If you like a mixture of comedy and horror, then you might enjoy this book. I enjoyed these,they reminded me of The Takes From The Crypt a little.

Horror meets humor in a book that I would have gladly read as a younger me — and also enjoyed as my grey-haired self. Very cool book.

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read this book in ARC form. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer to simply advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

This is a story collection, so each will be reviewed separately and, in the end, I’ll gather my thoughts on the whole experience of this book.

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

This story is light hearted and mixes horror and humor together. To me, however, it felt as though the humor relied on it being gross.

Rating: 2 stars

Dark Chocolate

I really liked this one, it was light hearted as well, but it was funny and also told a story.

Rating: 4 stars

The Scallop and the Barnacle

To me, it felt like the author trid so hard to creat a weird environment that they forgot to actually make it funny.

Rating: 2 stars

The Tragic Tale of Franken Cherrie

I don’t know what supposedly makes this funny. But I think there might rhave been a rape joke. Gross.

Rating: 1 star

The Putin

This was funny but I’m not sure if a poem about Russia’s involvement in Trump’s election is a great addition to a book like this. Don’t get me wrong, books can be political, but this felt like a political cartoon in the middle of the book. There are other (better) ways to make a political statement, and this ain’t it, chief.

Rating: 2 stars

Ligeia

In this one, the author focused on changing the way the classic Ligeia is narrated – this time, it’s Poe who tells the story with some comments inbetween things. Poe is portrayed as a drunk opium obcessed man we should laugh at, though. That’s no good.

Rating: 1 stars

The Bad One

I loved this story! It was lovely to read and I was happy in the end.

Rating: 5 stars

Bewildering Mysteries #26: The Mummy That Never Was

This story was fun at first, but it quickly became too crazy. It’s hard to make a short detective story funny, I know that, but making the killer a sarcophagus reminds me of that god awful trend of random always equals funny.

Rating: 1 star

From the Earth to the Moon

This story wasn’t great but I have a more pressing question… Why are they trying so hard to make Poe’s alcoholism the butt of jokes? He had a real problem. He might have even died due to complications from this.

Rating: 1 star

Horsey

This was… funny I think? I’m not sure.

Rating: 3 stars

Tar Feathers

This was a fun story with a satisfying ending. And it didn’t poke fun at Poe’s alcoholism either, that was the first in a long time.

Rating: 4 stars

Craft Cocktails for Troubled Times

Poking fun at sexual assault victims isn’t a great look for an author. Just saying.

Rating: 1 star

Just the Facts

This has some funny parts but it’s more of a political thing. I had to pass.

Rating: 1 star

I… I can’t bring myself to pick another story up. I can’t finish this. No. There’s too much poking fun at alcoholism. Not only that, most of the humour relies on crazy things happenning instead of jokes and/or anything else.

Average rating of the stories I read: 2 stars

Actual rating: 1.5 stars — there are some good stories but there are too many terrible ones