EACH STORY IS REVIEWED SEPARATELY ON GOODREADS. Here are all the reviews together.
Overall rating: 3.5~3★
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Creature Feature Collection (Amazon Original)
Various authors – reviewed individually (2023)

THE PRAM – Joe Hill
4★
“Sometimes when you needed a break, the world threw you a rope.”

Willy and Marianne have been through a miscarriage and Covid and he is desperate to get her out of the city into some fresh country air. Working from home since the pandemic, they can move to Maine, where she grew up.

As Sally, the real estate agent, shows them around the Maine farmhouse they’re visiting, she chatters on about room for the kids, and Marianne visibly crumbles.

“Marianne accepted Sally’s hug and smiled in the face of Sally’s indignation on their behalf—as if there were somewhere they could lodge a complaint about Marianne’s miscarriage. By the time they came back downstairs, Sally and Marianne were laughing about something, and when Marianne caught Willy’s eye, her gaze bright and wicked, he felt a rush of gratitude.”

That’s when Willy makes the remark about the world throwing him a rope. He can look forward to the future now.

They ask about the old-fashioned folk they've seen and are told the locals call them the Sin-Eaters. What?

“The Covenant of the Sorrowful Leaf, that’s their real name. They worship in groves instead of churches.”

Willy discovers a beautiful path through the trees that is a shortcut between the farm and the store in the village. He loves its peaceful, churchlike feel, with branches overhead forming a “dim, witchy tunnel” and thinks the Sin-Planters probably had a point about wild spaces being holy.

Not only that, he can blow off steam without upsetting anyone.

“Alone, in the woods, with no one to judge him, he could help himself to all the resentment he liked. Striding along the bridle path, he could admit it felt good to marinate in an unfocused and unmoderated rage.”

I’d read only the beginning of a Joe Hill novel before and knew it wasn’t for me, but I figured I’d try a short story instead. I really enjoyed this one – until the last couple of pages. It didn’t go in the horror direction I expected, but I can’t say it was exactly unexpected either.

I like his writing. I’ve always enjoyed his father’s (Stephen King’s) writing (when it isn’t horror), so I hope Joe has written, or would consider writing, some ‘straight’ novels, too.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this #CreatureFeature Collection copy for review. This is the first of the six stories in the series.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5845131975
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ANKLE SNATCHER – Grady Hendrix
3★
“They never asked me a single question about Tess or what happened last night. They had no interest in me or anything I had to say. I wasn’t a person. I was a crime. Every time they left me alone, my lungs filled with panic and I started to drown.”

This is a bedtime story, a particularly gruesome one. You know – the kind people tell to scare you out of your wits about the thing in the closet, the monster under the bed.

This guy’s dad had warned him to keep the lights on, but he didn’t believe it. Now he does.

“I thought about fire, but I didn’t want to burn the building down. I could shoot it, but the background check took three days in this state. If I had my phone I could look up personal security stores and see what I could take home today: Tasers, pepper spray, stun guns. Maybe a clerk who loved the Second Amendment more than his liability insurance would sell me something under the counter.”

Keep your lights on!

This is not one for the likes of me. A bit too yucky.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this copy for review from the #CreatureFeature Collection.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5845134142
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IT WAITS IN THE WOODS – Josh Malerman
3.5~3★
“Most myths have one foot in a reality so distressing mythic decorations are necessary to hide a greater horror, even as they keep the story alive.”

This does read like a myth or possibly a folktale to discourage children from wandering too far from home, but it isn’t from the early days of North American history.

“Unsettling stories started coming out of Central Michigan’s Ucatanani National Forest in the late 1970s. They were the kind of spine-tingling tales sprung from grade school field trips and carried on campfire smoke.”

People disappeared where they apparently crossed a white and yellow bridge in the National Forest. But where was the bridge? Nobody ever seemed to know.

Brenda’s sister is missing, and the hunt for her has been unsuccessful – so far – but Brenda is determined not to give up. She knows the old Opso myth and thinks there must be some truth to it, because it has such specific elements.

“From a storytelling perspective, elements of the Opso myth were just odd enough to be taken seriously. Who would’ve come up with the bridge? And why? Why not a secret cave? A more interesting tree house? A disturbing hole in the forest floor?”

Needless to say, her quest gets pretty scary, but thankfully it isn’t as grisly as some of the stories in this collection. It does read more like a cautionary tale than a true horror story, which is fine with me, but I do enjoy more suspense. I think it would have worked better as a modern serial-killer-in-the-woods story.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the copy of the #CreatureFeature Collection for review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5845135880
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IN BLOOM – Paul Tremblay
2.5~3★
“From the apex of the Bourne Bridge, almost 150 feet above the Cape Cod Canal, the undulating, fluorescent-green water bullying the shores looks alive. “

Blue-green algae is nasty stuff. Farmers in Australia are notified when there is too much algal bloom in creeks and rivers, making the water unsafe for people or livestock. This story takes it to a popular summer spot in the northeastern part of the US.

