Review: Tales of Horror

Tales of Horror
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

A murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen during the time of the plague, a grieving lover awakens to find himself clutching a box of his beloved blood-stained teeth, a man is obsessed with the fear of being buried alive – these are only some of the memorable characters and stories included in this volume, which exemplify Poe’s inventiveness and natural talent as a storyteller. 

I read a brilliant book called The Fall by Bethany Griffin, that's based on The Fall of the House of Usher, and ever since I've been itching to actually read the original House of Usher story, as well as the other stories by Poe! So I jumped at the chance to get to review this! For such a slim volume, there's a lot packed in here! The contents is as follows: 

Metzengerstein

MS Found in a Bottle

Berenice

Morella

Ligeia

The Devil in the Belfry

The Fall of the House of Usher

William Wilson

The Man of the Crowd

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

A Descent into the Maelström

Never Bet the Devil Your Head

Eleonora

The Masque of the Red Death

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Black Cat

The Pit and the Pendulum

A Tale of the Ragged Mountains

The Premature Burial

The Oblong Box

The Purloined Letter

Some Words with a Mummy

The Oval Portrait

The Imp of the Perverse

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

The Sphinx

Once again, the notes section in the back of Alma's editions where invaluable in understanding the text and offering tidbits of the time period and how things where then, more so than can be gleaned from the text itself! 

I looooveeee Poe's writing style. You can feel the unease radiating off the page. The shorter stories manage to draw you in with only a page or two, quite a feat in my opinion! They're lastingly creepy too, perhaps not overtly terrifying, but still sinister and creepy and a great read to send a shiver down your spine. These stories are atmospheric and vivid, I could clearly picture each of the settings and considering how short some of these stories are, it's impressive how much detail there is without bogging down the story. I'm not particularly terrified of anything that happens in these stories, but I still found myself in the characters shoes with goosebumps erupting all over my arms, and my skin practically crawling. I find all of the characters to be interesting whether good or bad or you know....really, really twisted. I'm always intrigued by their motivations.  

Out of all of the stories, along with The Fall of the House of Usher and Premature Burial (skin crawling goodness), I really enjoyed Murders in the Rue Morgue as when I started to read it, I recalled that I'd read a book that was based on it a while back! So it was intriguing to see the original! It was one of the longer ones, but it drew me in and while it didn't creep me out all that much, I enjoyed trying to puzzle out who the killer was and how it was done! The detective was very Holme's like! I also really enjoyed Masque of the Red Death and you know...Some Words With a Mummy because....Egypt and I love Egypt! 

Tales of Horror is a great collection of stories with interesting characters and various levels of creepiness. Even if you aren't scared of being buried alive, Premature Burial will freak you out. Words With a Mummy is oddly fascinating and The Murders in the Rue Morgue has a Holmes feel, but that's just me personally!