The Horrors: Terrifying Tales, Book 1

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

As TV reality shows like Fear Factor have demonstrated, people react
differently to what are supposed to be scary situations. Likewise,
high-school readers will vary in their individual assessments concerning
the fright quotient of each of the 15 “terrifying tales” assembled
by Carver. But let there be no doubt—there are some neck-hair-raising
stories in this collection.

Most of the stories, which range in length from three to 17 pages, are
written by names familiar to teen readers: Don Aker, Diana Aspin,
Karleen Bradford, Brian Doyle, Kristyn Dunnion, Barbara Haworth-Attard,
Martine Leavitt, R.P. McIntyre, and Kathy Stinson. Other contributors
include newcomers Sylvo Frank, Rob Morphy, and Anne Wessels, plus
Carolyn Beck, Alice Walsh, and W.D. Valgardson, whose previously
published books are less identified with adolescent audiences. Each
story concludes with a brief author bio. The tales, most of which are
related in some way to death, evoke a wide range of emotions. At one end
is Beck’s grossfully delightful “Goth Paté,” in which a trio of
male Grade 12 losers seemingly win the girl only to become menu items.
In contrast, Leavitt’s “September 12, 2063” offers comfort to
those who fear death, as a dying father tells his teenage son about his
encounter exactly 60 years earlier with the deceased singer Johnny Cash.
Righting wrongs via vengeance is the theme in McIntyre’s “Invisible
to Dogs,” Stinson’s “The Yearbook,” and Bradford’s
“Revenge,” while Frank’s “Graveyard Studies” transforms the
hunters into the hunted. The closing story, Morphy’s “Bogeyman,”
features one of the undead, a man cursed to live forever. Recommended.