"Cursed" - Short Story Collection -

 "Cursed"

A short story collection written by various authors

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

Cursed is a horror and fantasy short story collection that has compiled stories that twist popular fairy tales to involve darker themes of curses and murder, while also providing interesting creative new fables. The authors who contributed to this collection are well-known to the young adult and new adult fantasy genre, as well as some horror writers. As a whole, I enjoyed this collection, but there were some stories I did not enjoy at all. I have always loved retellings of fairy tale and princess stories but twisted in a horror or dark fashion, so I knew that this collection appealed to me. For the collection, I'll be writing 1-5 asterisks signifying my review of each individual story, one being terrible, five being amazing.

The first story in this collection is: "Castle Cursed" by Jane Yolen. As more of a poem, the story told is of a curse as it attacks the princess. *

"As Red as Blood, As White as Snow" was written by famed Christina Henry, an author whose best novels are dark retellings. In this, Snow escapes an evil prince charming, to be helped by her loving stepmother, the Queen. ****

"Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman offers a very whole and complete fable of a troll who lives under a bridge, who promises to eat a boy's soul when he is ready to offer it. This was brilliantly executed. ****

"At that Age" by Catronia Ward was a bizarre and strange story including themes of "Hansel and Gretel" and also of changelings. *****

"Listen" by Jen Williams follows a cursed musician. I liked the introduction for the story, but the initial enjoyment did not pay off. ***

"Henry and the Snakewood Box" by M.R. Carey was disappointing, although I highly anticipated reading from this author. The narrator is a snake-like demon inhabiting a box. ***

James Brogden's "Skin" was eerie and challenging, about a man whose skin has been eaten away by a curse. The narrator, Hannah, tells of how she accidentally cursed him, after he insulted her psoriasis. *****

"Faith & Fred" by Maura McHugh features two men who find talking skulls. **

In "The Black Fairy's Curse" by Karen Joy Fowler, a young woman beds a mysterious dark stranger. This didn't make any sense to me on first, second, or third reading. *

A popular fan-favorite is the dark fantasy writer Christopher Golden. In his story, "Wendy Darling", we have a heartbreaking tale of the Lost Boys come back to visit Wendy on her wedding day. They realize she has forgotten them. Oddly enough, Wendy seems horrified to see them. This was such a fantastically written story, so good I'd love to read this as a full novel. *****

"Fairy Werewolf Vs. Vampire Zombie" by Charlie Jane Anders offers the quality of the story before even reading it. Just based on the title, I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. The story tells of a love triangle between the very non-human, non-mortal characters, Sebastian, Antonia, and Gilbert. *

In "Look Inside" by Michael Marshall Smith, we meet a character who tells us she's lying, as she begins regaling us of the story of a home invasion and someone who leaves her notes in her bread bin. This story had great potential, but I was disappointed by the execution. ***

Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple created "Little Red", a disappointing tale including offensive self-harm and mental institution representation to present a Little Red Riding Hood story. * I was quite disgusted by the inclusion of this story in the collection.

"New Wine" by Angela Slatter was decent. It's a tale of a mysterious main character, Valerie, who seems to be followed by trouble. Is she the trouble? ***

"Haza and Ghani" by Lilith Saintcrow is a dark retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel. **

"Hated" by Christopher Fowler hosts a main character named Michael who has been cursed to be hated by everyone he meets. This was great. *****

"The Merrie Dancers" by Alison Littlewood follows our main character who meets a strange new neighbor who believes in magic. *

After recently reading "Eden" by Tim Lebbon, I was excited to read his short story in this collection, "Again". In it, we meet a female protagonist, Jodi, who returns to the land of the living after being killed repeatedly. ***

"The Girl from the Hell" by Margo Lanagan presents a cautionary tale of an angry young witch who has lost her sanity as she feuds with a cat. **

"Castle Waking" was written by Jane Yolen, and it finishes off the collection. ***

And lastly, I have to admit that this book took me a very long time to read. I did not feel very motivated to continue, I began reading during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, and had to leave to visit my family for two months. However, I think this collection is enjoyable. It's not you, collection, it was my procrastination. A great aspect of collections like this is the ability to read from unfamiliar authors which might peak my interest to read more from them.

In total, I rate this collection at 3 stars out of 5.

Thank you to the lovely folks at Titan Books for sending an advance copy to read and review.

