Dark : Stories of Madness, Murder and the Supernatural (Adrena...

A collection of horror fiction includes works by Edgar Allen Poe, Iain Banks, Marjorie Bowen, and Rudyard Kipling.

From Library Journal

This collection of horror stories, including works by well-known authors Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Frost, among others, is disappointing. Some of the tales are boring, while many more seem pointless. In A.M. Burrage's "Smee" and Marjorie Bowen's "The Crown Derby Plate," we meet some rather unexciting ghosts; in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," the listener experiences a ride on a roller coaster, which is fun but the ending leaves one wondering what really happened. Two of the stories feature protagonists who kill and maim insects, animals, and small children. In Iain Banks's "From the Wasp Factory," a boy builds a huge kite to deliberately trap his cousin Esmeralda and have her flown out to sea. Although the readers (Simon Prebble, Colleen Delany, and others) are good and bring much experience with them, this does not compensate for the lack of quality in the material. Not recommended. Marjorie Lemon, SRCF-Mercer, PA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile

This collection of creepy stories mixes classics such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" with several more recent tales. Especially compelling are three first-person narratives: Graeme Malcolm's tale, told as if to spook party guests, of A.M. Burrage's "Smee"; Grover Gardner's bemused account of encounters with a seemingly delusional lady friend in Isaac Bashevis Singer's "The Cafeteria"; and Colleen Delany's descent into madness as her character probes the secrets of "The Yellow Wallpaper" in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's tale. With one exception--a Will Self excerpt that is more sick than spooky--these tales were well chosen and are grippingly performed. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author

Editor Jennifer Schwamm Willis grew up next door to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She graduated from Princeton in 1979, and has worked as a designer, teacher and editor. She lives in Maine with her husband and their two sons.

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