Adam Ellis, of Dear David fame (but not involved with the movie), has been posting creepy little stories on his social media for a while now. This collection contains some I've seen, some I'd never caught the end of–whether by algorithm or Patreon wall, I don't know–and some that were brand new to me. I love them all. I love his use of color, his vivid imagination, and how he's one of two artists that ever jumped-scared me through drawings. Highly recommended for those who like short scary fiction, urban legend tropes, and eerie, often atmospheric, art.

This is the best graphic novel I have come across in a while! The stories are so engaging and each have their own style/vibe. The only common thread is how unnerving they are!

I really enjoyed the little authors notes at the end of each story. It was cool the read about the inspiration/origin of each of stories.

My personal favorites include: Me and Evangeline at the Farm, Bus Stop, Murder Party, and Viola Bloom.

This is a great read for those who like Welcome To Night Vale or TANIS. This is a wonderful horror anthology and deserves so much hype!! 5 stars!!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC.

This book, ya’ll! This book is something.
Yes, it is a graphic novel kind of read.
And yes, it is a book of horror stories.
And yes, the stories are good. And yes, the drawings are great.
And yes, the combination is perfect, this combination of art and text is absolute chef’s kiss perfection.
I’m not sure what age I’d say this book is for. Not young kids, that’s for sure. Teens and up to 99? Up to 199? How long do people live nowadays? What’s the upper age limit nowadays? There sure are people older than 99 who read, so I say 99 is not it, let’s go to 199, I’m sure there are people who are aspiring to live forever, let’s go with 199 so it gives everyone something to aspire to. Ok, I digress.
I read it. I enjoyed it. I absolutely enjoyed it. My tween also read some of it. She also enjoyed it but was seriously disturbed by some of the drawings. AND THE DRAWINGS ARE GOOD. The drawings being that creepy and disturbing is a GOOD thing. The stories are somewhat disturbing, and they are good. They are creepy and they are good.
My tween ended up asking me to read it first and tell her which ones have disturbing drawings. But in the end, it turned out that only one drawing was THAT disturbing. If you have a kid who loves horror, you decide if your kid is ready for it. Most likely you know your kids to know if it’s appropriate for them.
But it most absolutely is adult-appropriate and I can see others who love horror enjoying this one as well. The stories are like bite-sized candies, each with a different flavor, and each has a bonus surprise-filled center.

I really enjoyed this comic book. I love horror and it definately reminded me of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.

Bus stop was really good, hangnail served to unsettle me and make me cringe but viola bloom was gold. Viola Bloom was my favorite short story in the whole comic. It was sad to read about what had happened to the author in the notes following.

Forest fruit was my least favorite, it was just too short and didn’t give me any creepy vibes.

Some of the author’s noted after the each comic were interesting to read.

100% agree about the murder party author notes. True crime podcasts can get so weird and inconsiderate towards the family and victims.

A very well done comic, I loved it and hope to read more like these from the author in the future!

This book is pitched as the graphic novel version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and I’d say that’s a very accurate to portray this book. Basically, bite sized terrifying stories told in comic style.

The stories themselves are incredible, but with the addition of amazing artwork they enter an entirely different plane of existence. I can’t think of a single negative thing to say other than give me mooooore!!!

Words cannot actually express how much I enjoyed reading this, so trust me when I say you NEED to read this. Whether you like scary stories or not, this is a perfect in-between.

Big thanks to Netgalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing and the author Adam Ellis for allowing me to read an E-arc of this novel.

Fantastic short story collection in graphic form that was so gross at one point I got uncomfortable. I highly recommend this to any horror fans. The stories are distinct and dark. I recognized the inspiration for some of them, which made them even more fun. I am now officially a fan of Adam Ellis.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I should preface this with the fact that I am already kind of a fan of Adam Ellis. I follow him on Instagram and I'm a patron on his Patreon. That said, I think that this graphic novel horror anthology was pretty well done and fairly consistent.

If you know who Adam is and follow him or have followed him at some point, some of the short comics in this will feel familiar. I believe there are two or three that he had previously posted on Patreon and his Instagram that were refined for this collection. Generally, I like Adam's storytelling. I think he does a great job with capturing the spookiness of 80s-90s horror movies and kids horror tv shows (think "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"). Even if you're not a fan of his particular art style, I think his stories are fun to read.