People live there year-round as well, and where this story takes place, there is no sewerage system, only septic tanks, and because of the algae, the government is cracking down and demanding expensive systems that treat the waste water.

“For the already fiscally struggling population who lived on the Cape year-round, the climate projections were as dire as the economic reality. Between the new septic system, skyrocketing real-estate taxes, and their increasing medical needs and costs, Heidi’s parents couldn’t afford to stay. They sold the place while they still could.”

Heidi is a journalist, with no thought of giving in to the pressure from her parents to move to Florida with them. Instead, she decides to visit the Cape and investigate the story.

She is given the name of a man who will give her the “definitively bizarre account” of the bloom tragedy in 1983. She meets Jimmy Lang in a café, where he gives her the story of his life, beginning in childhood, growing up with his baseball fanatic father.

That part is the pretty straight-forward history of an unathletic son who can never please his father. It does eventually get to the bizarre tragedy, and I’m sure that will appeal to creature-feature readers.

I think I would enjoy something else by the author, but this didn't grab me.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the copy for review from the #CreatureFeature Collection.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5845136827

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BEST OF LUCK – Jason Mott
4★
“‘You ever hear the one about the man with the bad luck?’

‘Can’t say that I have.’

‘You mind if I tell it?’ Will asked.

‘Considering the circumstances,’ Barry replied, ‘I’m open to lightening the mood.’”

The circumstances are that Will has arrived with a shotgun, planning to make his old friend Barry pay for stealing all of Will’s good luck. Barry has everything – wife, kids, success, and all the trappings that go with it.

Will has lost everything he ever began to have. His was a life of one step forward, two steps back, and he’s convinced it’s Barry’s fault. Will tells a long story about a farmer who goes away and entrusts his farm to the care of a friend, but things aren’t good when he comes back.

I have heard similar sorts of stories, and I think this one is told well. Barry laughs with Will and then really looks at him.

“Sweat glistened on Will’s brow, and for the first time tonight, Barry was able to really get a long look at his friend. He had always been tall, tall and lean. But now his leanness had morphed into something else, something more hollow and yearning. He was thinner than he should be. His eyes were sunken to the skull, and his teeth were silhouetted in his cadaverous cheeks. He looked like loneliness and hunger given form. Like the two things could throw on a pair of jeans and a shirt and shamble through the darkness of the world and come hold a gun on you in the late hours of the night.”

Where it goes from there is as horrifying as I imagined, but the twist was certainly not expected. Good story and good writing!

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the copy from the #CreatureFeature Collection for review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5845137903


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BIG BAD – Chandler Baker
4.5★
“‘Ah, didn’t mean to startle you there.’ Behind thick lenses, the man has filmy eyes. ‘My name’s Harold. I’m your Airbnb guest, here to stay in that cute little house you’ve got there in the back.’

The man wears a flannel shirt and work boots, not the look of their typical renters, who tend to be upscale nature lovers with REI memberships, looking for an excuse to drink craft beer and build a fire.
. . .
Another blip of anxiety pings Sam. He is tall and rugged, but this man, Harold, is built like a lumberjack. ‘You must have gotten the dates mixed up. It happens.’”

Sam’s wife, Rachel, is giving a university presentation and isn’t home yet. She became more well-known in their field than he did, and he’s resentful. There are two little girls, a reliable big sister and a tantrum-throwing little one.

So who is this guy Harold and why isn’t Rachel home yet? This takes place in Eugene, Oregon, after an enormous mudslide of some kind that has wrecked a lot of places, so motel rooms are at a premium, and Harold is insistent... and kind of creepy.

Harold asks whether they’ve had trouble with wildlife moving into the populated areas, especially after this latest event. Some, admits Sam.

I thought I knew where this was going, and then I didn’t, and then I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The tension builds up chillingly and the characters interact well together, as we gradually see what’s happening.

“June is always the careful one, the scaredy cat, the one who warns Odie not to climb so high in the tree. But tonight, June feels her sister’s fear coursing through the creases in Odie’s palms, and she knows that love can be just as terrifying as fear.”

Excellent horror story I’m happy to recommend. It’s one that doesn’t rely on grisly descriptions to be scary, although there is some blood, of course. It’s suspense that always gets to me.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this copy from the #CreatureFeature Collection.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5845139045

I loved this book! Full of great, fun spooky writers - Tremblay and Hendrix being some of my personal favorites - this book is chock-full of great spooky stories. I recommend it to anyone who likes a spooky thrill!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Creature Feature was such a fun read! Most of the authors are known to me and I read whatever I can get my hands on from them, and some this is was my first read. I enjoyed the different styles of writing, new viewpoints of common tropes and seeing local places featured in horror novellas.

