasn't really been properly bringing its kid sibling along. I decided to give this one a chance because of, well, the cover alone:
Even if YA's not your prime choice, SGMB has *chops*, with everything from shapeshifting vigilantes to mountain legends to zombie comedy and while some of it wasn't especially brand-new subjects, all of it gave me some creeps, some new authors to look for and, in places, a longing for the good old horror that swept in before torture and remakes took over. Some of the stories may be what you consider typical fare for a collection. A Lewis Carroll-inspired story is almost par for the horror course, I think, but Carrie Ryan's "In The Forest Dark and Deep" made my skin crawl and I now desperately need to avoid teacups. The very last story, a revenge piece called "On The I-5" by Kendare Blake, felt so clear and cold to me that I wanted to see it on a screen, to see if the diner lights and desert grave were that vivid *outside* my head. (I just received a reply from Ms. Blake saying this story is being adapted to film, so buckle up and keep an eye out.)
A feature that made my day as well was the bit of info at the end of each story, written upside down: the film, book or song that inspired the author. There's a bit of everything in here, from slasher movies to classic novels to a Nirvana song that I had to actually Google. Some of the stories' inspirations are easy to spot, others not so much.
TL:DR Tucholke knows how to pick 'em and this book has a flight of tastes that kept me reading.