"Meet Cute" - Short Story Collection Review -

“Meet Cute”

Written by various authors

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

Meet Cute is a young adult short story collection written by many popular authors. The collection is full of ‘meet cutes’, which are the moments or scenes that love interest characters meet for the first time. These popular and well-loved experiences are sought after in romantic or romantic comedy films and are often remembered for years to come. When creating meet cutes, the author needs to make the characters interesting and appealing. They also must introduce a small plot, so we can imagine where the story may go. These short stories vary differently, with some introducing very bland characters or plots, which have not paid off successfully. However, I did enjoy the collection as a whole.

The first story in the collection kicked off in an unsatisfying way. Sadly, “Siege Etiquette”, written by Katie Cotugno, followed the vein of characters who instantly do not like each other, due to a massive clash of personalities. I liked the setting of the story: a high school party bathroom, where two characters ride out the police attempting to break up the party. I just did not enjoy the characters.

Next is “Print Shop” by Nina LaCour, about a teen girl who begins her new job at a print shop. Her new bosses are eccentric and a tad lazy. She finds that she needs to rush an order, to be delivered as soon as possible. She searches through social media and develops a small crush on the client. This was cute, but I would feel it could be perceived creepy if she was a male searching on social media then crushing on the client. I liked how this story had a problem and solution, rather than a couple meeting on a bus bench.

“Hourglass” by Ibi Zoboi did not impress. About a girl searching for her prom dress, we receive tons of information about her that hardly feels relevant, as if it is padding the story with filter. The boy she meets seems nice. The end. I do not know if the author’s writing style appealed enough for me that I plan to read her work, Pride.

I very much enjoyed “Click” by Katharine McGee. A slightly futuristic, possibly sci-fi story, it includes the tale of Alex and Raden, who meet when Alexa loses her phone. We realize she is creating an app to be able to communicate with dead friends and family, almost reminiscent of the Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back”. I enjoyed the writing style, characters, and conflict.

“The Intern” hails from a childhood favorite author, Sara Shepard, of the Pretty Little Liars and The Amateurs. Her story was relatively enjoyable, about a teen female intern who must help a teen heartthrob musician travel through New York City. Clara struggles with the demons of loss of a parent, while Phineas comforts her. Although some of the dialogue and plot of the story is a tad cheesy, I would read this if it was turned into a novel.

“Somewhere That’s Green” by Meredith Russo stars a young transgendered teen named Nia and her castmate from Little Shop of Horrors, Lexie. Nia feels out of place in high school, as she strives to receive equal treatment, while Lexie hopes to help. It was a tad disinteresting to me, but I can appreciate the author’s writing style and effort place into the story.

Dhonielle Clayton’s “The Way We Love Here” is a folklore-based fantasy story about a couple who are tied by destiny, who have the opportunity to see their future in a few different scenarios. I felt that this was a unique story, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the story.

Emery Lord’s “Oomph” is an absolute favorite story from this collection, following two sweet female teens, Joanna and Cassidy, who meet in an airport. Full of funny Marvel references, the characters chat about mysteries, college plans, and their futures. We leave on an exciting and very cute gay ending, leaving us wishing this was adapted into a full-length book. I eagerly anticipate looking into this author. I have absolutely no complaints about this story, and I highly appreciate the music suggestion that the story ends on, “Pretty Girl in an Airport”. What an adorable song.

The next story in the collection is “The Dictionary of You and Me” is by Jennifer L. Armentrout. It follows a young man and woman who have a cute, Sleepless in Seattle-like romance. She works for a library and must convince him to bring back a book. They have developed a phone conversation friendship, but now we see them meet. This was a pretty good one, but it wasn’t a favorite.

“The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love” was written by Jocelyn Davies. This is a cute, New York City set story, in which a statistical wonder meets a cute boy on the subway by chance. Our narrator explains how unlikely that it would be they’d meet again, but we see him wear his same blue hoodie every time they see each other, so she knows it’s him. Finally, they both get off the separate subway and finally are able to speak to each other. I liked this one.

“259 Million Miles” hails from the science fiction teen queen, Kass Morgan. As a dear fan of her series, The 100 and its television adaptation, I was eager to begin this story. Unfortunately, I felt unimpressed by nearly everything other than its setting: a space mission preparation base. I did not enjoy the cheesy, ‘teen’ dialogue, characters, or plot.

