Scary Stories Complete Set

The story selection in this collection is massive and the review length limit is abysmally small, so unfortunately I can't review every single story on it's own merits. Instead, I will review each of the three books contained and then the set as a whole instead of every story presented.

Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark - 1/5Yawn. Far more a guided script for how to tell campfire stories with cheap jumpscares than any sort of anthology, this book was unenjoyable to me. The writing style is stilted and repetitive and most stories are uninteresting with no true plot or ending. I can't imagine it appeals to anyone over the age of eight, and even then I'd hesitate to suggest they read something like this instead of, for example, Goosebumps. At least the Goosebumps books have a bit of literary merit!

More Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark - 2/5

Well, at least these are actual stories and not lame poems or cheap scripts reliant upon repetition and jump scares. That, unfortunately, is the best I can say. I did enjoy one or two on a superficial level, but the majority just induced a “meh” reaction. The art is the scariest part of this book, and I recall it giving me nightmares as a child.

Scary Stories 3 - 2/5This book has great art but sloppy stories. For example, the first story says a boy drove a truck into town and had an encounter while there. It terrified him, so he drove back and begged his grandfather to let him borrow a truck so he could drive somewhere else. (How did this make it past editing?!) Another story cuts off in the middle of an important reveal at the ending; when I looked it up on the scary stories wiki, the text also ended in the same place so I don't think there is an error in my copy. They did have an explanation, though, so bless wiki writers and/or potential revised copies... shame it was incredibly lame and more implausible than if the story had been paranormal. As for the other stories: Several of them have unpleasant elements involving murdered pets and most are so rushed and clearly telegraphed that all suspense is lost. That said, however, there are a couple of very good stories in this book. My favourite involves a scarecrow and feels vaguely reminiscent of the Jeepers Creepers movies in tone - strange and comedic but also a little scary and quite gory. It was not enough to make this book worthwhile, but it did entertain me - unlike most of the other stories provided.

Overall Collection - 1.5/5
(rounded to 2 because half stars are not an option)

I wasted my time reading this collection of books and made a terrible choice to kick off 2021's reading challenge. And I definitely wouldn't recommend any of the books in this collection to children... or adults.

The stories here are extremely outdated to the point it includes “Indians” to describe Native Americans, casual killing of pets, a mischievous gypsy, and an overweight woman reincarnated as an ugly hog... among other things. Do I think an old text should be censored or judged retroactively? No. But I do think things like this are important to acknowledge and since I didn't care for the “plots” in most stories, that left me with nothing to notice other than the unpleasant elements. I just did not enjoy the experience.

Perhaps people with nostalgic ties to one or all of these books have a bias or perhaps I'm just not the target audience.