
Poe's Children
The New Horror: An Anthology
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Narrated by:
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various
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By:
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Peter Straub
About this listen
From the incomparable master of horror and suspense comes an electrifying collection of contemporary literary horror, with stories from twenty-five writers representing today’s most talented voices in the genre.
Horror writing is usually associated with formulaic gore, but New Wave horror writers have more in common with the wildly inventive, evocative spookiness of Edgar Allan Poe than with the sometimes-predictable hallmarks of their peers. Showcasing this cutting-edge talent, Poe’s Children now brings the best of the genre’s stories to a wider audience. Featuring tales from such writers as Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Carroll, Poe’s Children is Peter Straub’ s tribute to the imaginative power of storytelling. Each previously published story has been selected by Straub to represent what he thinks is the most interesting development in our literature during the last two decades.
Selections range from the early Stephen King psychological thriller “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet,” in which an editor confronts an author’s belief that his typewriter is inhabited by supernatural creatures, to “The Man on the Ceiling,” Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem’s award-winning surreal tale of night terrors, woven with daylight fears that haunt a family. Other selections include National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon’s “The Bees”; Peter Straub’s “Little Red’s Tango,” the legend of a music aficionado whose past is as mysterious as the ghostly visitors to his Manhattan apartment; Elizabeth Hand’s visionary and shocking “Cleopatra Brimstone”; Thomas Ligotti’s brilliant, mind-stretching “Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story”; and “Body,” Brian Evenson’s disturbing twist on correctional facilities.
Crossing boundaries and packed with imaginative chills, Poe’s Children bears all the telltale signs of fearless, addictive fiction.
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Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan is cursed with visions of horror committed by a savage figure he calls "Mr. X". This year, Ned's visions will become flesh and blood. A dreadful premonition brings Ned home to find his mother on her deathbed. She reveals the never-before-disclosed name of his father and warns him of grave danger. Driven by a desperate sense of need, Ned explores his dark past and the astonishing legacy of his kin.
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ALAN ALDA WITHOUT THE SMIRK
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-11-15
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Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
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Shadowland
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Overall
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Performance
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First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play - forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer.
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Still one of my favorite books!
- By James P. on 06-28-12
By: Peter Straub
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Hell House
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For over 20 years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mt. Everest of haunted houses, its shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of unimaginable horror and depravity. All previous attempts to probe its mysteries have ended in murder, suicide, or insanity.
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Hell House is like Hill House, but fiercer
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Stories
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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Mr. X
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan is cursed with visions of horror committed by a savage figure he calls "Mr. X". This year, Ned's visions will become flesh and blood. A dreadful premonition brings Ned home to find his mother on her deathbed. She reveals the never-before-disclosed name of his father and warns him of grave danger. Driven by a desperate sense of need, Ned explores his dark past and the astonishing legacy of his kin.
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Mystery eech!
- By Old Man Parker on 07-12-13
By: Peter Straub
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Lost Boy, Lost Girl
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
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-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son- fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill - vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge.
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ALAN ALDA WITHOUT THE SMIRK
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-11-15
By: Peter Straub
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Ghost Story
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- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
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Overall
-
Performance
-
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For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
-
-
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
By: Peter Straub
-
Shadowland
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play - forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer.
-
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Still one of my favorite books!
- By James P. on 06-28-12
By: Peter Straub
-
Hell House
- By: Richard Matheson
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For over 20 years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mt. Everest of haunted houses, its shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of unimaginable horror and depravity. All previous attempts to probe its mysteries have ended in murder, suicide, or insanity.
But now, a new investigation has been launched, bringing four strangers to Belasco House in search of the ultimate secrets of life and death. A wealthy publisher, brooding over his impending death, has paid a physicist and two mediums to establish the facts of life after death once and for all. For one night, they will investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townsfolk refer to it as the Hell House.
-
-
Hell House is like Hill House, but fiercer
- By Phebe on 08-13-12
By: Richard Matheson
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
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By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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The Green Mile
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Overall
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At Cold Mountain Penitentiary, the convicted killers on E Block await their turn to walk the Green Mile and keep a date with the electric chair. Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working as a guard on the Mile, but he's never met anyone like John Coffey.