My personal favorites from this collection are: Milk Door, Green Ribbon (I really enjoyed the direction of his interpretation), Bus Stop, Hangnail, and Murder Party. I think these stories are particularly strong because of the storytelling which is where I think Adam struggles with occasionally. Sometimes, with his spooky stories, he tends to reach pretty far for the set-ups, but they fall apart for me once he tries too hard to emulate something else. That said, I do think his storytelling has gotten really strong, especially in this collection.

Overall, I found this to be a really enjoyable read and would recommend it for anyone.

I’m absolutely obsessed with this scary graphic novel. I read it as the premise sounded so interesting with it being compared to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, I also got Stranger Things and Goosebumps vibes from this book. Each story was so unique and different, and I could definitely see myself rereading this, especially during the spooky season. My personal favorites in this were The Green Ribbon and Murder Party. With urban legends, terrifying twists, and haunted stories, Bad Dreams In The Night is the perfect book to pick up when you’re looking for a creepy collection of stories.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with access to read this book!

I really loved this graphic novel! I enjoy Adam Ellis' work and have followed his art for a few years and even though I am not a huge horror fan I really liked these eleven stories! The way he ordered the comics for opening and closing the book was also really well thought out!

Maybe this will get me into reading more horror in the future!

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the free graphic novel in short stories format.

I really thought each story was too rushed, I felt it needed to be a whole story in one rather then a couple that finish abruptly!

Bad Dreams in the Night is a graphic novel horror short story collection inspired by events in the author’s life and classic horror stories, like the green ribbon story. I appreciated how there were various levels of scary throughout the book - from cringe to body horror to deeply unsettling. I also enjoyed that the author lists the inspiration for each story, which in some cases makes the stories even spookier!

I was pleaseantly suprised by this one! I am just now getting into graphic novels and didn't expect to enjoy this so much.
I absoloutely loved the details in the art and want at least 5 of these scenese in wall prints. I felt like I was transported back in time to reading the comic strip with my Dad on Saturday mornings. Each of the stories had something good about them but only a couple of them really stood out most to me. I am familiar with the famous Buzzfeed story so I kind of felt strongly about going into this and I am glad I did. I definitely get the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark vibes and it hits home. Great read!

This was too scary for me! Definitely an adult anthology of horror stories, despite what the cover looks like.

This took me back to reading scary stories as a kid and the thrill that I would get from how creepy they were.

I was familiar with Ellis' work before this both the Buzzfeed comics and his transition into horror storytelling. I remember seeing Viola Bloom online, and I think he has a real talent for a scary story. This anthology definitely has stories that are stronger than others, Viola Bloom is a standout of course, and I also really enjoyed Better Kate than Never and Ellis' Green Ribbon adaptation. Horror is of course subjective but I would say there were a couple stories that missed the mark, not quite managing scary or even unnerving but they were interesting concepts that I think could have gotten there if we'd sent a little longer with them. I thought the author's notes at the end were a nice touch as well, they were short, to the point, and offered a perspective on what Ellis was thinking when he created them.

There's definitely been a maturation in Ellis' style since his Buzzfeed days, something he shows plainly by redoing an old Buzzfeed comic and including the original in this work. That said, personally, his style isn't my favorite. It isn't that it was distracting from the storytelling, but there were times where the cartoonish character style stuck out from the backgrounds. That's nitpicky though, this does feel like an older version of those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark anthologies so in that way it does achieve what it was trying to do.

4 stars!
Compilation of horror short stories that has you immersed instantly!
If you like Scaries Stories to Tell in the Dark then this one is for you!
(The vibrant colors enhanced the eerie vibes!)

I read this entire book right before bed and stayed up too late to finish it, I can’t wait to see all the crazy dreams I have tonight after this. All of these stories could be stretched into movies. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, even the couple of stories I didn’t understand were still fun to read. I had fun writing down my thoughts after each story. Here are those thoughts:

The first story: Evangeline
I loved it so much!!! I want this to be a whole movie. And I need to know more. More about all of it, but especially who the creatures were that were scaring the man and the alien so badly they died in their basement

Second story: milk door
I loved where this was going but didn’t like the ending. I wish it had a different ending. Maybe more of a twist or something.

Third story: butter corn ramen
That was fucking weird and crazy. I love it. Hate that it’s a short story.

