Reasonably creepy stories. Few scares. ( )

Lots of great authors in this collection! I enjoyed reading "Lisey and the Madman" by Stephen King, and being able to see this piece of what would later become the book "Lisey's Story", King's favorite of the novels he has written! "7C" by Jason Roberts is indeed weird, which is apropos as the blurb above the beginning states that it won an award for "Weird Short Story"! It's so weird in fact, that I didn't even really understand it! Does that qualify as "astonishing"? Well, judge for yourself! ( )

McSweeny’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories is more or less a snoozefest, ranging from the lackluster with potential (D’Ambrossio, Mieville- I know many love the Mieville but I found it to have inconsistent pacing and a glaring lack of tension) to the entirely unenthralling (Handler, Brite, Letham), from the tedious (Doyle, Erickson) to the unfinished (Straub), and, of course, the predictable (Julavits, Waldman). The stories from the heavy-hitters (Atwood, King, Mitchell, Oates) are all engaging and enjoyable, but the real star of this collection is Jason Roberts’ incredibly inventive 7c. And something must be said for the wide variety in this collection in terms of subgenre- no two stories are the same brand of suspense, and, in this way, Michael Chabon is successful in his project of challenging what exactly ‘genre’ means. Too bad 2/3rds of this collection turned out to be astonishingly boring. ( )

this book was my bible all summer of 2006. i felt small and incomplete without it. i discovered these people: ayelet waldman, kelly link, jason roberts, and poppy z. brite. the atwood, d'ambrosio, and oates are gorgeous, as well. now, when i look at the book on my shelf, i feel warm.

i think i'm searching for these stories all over the place - the fabulous, the surreal, the ghosty-headed - but still literary. still full of something else entirely.

( )

this book was my bible all summer of 2006. i felt small and incomplete without it. i discovered these people: ayelet waldman, kelly link, jason roberts, and poppy z. brite. the atwood, d'ambrosio, and oates are gorgeous, as well. now, when i look at the book on my shelf, i feel warm.

i think i'm searching for these stories all over the place - the fabulous, the surreal, the ghosty-headed - but still literary. still full of something else entirely.

( )