Be Very Afraid!: More Tales of Horror
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In the past, the real horror in horror stories took the form of aliens from outer space or terrifying swamp monsters. Today’s teens face horrors that are closer to home: guns, alcohol abuse, eating disorders, bullies. Winner of the Aurora and Bram Stoker Awards, Edo van Belkom has gathered tales about modern-day terrors from some of North America’s best horror writers. This new spine-chilling collection includes stories by Michael J. Aruda, Randy D. Ashburn, Loren L. Barrett, Edo van Belkom, Mark A. Garland, Ed Greenwood, Tanya Huff, Michael Kelly, David Nickle, Tim Piccirilli, Edmund Plante, Michael Rowe, Robert J. Sawyer, and Sheri White.Need we say more?VOYAThese fourteen stories are mediocre successors to the author's earlier collection, Be Afraid! Tales of Horror (Tundra/McClelland & Stewart, 2000/VOYA February 2001), which contained work mainly by genre masters or writers for teens. This sequel features more novices than masters, and only one author, Edmund Plante, writes extensively for adolescents. Most stories rely on such heavy foreshadowing or clichéd plot lines that even casual readers will immediately discern the endings. Others misunderstand teenagers, who might snicker at Loren L. Barreft's seventeen-year-old who has never used the Internet in Virtually Friends or groan at Michael Rowe's The Night Is Yours Alone when a bullied gay teen hears, "Your life is your tapestry, Terry, and you're the one who embroiders it. You, and nobody else. Choose your own colors and make it brilliant and beautiful." Plante's Darkness shines, featuring a teen with a school essay assignment to describe her life five years in the future. Clueless, she eventually receives a talisman that ensures a valid reason for a late essay. Van Belkom's Girls' Night Out, detailing extreme shoe vanity, also appeals. Three other ironic but harsher stories are Randy D. Ashburn's Just One Taste, in which a cigarette-buying teen and her habit are extinguished by an oxygen-dependent man; an anorexic's first and last mirror glimpse in Wasting Away by Sheri White; and an abusive father literally providing dinner and family freedom by challenging his son's belief in monsters in Michael Kelly's In the Shadows. Sophisticated readers will find these stories unsatisfying, but lower-level students or those unfamiliar with horror can use this collection as an introduction to thegenre. VOYA Codes: 2Q 2P M (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8). 2002, Tundra, 200p, Hazlett
