I enjoyed "The Doll-Master" and "Big Momma" the most. These are the only two stories in the book that felt like tales of terror, with the former being the most chilling. The rest of the stories fell flat due to abrupt endings that don't work well. They don't even feel like endings.
I really enjoyed this collection of stories from Oates. Although to me the stories were not really tales of terror as the title implies, they were all well written suspense stories that kept me busily turning the pages. The stories all had some sort of twist at the end but I really could see most of them coming. Even with this, I thought the collection was a superior group of well-paced stories in the Ray Bradbury vein. I saw at the back of the book that most of these were originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as late as 2016. I didn't realize that this was still being published. I used to read this magazine along with Alfred Hitchcock's mystery magazine back in the 70s and always enjoyed the stories presented there.
Two of the stories were more terrifying than the others:
"The Doll-Master": About a boy who likes to collect dolls. These dolls are "found" dolls that he collects through the years as he grows older and keeps in a stall in the barn. The story ends with a very unsettling conclusion but it was somewhat easy to see what was coming.
"Big Momma": This one's about a girl who is having a hard time adjusting to a new school and making friends. But then she is befriended by a classmate whose father gives her rides home from school. She is soon spending more time with the friend's family but should she be embracing this family?
Of the remaining stories, I especially liked "Gun Accident" where a woman looks back on a startling event that happened when she was a teen. And probably "Murder, Inc." was my favorite. It was about book store owner who wants to expand his stores by buying others after their owners have died. He has his eye on a particular store in New Hampshire that is filled with rare books of mystery and other artifacts. But the owner of the store may be more shrewd that he is.
Two of the stories were more terrifying than the others:
"The Doll-Master": About a boy who likes to collect dolls. These dolls are "found" dolls that he collects through the years as he grows older and keeps in a stall in the barn. The story ends with a very unsettling conclusion but it was somewhat easy to see what was coming.
"Big Momma": This one's about a girl who is having a hard time adjusting to a new school and making friends. But then she is befriended by a classmate whose father gives her rides home from school. She is soon spending more time with the friend's family but should she be embracing this family?
Of the remaining stories, I especially liked "Gun Accident" where a woman looks back on a startling event that happened when she was a teen. And probably "Murder, Inc." was my favorite. It was about book store owner who wants to expand his stores by buying others after their owners have died. He has his eye on a particular store in New Hampshire that is filled with rare books of mystery and other artifacts. But the owner of the store may be more shrewd that he is.
