Just PHENOMENAL! There's not enough words in the thesaurus to explain the levels of increasing enjoyment I got from this as I went from story to story.! You'll NOT be disappointed!

As with any anthology, you have your good ones along with the duds. There are a few gems in this collection that makes it worthwhile. Looking forward to the next volume.

Hydra and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Dark Screams: Volume Six. This is my honest opinion of the book.

This compilation of horror stories by renowned authors including Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates is varied in the strength of its offerings. Stephen King's "The Old Dude's Ticker" is, in his own words, "a crazed revisionist telling of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart."" For readers who are familiar with Poe's famous work, Mr. King's story is too much like the original. Lisa Morton's "The Rich are Different" is the tale of a woman who does not heed the advice of someone who knows better. Nothing about this short story really grasped my attention and the ending just sputtered to a close. "The Manicure" by Nell Quinn-Gibney is a weak story about a woman musing over her life as she gets her most hated procedure done, her nails manicured. I found "The Situations" by Joyce Carol Oates to be disappointing, as I expected more from this seasoned writer. "The Corpse King" by Tim Curran is the story of two grave robbers that get way more than they were expecting. As the longest of the stories, novella length in fact, I was expecting to be pulled into the creepy universe that the writer has created, but I just could not get into this one. It was definitely spooky and fit well into the horror genre.

The standout in Dark Screams: Volume Six is "The Comforting Voice" by Norman Prentiss, although it does not really fit into the classic definition of horror. The author does a good job of setting the stage and delves deeply into the anxieties that many new parents face. Overall, I could take or leave the entirety of Dark Screams: Volume Six. Volumes One through Four were much stronger than this one, so I hope that the next offering returns to more of the edge of your seat horror of those books.

Not the best of the series which was provided by Net Galley for an honest review. I was disappointed this this installment as a whole, mostly with the story by Stephen King, if you can believe that. I have included a story description from the website with my comments below each.

THE OLD DUDE’S TICKER by Stephen King
Richard Drogan has been spooked ever since he came back from Nam, but he’s no head case, dig? He just knows the old dude needs to die.

This is an homage to the Tell Tale Heart as we find out in the author's own words. The story was written about 40 years ago and it shows. The maturity level of the writer is not as finely honed as we have come to expect and what we have is a story that is a bad copy of what it is trying to emulate. It seems to be almost a laughable parody.


THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT by Lisa Morton
Even though she made her name revealing the private lives of the rich and famous, Sara Peck has no idea how deep their secrets really go . . . or the price they’ll pay to get what they desire.

Creepy little story with an original flair.

THE MANICURE by Nell Quinn-Gibney
A trip to the nail salon is supposed to be relaxing. But as the demons of the past creep closer with every clip, even the most serene day of pampering can become a nightmare.

Nasty story and I loved it. Very weird but it worked well.

THE COMFORTING VOICE by Norman Prentiss
It’s a little strange how baby Lydia can only be soothed by her grandfather’s unnatural voice, ravaged by throat cancer. The weirdest part? What he’s saying is more disturbing than how he says it.

Twisted little story, made me take notice of Prentiss and will look for some of his titles now.

THE SITUATIONS by Joyce Carol Oates
There are certain lessons children must learn, rules they must follow, scars they must bear. No lesson is more important than this: Never question Daddy. Or else.

A very odd story, and this one stayed with me because of something the Daddy does early on in the story. There is a message albeit a really harsh one that will resonate with the reader.

THE CORPSE KING by Tim Curran
Grave robbers Kierney and Clow keep one step ahead of the law as they ply their ghoulish trade, but there’s no outrunning a far more frightening enemy that hungers for the dead.

A novella that completes this volume we have a period piece from the late 1800's with two unsavory characters who run into some interesting situations. There is some nice dialogue and great descriptions but it seems to fall flat for me.

All in all, I believe this was a weak installment in this series, but I thank Net Galley for the chance to read it anyway.

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.

<u>The Old Dude's Ticker</u> by Stephen King.
The King pays homage to Edgar Alan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". The eye still has it, as the heart beats on. ***

<u>The Rich Are Different</u> by Lisa Morton.
Lust takes on monstrous implications. ***

<u>The Manicure</u> by Nell Quinn-Gibney
An obsession with fingers, especially the nails. Cutting them, picking at them. Can't let them get too long. **

<u>The Comforting Voice</u> by Norman Prentiss
A wee baby's wailing can only be quieted by her grandfather's voice. Find out what happens when he can no longer speak to her. Dark, skewed, and original. ****

<u>The Situations</u> by Joyce Carol Oates
Couldn't connect with this one at all. *

<u>The Corpse King</u> by Tim Curran
Set in the days of sin-eaters and resurrectionists, the filth and stink of the streets takes on a life of its own. Of rot and worms and all things foul, smell the reek of rotting teeth and chamber pots emptied on the cobblestones. The market for teeth, bones, and hair is thriving, but the competition is keen. ****

Review for Monster Librarian forthcoming. This is a short but great collection.