Thank you Net Galley
I love all of the authors.

These short stories are amazing. I enjoyed them all

Nice and Creepy 3.5 stars round to 4

This was a really fun and interesting collection of stories; some were a variation on a known monster - like a werewolf and others introduced new and horrific creatures all of their own. I think my favourite was probably Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix, but honestly, the whole series of stories was great and there wasn't a bad one among them.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Creature Feature by Joe Hill; Grady Hendrix; Josh Malerman; Paul Tremblay; Jason Mott and Chandler Baker.
A wonderful collection of horror. Spooky tales to keep you up all night.
I can’t wait to devour each and every title. The perfect mix to add to your October collection.

Creature Feature is a collection of six short stories with a horror theme by acclaimed authors, a mixed bag of mostly excellent scary tales.

The Pram is a short story by award-winning, best-selling American author, Joe Hill. When their Brooklyn apartment holds only memories of his wife Marianne’s traumatic miscarriage, Willy Halpenny knows he needs to get her out of there. They settle in a farmhouse at Hobomeck in Maine, remarking on the elderly Amish-looking couple as they drive through town. Sin Planters, the agent tells them, the Covenant of the Sorrowful Leaf.
Willy walks the leafy bridle path to the general store, buys more than he intended, and the friendly store owner lets him borrow an old baby carriage to take his purchases home. Something about the pram makes it hard for him to return it. While Marianne has drawn a firm line under having children, something about the pram seems to fulfill that ache he has for being a father. But when Marianne sees (and smells) the pram, she’s adamant that it has to go back. Turns out she’s right.
Short, creepy, with a gory ending that definitely packs a punch.

Ankle Snatcher is a short story by Grady Hendrix. It’s on the second date that Marcus Needham tells Tess about his parents. She reluctantly shared why she doesn’t drink. He told her how his father had murdered his mother when Marcus was six, then told the boy he wasn’t to blame: she had stepped out of bed without the light on, and the boogeyman had taken her. Before he went on the run from the law, Tony Needham told his son that “people like you and me need to beware the Ankle Snatcher.”
And now, as he sits in a prison cell at the start of a thirty-year sentence for murdering Tess, he realises that his father was right. A well-told horror tale best not read just before going to bed.

It Waits in the Woods is a short story by Josh Malerman. Three years ago, Brenda’s younger sister, Amanda went missing in the woods. Their parents blamed Brenda, who was filming instead of watching her. While the police believed the fourteen-year-old had been abducted, there was talk of Opso, the vain, malicious imp who waits in the woods by the white bridge with yellow trim, lamenting his facelessness. Now, Brenda is eighteen, old enough to escape the control of her parents, and determined to find the truth about her sister’s fate. She goes into the woods, alone, ready to camp out for as long as it takes. She documents every step, recording audio and video. And eventually, she finds something…
This slowly builds to a tension-filled nail-biter.

In Bloom is a short story in the Creature Feature series by Paul Tremblay. As she drives over the bridge on the way to an interview, freelance journalist Heidi Cohen wonders what toxic gas might be rising from the algal bloom in the waters below. Jimmy Lang is about to give her his eye-witness account of the 1983 bloom, when the cyanobacteria’s toxins near the baseball game contributed to a drowning, a possible disappearance, and scores of illnesses among players and fans. He claims seeing something from the pond rise up and take his father: scary truth or a hallucination from the toxins to which he was exposed. Could they be in danger of a repeat this tragedy forty years on?
A bit slow…

Best of Luck is a short story in the Creature Feature series by Jason Mott. Could someone drain all your good luck to keep for themselves? Will believes that’s what his childhood friend Barry has done, and he’s explaining it to Barry at gunpoint in the middle of the night.
He’s been convinced by Henry that there’s a finite amount of luck in the world, and if someone gets all the good luck, someone else loses out. Barry has untold wealth, fame, a fine house (a mansion!), a loving wife and two healthy children. Each of Will’s children has died in unfortunate circumstances, his wife has left him, and now he has Henry. But will shooting Barry change his luck? And just who, or what, is Henry?
A creepy final twist!

