What a perfectly gloomy, rainy day to post a review of Poe and his devotees.

Quick reminder that, while I work for the publisher of this book, my thoughts and opinions about it are entirely my own.

Okay, so admittedly I picked this one up more because it’s frankly a scandal that I haven’t read more Poe by this point in my literary life—so, success! I’m assuming this book is as much about encouraging enjoyment of classic Gothic horror as it is about entertaining with the retellings, and it worked for me. I’d read the Poe first (trying not to stab people on the subway with my pencil while underlining vocab words) and then read the retelling.

It was a great way to get me started. I remember being frustrated even by stories I enjoyed in high school, like “The Masque of the Red Death”, so knowing I’d have the modern adaptations as breaks helped get me started. And guess what? Surprise, surprise (sarcasm—I really shouldn’t have been), post-English major it is now far easier for me to comprehend what’s going on. Doesn’t mean there isn’t still an unusually high number of words that I don’t understand—hence the subway pencil adventures.

As in any collections, I found some of the adaptations worked better than others for me. A few, like “She Rode a Horse of Fire” (“Metzengerstein”), “Red” (“The Masque of the Red Death”), and even “It’s Carnival!” (“The Cask of Amontillado”) (the last of which I did like) were basically just straightforward modern adaptations of the story. The ones I enjoyed the most had more of a twist to them, like:

>> “Night-Tide”, a story that recast the poem Annabel Lee as a tragic and touching historical love story between two young women who meet at a seaside resort each year

>> “A Drop of Stolen Ink” which put a light sci-fi spin on “The Purloined Letter” and builds a robust, complex world in a short story

>> “Happy Days, Sweetheart”, which recasts “The Telltale Heart” in light of the frustration many women felt in the wake of the 2016 election and that women of color face every day of their lives. The final sentence is an absolutely fantastic sendup of the original story’s end—my eyebrows jumped so high, the in-public equivalent of a jaw-drop!

>> “The Oval Filter”, an adaptation of “The Oval Portrait” that turned Poe’s straightforward and, to me, dull-ish story into a mystery with a, to me, more Poe-ish ending—and which, sadly, may not age well since the “portrait” is now a series of Instagram photos

and

>> “The Murders in the Rue Apartelle, Boracay,” which relocated “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” to an urban fantasy Philippines and gave us a trans protagonist with an unhesitant love interest and an ending that still surprised…if maybe not quite as much as the flabbergasting ending of Poe’s original

And then there was “The Raven (Remix)”, a found poem/short and creepy ghost story created by blacking out, well, almost all of the original poem. I was impressed the author found it there, but also a little put out by how much of the original poem was gone. So mixed feelings on that one.

As for Poe’s stories, well, I’m still going to be a die-hard fan of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Raven”—the first for how much is said in so little (I love that we’re never really given a reason why Montresor is getting revenge on Fortunato—Jackson gives us a little more info), and the second for its intricate rhyme scheme and ironic fatalism. I’m not even going to try to defend myself for those cliché reasons to like those two, okay? But I also enjoyed discovering “Hop-Frog” and the first detective story ever, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (as delightfully ridiculous as it was).

Now, I do have to admit that Adler’s editing of this collection disappointed me. It seems to me that the whole point of separating the adaptations from the originals might be to whet readers’ appetites for the genre, so that someone reading straight from front to back might venture into the Poe once they completed the retellings. But Poe is not necessarily easy for many people to read; I loved Frankenstein in high school but, at the same time, I struggled with “The Masque of the Red Death”—and this text offers no help whatsoever. Latin and French go untranslated, antiquated and SAT-level vocab goes undefined, and cultural allusions go unglossed.

I was also perplexed by a couple of the story versions selected for printing. “Hop-Frog” seemed to be a 1912 version that had what appears to be a misspelling (three earlier editions had the word “flax” instead of “flu”, which makes more sense to me in context). Only “Hop-Frog” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” had a few annotations and one spelling correction/modernization, but those notes were made by previous editors of now-Public Domain collections, not by Adler. The inconsistency between absolutely no helpful notes and a smattering of them in two stories was strange and a bit jarring, especially since there are plenty of Public Domain versions to choose from. [Also, I know it’s not required for Public Domain works, but none of the stories’ sources were cited. C’mon, really?]

