The Horrors: Terrifying Tales. (Book One). Peter Carver, ed. Calgary, AB: Red Deer Press, 2005. 179 pp., pbk., $12.95. ISBN 0-88995-313-9. Subject Heading: Horror tales, Canadian (English). Grades 10-12 / Ages 15-17. Review by Christina Pike. *** /4

excerpt:

On hands and knees, I placed my face close to the ice to see better. Shooting up from the depths of the black water came white again. Then two hands slammed against the ice, fists first, then palms pushing, banging, desperate to get out. I fell over in shock.

"Auughh!" I screamed. "Matt! Matt!" On all fours I scrambled away. "There's someone under the ice! He's drowning! Matt!"

The boys threw down their sticks and skated quickly to me. Matt dropped to his knees, cupped his hands around his eyes and peered into the river.

"I don't see anything." (From "The Dead of Winter.")

In this collection of both previously published and new writers for teens, Carver has assembled a collection of 15 stories that probe the deepest, darkest recesses of the mind and the little known. Each original and never-before-published story, although different, attempts to scare and possibly terrify its reader. All of the authors are Canadian.

     With the caution that these stories contain references to cannibalism, child abuse, domination, and masturbation, they can be read and enjoyed by an older teen and adult audience. For the most part, the subject matter of the stories is predictable. For example, there are ghosts in "The Dead of Winter" by Barbara Haworth-Attard and "September 12, 2063" by Martine Leavitt, werewolves in "Graveyard Studies" by Sylvo Frank, cannibalism in "Goth Pate" by Carolyn Beck and "Bogeyman" by Rob Morphy, and stories of revenge in "The Yearbook" by Kathy Stinson and "Revenge" by Karleen Bradford.

Recommended.

Christina Pike has been seconded to the Evaluation and Research Branch of the Department of Education for Newfoundland and Labrador.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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