I’ve never been a huge Dean Koontz fan but got this anthology at a library sale and here’s my breakdown:
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Strange Highways - one of the two long stories and it starts off good but kind of goes down the tubes the longer it goes on
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The Black Pumpkin - way better, I actually liked this one a lot and it’s a Halloween story so it gets bonus points
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Miss Attila the Hun - another banger, cheesy as all hell but in a good way
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Down in the Darkness - probably my favorite of the bunch, it’s like House of Leaves but like, readable
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Ollie’s Hands - kind of a fumble. This is a 90s horror collection so it was going to get weird eventually. This is the calm before the storm
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Snatcher - kind of forgettable but it’s not bad
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Trapped - another good one, probably my second favorite. Animal horror needs to make a comeback
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Bruno - Weird but almost in an endearing way
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We Three - oh, oh noooooooooooo.
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Hardshell - Dean Koontz is so hot for Noir Detectives it’s almost funny, this one is good even if it goes off the rails.
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Kittens - this one is pretty cruel but it’s over quick. Probably the only one that actually creeped me out (in a horror way, not in a why were the 90s like this way)
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The Night of the Storm - this one was kind of cool, I could see this as a full novel
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Twilight of the Dawn - cheesy, but in a bad way.
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Chase - I was vibing with this one but quit pretty early because it gets super pervy with one of the teenage characters. Stephen King would be proud.
Overall - Skip Strange Highways, We Three, Ollie’s Hands and Chase and this is a pretty solid little collection that might be worth a look if you want some older horror stories