Six Scary Stories

I have a book recommendation for you guys! Six Scary Stories is just what it sounds like. Stephen King selected the stories in this book and also wrote the introduction. King judged a scary story competition and out of the over 800 entries, he especially liked these six. The first story in this book was the winner of the competition, but he thought that another five were also so great that they should be published along with the winning story in one book. And they are all great! I'm actually still haunted by a few of these weeks after reading them.

I found this book while wandering around the library. I was hoping something fun and spooky would pop out. I happened to look up to the top of a shelf and there was Six Scary Stories. The Frankenstein sticker was a good sign.

What little sticker does your library use to identify the Horror books? We used to have a skull, but evidently we have Frankenstein now. I think he looks pretty good with this cover.

What a bunch of fancy scrolly stuff going on there! And I see the book was put out by "Cemetery Dance Publications". 

Here are the six story titles:

I'll give you a quick overview of each, without spoiling much of anything.

1) Wild Swimming: Stephen King's favorite. This one is told entirely through printed emails. I don't believe I've ever read a story in that form. The email format added some urgency to the story. I also wasn't familiar with "wild swimming" as an activity before reading this. Turns out it's a thing! (A thing I will never be doing, but I'm sure it's quite the experience)

2) Eau-de-Eric: This story is creepy in so many ways. There are some familiar themes in the plot that usually scare people, but when those themes are put together the story is new. It might be up for debate what some of those themes even are. But loosely I'd say, kids, toys, and possession for sure. Possibly some form of sorcery and a haunting. A not so familiar theme is the power of scent memory. I might be thinking about cologne differently after reading this.

3) The Spots: I think it's fair to say this one is a little political, definitely in a historical way. This is one of those deep thinkers. You'll think about dictators, delusion, and brainwashing. It's still traditional Horror, though.

4) The Unpicking: This one is hands down the most disturbing. Just yikes. I had to stop reading this a few times and just say "What!? No." It's like Toy Story, but with no sentimentality! That's putting it lightly, but I don't want to give away the plot.

5) La Mort de L'Amant: This is a clever one. If you're into true crime, you'll see it through that lens. I was kept on edge while reading it. It's probably very true to some real life close call situations.

6) The Bear Trap: I liked this one a lot. It's probably my favorite story of the six. Very apocalyptic, but somehow there's a little humor sprinkled in. 

Three of the stories include stuffed animals. That could be a coincidence. I have a theory that people are afraid of things that are usually seen as small and harmless turning on them. Children, stuffed animals, dolls, etc. It's probably a feeling of "If even this innocent looking person or item could turn on me, nothing is safe!" 

If you're interested, the three that have kept haunting me are Eau-de-Eric, The Unpicking, and The Bear Trap. I just realized after seeing those titles typed out in a row that those are the three involving children and stuffed animals!

The woman on the cover goes with the first story, as you could probably guess!

This is one of my favorite bookmarks and the one I used while reading this. It's one of those fun freebies from the library. I picked a particularly creepy page from the book to photograph it on.

If any of you have read this book, I would love to discuss it with you! 👻