{"id":10459,"date":"2025-01-13T19:57:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T23:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=10459"},"modified":"2025-01-13T20:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T00:14:17","slug":"book-review-the-rack-stories-inspired-by-vintage-horror-paperbacks-edited-by-tom-deady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-rack-stories-inspired-by-vintage-horror-paperbacks-edited-by-tom-deady\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks edited by Tom Deady"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks, <\/em>by various authors<\/p>\n

Greymore Publishing, 2024<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9780990632771<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy:\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a> |\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Rack<\/em> is a mixed bag.\u00a0 That\u2019s surprising, considering the pedigree of the authors involved, many whom I\u2019ve read before.\u00a0 There are some really good ones, but when the best one is a Stephen King one borrowed from his ’80s collection Skeleton Crew<\/em>, that tells you something.\u00a0 If you really want good ’80s style horror stories, track down the original ones from that era on Ebay,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The reason it\u2019s a bit of a disappointment is that for the five or six really good ones, there are an equal number of clunkers.\u00a0 The rest are somewhere in the middle: they provide some entertainment, but nothing you are likely to read again. The writing and ideas are fine, but most of them just don\u2019t have any real “grab” to them.\u00a0 Still, there are some that have plenty of zip,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“White Pages” is one of the best and most creative stories, illustrating how prank calling could go horribly wrong in the old days of rotary phones.\u00a0 “Fuzzy Slippers” is straight, messy, ’80s-inspired lunacy, with yes, killer slippers, and a great twist at the end.\u00a0 This one really captures the feel of the gory, free-for-all stories that marked some of the best ’80s horror.\u00a0 “Blood of my Blood” may be the most unusual, with its blood-drinking health zealots.\u00a0 Mixi them into a marriage ceremony with a groom who has no idea what type of family he\u2019s marrying into, and you have a wonderfully dark humored story.\u00a0 “The Keeper of Taswomet” and “Lips Like a Scythe” are solid, vintage-inspired monster mashups, with enough character interactions to keep the story humming. They’re not just focused on the monsters and carnage, although there is plenty of that too!\u00a0 The best story, King\u2019s “The Raft”, is one that doesn\u2019t need to be mentioned; you already know how good it is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the rest\u2026again, this is strictly opinion.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing lacking in how the stories are written, they just really aren\u2019t page turners, which is my main requirement for a good short story.\u00a0 Other readers may feel differently..<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bottom line?\u00a0 If you want to read the best ’80s shorts, go back to the originals: they truly hit the mark.\u00a0 King\u2019s Night Shift<\/em> or Skeleton Crew<\/em>, Robert McCammon\u2019s Blue World<\/em>, or Clive Barker\u2019s Books of Blood<\/em> are all prime examples of what made the ’80s such a fertile period for creativity in the horror field.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks, by various authors Greymore Publishing, 2024 ISBN: 9780990632771 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0Bookshop.org |\u00a0Amazon.com   The Rack is a mixed bag.\u00a0 That\u2019s surprising, considering the pedigree of the authors involved, many whom I\u2019ve read before.\u00a0 There are some really good ones, but when the best one is<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2794,750,645,749,5792,5793,3055,5791],"class_list":["post-10459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1980s","tag-horror-anthologies","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-paperback-horror","tag-the-rack-stories-inspired-by-vintage-horror-paperbacks","tag-tom-deady","tag-vintage-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10459"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10463,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions\/10463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}