Fourth story: the green ribbon
Love it!! I feel like I’ve heard this story before, it brought back a weird memory I didn’t know I had. It was awesome. Probably my favorite one so far. I want to know how she got that way in the first place, though.

Fifth story: forest fruit
(Major spoilers ahead)
Wtf? Why? I don’t get it. Were the heads the “fruit”? Someone please explain this one to me. Was the kid killing the people and eating their heads or was someone else doing that and putting the heads in trees for the kid to eat? And how can a head seem like fruit to someone? How did he think that a human head was a fruit that has rind on it? I just don’t get it. Ohhhh wait a minute…. I think I get it. The bodies were hanging in the trees from the plane crash and he cut the heads off thinking it was fruit? But how did the bodies get into the cave? And again, how can you mistake human heads for fruit? And what was with the shirt on the rocks at the end? And what was the “problem” they had at the beach? Ugh. This one is frustrating me. Least favorite one so far. I need explanations.

Sixth story: bus stop
First of all, best illustrations of the book so far. Second of all, OH MY GODDDD! That was so good! Loved it loved it loved it. Definitely my favorite of the book so far, making the ribbon one my second and the first story my third right now. But oh my god, that was amazing. I love the entire premise of this and I need a full film based on this story. My head is spinning with all the ideas I’m imagining about this. (Spoiler alert) I thought the woman was going to kill her but she saved her life instead! Anyway, moving on to the next one…

Seventh story: hangnail
Fuck, talk about nightmare fuel. I cringed through this whole thing. Thankfully it was super short. That was terrifying, and already a fear I’ve had my whole life. That’s why I don’t pick at my hangnails like that. Very scary!

Eighth story: better Kate than never
(Spoilers)
I wish there was more backstory to this one. I liked the story, but I want to know why they were filming their lives in front of an audience and why they were replacing Kates and what even happened to the first one and all that. I just really need to understand why this is happening in the first place to understand the rest of it.

Ninth story: little house in the sea
I don’t know what to say or think about this one. I loved where I thought it was going, but it didn’t go there. It went nowhere, really. I want to take this idea and twist it and stretch it into a way more detailed story. (Spoilers) Like, where is the island? Why are they trapped there? Where did the egg come from? What species are they? What I the point? These are things I need to know. Also, there were four dots on the back of the girl’s neck, what did that mean? Was she an egg baby too? Does it just keep cycling and going on and on? What happens if the next person doesn’t take care of the new baby? Anyway… I’ll shut up and read the next one now, I suppose. I can’t stop thinking about this, though.

Tenth story: murder party
A really cool spooky story with a moral message too? Alrighty then. I loved this one, but kinda hated the message at the end. Sometimes “conspiracies” can save lives and lock up the right person. There have been several cases where years later, sometimes even 50 something years later, new evidence shows up to reveal who the actual murderer was. Kinda weird to see an author who is writing horror stories getting mad at people who speculate true crime. Anyway, besides the mean note at the end, I liked the story.

Last story (somehow because like how is it already almost done? I want more!) : viola bloom
Ok, he saved the scariest one for last. This was the scariest one by far! I’m terrified I’m going to see this lady in my nightmares now. Thanks a lot for that. I can’t sleep now. I was doing fine, and now this story has got me tripping my brain off! Fuck this story. It was so good.


I will definitely be reading more from this author after this. I’ve seen his comics before but I didn’t realize he was an actual author who made graphic novels. Now I want to read them all! His imagination is awesome and so creative! (Ps: who the hell is Oliver joy? I googled it and got nothing)

4.5 rounded up! This is what i thought of each story..warning mild spoilers!

Me and Evangeline: not scary, predictable but still kept me wanting to read. 3.5 stars

Milk Door: creepy af, this story is what had me bingeing! And the illustrations omg.4 stars

Butter Corn Ramen: body horror, and horror horror. This had me cringing and so grossed out. The corn pimples..iykyk 5 stars

Green Ribbon: a new twist on a classic kids horror story. 5 stars and i hated the male MC

Forest Fruit: predictable and short but still creepy. Loved the cliffhanger. 4 stars

Bus Stop: this was probably my top story! This was not at all scary maybe slightly creepy in the beginning but it ended up having a miraculous testimonial type of ending. This story really stuck with me. 5 stars