“Something Real” by Julie Murphy was my second favorite in this collection. A massive fan of the Dumplin’ series, I felt my previous love for the author to continue through this story. June, the head of the fan club for a famous boy singer, Dylan, has the chance to enter a competition to win a date with him. After a grueling and terrible experience in the game and learning her hero is a jerk, June finds a romantic interest with her competition. Loved it and would love to read it in a full-length novel.

“Say Everything” felt supremely disappointed, with the bad boy character giving off creepy vibes, rather than being a cool, smarmy outsider. I did enjoy the creation of the narrator’s ‘Book of Lost Opportunities’. It’s a cool journal idea.

“The Department of Dead Love” was a massive let down. I have not read Nicola Yoon’s work yet, but I was really disheartened by this story. The setting is an eponymous office, in which a male teen goes for an autopsy, to see why his relationship fell apart, only to fall in love with the receptionist. It felt like a cheesy episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which is an insult to Sabrina.

In conclusion, the sweet and entertaining interactions played out musically. I enjoyed many of the LGBT-friendly stories and the stories from diverse authors. I felt invested in many of the stories, which outweighed the ones I did not enjoy. Many stories in the collection would have been great to read in long length. The problem with meet cutes is that although the gimmick of this collection was fun, it feels empty, because we may never see the promise of these characters. Nearly each story feels incomplete, like you’ve only read a chapter from a full-length novel. I recommend this collection, but I perhaps would suggest to look over the ones I disliked.

I rate this collection at four out of five stars.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sending an advance reading copy, in exchange for my honest review. Sorry I took so long to read it.

"Full Throttle"

“Full Throttle”

Written by Joe Hill

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

As an occasional fan of Stephen King, I became gradually interested in reading works by his son. I was curious to see how the two prolific writers would be similar and how aspects of their works would contrast. Personally, I was astounded to see how much I enjoyed Hill’s short story collection, “Full Throttle”. I was happily surprised to notice less harsh and brutal sequences, less foul language, and less sexual content, compared to King’s work.

Hill’s short stories have very creative horror themes, as well as his father’s. However, I find that Hill does the technique of “showing” more than “telling”, while King provides far too much detail often. Hill’s work was very intriguing, depicting very realistic characters in an accurate and appealing portrayal. I chose to read this book by listening to the audiobook, which was a longer process, but I felt that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the different actors and actresses and hearing how they would bring the stories to life. There are many memorable narrators, but I was especially excited to listen to Kate Mulgrew, Zachary Quinto, and Neil Gaiman. I found myself enjoying the other lesser known narrators far more, and I hope to find more audio work by these narrators. I’d like to share my thoughts on each individual story.

The first story in this collection, “Throttle”, is about a maniacal truck driver who brutally attacks motorcyclists on a tough road. Unfortunately, I strongly disliked this story. I felt it was a strange story to open on and especially to be the story that the collection was titled after.

“Dark Carousel” is one of my favorites from this collection. A group of four teens goes to a New Jersey boardwalk, which you may know is a favorite place to be. The teens dumbly and drunkenly mess with the carousel animals and the ride’s operator. As they begin to leave, the teens notice that the animals have come to life, to wreak their vengeance on behalf of their owner. Although the premise sounds a tad ridiculous, I can assure you that the execution of the story is so well-created that the story plays off like a horror movie, akin to the great “The Twilight Zone” or Alfred Hitchcock’s work. The second act of this story was absolutely spine-tingling. The conclusion of this story truly showed madness in its most human and animal forms.

“Wolverton Station” follows a businessman, whose career involves running small businesses into the ground, to make way for new locations of Jim Coffee, a fun reference to “The Green Mile” by King. The main character of this story sits on a train, awaiting transportation to the next step in his journey, when he notices deadly and horrifying wolfmen in business clothing. This story is a tad more political but not quite absurd in its content. The audiobook narrator creates a great atmosphere with his diction and acting abilities.

“By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain” was a more unusual story, with a far too irritating narration by the great Kate Mulgrew. The story bites off more than it can chew, with a family who owns robots, of which the children find a mysterious dinosaur fossil in the woods. The children and their friends turn on each other when deciding what to do with the fossil.

“Faun” is a truly bizarre but well-rounded story. This follows two boys, Peter and Christian, who are brought on an illegal hunting expedition, in which the boys and rich men hunt elusive and endangered animals. The game changes and increases in bewildering ways, when the boys are shown magical and other-worldly creatures to hunt, that must be found in a magical parallel world. Zachary Quinto’s narration adds such delight to this story.

