The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time
Leslie Pockell - Editor
(Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
2002 Warner Books
ISBN: 044667950X

With an introduction by editor Leslie Pockell, these classic shorter works of the genre offer wonderful reading for the budding horror fan.

Sr. Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time is actually a misnomer. A better title would have been A Selection of 13 Horror Stories circa 1850-1950. The stories, though powerful, certainly cannot boast to be the best of the genre.

Don't judge the book by its cover, or by its title. While veterans Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker & H. P. Lovecraft are there, the horror master Robert Bloch & the modern doyens, Stephen King, Dean Koontz & Peter Straub are noticeably absent. So on the title alone The 13 Best Horror Stories begins with a disappointing tone.

Nonetheless, the stories Editor Leslie Pockell includes prove vividly enjoyable. From the dark tone in Bram Stoker's Dracula's Guest to the darker tone in Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan; from the eerie The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft to the eerier The Yellow Wall Paper, all stories are convincingly chilling by any standard. On that score the editor deserves to be appreciated.

The two stories I found most entertaining & chilling to the core were W.W. Jacob's The Monkey's Paw & H.G. Wells' The Country of the Blind. It was déj vu for me while reading The Monkey's Paw--I had read almost a similar story along those lines a couple of years back--set in Malayalam, my mother tongue & I don't remember title or the author. The next story H.G. Wells' The Country of the Blind is per se not a horror story, it borders between science fiction & horror & is an interesting read.

However, in the end I must say though it is a good compilation it quite doesn't deserve the title of 13 best Horror Stories of All Time.

More from Leslie Pockell: The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time & The 100 Best Poems of All Time
(03/09/03)

Narayan
2003©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org