Simply Angela : In Bloom by Paul Trembley, Best of Luck by Jason Mott, Big Wolf by Chandler Baker (Creature Feature Collection, Part)

There’s something in the water in this hallucinatory short story by Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Beast You Are.

Journalist Heidi Cohen is in Cape Cod investigating the sources of recurring toxic algae blooms along the coast. A local named Jimmy has his own theory for her. Every year the fetid growth gets worse—but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows. Decades ago, something happened to Jimmy that he’s never forgotten. Is Heidi ready for the real story?

Publisher: Audible | Narrator: A.T. Chandler, Dara Roseburg | Length: 1 hour and 2 minutes | Genre: Science Fiction/ Horror | Source: Publisher | Rating: 2.5

When a lead directs journalist Heidi Cohen to a Cape Cod local, Jimmy, he has a story to tell her about the toxic algae that blooms along the coast. While the story is true—events that happened to Jimmy decades ago—he’s not sure Heidi will want to know how his story ends.

This was not one of my favorites in the collection. It felt like science fiction attempting to be horror. Think of a very boring sci-fi version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon and that pretty much sums this one up.

While there was an interesting bit, the part of the story pertaining to what happened to Jimmy’s father, there was too much backstory from both Heidi and Jimmy that wasn’t relevant. Then the book was suddenly over. I’m really not sure what direction this story was going and I’m not sure the story knew, either.

Dara Roseburg did a great job with the narration although A.T. Chandler came off as more of a reader.

Did you ever hear the one about the man with a string of bad luck? The worst is still to come in a chilling short story of an insatiable friendship by the New York Times bestselling author of Hell of a Book.

For best friends with vastly different fortunes, what’s left to hash out other than a forced confession at gunpoint? All that the destitute, sickly, and grieving Will demands is that monstrously successful Barry admit to draining all the luck right out of him. Like blood. As the standoff escalates, the truth is not the only thing ready to come out.

Publisher: Audible | Narrator: Cary Hite | Length: 54 minutes | Genre: Science Fiction/ Horror | Source: Publisher | Rating: 1.5

I’m probably going to be the odd one out with this one as I’ve had several friends tell me this was their favorite in the collection but I did not care for Best of Luck. Honestly, this was my least favorite of the series and I feel that I’m being generous with rating it a 1.5.

Will’s been through the ringer—his life is one tragedy after the next—and he knows who to blame. His best friend, Barry, seems to have soaked up all of Will’s luck. Determined to Barry to confess, Will holds him at gunpoint but is Will ready for the truth?

When did sci-fi take over the horror genre? I feel that authors are starting to blur the genres and I’m not a fan when the sci-fi takes over because I’m here for the horror. While this one does have you feeling sorry for the situation Will is in, I couldn’t get invested in this one and had to force myself to finish the audio, which I ended up speeding up.

For a family trying to make an isolated farmhouse into a home, fear and rage are getting harder to control in a primal short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth.

The Strauss family is on knife’s edge. Sam is a resentful stay-at-home dad. Rachel feels the restlessness in her blood returning. Their children are getting out of hand. And a recent mudslide has forced the wolves out of the woods to look for food. As dusk falls and tensions rise, the family must come together to survive the night—from the threats outside and those within.

Publisher: Audible | Narrator: Christina Traister | Length: 1 hour and 55 minutes | Genre: Horror | Source: Publisher | Rating: 3.5

Big Bad is the last story in the collection and it’s finally back to classic horror. While I did have a few minor problems with this one, I still found it enjoyable and a great way to end the Creature Feature collection.

There’s something strange in the Strauss household. The children believe that their mom is ill and their father is a bad man. When their mother leaves for a work conference and stranger shows up claiming he rented their guest cottage, things start occurring that has the young girls wondering just who the ‘bad person’ is in the family and Sam (their father) questioning his past choices.

This was extremely slow at the start but it did pick up the pace and maintained it through the entirety of the book. I’m not going to say that this is the best horror novella that I’ve read. It was dull in spots and the cover, unfortunately, was a bit spoilery. The dialogue was also clunky in spots because it takes place between two young girls.Yet I found this to be one of the best in the collection and I do feel that it was fleshed out.

If you’re like me and you like those old classic horror tropes featured in the old black and white classic horror films, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

Creature Feature Collection

Gather round as today’s most diabolically clever authors twist simple moments into otherworldly horrors. An empty baby stroller. A scratching underneath the bed. A farmhouse in the moonlight. With an unnerving sense of the macabre, these stories transform our greatest fears into bone-chilling realities.

Available in e-book and audio, the Creature Feature Collection is a set of 6 books that can be purchased individually or as a collection.

Books in the collection include

1-The Pram by Joe Hill

2-Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix

3-It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman

4-In Bloom by Paul Tremblay

5-Best of Luck by Jason Mott

6-Big Bad by Chandler Baker