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An excellent narrator and an excellent story.
- By Bryan J. Peterson on 03-21-10
By: Stephen King
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Needful Things
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little "deed", usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control, and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Only Sheriff Alan Pangborn suspects that Gaunt is behind the population's increasingly violent behavior.
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Please! No Distracting Keyboard Music
- By Andrea on 04-23-16
By: Stephen King
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Bag of Bones
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Even four years after the sudden death of his wife, best selling novelist Mike Noonan can't stop grieving, nor can he return to his writing. He moves into his isolated house by the lake, which becomes the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here - and what do they want of Mike Noonan?
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My Favorite King Novel
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By: Stephen King
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Different Seasons
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Four gripping novellas tied together by the changing of seasons. Hope Springs Eternal - "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption": An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge...the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Shawshank Redemption.
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Fantastic!
- By Robert A. Raymond on 02-14-16
By: Stephen King
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The Dead Zone
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Johnny Smith awakens from a five-year coma after his car accident and discovers that he can see people's futures and pasts when he touches them. Many consider his talent a gift; Johnny feels cursed. His fiancée married another man during his coma, and people clamor for him to solve their problems. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after he shakes the hand of an ambitious and amoral politician, he must decide if he should take drastic action to change the future.
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Another Great Listen!
- By karinzart on 04-29-17
By: Stephen King
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The Voice of the Night with Short Story, "Silence"
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Pavi Proczko, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
No one could understand why Colin and Roy were best friends. Colin was so shy; Roy was so popular. Colin was fascinated by Roy - and Roy was fascinated by death. Then one day, Roy asked his timid friend: “You ever killed anything?” From that moment on, the two were bound together in a game too terrifying to imagine - and too irresistible to stop.
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can not believe dean koontz wrote this book
- By Anonymous User on 10-05-21
By: Dean Koontz
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Pet Sematary
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Michael C. Hall
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic, rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Yet despite Ludlow's tranquility, there's an undercurrent of danger that lingers...like the graveyard in the woods near the Creeds' home, where generations of children have buried their beloved pets.
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THIS is what Audible was made for!
- By Nate_D on 04-03-18
By: Stephen King
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After Death
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Michael Mace, head of security at a top-secret research facility, opens his eyes in a makeshift morgue twenty-four hours following an event in which everyone perished—including him and his best friend, Shelby Shrewsberry. Having awakened with an extraordinary ability unlike anything he—or anyone else—has ever imagined, Michael is capable of being as elusive as a ghost. He sets out to honor his late friend by helping Nina Dozier and her son, John, whom Shelby greatly admired.
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not.good
- By ChrisCCW on 07-22-23
By: Dean Koontz
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Heart-Shaped Box
- By: Joe Hill
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, a thing so terrible-strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet. For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost. It's the real thing.
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Yikes! Five stars for fright
- By Lesley on 02-23-07
By: Joe Hill
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery.
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It's so creepy
- By Midwestbonsai on 11-14-14
By: Ray Bradbury
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Elsewhere
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Imani Parks, Josh Bloomberg, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his 11-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It’s a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep. Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object - something he calls “the key to everything” - and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth.
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What’s the female characters name???
- By sandieclaus on 10-08-20
By: Dean Koontz
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Strangers
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 29 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
A writer in California. A doctor in Boston. A motel owner and his employee in Nevada. A priest in Chicago. A robber in New York. A little girl in Las Vegas. They’re a handful of people from across the country, living through eerie variations of the same nightmare.
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It depends on your personality I guess
- By Robert E. Swale on 10-05-08
By: Dean Koontz
Critic reviews
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
“Revelatory. . . . A remarkably consistent, frequently unsettling book.” —The Washington Post
“Straub is uniquely qualified to hold forth on what makes a good horror story. . . . [He] collects the best scary short stories out there.” —Time
What listeners say about Poe's Children
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- aneta
- 04-23-14
Not what I expected :-(
What would have made Poe's Children better?
The stories were just plain boring.Not one stands out in my memory,should I name one?I can't!
Has Poe's Children turned you off from other books in this genre?
