I’m so excited! My favorite time of year is almost here. That time when the days get a little colder, the nights start a little sooner, and the shadows seem a little more sinister. I’m talking about SPOOKY TIME! I love to sit down with some hot cocoa, light a candle, and creep myself right out with a scary tale or two. This year I kicked off spooky time with real bang. Jenevaa Rose’s collection of horror stories, Sometimes I Scare Myself, is exactly what you need to put you in that haunted mood. But you might want to leave the lights on when you get done reading. Like for the rest of your life, it’s that good.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Black Stone Publishing for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Sometimes I Scare Myself: A Collection of Horror contains some spoilers!]
Sometimes I Scare Myself is a small collection that packs a wallop
When I saw that Sometimes I Scare Myself was a collection, I was expecting 10 to 15 short stories that were a little creepy. What I got was three horror tales that are basically novellas. By having only three stories in Sometimes I Scare Myself but making them longer, Rose gives herself space to really explore a terrifying story without overplaying her hand.
In Never Kill the Medium, Rose explores what happens when we open doors, and when we forget to close them. It’s Erica’s 30th birthday, and she’s planned the party down to the second. She always plans this way because if you don’t plan for everything, bad things happen. She’s learned this the hard way. But the night starts off a little odd and gets worse from there; a medium shows up unexpectedly. Her friend Zach has hired him as a birthday surprise for Erica. Stressed out by this sudden turn of events, but ever the gracious hostess, Erica lets the medium come in and do his thing. As secrets are spilled that should never be shared, Erica begins to question the wisdom of letting the medium in. But what he shares is nothing compared to what the friends find out when he suddenly drops dead. These friends are about to learn the hard way to be careful about which doors you open, who you let through them, and for god’s sake, always close them behind you!
Once you recover from the first story, it’s time to find a new home in The Nightmare House. Kristin is a new mom suffering from some postpartum issues. Chicago no longer felt safe to her, so the whole Dalton family picked up and moved to Nowhere…I mean Tillington, Wisconsin. Her 15-year-old daughter will never forgive her, but at least Kristin will feel safe. Except she doesn’t. The neighbors are threatening, weird things are happening, and the house just feels wrong. But she can’t tell her husband that something is wrong with their new home, not after she just made everyone move from Chicago because that didn’t feel safe. Too bad they didn’t hear the local nursery rhyme about their house before they moved in, the one calling it the nightmare house where new folks vanish overnight. Maybe they would have passed on that great deal. Maybe.
And after you decide that you’re never moving again, finish the horror with All Curses are Final, and learn about the ultimate anti-theft device. Blair doesn’t know why she came. It’s destined to be an awful weekend. The friend group is completely out of alignment, and of course they say it’s all her fault. After all, she’s the one who broke up with Jake just a couple of weeks ago, right before the trip. Which makes it super awkward now that the six of them are going to be locked in a cabin in the middle of nowhere for the weekend during a blizzard. But it’s too late to back out. Just like Noah said, it was too late to turn around and pay for the pen that somehow ended up in her purse when they left the last gas station. It’s just a pen; what’s the big deal? But Blair can’t stop thinking about the sign at the store: “All items cursed. Curse lifted at time of sale.” Her friends think she’s crazy to be worried; curses aren’t real. But Blair has a bad feeling about all of it. Then Maddie goes missing in the middle of a blizzard. The property owner told them not to go outside in the storm, but Maddie’s not inside, so they all troop outside. Poor Maddie, frozen in the storm. A horrible accident. Or part of a curse? Noah is the next victim. Suddenly Blair’s friends are dropping like flies, bodies piling up on the porch like cordwood. As more friends fall and the deaths get messier, it’s harder to claim they’re bad luck. But curses aren’t real, are they?
Grade A horror, not creepy
The word horror gets thrown around a lot. If a movie is just a little scary or deals with anything supernatural, it tends to get the label “horror” attached. But I have an opinion on that (obviously). You see, there is a difference between “horror” and “creepy” or “scary”. A story is creepy when it makes you feel uncomfortable. And it’s scary when it gets your heart racing. But if everything works out okay in the end. If the bad guy is vanquished and the hero rides off into the sunset with a smile, then it wasn’t a “horror” story. Horror takes a terrifying situation and gives you a bad ending. Not everything is okay; no one is happy (except maybe the villain, who might be happy), and the hero doesn’t actually overcome the situation and get away unscathed. That’s what makes it horror; it’s a horrible ending that sticks with you and makes you feel unsettled for days, weeks, maybe the rest of your life if it’s really good.
Now that I’ve given you my definition of horror, you can see why I say the word gets thrown around a lot. There are a lot of books and movies labeled “horror” that end up all sunshine and rainbows. I’d go so far as to say that most of the horror genre ends up that way nowadays. But Sometimes I Scare Myself does not, to say the least. Every one of Jeneva Rose’s stories ends with a twist worthy of R.L. Stine. It will leave you creeped out and unsettled for days. You will lie down to sleep at night, and it will suddenly pop into your head, putting an end to sleep for that night. Rose is horror in this book, and true fans of horror are gonna love it. My only complaint is that there isn’t more! Sometimes I Scare Myself comes out September 22, just in time for spooky season.
Rating: 10/10
Sometimes I Scare Myself: A Collection of Horror by Jeneva Rose is available now!
Learn more about the book at the official website for the title.
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