The DARK SCREAMS anthology series is back with a new volume, headlined by a rare Stephen King short, and anchored by a staggeringly good Novella by Tim Curran, who gets top billing on the cover.

There are six stories this time out, and the book opens with Stephen King's Edgar Allan Poe pastiche/rip-off THE OLD DUDE'S TICKER. This short tale is more of a curiosity than anything else...King wrote this in the early '70's, and I imagine that he was as high as a kite when he decided to update Poe's THE TELL-TALE HEART with a crazed Viet Nam vet as the main character. A decade ago, I moved heaven and earth to find a copy of this story, so I'm glad that its available in a more accessible format now, but this is really nothing more than Poe's story with '70's slang. There's nothing here except King's name and the novelty factor. It is a good get for the DARK SCREAMS series, and it'll probably help sell a lot of e-books, so there's that.

This is followed by Lisa Morton's THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT, which finds a young female writer being invited to meet the wealthy family that was the thinly-disguised subject of her last best-selling novel. I've been beating the drum for Morton for a long time now, and she delivers again with this story. I've never read anything by Morton that disappointed...she really is an unsung hero of the horror genre, especially with her short fiction.

Nell Quinn-Gibney's THE MANICURE is a well-written story, but occupies a lot of real estate in the book, and has very little payoff. The ending is so sudden and understated that I had to read it again to see if anything actually happened. Quinn-Gibney is a talented writer, but this story needed some serious trimming.

Norman Prentiss contributes a creeping, quiet horror tale titled THE COMFORTING VOICE, a seemingly uplifting story about a terrible father trying to change his ways and mend fences with his grown daughter after she gives birth to a daughter of her own. I had no idea where this was going, and the end really crept up on me. Solid work from Prentiss, as usual.

Joyce Carol Oates is represented by a 1994 short story, THE SITUATIONS, which I did not understand at all. It's short, so I was able to read it twice before I definitely concluded that there was no reason for this story to be written, or read. Tastes vary, of course, but this did nothing for me.

The bulk of the collection is taken up by Tim Curran's excellent reprint THE CORPSE KING, which was previously printed as a stand-alone volume of Cemetery Dance's Novella series. Curran's story concerns a pair of London grave-robbers named Samuel Clow and Mickey Kierney, who discover that there are things worse than "resurrectionists" prowling the deserted churchyards at night. The supernatural element drives the story, but the bulk of Curran's narrative concerns itself with the day to day affairs of Clow & Kierney's grim business, and the hopelessness of London's slums. To be sure, these are not pleasant characters, but it's hard not to sympathize with these men, who are no more than products of their horrific upbringing. Curran brings the squalid slums to vivid life, making the everyday affairs of Clow & Kierney every bit as riveting as the graveyard scenes. This edition is missing the beautiful interior illustrations by Keith Minnion that graced the print version of the novella, but I can't recommend this story highly enough.....It's more than worth the price of the collection by itself. I was ever-so-slightly disappointed by the end of the story, but that's more down to my exacting monster-story standards than any fault of Curran's. The story didn't go where I expected it to, which, in retrospect, is probably more of a plus than a minus.

Overall, DARK SCREAMS, VOLUME SIX is a slight collection made worthwhile by Curran's epic historical horror novella, and earns seven out of ten graveyard worms:
🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Hydra provided a review copy.

To my delight, I found myself reading this volume with author's I knew but not the stories. I know that some are reprints which doesn't bother me as I often have such a hugh pile of books to read (it's falling over constantly) that often the reprints are new to me. I am always amazed at the high quality overall of the stories in this series. I can't recommend this volume and series enough. Read it! You won't be disappointed!!!

Dark Screams is a collection of short horror stories by a number of different authors; some of which have been previously released in other publications.

An eclectic mix of horror stories like this makes you think about what horror means to you as individual. Here we find many different facets of horror: from a Vietnam vet who transfers his horrors and memories of the war into wanting to murder someone because of the look of his eye, to a family's cursed bloodline, to the phobia of a manicure, to a father's personality snap in trying to get his baby girl to stop crying, to a family's link to cats. A longer story ends the anthology and focuses on grave robbers and what may or may not be burrowing underneath all of us.