Hangnail: once again body horror that made me cringe. Not at all predictable and short. 4 stars

Better Kate than never: this could easily be a movie or an episode on a creepy show like criminal minds. The message really stuck with me. I kinda wish the ending was more ominous or not happy but still good. 4.5 stars

Little house on the sea: i originally didn’t see the horror in this until reading the authors message at the end but i totally understand. I still remember details of this one. 4.5 stars

Murder Party: the MC was so dumb but i loved the ending and in this world we live in with murderous podcast it’s becoming pop culture. I can def see someone doing this. 5 stars

Viola Bloom: this by far was the scariest and creepiest. I literally jumped back during a certain illustration and screamed lol. We all know which one! I guessed the ending but it still freaked me out. To the author: wtf lol

Overall i loved this, like Truly. And the authors note at the end of each short story was *chefs kiss.

This book was great! It is a graphic novel anthology of 11 bite size horror tales. I feel that it was the perfect amount of horror, not too much or too little.

I liked the variety of stories, there was body horror, jump scares, alien, classics, etc.

If you loved are you afraid of the dark or scary stories to tell in the dark you’ll really enjoy this read.

Bad dreams in the night
by Adam Ellis


The art style is gorgeous (love the eyebrows) and the choice to use blacks and whites (butter corn ramen & hangnail) or blue monochrome (little house in the sea) seperate those stories from the rest and give the reader a much needed reprieve.
My favourite stories were: Green Ribbon, Better Kate than Never & Viola Bloom
Each are very different in their own right and seek to make the reader unnerved by using human traits to show our gruesome tendencies.


THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT (TW: NSFW)


Me and Evangeline at the Farm:

Relatable. Everyone has that one old story we’ve watch / read and could never find again. Overall I didn’t find it scary, more sad.

Milk Door:

It’s giving Coraline. It’s giving ‘get me the fuck out of here’. Delulu is not the solulu, GIRL CALL THE POLICEEEEEE

Butter Corn Ramen:

We’ve all had that food we miraculously found one day and binged until we felt sick; this story perfectly encapsulates that. We truely are what we eat

Ps. I also like that this was left black & white, it makes it creepier

The Green Ribbon:

A good story is something you enjoy, a great story makes you feel emotions. I felt anger at the main character’s narcissism and apathy, I pity Jane’s situation but wonder if she knew that she was the other woman and I felt sorrow for Charlotte, she deserved better.

Forest Fruit:

Ugh. When I saw the title page I knew I’d love this story. I like the characterisation of the boy and how he never looks the coast guard nor the camera in the eye. I love and hate the open ending, I want more but I also adore the mystery of this cliffhanger!

Bus stop:

I find this story the most whimsical turn of the other stories. A magic shop that provides me what I need when I need it? Sign me up, I need a million dollars.

Hangnail:

Hangnail made me the most uncomfortable. Body horror always gets me freaked out, good job. Also hangnails SUCK

Better Kate than Never:

Reality TV these days could easily turn into horror if they just threw in chainsaws and fake blood. This story reminds me of all those shows that replace a character’s actor with another. I like how the audience is always a background & never focused on. I love Taffy, she reminds me of those family blog kids who deal with the privacy invasion, give advice to their younger (or in this case, less experienced siblings) then escapes when they’re 18. I think this one is my favourite, it makes me question so many things. What happened to the first Kate? How did this Kate appear? Has Taffy gone through this too? Are the parents in control of the show or are they puppets to the producers?

Ps. I’m glad Kate escaped but why didn’t she take my girl Taffy with her 😭

Little House in the Sea:

It depicts the isolation that single motherhood brings, I personally believe that it also delves into enmeshment / co-dependent relationships. I love the artist use of a monochromatic colour scheme as it shows the character’s perspective of her world (only seeing one way of doing things, not questioning or changing it)

Murder Party:

I agree with the author, true crime has rotted a good majority of brains (although I am being a hypocrite as I have listened to them too). It reminds me of those murder cases and the criminals get love letters, it’s just gross. I love the open ending of the podcaster, you didn’t need to show her death to create impact from it

Viola Bloom:

This was the perfect finale. This one definitely creeped me out the most, something about her unnatural body posture and Viola’s curse poem just made bile settle in my throat. And the calling card stuck to the last page? Omg brilliant, chef kiss to the author