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Title: Horowitz Horror: Stories You'll Wish You Never Read
ISBN: 0399244891
Author:
Anthony Horowitz
Publicate Date: 2006-08-17
Publish: 2006-08-17
List Price: $11.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.79
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $4.46
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.59
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Not for younger kids
Our 8-year-old son bought this at his primary school book fair. We're putting it on a back shelf until he's a teenager. The first two stories alone include casual sexist and anti-gay references, group suicide and a naked girl being hauled off to a mental institute as her father plans to buy an axe and kill her mother. All good fun of course but NOT appropriate for younger kids.
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2: May be too scary for some 10 year olds
My 10 year old son initially loved the book and enthusiastically wrote up a great book review for class. However, he has been afraid to go into his bedroom and bathroom alone since reading this book. If your child has never encountered this genre before, think about previewing the contents first. The book is true to its title!
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3: Just Horrible...but That's a Good Thing in this Case!
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!
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