“Late Returns” is absolutely my favorite story of this collection and may have become my new favorite short story of all time. This splendid tale of sadness, love, grief, and death encompasses so many important themes. Our main character has begun a job, in which he drives and maintains a mobile library that’s contained in a large van.  The main character has been told by his boss that many previous drivers have encountered some strange sights. One driver had been so confused, he thought he had been trapped in a different decade. One driver believed he was seeing ghosts. The story continues in a fantastic direction. Our new driver begins the operation but comes to the realization that the people who come onto the van to return books past their due date are ghosts. They are not yet dead ghosts, but they have traveled to this bookmobile to return their late books and read a new one. There are many different characters that come aboard the bookmobile, with many different types of backgrounds and elements that add wondrously to this story. I found myself listening to this story during a night of insomnia. The story was so heartbreaking yet warming, and I found myself crying twice. “Late Returns” is a story that I will find myself talking about for the rest of my life and also perhaps hope that it might come true.

“All I Care About is You” was a strange story, and I am still not quite sure of my enjoyment level. In this, a woman named Iris uses tokens to have the assistance of a ‘clockwork’ named Chip. Iris develops an uncomfortable and obsessive relationship with the piece of machinery, that has been programmed to detect emotions, to cater to the user’s needs, and to provide conversation.

“Thumbprint” is a gritty and gruesome story about a military crew who tortures an Arab man for information. Our main character from the crew has been finding thumbprints, first delivered to her by mailbox, then inside her house, and then on her mirror. This story was very uncomfortable to listen to, and due to the material, I was not interested.

“The Devil on the Staircase” follows a man who is in love with his cousin. After killing her lover on a beautiful, ornate staircase, he becomes haunted by madness. This feels like an ode to the great Edgar Allan Poe, in its atmospheric nature and insanity.

“Mums” follows our main character, Jack, who lives in a very unhappy family. His mother attempts to escape her manipulative husband, but she is accidentally killed. By his father? Hmm. Jack must learn to survive his childhood, but he slowly loses his mind. The true kicker hits when he starts to see mums that he planted by his mother’s grave take on the countenance of his mother. The mums scream to him, begging to eat flesh. This absurd but deliciously gripping story was great, especially when narrated by a fantastic voice actor. This story reminds me of “1922” by King, one of my favorite novellas by him.

I had previously watched “In the Tall Grass” about two weeks prior to reading its short story origin. Although my anticipation for the film did not pay off, I still wanted to listen to the source material. “In the Tall Grass” follows a few different characters but primarily Cal and his pregnant sister, Becky, who have wandered into a grassy field, when they have heard a child calling for help. The grassy field starts morphing around them, which cause Becky and Cal to be trapped and separated. The grass changes the space between the characters rapidly, letting them think they are closer when they are much further apart. The two meet the Humboldt family, who have also been trapped in the woods. Father Russ, mother Natalie, and son Tobin have been running around searching for each other, but something is off about Russ. And the massive enchanting rock in the middle of the field. In reading the source material, some of the aspects I did not enjoy from the film had been taken out, but I felt that the source material also lacked a bit of charm that the film created.

“You Are Released” was a bit of a confusing and sad story. On an airplane, the story chronicles specific passengers, the flight attendants, and the captain’s crew as they all discover that Guam has been hit by a nuclear bomb, sent only by North Korea. The third world war is breaking out, which causes a certain level of terror at twenty-thousand feet.

Moreover, a great part of most short story collections is the afterword, in which the authors provide a bit of background on each story or share the inspiration behind it. Although Hill’s notes were not very fulfilling, I am glad he incorporated them. He mentioned that his main goal with assembling a short story collection is making the stories seem coherent, as if they are all connected in some ways.

In conclusion, I am so thrilled that I chose to read this collection of short stories. I do not read collections as often as I would like, so I appreciate that I took the time. I plan to continue reading Hill’s work at my next opportunity. I wholeheartedly recommend these, as well as King’s collections. I truly recommend listening to “Full Throttle” as an audiobook. It was such a worthy experience.

