Moonstone: Wilkie Collins

This was one of the first books to use different narrators to tell the story. The mysterious moonstone diamond is one of the largest in the world and has the reputation of causing bad luck to anyone who possesses it. A man wills the stone to his niece as a way to get back with his sister because they fell out of touch. The stone is stolen shortly after the niece received it and it ends up causing her bad luck. She accuses the man she loves of it's theft, her mother dies, and many other things. As the diamond changes hands the people experience awful things and even death.

The Purple Terror: Fred White

A group of Americans are dispatched to get a letter to port in Cuba. They stop one night in a small village and one of the men admires the purple flowers around a dancer's neck. Her boyfriend gets jealous of the attention the men give her and gets jealous. The American reassures the man he was only interested in the flowers and the Cuban tells him he will show him the flowers in the morning for a dollar. The men start off through the jungle in the morning and see a man caught in a web of vines in the trees. the Cuban makes up a story on how he got there. That night they stop in a spot that is covered in bones. One man awakens in the morning to their dog whining and sees the plant with purple flowers has killed the dog. more vines come down for the other men. They cut one man loose and corner the Cuban who tells them the plant has killed many men before them.

The American's Tale: Arthur Conan Doyle

Joe Hawkins and Tom Scott got into a row at the bar and Scott was about to kill Hawkins, but Hawkins was so drunk he couldn't get his gun out. Scott tells him he's going to spare the life of a drunk, but he should do something better with his life, Hawkins staggers out. The narrator who was drinking with Scott see's Hawkins outside under a plant waiting for Scott to leave the bar. No one expects to see Scott alive the next morning, However the next morning Scott is fine and no one has seen Hawkins. They are about to execute Scott for murder when Hawkins is unfurled from a huge venus fly trap sort of plant.

The Hell House: Richard Matheson

3 "ghost hunters" are hired by an elderly man with cancer to either rid the notorious "hell house" of its ghosts or just confirm there are ghosts. The Hell house is known as "the most haunted house in the world" due to the acts of perversion the owner Belasco encouraged. The ghost hunters included 2 mediums and a parapsychologist, who brings his wife and equipment. One of the mediums, Benjamin Franklin Fischer, had been the only survivor of the house when he was 15 and merely comes back for the pay. The other medium, Florence Tanner, falls in love with "the spirit of Belasco's son" and ends up dead at the end. The Book is very sexual and the author was seemingly obsessed with boobs. The parapsychologist, Dr. Lionel Barrett, uses a machine to cancel out the energy in the house and seems to weaken the spirit, but the spirit is still able to kill him. The only 2 that survive are Mrs Barret and Mr Fischer, who come back to the house to finish off the spirit, understanding they may not get out alive. This was a bizarre horror/erotica story.

Stuck in Neutral:Terry Trueman

This is a story about a 14yr old, Shawn, who was born a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. His father leaves the family because he has trouble accepting Shawn's condition. Shawn is able to watch sections of a TV program his father does about him, with interviews from a prisoner who killed his son who had a similar condition. Shawn knows his dad is debating with the idea of killing Shawn "to end his suffering". The book ends with Shawn's dad coming over when the rest of the family is away and Shawn has a seizure. We are left to decide if Shawn's dad takes the seizure as a sign to suffocate him.

The Birds: Daphne du Maurier

In this story a man notices the birds acting oddly. He accidently lets a bird into his daughter's room and then kills it. The birds seem to take revenge and start attacking. People are killed from attacks and the large numbers of birds bring a plane down. The family becomes trapped in their home, thinking nature is taking revenge from all the evil that came out of WWII. We are left to interpret the last words as we will, with the father planning to grab a dead man's gun saying he will take care of them...always.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Shirley Jackson

This was a story that keeps you into mystery on what us odd about the min characters and why the townspeople hate them. We find out the youngest daughter, Mary Kate, poisoned the family. The girls befall yet more heartache as the story progresses.

Paperbacks from Hell: Grady Hendrix

I loved this Book. The author has separated books from the 70's- 80's into themes, which are hilarious. I enjoyed the "Parenting the Homicidal Child" section so much that I had to share it...although that person just sort of smiled at me. I loved that the sections were short, so it was just enough time for the author to get you laughing and move on, there weren't any slow parts. I was sort of bummed that a lot of these books are out of print, probably because they would be scoffed at by todays readers due to technological and scientific advances. I had never read or even heard of a lot of the books. After reading this book you have a better appreciation for all those awful horror stories you've ever read as they all had a place and were a result of their times and what the fear was (communism, science advancements etc). Some of them sound so dreadful that I want to find and read them for that purpose. I loved that he could make a small comment about a book and then provide the title, so you learned about a lot of new books on every page. This book was more than just about the fiction stories (or non-fiction as some claim to be) The author also talks about the cover artists, the publishing companies, new styles of book covers, and some of the authors/what the story was based on. I learned that V C Andrews had only written a few books before her death and the rest was assembled by author Andrew Neiderman. Anne Rice was also born a male and wrote her first book after the death of her first child.-some of these author's lives seem more interesting than their books. I also like that King was alluded to, but not dwelt upon, because the book could have been entirely about him- which would be fun to read if Hendrix did that.

Small Assassin: Ray Bradbury

https://talesofmytery.blogspot.com/2013/01/ray-bradbury-small-assassin.html This story was both creepy and thrilling. A woman has a baby and at first you think she is suffering from post-partum depression, but then you begin to suspect something else is happening as the baby does seem to want to kill its parents…and then succeeds.

Those Girls: Chevy Stevens

I didn't like this book. It was too disturbing. The book follows the lives of three sisters who were abused by their father. The youngest daughter, Jamie, shoots him one night after he burned the middle daughter's face. Jaime's shot kills I'm and after burying him the girls run. Their truck dies in a nearby town and they are helped by two boys who become their kidnappers and rapists. After a week of abuse the girls escape and months later Jaime realizes she is pregnant. Against her sisters' wishes she keeps the baby girl and names her Skylar. Once Skylar is 17 she learns about the dark past of her mom and aunts and tells her one aunt they should have killed the men. Aunt Chrystal disappears and went back to the town to find the boys who raped them 18 years ago. She finds her aunt locked in the man's house and becomes a victim herself. Jamie and her other sister rescue the two, but after Chrystal is shot and dies next to Garret, who she stabbed to death. The story then comes out about The three girls' father, but the blame the death on the deceased Chrystal and are finally free to live their lives.