Only finished one book in July, as most of the month was spent rereading The Stand (which is still ongoing).
1. Grendel and Other Creatures From the Dark was a collection of 16 supernatural stories by horror veteran Tony Richards. The highlight of the collection was the closing novella, ‘Mr. Jake’s’, where a frustrated author takes up residence in a luxury hotel in a small English town, trying to recreate the success of his first novel. While there, all his needs are met beyond expectations, but he eventually finds out there is a price to pay for his pampered life at the hotel. Other stand outs were ‘The People in the Glass’ and ‘27 Falsham Street’, both of the traditional ghost story variety that Richards short fiction tends to be known for, ‘The Younger One’, a modern follow up on Frankenstein, and ‘Prowl’, which definitely had a Whitley Strieber The Wolfen vibe to it. For the rest of the stories in this collection, they weren’t bad, just not really memorable. Overall I thought Grendel was a good collection, though not Richards’ best.
3.6 / 5
1. Grendel and Other Creatures From the Dark was a collection of 16 supernatural stories by horror veteran Tony Richards. The highlight of the collection was the closing novella, ‘Mr. Jake’s’, where a frustrated author takes up residence in a luxury hotel in a small English town, trying to recreate the success of his first novel. While there, all his needs are met beyond expectations, but he eventually finds out there is a price to pay for his pampered life at the hotel. Other stand outs were ‘The People in the Glass’ and ‘27 Falsham Street’, both of the traditional ghost story variety that Richards short fiction tends to be known for, ‘The Younger One’, a modern follow up on Frankenstein, and ‘Prowl’, which definitely had a Whitley Strieber The Wolfen vibe to it. For the rest of the stories in this collection, they weren’t bad, just not really memorable. Overall I thought Grendel was a good collection, though not Richards’ best.
3.6 / 5
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