So yeah, in my opinion there wasn’t enough heavy lifting on the editing in the Poe part of this collection. Translations of the Latin and French would be, to me, the bare minimum.

But I’m a nerd, and I had a lot of fun annotating my copy with all this info. So…maybe I owe Adler thanks for letting me geek out and look up vocab, forgotten 19th-century writers, 17th century convicts-turned-undercover-cops (seriously, look up Eugene Vidocq, he’s incredible), and Greek mythological figures. (And please don’t tell me I wasted my time doing this because annotated copies already exist. I know. I know.)

I still whole-heartedly recommend this perfect Halloween read for lovers of creepy short stories, Victorian Gothic horror, and, of course, Edgar Allan Poe.


Quote Roundup in order of appearance

I feel horrible saying this, but frankly I thought the very first story, a straight-forward retelling, was the most boring of the bunch. The second, “The Glittering Death” for “The Pit and the Pendulum”, was more of a departure and seemed to sit squarest in the horror genre, but also didn’t do much for me--though the person writing in the New York Times Book Review loved it, so obviously this is a matter of opinion! For me,His Hideous Heart hit its stride with the third story, “Night-Tide”.

p. 59) [A serial killer is on the loose and an FBI officer is telling kids to be prepared.]
“So here’s a little practical advice” …
“Fuck, why don’t we all just lock ourselves in our bedrooms until we’re thirty?” Mark rolled his eyes, seeking our agreement, but we left him hanging.
It wasn’t his fault. He’s gay, but he’s a boy, and he hasn’t heard the exact same advice spewed at him about every activity that might get him out of the house. Going to the mall? Make sure people know where you are! Staying out late? Keep your phone with you at all times! Going to a party? Don’t you dare leave your drink unattended!
There are so many reasons why guys should read this collection as well as girls (okay, mostly because it’s just plain good). No matter how times we women/women-presenting people say this, guys just don’t seem to get it.

p. 65) A vocab word in the modern section! Don’t worry, I’m not going to type up everything (anything) in the Poe part, but for the modern bits…
gelid: very cold, icy.

p. 114) Bottom line: People didn’t like me, and the cruelest twist was that what they didn’t like were the precise qualities that made me worthy of winning.
I…hardly know where to start quoting “Happy Days, Sweetheart". Seriously, just about every other page has a dog-ear. There are so many references to the 2016 election, to the crap that women and especially women of color have to put up with, and then just some great writing. Like Poe did in the original story, Kuehn fits a lot of emotion in a little space.



Kind of weird tagging for spoilers in a collection of retellings, but just in case…

p. 116) I excelled at everything I put my heart into. Jonah did, too, of course, and there were times I longed to tell him to slow down. To screw up. To get messy or say something offensive so that blue-eyed corn-fed charm would tarnish. Just a little.
Gah, this friggin’ guy. Grr… But I can’t help being a bit frustrated by the symbolism of his name. You toss Jonah overboard but he goes on to save a city. Even, in this case, in freakin’ death.

p. 118) More vocab!
high hat: that upper pair of cymbals on a drum set.

p. 121) My alibi was easy and my distress well-rehearsed. I only doubted these cops would see anything honorable in me. After all, I’d been misjudged my entire life. There was no reason to assume this would stop in the face of my proclaimed innocence. In fact, reason could only conclude it would not.
The anxiety here was palpable. Props to Kuehn for really making me feel it!

p. 123) My gosh, that ending. My gosh.



p. 143) More vocab, which I ought to have looked up ages ago.
unseelie: evil and malevolent fairies
seelie: good and benevolent fairies

p. 179) jacquard: fabric with an elaborate pattern made on a jacquard loom (a frickin’ complicated looking thing invented in the 1700s that simplified weaving those complex patterns and apparently used paper punch cards to set the patterns, which makes me think of early computers)

p. 193) I liked the idea behind “The Fall of the Bank of Usher,” but it felt a little rushed at times, like a couple descriptive words were missing, just enough to disorient me. I can’t help but feel that maybe Wilde tried to do a little too much with a little too little space. I think it would have made a better novella.