"Friday Black"

“Friday Black”

Written by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Review written by Diana Iozzia

I am absolutely struggling to decide how I’d like to rate this book. My favorite stories from this collection are absolutely fantastic. I was enthralled by them. Entranced. Bewildered and horrified. This book is compared often to “Black Mirror”, and I can understand why. This collection of short stories centers around modern and past struggles that black Americans face often, mixed and twisted with false presents and futures, allowing a very fitting “Twilight Zone” meets “Get Out” collection. I feel that most of his stories are very uncomfortable, eerie, but also very captivating. We receive an objective perspective, in the sense where our writer asks us our own morals in each story, showing us that humans can truly be monsters. To further review this book, I feel like a separate explanation and my thoughts on each specific story would be the best method.

“The Finkelstein Five” is a devasting look into the mob mindset, of someone who sat on the fence but is pulled into the insidious side of justice. The themes of justice and honesty gone too far are prevalent through this short story collection. Our main character explains a trial in which a white man is acquitted after brutally killing five children with a chain saw, claiming self-defense. Black teens and adults begin killing white people, shouting the names of the five children. This present action is also wrapped around the dialogue of the trial. This was easily my favorite story of this collection. It was utterly jarring, but most of all; it was absolutely petrifying to watch a young man become entangled in the group of killers.

“Things My Mother Said” does not make any sense to me at all. I will have to look into further explanations of this.

“The Era” follows our main character in a society where parents choose certain genetic qualities for their future children. This allows certain people to be intelligent in ways that we deem but also renders people without these additions to be stupid and useless. We also see his character become more acquainted with a friend whose parents run a house they call “The Era” in which it is kept to the similar society style that we know today. It was also interesting in this story to learn a bit about the history between the life we know and when this story takes place. We learn about wars based on truth and honesty, which provide science fictional satire and dystopia but allow the reader to inquire further by not providing enough information. This was my second favorite story.

“Lark Street” personifies unborn children as animate fetuses as they slowly die outside women’s bodies. They interact with their mother and father as they decay quickly into dust. I can understand the political and satirical stances that provide backing for this story, but I personally just did not find it interesting or entertaining.

“The Hospital Where” is a strange story. Strange and bizarre. We read through the mind of a mentally unstable man who sacrifices his soul and tongue to a demon who creates cures for those who enter a specific hospital. I can imagine the intent: a man who would sacrifice everything to save his father; however, this comes off as confusing and completely passable.

“Zimmer Land” is brilliant. We are thrown into the mix of an employee of an amusement park themed around justice. There are interactive sections where people are able to engage in a George Zimmerman type scenario, in which people approach a black teen in a hoodie with a weapon. The patrons of the park choose to engage the black teen, an employee, in the manner they wish to execute justice, sometimes killing him. Sometimes, there are repeat patrons who pay just to simulate killing the teen. The impetus of the character arises when his bosses decide to create a new amusement in the park which asks young patrons to find a bomb in a school simulation. This was my second favorite story.

“Friday Black” is a gruesome tale of horror set in a society in which murder is excused in order to find the best sale during Black Friday. This provides no further detail about what society would excuse this. I personally did not enjoy this story, because it felt too unrealistic.

“The Lion and the Spider” confused me as well. I believe it is a sort of fairy tale or fable connected to the life of a man working in a hardware store. That’s all I understood.

“Light Spitter” features two characters, a boy and a girl. The boy kills her in a school shooting type scenario and then himself. They meet in an afterlife, in which she is an angel setting out to save another teen from completing a school shooting.

“How to Sell a Jacket as Told by IceKing” was really boring to me. Basically, imagine how to sell a jacket, told by an eager employee. This seems to take place in a similar society or the same one as “Friday Black” does.

“Through the Flash” is one of the more interesting but barely explained stories in this collection. We have our narrator who experiences the same day over and over again. However, she and others have noticed glitches or anomalies that are occurring that would lead us to believe that the day experience repeatedly is for a greater purpose, not just a scientific cataclysm.

In conclusion, I absolutely loved the stories I enjoyed. The stories I did not like were just not my type of writing. I feel that with short story collections, I understand if I do not enjoy every one of them, as long as I connect and love a few of them. I enjoyed the satire, the short spurts of dystopia, and the grim horrors. I felt though as this is branded as a collection that talks about black experiences in America, there was also a certain element of how those who want to fix those experiences could turn the tide in a different way. I felt a certain equilibrium between the political spectrum and the racism elements. This is a well-created and balanced book.

Thank you to Quercus Books for the advance reader’s copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.