Well two stories out of six is not real good odds. These stories are a result of a contest that Stephen King's British publisher did in line with "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams" publication. We have the winning story and then five other stories that were part of the final six finalists. I really only liked two stories, "Wild Swimming" and "The Unpicking". I did think that two stories had promise, "Eau-de-Eric" and "La Mort De L'amant" and the last two stories I did not get or care for that much "Spots" and "The Bear Trap."

WILD SWIMMING by Elodie Harper (5 stars)- I really enjoyed this story of a young woman who is into wild swimming (yes I actually know what this is because of a Vera BBC episode I saw) who goes to a very odd town where something seems to be beneath a lake. I have to say though, I don't get why people mess around with lakes. This coming from a person who runs around the woods with total abandon though in the fall isn't saying much though.

EAU-DE-ERIC by Manuela Saragosa (3 stars)- This started off so well and then it just fell apart at the end. Having a story involving a widowed mother who buys her daughter a toy bear (I hate anything with glass eyes...they are not welcome in my house) after the death of her father in order to cheer her up. The daughter names the bear after her father, and the mother starts to notice it smells like her now dead husband. This brings up all kinds of memories that are dragging the women back to her past. I really wish it could have stuck the landing more.

THE SPOTS by Paul Bassett Davies (1 star). This story did not scare me at all. I honestly got to the end and went huh too. So I don't know what I was supposed to take away from it. This is one of the stories that I said would definitely have helped if it were a bit longer.

THE UNPICKING by Michael Button (5 stars)- Super messed up. That's all I am going to say here to not spoil any potential readers. I think at one point I noticed my cat watching me and her tail got all ruffly and she fled the room. I seriously looked under the bed to make sure nothing was lurking there. So high five for this story giving me the willies.

LA MORT DE L'AMANT by Stuart Johnstone (2.5 stars). This was way too short. I mean to the point I think this was maybe 10 pages (maybe) and there was not a real feeling of horror about it. In fact I think I just went well that was kind of a letdown. I also had more questions than answers since a lot of focus was on the guys pockets and there didn't seem to be anything in them. Maybe I missed something.

THE BEAR TRAP by Neil Hudson (2 stars). Ehhhh. I just didn't feel this. Especially since it didn't make a lot of sense to me in the end because we know there has been some type of incident and I have to wonder about how the (redacted) was alive through all of that. Anyway I am sad this ended up being the last story in the collection.

Overall I wish that this had been longer. This took me less than 2 hours to finish. In fact I think it took me an hour and ten minutes. If I hadn't been focused on posting updates it would have been even quicker.

Short story collections are often uneven, with a few really good stories among a lot of mediocre ones. This an exception; not a clunker in the bunch. Maybe it's because they were selected by Stephen King? Whatever the reason, these are quality stories and well worth your time (if you like scary stories, that is).

wild swimming - 4
eau-de-eric - 3
the spots - 1.5
the unpicking - 4
la mort de l’amant - 2.5
the bear trap - 4

Wild Swimming, The Unpicking, and Bear Trap were the best in here in order of quality. Quick enjoyable read worth the few bucks I paid but not much more.

Meh, they were ok. Not the best short stories I read. I wonder what made Stephen King like them so much?

This book contains six very short, more or less creepy and weird stories, selected by Stephen King in a competition. My personal favorites were EAU-DE-ERIC by Manuela Saragosa which would have gotten 5 stars and THE UNPICKING by Michael Button, which scared the hell out of me.