A Collection of Horror
By: Jeneva Rose
*This post contains spoilers for Sometimes I Scare Myself
Overview:
Never Kill the Medium
Sometimes I Scare Myself
A thirtieth birthday dinner turns deadly after someone hires a medium for a playful séance. When the ritual spirals out of control and the medium dies, the guests cover it up–unaware that leaving the séance unfinished has allowed something dark to cross over.
The Nightmare House
The Dalton family moves into what they believe is their forever home, in the quiet town of Tillington–until the house whispers, the neighbors watch, and no one believes the one person who knows something is wrong. Newly postpartum, Kristin Dalton soon uncovers a horrifying every family who has lived in this house has died or disappeared.
All Curses Are Final
On the way to a remote winter cabin, a group of friends stops at a roadside store with a hand-painted “All items cursed. Curse lifted at time of sale.” They laugh it off–until one of them discovers an item in her bag she never paid for. As a storm traps them inside the cabin and bodies start to pile up, paranoia takes hold and suspicion turns inward.
If you’ve read any of my discussions on any of the Fazbear Frights entries, you know that I love a good horro anthology. Honestly, i didn’t even know this was a horror anthology until the book came out. i just had it on my list based on the fact that it was a.) Jeneva Rose and b.) spooky. I was pleasantly surprised and it fit exactly what I wanted to read at the moment.
Never Kill The Medium
Everyone knows that if you are going to try to contact the spirit world, you have to SHUT THE DOOR! Otherwise something can walk right through.
That is exactly what happens. Erica and her friends are meant to spend a lovely dinner at her apartment to celebrate her birthday but instead several of them perish in very gruesome ways.
I liked how silly this story ended up being. Just the title of the story alone you know that the medium is going to die and it is going to be a bit cheeky. Yes, these awful things are happening but all Erica can think about is how messed up her dinner party became.
There are some things that I did not care for. I thought that the character Beckie was too over the top and really brought you out of the of the story. I also think that there was a real missed opportunity while Erica was using the spirit board.
The board spells out things slowly and Erica is getting reassurance from her sister and trying to figure out how to close the door. At one point the board spells out “its not your fault”. It would have been so much more scary if it slowly spelled out “its not your sister.” That’s what I thought it was going to do and it genuinely gave me a little chill. When it confirmed that it was her sister I was a little let down.
The Nightmare House
Classic story of a family moving to a new town and things are not as they seem.
I think this was the weakest story in the bunch but it did give me Are You Afraid of the Dark vibes. I could easy see this told by Hailey’s point of view on my TV screen on a Saturday night watching Nickelodeon.
The story just seemed to be going to too many directions. This may be the first time that I am saying this but I think this story would have been successful had it been a full length novel. More time could have been spent on Kristin trying to discover the secrets of the house and the terrifying neighbors.
All Curses are Final
I love that this story was inspired by a sign that the author saw in a movie. Just a throw away thing in the background that she turned into its own thing.
There were some issues with the plot. For example, the reason they are cursed is because Blair technically stole the pen. However, Bill warns the group of friends about going outside and letting the fire burn out. Does he somehow know that the stole from the store? If he did know, I would assume that he was immune to the curse because he must have some sort of connection to know it is active. When Bill dies it eliminates that as a possibility. So, what was he warning them about? Just overall safety?
The part that I really enjoyed was the final act of the story. Blair desperately trying to make it into the store and having to fight off Jake. I can see the scene play out like a movie. The proprietor of the store just calmly watching this intense bloody struggle from the check out counter. Then Blair limps in unamused and pays for the pen before limping away covered in blood.
Overall,
I enjoyed this collections of stories.
I thought she did a really good job of creating highly visual stories. I was totally immersed in each of the worlds.
As I mentioned, at times I felt like it was a little too much. Like she was trying a bit too hard to be cheeky. I don’t think humor is quite the right word. It is that feeling you get when everything is going wrong and one more thing happens. You almost want to laugh but you’re just like “come on”. Whatever word describes that feeling was how the characters ended their horror stories in Never Kill the Medium and All Curses are Final.
I hope that Jeneva Rose writes more books like this because I will happily read them.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
