Josh Malerman delivers with this dark and twisted set of horror novellas- perfect read for fall, spooky season. Engaging, page turning, and suspenseful. Well written and brilliantly executed. The stories are richly developed and stand on their own.

I ended up not finishing this book. I have enjoyed this authors previous books, but I ended up not wanting to finish this one.

Malerman's creativity is wicked & devilish & he's got the storytelling prowess to back it up. SPIN A BLACK YARN is just as delightful as it is macabre.

Whenever I read an anthology or a book of short novellas there are usually ones I like and others I don't, but this collection I really didn't like any of the stories. I found all of them to be okay, nothing really good.

After reading "Goblin" I think it set far too high a standard for a JM collection. These stories were pretty good but only about half of them felt attention grabbing to me. I love the types of ppl in Samhattan and I think there's a lot to explore there but I don't know, no one story really stood out to be the cornerstone of this collection for me, personally. That said, I really enjoyed the writing styles and some of the surprising turns the stories took.

I much prefer his full length works. I just couldn't connect to any of these short stories. They weren't really captivating and I found my mind wandering a lot

3.5/5 rounded to 4

Josh Malerman is the author of Birdbox. Although I haven't read the novel I absolutely love the movie. When I saw Malerman was coming out with a collection of horror novellas I knew this was the perfect opportunity to sample his works.

Spin a Black Yarn is composed of five novellas:
1) Half the House Is Haunted
2) Argyle
3) Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer
4) The Jupiter Drop
5) Egorov

Ill refrain from summarizing the novellas as they are already on the short side. My favorite thing about this collection is the originality of stories. Each story I read felt unique and I was genuinely interested in getting to the end of each one.

What ties this collection together in my opinion are the characters and the darkness capable within them. If you are a reader who likes to feel satisfied by the end of a book or story this collection may not work for you. Malerman leaves most of the stories for you as the reader to interpret and I quite enjoyed that.

Novellas/short story collections are tricky because they may not all work for the reader. I like that he included 5 novellas that thematically tie into each other and Im excited to pick up a novel by him.

I don't often find myself reading or enjoying short stories; I prefer to be pulled into a long novel that holds me for an extended period. I may have to rethink that, This was my first Malerman book, and I cannot wait to dive into the rest of his work. I was enthralled by each and every story.

Half of the House comes in second for me. It takes some focus in the beginning to keep up since the narrators are small children, but it's worth your time to stick it out. The progress of the relationships over the years between Stephanie and the house then Robbie and Stephanie kept me engrossed. Four Stars.

Argyle is sitting in last in fifth. The premise was interesting - a man on his deathbed is confessing to NOT killing anyone even though he really wanted to his whole life. It was fine? Three Stars.

Doug and Judy Buy a House Washer is 4th place. Doug and Judy suck. They're deplorable, money-hungry assholes, and the house washer did its job and then some. Four Stars.

Jupiter Drop hits a solid 3rd place. This poor guilt-ridden fellow accidentally kills someone, loses his family, and then decides to take a ride in a glass box through the center of Jupiter. You feel for this guy and truly hope this journey will end well for him. It does but it doesn't? Four Stars

Egorov - 1st place, five stars, give me more of this. This story had me riddled with anxiety for the entire duration. The characters, the scenery, the SUSPENSE. The villain?? Loved it. Five Stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House - Ballantine, and Del Ray for the ARC!

I enjoy Josh Malerman's imagination very much. He writes is a way that is imminently appealing.
I like the first four stories in Spin a Black Yarn, especially Argyle. His characters are well fleshed-out and his stories come from a place that is way outside the box.
Egorov gave me problems, however. I was enjoying it until Misha and the title character were introduced. For me, Egorov comes across as a more homicidal Ebenezer Scrooge. Misha is a lover of Death to the point that he allows himself to die for a crime he didn't commit. I just didn't care for either of these characters. Honestly, however, none of the other characters appealed to me either. They all just fell flat. I think that the idea behind the story was creative and had amazing potential, but the execution didn't work for me.

This book is a relatively quick read, but I had to keep putting it down... Not in a bad way, mind, but more in the way that each story put a hold over me and I had to live it, remember it, think about it, consult with the memories of the ghostly yarns Malerman spun for us. These stories, albeit short, do their jobs well and succinctly.
These stories have caused me a slight existential crisis due to the fact that Malerman's characters are so life-like. Some I feel as though I have known my whole life regardless of the fact that the place is made up and the time is set a century ago (for some stories, not all). These characters are timeless and so are their issues and problems. The sibling thread may as well have been written about my family, it felt that real. Malerman through this one book has become one of my favorite short story authors. It is a true talent for an author to create such brevity with overwhelming completeness. Even though horror isn't my preferred genre, I have enjoyed every second of sitting up in my dark house wondering when his spirits may reveal themselves from the shadowed corners.

I could not really get into the stories and some of the plots did not really make sense. For a horror book, there was very little horror or suspense.

Just a brilliant set of books by Josh Malerman. Four novellas, each with a grim, dark setting. Some of Malerman's best writing, and that's saying a ton.

Ahoy there mateys! This book consists of five novellas. I did take a bit to get into as the writing style of the first one was off-putting. Though I hung in there and found that the story did pay off but not in the way I was expecting. The second novella was a fascinating take on a serial killer being true to himself on his deathbed. Unfortunately, my copy of the ebook was damaged and missing a lot of sections so had to stop abruptly in the middle of the serial killer story. I will be tracking down another copy because I have to know how it ended! I am very much looking forward to the other novellas. I will update this review when I finish the collection. Arrr!