Big Bad is a short story in the Creature Feature series by Chandler Baker. With his academic career stalled, Sam Strauss stays busy looking after his daughters, keeping them safe. It is concerning that the mudslide seems to have brought grey wolves closer to town, and that his wilful youngest daughter is getting into trouble at school.
He’s been married to Rachel, a respected college lecturer, for over a decade, accepted her disorder, has worked out how to deal with it, and has only failed once, during her episodes, to keep his family safe.
But this time, just when there’s a man hanging around purporting to be an Airbnb renter, she has escaped from the cellar. He’s got his daughters safely in the attic, but getting rid of Harold is proving difficult, and then the girls quit the attic: things are not going to end well…
Quite a final twist to this werewolf tale!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.

Each story was scarier than the last. A really perfect assembly of stories to chill the bones.

I really had to keep the light on for these, especially Ankle Snatcher. Highly recommend to any horror fan.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Creature Feature by Joe Hill, Grady Hendrix, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Jason Mott, and Chandler Baker in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed these short stories. The first four authors I am familiar with and did not disappoint. It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman was so good! This was maybe not the best book to read at 3 am as it scared me silly and then I couldn't sleep, but I really enjoyed it. The last two authors it was interesting to find new authors to enjoy.

A stunning collection of horror. A stand out for me was Grady Hendrix, I have turned the light on before getting out of bed since. I was fine until the slurping was mentioned.

Highly recommend all of these delicious dark tales.

A great little creepy collection of stories for the spooky season. If you are looking for some short stories to get you in the mood for Halloween this would be a great one to check out.

These were fun for the spooky season, but nothing groundbreaking or that will stay with me long term. I would recommend for people looking to pick up shorter stories during Halloween and already like the authors other work.

a fun collection of shorts right in time for the October season…they were all pretty fine, I’m not a huge short story reader in general so I usually come out of them feeling like they should’ve been longer. Hill’s The Pram was my favorite of the bunch

A great collection of stories, perfect as a October read. I especially enjoyed Joe Hills story, but may be triggering for some!

A Spooky Smorgasbord with a Standout

Hey, horror peeps! If you're in the mood for a mixed bag of creepy tales, "Creature Feature" is your jam. This anthology is like a Halloween candy bowl—some treats you'll devour, and others you'll just nibble on, but it's all good.

First off, shoutout to Grady Hendrix for "Ankle Snatcher." This story was my jam! It's got this modern boogeyman vibe that's just chef's kiss. Seriously, it's the kind of story that makes you double-check under your bed before you sleep.

The other stories? They're a mix. Some are killer, and some are just okay. But that's the beauty of an anthology, right? You get a little bit of everything. So, if one story doesn't float your boat, the next one might just blow your mind.

Overall, I'm giving this a solid 4 stars. It's not perfect, but it's a fun ride from start to finish. If you're a horror junkie like me, you'll wanna check this one out.

As with any short story collection, some stories are goign to be better than others and that all comes down to the reader. Honestly I only truly disliked Big Bad, and the rest were fairly worthwhile reads.

These stores are so dang fantastic! So different from each other, but so so great! I loved every single one. Some strange, some creepy and some sad. ALL THE STARS!!

I enjoyed all six of these stories. Well written with different styles and various levels of creepiness.

Overall, I give this collection 4 stars. My favorite of the collection was Big Bad by Chandler Baker. I will definitely read more of her work. All of these are now available on Kindle Unlimited.
Small reviews for each story:

Review: The Pram by Joe Hill
*This story may be upsetting for some readers. The plot heavily revolves around the loss of a child/miscarriage.
Reader's discretion advised*

This was a dark read. I would absolutely read this as a full-length novel. But at the same time, this a good short horror story. It reminded me a bit of Pet Sematary. Similar vibe to it. If you're looking for a quick solid horror story, this might be for you.
3.75 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review: Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix

“He told me that he was very sorry, but the boogeyman had taken Mom away.”

I would definitely like to see this made into a full-length novel or adapted to film. It's a simple story that plays on one of the oldest and most common horror icons. The boogeyman.
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review: In Bloom by Paul Tremblay

I was really interested in this one. I was curious about the algae and all. But ultimately, the story ends so abruptly that it was jarring.
I kinda wish this was a novella, at least.
3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review: Best of Luck by Jason Mott

It's an interesting story. I almost wonder if it would be better as a full novel or novella rather than 30 pages. It felt more like reading the end of a book rather than a whole story.
Who needs enemies when you have a friend like "Henry"
3 and a half ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review: It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman

"You have my face.."

It's a very solid short story. It reads like a good goosebumps book. I mean that in a good way. One sister trying to find her missing sister. Short and creepy.
3 and half ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review: Big Bad by Chandler Baker

This was fantastic. A terrible secret between a Husband and Wife. Can they keep it contained?
I really liked this one. I won't spoil anything, I'll just say this story has some bite to it.
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received an arc for my honest review and I'd like to thank Netgalley, the authors and the publisher

Some great horror stories. Wide range and enjoyed them all. The Pram was a favorite. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book