Bogormen

Title: Velkommen til dybet
Author: Short story collection, various authors
Genre: Horror, short stories
Rating: 2/5
# pages: 286
Date read: September, 2022

I'm not usually a fan of short stories, but every once in awhile I'll come across a collection that proves me wrong, so I keep trying. This one wasn't the best I've read, but not the worst either by a long shot. Don't see myself rereading it though, so will probably pass it on after this.

As it hasn't been translated into English, I'll review the individual stories in Danish.

Manden med plasticleen: simpel, men stemningsfuld. NC skriver til et ungt publikum, men gør det godt. 4/5

Bølgen: meh… Ikke ringe, men bare lidt ligegyldig. 2/5

Gamle minder: Underlig og uafsluttet. Interessant twist, men det kom for brat, og forblev uforklaret. Et glimrende eksempel på den type npveller med åben slutning som gør at jeg typisk holder mig fra noveller generelt. 2/5

Sommerfrost: Jeg har brug for en roman-version af den her! Virkelig god og spændende, men det er jo også ekstremt meget nemmere at lave et fascinerende setup når man ikke også skal finde på en passende konklusion :-/ 4/5

Anklaget & Kun en drøm?: Kedelige, desværre. Især den sidste endte jeg med bare at skimme fordi jeg ikke brød mig om skrivestilen. 1/5 til begge

Langt ude i skoven: Ubehagelig og formålsløs. Det virker efterhånden som om de bedste noveller (nok med vilje) kom forrest i bogen. 1/5

Kun edderkopper: spring den over hvis du har bare TENDENS til araknofobi. Yrdk! 2/5

Mærket: Minder mig om det absolut værste kapitel i "Unwind" af Nea Shusterman. Jeg er tankemmelig for den var så kort. 2/5

Anonymt bidrag: Brød mig ikke om skrivestilen og endte med at skimme den. 0/5

Heksejægeren: Havde potentiale men blev for lang og derfor kedelig. 1/5

Jeg fremsætter en erklæring: spændende skrevet og havde været virkelig god, hvis den bare havde haft en ordentlig slutning. (HvorFOR tror så mange at for at være en god (gyser)novelle skal den have en åben slutning?? Det trækker automatisk 2 stjerner fra i min holdning). 3/5

Isolde Klassisk gyser sat i nutiden. Godt skrevet det meste af vejen igennem, men en lidt rodet slutning. 3/5

Backpacker Spøgelseshistorier er et automatisk nej tak herfra. Jeg har endnu ikke oplevet en der fik mig til at synes den var det værd. 2/5

Alt i alt, et gennemsnit på 2/5, hvilket passer meget godt på bogen generelt - den var OK, men ikke mere end det.

Title: Shadow Unit 1 (Ep 1.01-1.04)
Author: Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Will Shetterly
Genre: Suspense, Paranormal
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 216
Date read: April, 2018

The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts humanity's worst nightmares. But there are nightmares humanity doesn't dream are real.

The BAU sends those cases down the hall. There, Stephen Reyes and his team pursue criminals transformed by a mysterious force: the anomaly.

Welcome to Shadow Unit.


I love the TV series "Criminal Minds", so of course I had to read this fanfic paranormal take on it. Fortunately it lived up to my expectations. It's well written, and while I did originally try to match all Shadow Unit members to their Criminal Minds counterparts (Chaz is obviously Spencer Reid!), they quickly developed enough of a personality of their own for the links to become less obvious, so I could appreciate the characters in their own rights.

While there are overreaching arcs, each episode can more or less stand on its own. This book takes you half-way through "season 1".

Title: Idol Musings
Author: Various
Genre: Short-stories, essays
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 644
Date read: June, 2010

A collection of entries written by contestants of LJ Idol

I don't think the thrill of reading my own name in print is ever going to get old :-D

This collection of Idol Musings is very representative of the competition. Some entries made me laugh, some made me cry, some left me cold, and some made me sit back with a feeling that all is right with the world.

I doubt the book will register on the radar of people who haven't either participated in the writing competition themselves, or know some of the contributers, and that's a shame, because there's a lot of really, really good writing in there.

It's not a book I can sit down and read from A-Z, but for a few essays here and there, it's a pure treat.

Title: Horror.dk Author: Various Genre: Horror, short story Rating: 7/10 # pages: 253 Date read: August, 2008

Review: If you need inspiration for ghost-stories to tell on next year's camping trip - look no further. Horror.dk is all you could ask for and contains material enough for several evenings' worth of storytelling, and nightmare fodder for many nights.

Horror.dk is a new short-story collection with horror stories written by some of Denmark's very best genre authors. There is a huge variety in the stories with everything from ghost-stories as I knew them as a kid, through terrifying murder mysteries to psychological thrillers that leave everything to the reader's own hyperactive imagination. But one red thread runs through them all - they all contain an element of the supernatural.

It is almost impossible to pick a favourite story from the anthology, because they each have their highlights, so it really depends on what you're in the mood for here and now. Everybody know you can always count on Dennis Jürgensen to thrill, and The Night Train is no exception. Teddy Vork manages to create a creepy atmosphere without compare in Delila's Ringlets, the end of Stevie by Carina Evytt makes the reader cold to the very marrow of their bones, and if you read Executioner by Kenneth Bøgh Andersen after dark - it's on your own head. Still, I think it's the last short story in the book, Was is a great word by Bernhard Ribbeck I'll find myself returning to most often, because of the depth he manages to introduce to the main character in the just 30 pages the short story takes up.

Horror is a popular genre, but a genre that's difficult to do well. It takes a really talented author to write a good horror-novel as it's far too easy to either switch into 'gore' instead, or end up with a story so laden with surprise antics that the plot disappears completely. Fortunately the 12 authors of this anthology are all so familiar with the horror-genre that, that they manage to avoid both traps, and the reader is left with a thriller that it's impossible to put down.

Horror.dk is published in Denmark on September 1st, 2008 from Tellerup, and has yet to be translated to English.

Book List