No,I love horror stories,both as a novel and in short form.These were just not able to keep me interested.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
The narrator was alright.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Disappointmentand and boredom must cover it pretty Well.
Any additional comments?
Anthologies are usually a hit or miss situation,but sometimes you can find some real gems hidden inbetween. This; I really had high hopes for,since I'm a big fan of Peter Straub. But this maybe just shows, that even though I enjoy his writing,I do not necessarily enjoy the same books as him.
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Overall
- Lindsay
- 09-26-21
This was a struggle.
I got the audiobook because I was having a hard time reading the ebook. I was bored and was hoping that listening would be easier. And while that was true, it was still a struggle. Additionally, the audiobook is not the entire anthology. There were quite a few stories that were included in the ebook that were not part of the audio experience.
I understand that we were going for a more literary form of horror here, but some of these stories were so long and boring that the horror just got lost. And while I will admit that there were a few enjoyable stories, there were more "misses" than hits and I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Kevin Young
- 11-29-16
Hit and Miss
While all stories were competently performed and a few were genuinely stellar and engaging tales, there are definite duds in the collection. The stories tend toward the overly-cerebral, and a fan of deep genre fiction would likely find a more satisfying collection elsewhere.
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Overall
- Barbara
- 12-08-08
So not worth it
This one isn't worth 1 credit, forget 2. I wouldn't even call the stories Poe's stepchildren, no relation to Poe's quality of writing at all. Mark this one a miss...
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jennifer
- 06-02-09
terrible
with boring, muddled stories full of vague abstract ideas that spark neither the readers interests nor imagination, this book was a complete wast of time. dry, dull and "new age kitschy" themes and story lines left this horror buff annoyed and frustrated. give this a miss!
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Shilo Davis
- 11-09-08
Only thing interesting was the title.
I had a feeling I was in trouble when the introduction was a contrast to the cover art. There were two interesting short stories but I was expecting a creepy Poe like vibe, and was greatly let down. Overall the only reason I kept listening to it was because it cost me two credits. It is not worth it.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Shaundra
- 01-30-12
Waste of credit: I should have read reviews first
What would have made Poe's Children better?
Less pretense and ego. The title of the book should have given me pause. Any collection of contemporary authors willing to contribute to a collection that compares them to a master of their genre are probably laboring under a misguided since of their own self worth. The tone of the book is that of literary snobbery without the merit of good stories to backup it up.
What was most disappointing about Peter Straub’s story?
Another thing that should be pointed, out is that this is not a collection of horror stories. The stories are often abstract and bizarre at best. I bought it in the horror section and that's what I wanted.
How could the performance have been better?
I don't think the narrator(s) is to blame for my disliking this story. The narrator(s) only job is to convey the content for the author. While a good reader is important, they have to work with what they've got. Most of the stories in this collection lack cohesion and are infuriatingly cryptic for no reason I can gleam.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
Finding something redeeming about collection will take more time than I've got today...
Any additional comments?
I see other readers share my disappointment. I will pay closer attention to the reviews during future purchases.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Rona M. Hill
- 07-21-14
STOP! READ REVIEWS 1ST!!!
What would have made Poe's Children better?
Stories that made sense and were actually scary instead of just tedious and weird
Has Poe's Children turned you off from other books in this genre?
NO
Would you be willing to try another one of Various’s performances?
YES
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Poe's Children?
Every story after the 1st. I felt like it was bait and switch
Any additional comments?
I will be returning this book. I tried several times to get into it. Skipped ahead and listened to several stories over a period a several weeks. I'm sorry to it was more of the same boring, weird stories that made absolutely no sense. If I could choose a (-) star to rate this I would
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- M. Rocheleau
- 04-07-09
Couldn't Get Through It
Of all the stories I heard, the first one was the best. I didn't think it was great but it was decent and mildly unsettling. I listened to two more afterwards and both seemed endless and went nowhere. It was one of the rare times I desperately wished to be able to flip ahead and see how many more pages there were left to go. They weren't horror stories so much as bizarrely conceived expositions on the horror that is a part of us all and can take many forms and blah blah blah.. I hated it, but I also didn't finish it. Maybe some works of genius were hiding towards the end.
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2 people found this helpful