Horror did indeed present itself in many forms in this collection. It does not necessarily need to manifest as a beast in the night, but can be the beast hiding within us behind a perfectly normal facade. A relatively quick read, but I commend the authors on reaching that spot where you cringe while reading. A great find for those who wish to add to any collection of short horror stories.

Thanks to NetGalley for a chance to review the book.

The Old Dude’s Ticker by Stephen King
This is one groovy short story. Can you dig it? It gets into your brain like the slapping of nightsticks hitting your palm. It is dated, but I liked the Vietnam era slang. This is a good retelling of Poe’s Tell-tale Heart.
The Rich are Different by Lisa Morton
This is an interesting tale of star-crossed lovers involving a reporter and the son of a cursed wealthy family. It’s a different take that I haven’t read before. I liked it a lot
The Manicure by Nell Quinn-Gibney
This is a weird story I think is the weakest of the bunch. For me, it is to disjointed and hard to understand.
The Comforting Voice by Norman Prentiss
I liked this story of how to soothe a baby and the dark twisted ending it has.
The Situations by Joyce Carol Oates
I think this is the shortest of the stories. I didn’t understand the ending so didn’t quite do it for me.
The Corpse King by Tim Curran
This is a novella that is half of the book. It is about the adventures of two gravediggers in 19th century Scotland and I believe is based on a child’s rhyme mentioned at the end.
Aye, it is a great piece of work me thinks. This story will make you appreciate my modern plumbing conveniences. I have always liked Curran’s stories, and this is a nasty little slice.

This is a fairly good collection of short horror stories and one novella. There are some big names involved, like Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates, and all the contributors are well thought of in the horror genre. To me, the stories were o.k, but not earth shattering. The King story is a re-telling of 'The Tell-tale Heart' and is superficially interesting, but nothing more than an homage. My own particular favourite was Norman Prentiss' story, which shows the horror a constantly screaming baby can bring to a couple. I found this one really disturbing, I think because it dealt with such everyday subject matter that most of us can relate to. The success of a collection such as this, with a novella, hinges on whether you enjoy said novella. Tim Curran's story is Lovecraftian in places, which I liked, but ultimately I found it quite repetitive and not very original. So, the collection as a whole is good, but not great.

The Dark Screams series is always a mixed bag for me. I've been reading since it began, and I always love the stories....mostly. This one had 3 that I didn't care for. Sorry, Sai King! It's that 70's slang. Boy, I sure don't miss that. The standouts for me were Lisa Morton, she always rocks a great story. Norman Prentiss' shorty was messed-up, in all the right ways. Tim Curran's novella gave me a good dose of the screaming Mimi's, and still managed to leave me wanting more! This edition may have been one of my favorites. Yep, I'd recommend this book. Thanks to Hydra, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read volume 6.

Nice grouping of authors. Great horror themes.
SK's The old dudes tickers reminded me of one of Poe's stories.
A great way to read some authors work that I didn't know. Great read!

Although a long time reader of Stephen King, I'm a new-comer to the Dark Screams Series and I'm please to say it won't be my last as I've already purchased the first collection too. I've recently subscribed to Skeleton Crew and also purchased The Long December by the supremely talented Richard Chizmar. It was this and the Stephen King name that attracted me to the title (and I certainly cannot wait until their upcoming collaboration is released. Anyway, I digress. King opens this collection which he wrote back in the 70's and he submits it here untouched. It's written in the style of Poe and although this story doesn't hit those heights, it's a great opening to the collection, that finishes with a novella by another talented writer, Tim Curran. The joy about these collections are the introductions to authors I've never come across but cannot wait to dive into other things by them. This will be the case with Lisa Morton. All in all a fantastic, if short collection.

Chizmar and Freeman put together another good collection of shorts in the latest volume of the Dark Screams series. Volume 6.

My favorite story (and by far the longest in the collection) was THE CORPSE KING by Tim Curran. Couldn’t ask for a much better theme for Curran to let loose on than grave robbing ghoulies. Strangely enough, he may have even restrained himself a bit. A Curran classic.

The other story that really caught my eye was THE MANICURE by Nell Quinn-Gibney, an author that I have not heard of before. Unique, weird and very well written. The ending left me a bit wanting, but I think this author has promise and am looking forward to checking out more of her work.

Really the only one that didn’t work for me was THE SITUATIONS by Joyce Carol Oates. It was technically written very well, but the story wasn’t realized at all and left me scratching my head wondering wtf.

