The Small Assassin

The first story in this collection is the title story and it is really creepy! A mother nearly dies in childbirth and develops the delusion that her new-born baby is trying to murder her - but is it a delusion?

The other stories are a mixture of psychological horror, chillers and "tales of the unexpected". Bradbury successfully conjures up images of stifling small-town America and fever-dreams that are sometimes reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe. There is also in many of the stories a rye and macbare humour. There are images and atmospheres in these stories that will definitely stay with me.

I particularly like the title story and also The Crowd, about a man haunted by a near-death experience, The Man Upstairs, which has a nicely show more comic-horror twist and The Cistern, a small Poe-like jewel of madness. show less

So spooky. It makes me more anxious to have a child.
"Strange, red little creatures with brains that work in a bloody darkness we can't even guess at. Elemental little brains, as warm with racial memory, hatred, and raw cruelty, with no more thought than self-preservation. And self-preservation in this case consisted of eliminating a mother who realized what a horror she had birthed. I ask you, doctor, what is there in the world more selfish than a baby? Nothing!"

The Small Assassin is an excellent collection of 13 horror stories. I didn't find them too gory at all, but I was very disturbed by some of them. Ray Bradbury is an excellent writer and really has the ability to put you in the situation, almost as though you're watching a movie. His descriptive writing is really something to behold.[return][return]There are a complete variety of stories here, and they generally keep you guessing right till the end. One story was written in the 2nd-person, which isn't something I've really come across before, but I thought Bradbury did it really well.[return][return]There are some things I will never look at the same way again...Highly recommended!

The Small Assassin is an excellent collection of 13 horror stories. I didn't find them too gory at all, but I was very disturbed by some of them. Ray Bradbury is an excellent writer and really has the ability to put you in the situation, almost as though you're watching a movie. His descriptive writing is really something to behold.

There are a complete variety of stories here, and they generally keep you guessing right till the end. One story was written in the 2nd-person, which isn't something I've really come across before, but I thought Bradbury did it really well.

There are some things I will never look at the same way again...Highly recommended!

The Small Assassin is a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury, author of one of my favourite books, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and a writer who deserves far more credit for his contributions to imaginative literature.

The stories in The Small Assassin show Bradbury's imagination at its most fertile. From the pregnant woman being murdered by the child she carries in the eponymous opener, to a rented room with its own incumbent tombstone, to the walking dead man seeking a bride, these are more than just scary stories, they're stories to fire your thoughts.

Read the full review at my blog.

Thirteen tales of suspense and horror by a master, all taken from other previously published books such as "The October Country" and "Dark Carnival". The stories are of varying quality, but all are chilling examples of the genre.