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The first of the stories, The House on Red Cedar Road, had me intrigued by the book. I enjoyed the subtle humor and the dark edge that the story carried. By the end, there were less than a handful of stories that I enjoyed in the book. Many of the stories seemed to get caught up in the idea of creating a space of suspense and darkness without spending enough time flushing out the stories’ events. Unfortunately, some of the stories just did not make sense and instead felt like a meandering path without a destination.
Despite the wandering nature of many of the stories, I consistently enjoyed the author’s style of writing. He was able to effectively create different voices for each of the characters and specific windows into their minds. The choice to write in first person was an excellent one and I felt drawn into the emotions of the people telling their tales and pulled more deeply into the stories. I wanted to love this book because I loved the way the words were spun together, but many of the stories were just too vague and impossible to decipher.
I found some of these stories to be entertaining to read—with endings that surprised and stories that developed with suspense and anticipation. But more often than not I found myself wondering what, exactly, I was reading. Each of the stories is rather short, only ten to fifteen pages, but as a result the stories do not always develop enough to have a clear ending. When the stories do hit the mark, they have an amusing element of macabre humor which reminds me of Poe’s work, though without the finesse.
I would give this book 2 out of 4 stars since it has some redeeming qualities in the author’s writing style but lacks consistently clear story development. I do not feel that this is a book that anyone. But for readers that find themselves searching out tales of a macabre nature, there are many stories in this compendium that are worthwhile.
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