The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4

Only a few decent stories in this bunch.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

A mixed bag here. I gave every story a chance, but if I wasn't engaged withing the first five minutes, I skipped to the next one. Several engaged me:

The Little Green God of Agony Stephen King (listened all the way through)

Blackwood’s Baby Laird Barron (abandoned after twenty minutes)

Black Feathers Alison J. Littlewood (abandoned after twenty minutes)

In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos John Langan (abandoned after twenty minutes)

Little Pig Anna Taborska (listend all the way through and enjoyed)

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine Peter Straub (abandoned after about half an hour)

In the end, I only finished two stories: King's The Little Green God of Agony, which wasn't one of his best, and Anna Taborska's Little Pig, which was the only story in the whole bunch that I actually enjoyed entirely.

I almost made it through Peter Straub's Ballad of Ballardm, which was very engaging and narrated extremely well, but after awhile it meandered and I realized I didn't care about either character or their situation, so I bailed.

Would you ever listen to anything by the authors again?

I'd give every one of these authors another listen. Some of this was just bad storytelling, but some of it was stiff narration too. For the worst of the stories it's hard to lay the blame completely on the author or narrator's shoulders.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Some narrators were fantastic. Others sounded stiff. As if they were trying so hard to pronounce everything so perfectly that their narration had no natural cadence.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

I would have scoured the volumes of Cemetery Dance and Nightmare Magazine, and Dark Discoveries from this particular year and come up with a much better list of Best of Horror.

Any additional comments?

It was pleasant to discover the one decent story (Little Pig), but not worth the effort of slogging through all the others. I'll be returning this one.

11 sur 11 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Boring

What did you like best about The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4? What did you like least?

The performances are excellent, but the stories themselves are the most boring, least frightening "horror" stories I've heard in years.

What could the authors have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Better editing, I suppose - these stories are not "horror" as I use that word, they are, as best, moody & atmospheric.

8 sur 8 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Wasn't for me

This just wasn't what I expected I felt like the stories always seemed flat at the end and I was just left sitting their thinking " Wait..what?" once I had gathered my thoughts I felt unsatisfied with how things ended like I still had questions but not in the eerie kinda fun way..The narrating was good for some stories and boring on others. There were some stories that I really really enjoyed and others I was to bored listening to recall. I finished the whole book so obliviously it wasn't terrible but it just wasn't for me...

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Just fell a little flat for me

What disappointed you about The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

Some of the stories were riveting, but some were just plain old weird for me. I was surprisingly not satisfied with the book overall. It is an acquired taste. I love Stephen King and was looking to get hooked on a few more horror novelists...alas I will stick with who I am familiar with. His story was decent.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

ALL the narrators were phenomenal.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

The only ones I would keep would be "Little Pig", "Green God of Agony", and the one about the incestuous family.

3 sur 3 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Disappointed

Would you try another book from the authors and/or the narrators?

Authors yes, narrators no.

Would you recommend The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4 to your friends? Why or why not?

Absolutely not. The stories were lackluster, some just far too long with little to no payoff, no real emotional involvement possible and some of the narrators were perfectly awful. No inflection, monotone...just ugh.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?

Uncertain. Someone who was willing to invest something of themselves into some of the readings instead of people who sounded like they had better things to do.

What character would you cut from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

Unsure.

Any additional comments?

Deeply disappointing.

2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Lackluster

There were a few good stories, but like everyone else has been saying, when most of them end you are just lost/disappointed.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Terrible!

Any additional comments?

The title of the book gets you interested in listening to it. But after your done, it seems like more of a sad comment on the genre for that year. Almost every story in this book was instantly forgettable (including the Stephen King story), and while they can all qualify as part of the "Horror" genre, none of them gave much of a thrill beyond a momentary instance that might have been well described. But those instances get lost in over long stories that go nowhere. I can only think of 3 stories that held together well as a narrative and only 1 of those 3 that was even worth the time to listen, barely. The scariest thing about this publication as that it will steal away valuable time you can never get back.

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<br />Just so so..........

Narration was just okay. Some storirs more grim than others. Rather a bizarre compilation of individual tales.

Most of the stories were boring

Absolutely none of the stories were in the least scary. A few of the stories had horrible structure.

Typical Collection book

As with most Collected works (whatever the media); there were some writers, and readers that I liked better than others. there usually will be at least one that it is hard for me to not just skip on to the next. That is why I left it with a mid rating in general.