Loved these books in highschool ( )

Feeling pretty crummy today, so I grabbed something unusual from the thrift store piles. This is a collection of YA horror stories from 1991, including some of the biggest names in the genre.

Christopher Pike's two-part story "Collect Call" bookends the collection, and is of course the best. The worst is definitely "Hacker" by Sinclair Smith, which has aged terribly in the 30 years since it was first published. Glowing Apple II screens and DOS prompts? Hilarious!

I also enjoyed:
* "House of Horrors" by J.B. Stamper
* "Dedicated to the One I Love" by Diane Hoh
* "The Boy Next Door" by Ellen Emerson White ( )

Not that I enjoyed the simple, not-so-complex writing but the read was comforting. It reminded me of better days when I first picked up books to escape reality rather than be reminded of it.

R.L. Stein, of course, being the only author I've read as a kid - his Goosebumps novellas were my introduction to the awesome world of reading - I was reintroduced to familiar names that filled the shelves of my female cousins. Namely, Christopher Pike whose Slumber Party cover always reminded me of a young chick lit gone awry.

It's a four-star read for any adolescent wanting to take a stab of horror at their reading level, or for the adult who wants to reminisce about their childhood. However, the book is a little dated - cassette tapes probably have the Myspace generation scratching their hands on that one ("Why not use a CD and leave it on loop rather than having to rewind the song?"...or better yet, "what's a CD?!"). The advent of electronic mail made me smile - how crazy were we in the year 1991? ( )

I read this book 5 times ( )

This is an interesting collection of teen horror stories; it feels a little bit dated (teens listen to cassette tapes and view home computers as novelties) but it's still very readable. Some of the stories are better than others. Some are subtle and understated, while others involve unnatural elements right from the beginning. Some build slowly, keeping the readers guessing until the very end. There is a mix of happy and sad stories, and a mix of the supernatural and the realistic.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed some of the stories by authors I'd never read before, and I was also disappointed by offerings of such big-name writers as R. L. Stine and Carolyn B. Cooney. Cooney's was my least favorite in the anthology: silly premise, empty characters, too much heavy-handed didacticism. I don't want to tell you about my favorite because I don't want to deprive anyone of the pleasure of enjoying it fresh.

The stories range from about 2 stars to about 4. I'm giving it four stars instead of three because I found the work to be compelling; when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, and that's something.

Full disclosure: I skipped one of the stories. It seemed well-written and intriguing, but parts of it were just too sad for me. ( )