LOVED THIS! I was not scared but I loved the stories and how amazing they were, this is perfect for a teen wanting to try out horror

"Too Scared to Sleep" bridges a major gap in the book market. Perfect for teens who feel too grown up for Goosebumps, but aren't quite ready for adult horror, these short stories will keep readers on the edge of their seats! Duplessie maintains a tight balance of scary and suspenseful while also encouraging kids to think about the way they interact with the world (and technology) around them. The added bonus of scannable QR codes after many stories that allow readers to experience a visual ending to the stories they accompany was, in my mind, wholly original and will be uber popular with our teenage set.

Recommended for fans of Five Nights at Freddy's, adults who were scared by "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" and want to share a similar experience with their kids, and readers who are ready to level up from elementary and middle grades horror classics for something a bit more mature. "Too Scared to Sleep" is sure to become a modern classic of the horror genre and will be a staple of middle and high school collections for years to come! Special thanks to NetGalley and Clarion Books for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "Too Scared to Sleep" in exchange for an unbiased review!

In full honesty I didn’t realize this was a young adult book until I started it. This is meant for teens and a younger audience, that being said, this reminded me of when I was younger and read goosebumps. I love short stories and this book was full of fast reads that were full of nostalgia for me. Also I loved the QR codes to scan. It was such a fun thing to include and made the experience that much better.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝘼 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨—𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙨—𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙥 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩!

📍 Read if you like:
• YA Horror
• Short Stories
• Creepy Scenes
• Quick Reads

I had the absolute best time of my life reading these creepy YA short stories.

Each one was uniquely terrifying. I actually read this book at a cabin late at night, I can not tell you how many times I was spooked out.

Certain stories sent chills. I loved how at the end of each story there was a QR code you could scan to watch a creepy video of that story.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch them as it was an e-ARC. There may have been a way around it, but I couldn’t figure it out - which was a bummer. I wanted to see those videos. I do planning on buying a physical copy just for those videos.

I love reading horror. I was quite nervous knowing these were YA stories, but I was quite surprised by how dark and gory some stories were. There are so many different stories and they’re each worth the read.

Some of my favorites were Waste Management, Mr. Butterscotch, Virus Hunter, Holo Girl, Chamber Of Horrors, Flight 3541, The Dark Web, Finders Keepers, and The Reaping.

I would absolutely love to read a full adult novel by this author. The writing style was so immersive and it felt like I was in the stories. I loved how spooky these settings were and the amount of detail he added.

These stories were so much fun and I would highly recommend checking them out. They’re each special in their own way, but they’ll surely send chills down your spine.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Clarion Books for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

Put me in the mindset of Goosebumps. I felt really nostalgic reading this book. But I also felt like they were new, fresh stories. It was a great read!

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not realize this was a YA (Young Adult) book when I requested it from Net Galley. That said, this was VERY entertaining. It is 181 pages on my iPad and most of the stories are 2-4 pages long. Many are chilling and several made me laugh out loud at their cleverness. When our kids were 8 to 10 years old they went through a Goosebump phase. I was the mom who pretty much let her kids read anything. Captain Underpants? You bet! Now that they are both adults they still have the love of reading. I would recommend this book for a mature 13+ year old child. If you want to read it together to a younger, curious child that would probably be fine. Some of the stories are downright creepy so adult supervision would probably be best for young, impressionable minds. After each story is a QR code of sorts that has a visual ending to the story. Some of these were MAJOR creepy. And also very clever! Kudos to Andrew Duplessie for bridging the gap between Goosebumps and Stephen King. I wish this had been around when I was a teenager!

A collection of short stories with a video to watch after?! What a cool idea!!

I’ve never heard of any other book/author doing something like this. Such a good way to entice young readers and get them reading more! I really hope this becomes more popular. It would be so amazing to have videos to watch after chapters or even soundtracks curated by the author as you read. Very clever idea! Only tedious part in this aspect is that I had to keep pulling out my phone to look up the videos. I wonder if in the future the videos could be part of the ebook somehow. Imagine reading memoirs with video clips attached!

This book is aimed towards teens but I think adults would enjoy it too. Provided you like scary stories full of gore. If you are squeamish about blood, you probably don’t want to read this or watch the videos as some of them are very violent.

The stories were pretty short so nothing to be too drawn out or boring. I was able to read the whole book in two hours.

I think this would be a cool gift to young readers wanting to get into horror! Thanks to NetGalley and Andrew Duplessie for the opportunity to read Too Scared to Sleep! I have written this review voluntarily.

I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Clarion Books!

3.5 stars

This book was good on many fronts. I hadn’t, to this point, read a collection of horror stories aimed at the younger end of YA audiences (most characters being 14). It made a nice blend of prose from younger ages while still approaching more mature themes and visuals.

The only reason this wasn’t higher in my ratings was that the different parts, while intended to be dissonant, made the book into two clear halves: the first being utilizing classic horror tropes, and the second being more of a series of Black Mirror episodes. The execution wasn’t lacking, but with the opening of the book guiding the audience into the fantastical and classic horror, I was waiting for it to return, despite the rest of the book being more technology-focused.

