This book of short stories, although aimed at readers about twenty years younger than myself, was both entertaining and educational. Anyone interested in writing horror or short stories (or both) would be well advised to read this collection. Horowitz takes everyday objects, people and places and gives them a creepy, unexpected twist. The prose is swift and lean, the suspense masterful and the humour/horror balance just right. ( )

*possible spoilers*

I debated even putting this book in my library, because I didn't like it. Which is why I ended up making a new tag for it, different from my *favorites* from the library tag.

This book has 9 stories that are, according the the back cover, "sinister and terrifying". I usually scare pretty dang easy, so I made a point of only reading this book in the day, expecting to get pretty scared. It didn't happen. Maybe, possibly, the stories might scare someone who scares really really easily or who is really really young. But as a whole, the stories weren't *scary* so much as just strange. The camera that kills everything it takes a picture of, the bathtub that fills with blood... None of the stories are written in a way that makes them scary, just strange. ( )

The back cover promises that "Horowitz Horror is a wicked collection of macabre tales sure to send shivers up your spine" and for the most part this is quite true. This particular book was originally published in 1999 in Great Brittan, so all the tales are set there and have a decidedly English feel to them. This lends an additional kind of creep to the tales, as one gets a very genteel and proper feel from the language, but the stories are anything but genteel and proper!

In Horrowitz Horror, we are treated to nine twisted tales...each is brief (good for read aloud if you are so inclined) and the entire book is short enough to read in one sitting...though I suspect this is best read one tale at a time on chilly autumn and winter nights...curled up in bed with a good cup of tea! The stories include a rather nasty haunted bath tub (who would have thought...lol); the perfect birthday gift that has rather dastardly effects; a computer haunted by a sports writer; a spoiled brat who gets exactly what she deserves, in a rather grisly tale that I think all parents of spoiled rotten brats might be tempted by; an unruly teen who discovers exactly what happens when you go off the beaten path; a computer game so real it's deadly; a rather sad photo premonition; and the tale of the monkey's ear (similar to the monkey's paw, but more messed up)!

I most liked Bath Night, Harriet's Horrible Dream and The Monkey's Ear and least liked Scared and The Man with the Yellow Face...but I will say this, all of them were suitably macabre and twisted!! I don't know that I'd personally read this to children in the age range listed above (4-8), the tales are a little gruesome...I think I'd shoot for 8-12 myself, depending on your child of course. Due to the subtlety of some of the stories, they'd probably be best appreciated by the 10-12 year old age range. I give it a B+, the stories were all well done, but none were truly outstanding...and while some of the kids here got what they deserved, others were just kind of sad and depressing. Overall, if you like horror stories, you won't be disappointed to have spent some time one this! ( )