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annieeditor's review against another edition
3.0
What finally decided me in picking up "Enthralled," a collection of short fantasy stories, is that it was dedicated to smart girls everywhere. I remember being a "smart girl," one who read fantasy novels partly because high school sometimes felt like one endless pep rally. There is a posse of fantasy authors for young adults, and I get the feeling that they felt the same way, and as adults have found each other and bonded together over the Internet.
"Enthralled" is a respectable collection. I really liked the ideas of some of the stories, like "Red Run," about a girl who drives down a haunted road in the middle of the night to catch a ghost. Or "Let's Get This Undead Show on the Road," about a teenage vampire who becomes the leader of a boy band, only to have to put up with his eccentric bandmates, who make him realize how un-human he is.
Both were over-written, though, and started to drag, even as a short story.
I liked Kelly Armstrong's story about characters from a series she has written before, and her experience as a prolific author definitely came through.
Carrie Ryan also delivered what is to be expected from her, a dark story of zombie apocalypse. I want to grab the heroines of her stories and say, "Look! Look who has written your story. Do not trust those people, especially not that guy, because he is going to betray you!"
My two favorite stories were "Bridge" and "At the Late Night, Double Feature, Picture Show."
"Bridge" was told in verse form, which moved it along quickly, while still making the characters interesting. It was quite a feat, because it had to explain the mechanics of a world where children see ghosts, one that is explained in a series of books by the same author.
"Late Night" was just as silly as it sounds. There are cannibal Girl Scouts and vampires on their way for a showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
What hooked me in, though, was the main character. She's grown up in a family who hunts deadly supernatural creatures. She's also the only one without any special powers, which means that she has spent her life as "the bait." In the story, she is trying to prove that she can be a bad-ass hunter, too. Things go terribly wrong, of course.
Like in any collection, there are stories that I completely did not get, like "Gargouille," but that's the great thing about collections -- you can move onto the next story, and a new possibility.
"Enthralled" is a respectable collection. I really liked the ideas of some of the stories, like "Red Run," about a girl who drives down a haunted road in the middle of the night to catch a ghost. Or "Let's Get This Undead Show on the Road," about a teenage vampire who becomes the leader of a boy band, only to have to put up with his eccentric bandmates, who make him realize how un-human he is.
Both were over-written, though, and started to drag, even as a short story.
I liked Kelly Armstrong's story about characters from a series she has written before, and her experience as a prolific author definitely came through.
Carrie Ryan also delivered what is to be expected from her, a dark story of zombie apocalypse. I want to grab the heroines of her stories and say, "Look! Look who has written your story. Do not trust those people, especially not that guy, because he is going to betray you!"
My two favorite stories were "Bridge" and "At the Late Night, Double Feature, Picture Show."
"Bridge" was told in verse form, which moved it along quickly, while still making the characters interesting. It was quite a feat, because it had to explain the mechanics of a world where children see ghosts, one that is explained in a series of books by the same author.
"Late Night" was just as silly as it sounds. There are cannibal Girl Scouts and vampires on their way for a showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
What hooked me in, though, was the main character. She's grown up in a family who hunts deadly supernatural creatures. She's also the only one without any special powers, which means that she has spent her life as "the bait." In the story, she is trying to prove that she can be a bad-ass hunter, too. Things go terribly wrong, of course.
Like in any collection, there are stories that I completely did not get, like "Gargouille," but that's the great thing about collections -- you can move onto the next story, and a new possibility.
christiana's review against another edition
4.0
One of the better anthologies I've read.
Favorite stories:
"Giovanni's Farewell" (Gray)
"Things about Love" (Pearce)
"At the Late Night, Double Feature, Picture Show" (Verday)
"Gargouille" (Pearson)
"The Third Kind" (Barnes) (this one should be made into a novel IMHO)
Favorite stories:
"Giovanni's Farewell" (Gray)
"Things about Love" (Pearce)
"At the Late Night, Double Feature, Picture Show" (Verday)
"Gargouille" (Pearson)
"The Third Kind" (Barnes) (this one should be made into a novel IMHO)
singinglight's review against another edition
A YA anthology, which I read mostly for Sarah Rees Brennan’s vampire boyband story. Ah, I giggled, but I was also touched. And…I know I read the rest of the book, but I don’t remember any of the stories! [Nov. 2011]