Book Reviews
The Only Alien on the Planet
Her life seems to be going pretty normally, but, one day, Caulder convinces her to go meet Smitty Tibbs, that beautiful, unearthly boy who never speaks or even smiles.
As Ginny becomes drawn into Smitty's life, she realizes that, behind his placid exterior, there lives a brilliant but deeply troubled human being. And that trying to draw this person out may destroy him.
- Bridget
by Kristen D. Randle
After her big brother and best friend, Paul, goes off to college and she is uprooted from the only home she has ever known, Ginny feels completely alone in the world. Soon, though, she makes several friends: Hally, a pretty, outgoing girl, and Caulder, her next-door-neighbor, a smart, friendly boy.
What can I say? Ten stories from the most horrific writer of all time. These tales have withstood the test of nearly a century and a half, so they’ve got to be good! Up until I read this collection, I’d only read “The Raven”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Black Cat”, but now I’m hooked.
The titles included are “The Tell-Tale Heart”: a tale of a murderer so insanely bent on killing a man because of his “vulture eye” that he goes to extreme measures to do so (yes, I’ve seen that episode of The Simpsons), “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”: a really sickening story about a guy who hypnotizes an dying guy, and thus keeps him semi-alive for seven months, “The Pit and the Pendulum”: that one was simply weird, and “The Tale of the Ragged Mountains”: yet another incredibly odd story. Some more in the collection were “A Decent Into the Maelstrom”: I didn’t really appreciate that one, as I’m not a big boat person, “The Black Cat”: when a man becomes so obsessed with killing his cat that not even his wife can stand in the way, “Thou Art the Man”: one of Poe’s few tales that doesn’t involve the supernatural or other eerie occurrences, and three others.
These stories can, and should be read multiple times and never loose their effect. Ten Great Mysteries is a great book for both the hardened Poe fan and the newcomer to Poe’s glorious work.
- Robin