Josh Malerman seems to be a very hit-or-miss author for me! I first read Bird Box by him and absolutely loved it. I also really enjoyed A House at the Bottom of a Lake, which is a *very* divisive book with a goodreads average of 3.21. So this collection of novellas brings my average rating of his books from 3.83 (not bad) to 3.38 (not great). (PS I'm keeping track of my author averages for an upcoming project... not sure when it's coming but keep an eye out!)

The order of the novellas in the book actually matches my enjoyment of them. The first, Half the House Is Haunted, was probably a solid 4 stars from me. The writing style and presentation was unique in this one so it took me a bit to adjust but the tension was excellent. I felt like it didn't quite stick the landing, but still a good read! Argyle presents a unique take on the serial killer, probably also a 3.5 or 4, and is worth a read as well. Some of it fell flat for me, but overall it was an interesting read. The Jupiter drop was also somewhat unique, probably 3 stars. I don't have much to say about it; it was interesting, but I found it ultimately unmemorable.

Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer(TM) was a major flop for me. Maybe 2.5 stars? Parts of it were really good! But it didn't quite tie itself together and the ending was pretty anticlimactic. Egorov is the longest novella in the book, and it certainly feels like it. I started off kind of bored, got really interested, and then ended up just skimming to get to the end. Probably a 2.5 as well? I felt like a lot could have been left out or shortened as it lost my attention a lot. The concept is verrryy good though.

I had originally rated this 2 stars, but writing the review made me realize there were stories I liked! Egorov just took me so long to read and bogged me down so much that I had forgotten. I'm going to up it to a 3 (so Malerman's average rating from me is now a 3.63) because there were certainly aspects that I liked. This currently has a 3.65 (with only 334 ratings) on goodreads, which feels accurate to me. I definitely see this being a divisive collection, especially since I feel the quality varies a lot within it. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading this, but wouldn't suggest bumping it to the top of your list either. I'll definitely be picking up more by Malerman though because I know I enjoy some of his writing!

I enjoyed Bird Box so I thought I might like this but I don’t like short stories so much. I didn’t like any of them and found myself bored for most of it. My favorite was probably the first one and then it went downhill.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

If there's anything that Josh Malerman can be trusted to deliver on, it's twisty and inventive stories. Spin a Black Yarn is a collection of five shorts that were all enjoyable, yet a little bit disturbing reads. Even though they were all creative and spooky in their own right, I was most drawn to Argyle, which told the story of a "not-serial killer." It was the most horrific story of events that didn't happen but yet felt so disturbing all the same.

I truly have to wonder where an author such as Malerman comes up with such creative and clever ideas for his writing. It's quite impressive - - albeit a wee bit creepy.

I enjoyed this book and would like to thank NetGalley for the ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

I love horror anthologies, and I love this author’s writing. I knew this would be a good one, and I wasn’t disappointed! We have five stories, and here are my brief thoughts on each:

Half the House Is Haunted 3.5/5
This is the story of a brother and sister, told when they were ages 8 and 6, then 42 and 40, then 80 and Gone. When they were younger, Stephanie told her little brother, Robin, that half their house was haunted. He and his parents moved on, but Stephanie remained in the cavernous house for the rest of her life. Beautiful writing.

Argyle 4/5
This is one deathbed story that doesn’t go the way most do - this dying man is proud of the things he HASN’T done. Very original!

Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer™️ 5/5
A couple of assholes buy a cleaning machine - but souls are hard to clean. Excellent story!

The Jupiter Drop 4.5/5
Forget trips to Mars…Jupiter is where it’s at. I thought this was a stunning story; I just didn’t care for the ending.

Egorov 2/5
I don’t know where this one came from, or how a short story had over thirty chapters, but I didn’t care for this one. The beautiful writing is still there, though!

I really liked the middle three stories, and as per usual, the writing is phenomenal. I don’t usually care about book covers, but this one is so gorgeous. Except for the last story, this one was a win for me! Four stars.

(Thank you Del Ray, Josh Malerman and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

What a clever book. I really liked Maleman's writing style. I'm still thinking about this book hours later. I think I need to stew on it for a little bit. I will read more from Malerman.

Josh Malerman’s work is interesting, creative, meaningful, and sometimes scary. Spin a Black Yarn isn’t as disturbing as Bird Box, Malorie, or Pearl. The first short story in this series (Half the House is Haunted) was the scariest story in this compilation. So I felt a little hoodwinked as the level of scary significantly decreased. I know Malerman is trying to show or teach me something in each story. I think discussing and interpreting will be more fun than reading the stories. I wish they were similar in length but wouldn’t recommend reordering them because the motifs (siblings, fear, floorplans of a home, Samhatten, being encased in glass) that tie them together in a really good flow.

Novellas/short stories are always a mixed bag for me, and this collection was no different. Two of those did stand out for me: Argyle and Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer (TM).

Argyle is the story of Shawn Hasbro, who is on his deathbed. Surrounded by his wife and children, he begins to make a startling confession: he is not a serial killer, but he has spent nearly his whole life trying not to be. His sister, Ethel, has been buzzing around the edges of his life for years, watching and waiting to intervene. At an early age, he discovered these urges and has been fighting them ever since. He claims he was successful...

Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer (TM) begins like this: "Doug and Judy Barman are assholes." Gotta love a beginning line like that! Rita sells the couple a House Washer (TM), an innovative product that will literally clean your entire house while you either leave or sit in an airtight tube and watch. Doug and Judy, who are obsessed with money - both making it and spending it - readily buy the product, but let it sit in their living room for two weeks until they decide to throw a party to flaunt a big business deal and of course, the House Washer (TM). Once Doug and Judy get in the tube, things really get interesting... I could not put this one down.

Overall, the collection was fine. Not my favorite, but some gems were to be found.