Overall, a good book with fun and unique stories - it just wasn’t completely my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children's Books for allowing me to read in advance. I love to read horror and am not above reading children's horror. I liked that this book had short stories and poems but what was different was the QR code that you could scan after each story and get a short scary clip that pertained to the story. The first one definitely made me jump! Overall a decent book, stories were unique and it was a nice quick read.

A nice little collection for teens to get them into horror, or a good Halloween read. I liked the format and the multimedia aspect of the book as well.

This is exactly the kind of scary stories I would have wanted to read in middle school. Hell, some of these scared me and I'm old now. Most of them are just a few pages long which I thought was great. Ones that I really enjoyed (and really scared me): A Matched Set; Reddest Rose; The Geocache; and The Reaping. The Secret Sister was the scariest to me-legit nightmare material. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

The short stories in Too Scared to Sleep was the most horrifying stories I have read in such a long time and I loved every moment of them. The collections of stories was so good and creaky .

Too Scared to Sleep is a an anthology of short horror stories of varying topics. The stories are relatively short and don't always provide any type of closure. I was intrigued by the first story enough to keep going, but I felt that the rest of the stories were all too similar. Yes, they had different elements, but the overall feeling was the same. None of them stuck out in a way that stayed with me after I finished the anthology.

I liked this but I definitely would of liked it more as a kid. Creepy stories! Kids will like this I think!

A neat premise. I didn't find many of the stories all that interesting, unfortunately. This collection might appeal to a younger demographic. The short video clips were kind of cool.

I look forward to adding this book to my school's library collection. Horror is very popular at my school and we have had a number of requests for short horror stories. In Too Scared to Sleep, Andrew Duplessie skillfully spins scary stories with twists to engage readers in wondering what will happen next. I would recommend this book to fans of Five Nights at Freddy's and Goosebumps, as well as readers who may be new to horror and aren't sure what kind of scare interests them. With stories about cannibalistic appliances, wishes gone wrong, and cautionary tales of technology, there is sure to be a story for every reader that keeps them up at night. I was left with chills and I look forward to hearing what my students think of the stories in this book. Thank you for the chance to read Too Scared to Sleep.

I really enjoyed this book. It's like black mirror for teens and YA. The short horror stories were riveting, clever and unique. I love that it came with video images for each story which help to heighten the scare and horror. YA will love this! Perfect book for lovers of horror and scary stories. There are so many stories I love here that it is hard for me to pick a favorite, but I love the ending one partly because there is some optimism there. It's a very clever concept and I would watch this movie. I also like that there is an underlying message throughout the book that highlights our addiction to social media, smartphones and the need to have the perfect image at all costs. I would have loved to see a few stories where the protagonist triumphs. I know it is short horror stories, but it would have been nice to see a few outwit and outsmart. I think that would have added depth to the book and kept the reader engaged and really excited to root for them. However, the book is still great, and very well written. I would definitely recommend it! Lastly, I would like to say I really loved the poems, and I am sure that many YA and teens will love it as well.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins Children's Books for the ARC for an honest review.

Thank you so much Netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy.
This book immediately caught my attention and I was hooked the entire time!

"Too Scared to Sleep" by Andrew Duplessie is a collection of terrifying teen horror stories that are sure to keep readers up at night. With each story accompanied by a pulse-pounding video, the book offers a unique reading experience that will deepen the horror and leave readers screaming for more.

From a garbage disposal that feeds on flesh to roses that require human blood to bloom, Duplessie's stories cover a wide range of bone-chilling horrors and supernatural scares. Each story is well-crafted and perfectly paced, with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers on the edge of their seats. The author's vivid descriptions and attention to detail make it easy to picture each terrifying scene and to feel the fear that the characters are experiencing.

What sets "Too Scared to Sleep" apart from other horror anthologies is the accompanying videos. Readers can point their phones at the QR code provided and watch a video that deepens the horror of the story. This unique feature adds a new level of interactivity to the reading experience and makes it even more immersive.

Overall, "Too Scared to Sleep" is a must-read for horror fans of all ages. With its well-crafted stories and pulse-pounding videos, it's sure to keep readers up long into the night, too scared to close their eyes.

Oh my gosh I was SOO excited to read this fun YA short stories. It reminded me of when I was a kid and watching Goosebumps :).

Too Scared to Sleep is a bunch of creepy and fun short scary stories. But, the fun part is that it also has a link at the end of the story to where you can access a video based on that story. Unfortunately, I was disappointed since not all the links were working for the stories.

Some of my absolute favorite short stories in this where Dream Weaver.... also that video attached was ahhmazing. Also, the Sister.... what a creepy and scary thing eeeeek.

Reddest Rose..... now this was epic... just the dark and creepy gory stories I love to read.

And... last but not least The Bone Fairy...... another one of my top fav reads. I definitely didn't see this one coming and the author threw me for a loop.

I definitely had a lot of fun with this one and recommend if you're a fan of horror and YA reads.

4/5 stars

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Harper for my arc.

Pub date: 10/10/23
Published to GR: 4/7/23