13 Scary Stories

by John McDonnell

[inlibrisveritas]

Once again my thanks goes out to Mr. McDonnell for providing this book.

This is the second set of short stories by John McDonnell that I've read, I wrote a review for Big Chills a day or so ago. I found that I didn't quite enjoy this one as much, it might be that I've gotten use to the plot twists toward the end of the stories. Don't get me wrong, it is a book with interesting stories. I would just recommend putting some time in between each of his short story books, otherwise you may not be surprised or thrown off. I wasn't fond of most of the stories in this one. I found myself guessing the plot twist more often then not, and a few had moments where the connections felt slightly forced. Somethings were over exaggerated and others were seriously downplayed, and while it didn't appeal to me in a literary sense I knew that if someone were to actually tell me the story it would come off better.

I do feel bad for not liking this because everywhere I look this book has great reviews. However as I said with the other book this would be great for those who like to tell 'scary' short stories. There are only two that are little to mature for younger readers, but the others are clean enough and short enough that one could easily memorize it and use it for story time.