Another outstanding anthology of contemporary horror, featuring some of the best names in the business, and a few newcomers. Melanie Tem's "Piano Bar Blues" was a little predictable, for me. Peter Straub's "Perdido: Fragment from a Work on Progress" really makes me want him to finish the work. "The Bird Catcher" by S. P. Somtow is haunting and poignant and perfectly creepy. A great collection in a mass market paperback, making me think I should stop shunning the little size if it is not availabl...

This is a solid horror anthology. Not that I'm surprised, considering the stellar line up. There are very few stinkers in this one. These tales are so good that it's impossible to choose a favorite. One of the highlights for me was "The Museum of Dr. Moses" by Joyce Carol Oates. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but this is above and beyond for her. Then there's "Those Vanished I Recognize" by Tom Piccirilli, which has one of the most depressing endings I've ever read. You can never go wrong with Rich...

Some great stories. Several mediocre stories. A few downright painful to get through. The most engaging and satisfying were JCO's, Melanie Tem's, Joel Lane's, Gordon Linzner's, Susan Fry's, and William Nolan's stories. On the whole, this is pretty limp noodle. None of the stories were excellent.

Some great ones in here. The Bird Catcher sticks out, as does The Window and Those Vanished I Recognize.

This is an okay set of stories. Doesn't seem to represent the best work from the authors involved. (I'm looking at you Peter Straub, Mr. Here's-a-rough-draft-of-a-chapter-of-my-new-book.)Some of the stories are plenty creepy, some are just really weird. 'Transorbital Love Probe' is exactly as strange as you might assume from the title. Also, tellingly, the only story in the whole book that really stood out from the rest for me. I've seen this one at a couple Goodwill's, and worth the .99 they ch...

Nice collection of short stories. The Peter Straub story was a little disappointing, because it was an exerpt from a novel he acknowledges will probably never be completed, and it's really incomplete as a story. Other than that, this is a good mix of stories that tend toward "intellectual" and spooky horror rather than just blood and guts.

At first glance I figured the Horror Writers Association was going to attempt another theme anthology along the same lines as the Freak Show volume edited by F. Paul Wilson a few years back. But if that was the game, only three of the contributors – Joyce Carol Oates, Charles L. Grant and S.P. Somtow – bothered to even pretend to play by the rules. That by itself was disappointment enough, because I’m a big fan of horror stories set in dark, dusty dens of collected antiquity. But even beyond fai...

This collection of stories was pretty hit and miss. And sadly for me, it came down a little heavy on the miss side. Many were dull and plodding, others attempted to be overly intellectual or artsy when they didn't need to, and others just seemed to go nowhere. And come to think of it, that seems to be a major flaw in many horror collections I've read lately. There were a few stories I enjoyed though. "Worse than Bones" by Ramsey Campbell, "Those Vanished I Recognize" by Tom Piccirilli, "Inland,

I'm sorry to say this is bound to be a cranky review. But then I find nothing more annoying than a mediocre short story anthology. Were The Museum of Horrors a novel, I could have closed it after about 50 pages concluding it wasn't worth my time. But with this, I lurched from story to story hoping to strike gold. Disappointing since since this was billed in the back cover as the "Winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology of the Year." I can't even say that this collection of eighteen

This is a collection of short stories. I started by reading "The Museum of Dr. Moses" by Joyce Carol Oates. It was fantastic up until the ending, which in my opinion was incredibly disappointing and uninteresting. I could think of a couple different ways I would've ended it, all of which are better than what it had. After that, the other stories I read were decent, but not stellar.

Some gems in this anthology most especially S.P. Somtow "The Bird Catcher" other excellence by Lisa Merton, Joyce Carol Oates and Peter Straub.

There are some good stories in this compendium, but it is not in the least bit scary, so the title is a little misleading. These stories would not be out of place in Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected , but for the most part, don’t belong in a horror collection

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW:Had occasion to re-read one story here: "Pound Rots In Fragrant Harbor" and adjusted my rating down from a solid Good to a flawed Good. The story of a man who made a deal with some unknown power for an extended life, and now finds his debt coming due as his body rots away, poisoning those around him, and how his destiny intersects with a young Chinese girl who has been given a mission in life. Not bad, but a bit more on the "dark fantasy" side of things.

A small number of very good stories gets a little overwhelmed by the decidedly weaker three-quarters or so.

Picked this up because 1) it's an HWA anthology 2) it's a horror anthology with more than one woman included which is surprisingly hard to find and 3) it's called the Museum of Horrors, which is like two of my favorite concepts put together. While many of the stories were not on-theme at all, to my disappointment, they were still quite enjoyable and I didn't skip any, which is rare for me in an anthology.

If you’re looking for “horror” here, just crack open this book at the book store, flip over to Richard Laymon’s “Hammerhead,” read it, then close the book and put it back on the shelf. From beginning to end, it was difficult to get through and boring as hell.

From back of cover: Here for the first time in paperback are eighteen original tales of terror and the grotesque Those two underlined words fit three of the tales. The other 15 makes good shorts, but couldn't scare a seven year old. Glad I only bought this for a dollar.These are my favorite and only Hammerhead fits "TERROR AND GROTESQUE"Kings of Outer Space by Peter Akins: a little trip of sci-fi and where her husband is? 3.5 starsInland, Shoreline by Darren O. Godfrey: a boys dad is nothing to...

To be honest, I was kind of disappointed. A lot of the stories I just really didn't get into. Richard Laymon as always didn't disappoint and is the reason why I gave it a three but all the other stories were just I felt like crap like we have to publish this book quickly lets just throw these stories and say it is horror. Heck the second to last story was somewhat offensive as a christian talking about how Judas betrayed Jesus.

My expectations were high for this book, considering the lineup. Unfortunately, there are far too many stinkers to rate this any higher than a 1. The Oates story was probably the best, even with the anti-climactic ending. Others ranged from merely decent to downright stupid and pointless. Not worth anyone's time.

Bit of a misnomer to call this book “read” — I took it out of the VPL to read one Charles L. Grant story called “Whose Ghosts These Are.” A quiet, spooky story about a retired beat cop looking for a hobby and finding something else. Sought Grant out based on the recommendation of Nathan Ballingrud, who wrote WOUNDS.