Oh yeah. There was a Stephen King in here to. Always good to have the King in these collections and I really enjoyed this earlier work of his. Prentiss and Morton also turned in solid efforts and I liked both of their entries as well. Overall, a nice collection from Dark Screams.

*I received an advance review copy of this release from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DARK SCREAMS Volume Six, edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar is one of my favorite Volumes in the Dark Screams series. This collection of five stories and one novella contain tales of vastly different themes and styles. From Stephen King's variation on Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" ("The Old Dude's Ticker"), to pagan gods, modern technology made malevolent, and a breathtakingly brutal historical fiction piece, each of these tales will strike fear and discomfort in the reader on some level.

Personal favorites of mine included Norman Prentiss' "The Comforting Voice"--this one simply got more unsettling as it went on, and that final sentence . . . shudder! Another five star story, in my opinion, was Lisa Morton's "The Rich Are Different"==a pagan "fairy tale" that puts a real twist on the privileges of having wealth; a gothic-style story in a "modern" setting. My number one favorite would have to be Tim Curran's novella, "The Corpse King". This was a magnificently detailed piece of historical fiction that morphs into something only Tim Curran could conceive of. The dark humor, bleak atmosphere, squalid town, and utterly chilling events, conspire to bring two grave robbers in contact with that which was once thought to be only an imaginary creature of the night . . .

A strong collection of tales to add to the Dark Screams series.

Highly Recommended!

Dark Screams: Volume Six is a solid read! You can read my review at www.cedarhollowhorrorreviews.com.

<b>Release Date: 04.25.17</b>

This was my first <i>Dark Screams</i> collection, but it certainly won't be my last. Color me impressed!

While I wasn't particularly scared by any of these stories, most of them do deal with dark themes and toe the line between natural and unnatural. They range in voice and style, obviously, as the six stories were written by different authors.

I think my personal favorite was 'The Manicure,' by Nell Quinn-Gibney, a brief and haunting story about childhood traumas and phobias that come back in adulthood. Another standout is Norman Prentiss' 'The Comforting Voice,' which might have made me tear up a little.

The stories here are sublime, for the most part. I felt my attention wandering during 'The Corpse King' and I wasn't impressed with Stephen King's 'The Old Dude's Ticker' — an old Poe pastiche that should have stayed in the drawer. My favorite author contributed my least favorite story in <i>Dark Screams</i>. Bummer.

I am very impressed with this collection, and will certainly check out past editions of this series.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Hydra for the ARC, which was given in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I received an advance copy of this book from Cemetery Dance (thanks, Brian) through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Old Dude’s Ticker by Stephen King

Early King. So early, in fact, that it was rejected when submitted for publication if we can even imagine a time period when that could happen. For me it was interesting as an insight into King’s unpolished and raw voice and also clearly shows where he was drawing inspiration (Gogol—a icon of Russian literature who wrote great horror stories, and of course Poe). Pretty much a direct homage of The Tell-Tale Heart.

The Rich are Different by Lisa Morton

I immediately thought of F. Scott Fitzerald because of the title and wow, this is a dark turn on that concept. The phrase comes from Fitzgerald’s The Rich Boy—a novella that works as a sort of dress rehearsal for The Great Gatsby. Well, in Morton’s story the rich are not just different in thoughts and point of view—they are not even fully human. I really enjoyed this story.

The Manicure by Nell Quinn-Gibney

While I was reading this I felt that this story was all about the structure in a “this little piggy” progression. I enjoyed it and it was very well written, but more of a psychological study than a horror story.

The Comforting Voice by Norman Prentiss

While not a horror story, this is a very strong and deeply moving story. Incredibly dark yet on one level at the same time very touching story about how we change as we age and how where we find comfort can be both surprising and redemptive at the same time. The character of the aging and sick father/grandfather was particularly well drawn.

The Corpse King by Tim Curran

You either like Tim Curran or you run screaming away from him. There really isn’t a middle ground. On the positive side, this drop down the rabbit hole into Victorian Edinburgh with two resurrectionists is so complete that you can practically smell and feel this awful environment. Curran has done his homework, even to the point of correct regional and period accurate slang. The only reason I know is that I was so impressed that I looked some of it up—which is always a sign that a historical story is high quality. Some will dislike the story precisely because of its accuracy—which is overwhelmingly dark and outright disgusting at times, although given the theme how could it be otherwise? I found myself a bit numbed by this story eventually, even while I appreciated the accuracy and the gallows humor of these two close friends engaged in the most unsavory of professions.