"Burn Down the House and Everyone in It"

"Burn Down the House and Everyone in It” Zachary T. Owen

Review written by Diana Iozzia

“Burn Down the House and Everyone in It” was a fun, exciting, thrilling, and scary book! I am a great fan of the horror legend, Stephen King. My favorite writings of his to read are his short stories, so I was eager to read this horror short story collection by Zachary T. Owen.

Mr. Owen is a very imaginative author, and he must have been influenced by great horror writers. I love that he can blend the odd, weird, and goofy aspects with the grotesque and spine-chilling aspects of horror together to make a fun mix. I must admit, I plan to read all of the writings of this author now.

I can’t help but use clichés to describe my liking for this book. The stories are really creative. I personally like to call myself a writer, and I like to imagine where Mr. Owen got his ideas, because they are very different and unique, however, they are not so far off in his imagination that we couldn’t have gotten there ourselves.

My favorite stories in this collection are “Sometimes the Closet Isn’t Big Enough”, “A Small Death Worth Morning”, “Kids’ Teeth and More”, and “Forgotten Tenants”. I think Mr. Owen’s writing is interesting, because each of his stories picks up on common fears held by humans, and really exaggerates them creatively to become quite horrific.

Some of his stories are a little too out there for me. I didn’t particularly enjoy “Little Danny”. “Growth” made me feel quite sad. “Glass Skeletons” was confusing. “Favors from Hell” was just not interesting or relatable. I didn’t like “I Know There Are People Who Wander in the Night”, because it was a very generic idea.

I think that many of Mr. Owen’s stories could be great for sitting around a campfire at night, in the spooky mood with only one flashlight. To be honest, that’s probably the scariest way to tell a story, if you ask me. I was always afraid of Bloody Mary, so I guess you could see why.

In conclusion, I truly enjoyed these stories. I read them in three days’ time. I didn’t have any nightmares, but being over the age of 12, that makes sense. I did feel a bit on edge after these stories, so I regard that as a worthwhile experience.