Book of Screams

This collection of 10 scary stories runs the gamut from just a little bit scary to incredibly terrifying and maybe a little too much for some readers. That is a good thing! Book of Screams is a great collection to hand to a reader who is uncertain about their scare level boundaries and what is or isn’t frightening to them, and there is a lot going on in this collection. The variety of scares also makes this collection harder to classify as if does, in fact, run the gamut! We have references to famous horror villains, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, finding the scariest movie ever, and a nod to fictitious YA horror writer Joel Southland (who sounds mysteriously a lot like the guy who writes those “Haunted Canada” collections).

These stories do not have happy endings and that point is made apparent right from the get-go with the first story, “Masks”. Also, we have the interesting plot device of a character named Tanya who is Joel Southland’s fan, and, after meeting him, she begins to decipher the codes and tricks that he is sending her. This writing device makes this collection similar or close to a “story cycle” as the other short stories all take place in the school that Tanya attends.

Hughes’ illustrations in Book of Screams are also a very nice touch to add a creepier element to the collection. They are mostly simply line drawings, and, although they do force your imagination to see something that may have been different from the reader’s imagination, they are frightening enough that they may very well take the reader somewhere even scarier!