p. 250) But why tell me all that if he could get in trouble, diba? I thought long and hard about it.
And I realized it’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.
D'aw! I agree, nameless narrator!



p. 276) …in truth, the characteristics of my beloved, her rare learning, her singular yet placid cast of beauty, and the thrilling and enthralling eloquence of her low musical language, made their way into my heart…
I had so much respect for Poe in this moment. The very first reason the narrator lists for falling in love with Ligeia is her intelligence. Can’t have been very common in the ~1830s!

p. 405) As he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so she was called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment… I regarded her with utter astonishment… Her figure, her air, her features—all, in their very minutest development were those—were identically, (I can use no other sufficient term,) were identically those of Roderick Usher who sat beside me.
I was so excited when I read this to see what someone writing today would do with it. The result wasn’t quite as gender-bending as I’d hoped, but still had a pretty darn good message about identity attached to it.

p. 428) I was astonished by how much the setup for "The Murders in the Rue Morgue” resembled the setup for the Sherlock Holmes stories. One can only wonder whether, if Poe had survived, Aguste Dupin would now be the best-known detective with the most associated film and book adaptations of any fictional hero, instead of Conan Doyle’s creation.

Finally, finally, we reach the end of this epic review:

I was a bit confused by the decision to include “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” the story that introduced detective Auguste Dupin, after “The Purloined Letter,” one of his later adventures and one that had a far denser and less reader-friendly beginning. I mean, I totally get and agree with wanting to use “The Murders in the Rue Apartelle, Boracay” as the crowning piece of the collection—I would gobble up a whole book set in this world!—but “A Drop of Stolen Ink” is also excellent and wouldn’t be a bad last note. Actually, the final punch of “Happy Days, Sweetheart” would have been a perfect final punch for the whole collection, especially because it’s based on Poe’s most famous tale, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and the one that gave the collection its title. ( )

I really loved this collection of short stories. There was only one that I skipped because I don't like "blackout" poetry.

The characters in this book represent different races and there is good LGBTQ representation. Some of them were sad, most of them creepy, but they were all really good.

I gave this a four-star review because of the blackout poetry and because there was a short story that I had to refer to a dictionary at the end of the story to understand some of the terminologies. It seems that the author of this one tried to cram as many Filipino phrases into the first four pages as possible, then only used it here and there through the rest of the story. I think I would have liked it better if it had been scattered throughout more evenly.

The other thing I personally didn't like (but get why it is necessary) is the original Poe tales that the stories are based on are published in the back. I think I would have preferred more stories instead. the Poe tales are easily found and read online so I don't feel that I personally gained anything from having them in there. I get that they were added for people who were not as familiar with Poe. ( )

I've only ever read a few of Edgar Allen Poe's works so I appreciated that the book include the original tales at the end. Overall, I enjoyed most of the stories while I found others hard to care about. For the ones that I was able to get into, I enjoyed thoroughly. It's interesting to see these tales written into a more modern setting, so I think this will be a great way to introduce younger generations to Poe's work. And I definitely think that Poe fans will find an appreciation for the re-tellings. ( )

As the title mentions, these are 13 short stories that take those haunting Edgar Allen Poe tales and brings them back to life. Some were really good and I could easily understand how the original tale inspired it. Some, well, were lackluster. Annabel Lee is one of my favorite tales, but the retelling just fell flat for me. Same goes with the retelling for A Tell-Tale Heart, I just wanted a little more. I did appreciate though that the original stories were included in the back for refreshing my memory or to introduce the less than familiar tales. I just had high expectations for this book and was left wanting a little bit more in the end. ( )

Overall a 3.5 rating.

There were some gems in here, but very few. I particularly liked the offerings from Tiffany D. Jackson (though not much of a retelling than a rehashing with a spin), Amanda Lovelace, Hillary Monahan, Lamar Giles and Rin Chupeco. However, most of the other authors takes fell a bit flat. The most dissapointing being the retelling of The Tell Tale Heart. However it was overall enjoyable. I also got to re-read some of my favorites from Poe. ( )