Audiobook review of His Hideous Heart

Item: His Hideous Heart
Rating: 3.5
Author: Stormi

September 21, 2019 Stormi Audiobook Reviews, Book Reviews 2

I received this book for free from Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

His Hideous Heart by Dahlia Adler, Kendare Blake, Rin Chupeco, Lamar Giles, Tessa Gratton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Stephanie Kuehn, Amanda Lovelace, Marieke Nijkamp, Emily Lloyd-Jones, Hillary Monahan, Caleb Roehrig, Fran Wilde
Length: 14 hours and 13 minutes
Genres: Horror, Retelling
Published by Flatiron Books on September 10, 2019
Pages: 480
Format: Audiobook
Source: Macmillan Audio

Narrator: Various
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Thirteen of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.
Contributors include Kendare Blake (reimagining “Metzengerstein”), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morge”), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).

Also by this author: The Girl From the Well, The Suffering, Mary: The Summoning

Here is what I thought

I don’t normally read short story collections but since this was a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe I was curious to give it a try and see what the authors came up with and hope that I like them! I am not going to recap them since they are short stories I am just going to list them and say if I liked them or not and then give my overall thoughts of the book as a whole.

She Rode a Horse of Fire by Kendare Blake (Metzengerstein) – This one was decent.
It’s Carnival by Tiffany Dee Jackson (The Cask of Amontillado) – It was okay.
Night Tide by Tessa Gratton (Annabelle Lee) – Didn’t like it.
The Glittering Death by Caleb Roehrig (The Pit and the Pendulum) – I really liked this one!
A Drop of Stolen Ink by Emily Lloyd Jones (The Purloined Letter) – Meh.
Happy Days Sweetheart by Stephanie Kuehn (The Tell-Tale Heart) – Decent.
The Raven Remix by Amanda Lovelace (The Raven) – Eh what was that…nope.
Changeling by Marieke Nijkamp (Hop-Frog) – Eh okay.
The Oval Filter by Lamar Giles (The Oval Portrait) – Didn’t care for it.
Red by Hillary Monahan (Mask of the Red Death) – Just okay.
Ligeia by Dahlia Adler (Ligeia) -DNFed
The Fall of the Bank of Usher by Fran Wilde (Fall of the House of Usher) – Decent.
The Murders in the Rue Rapatel by Rin Chupeco (The Murders in the Rue Morgue) – It was okay.

After you read the retellings then you get to read the originals by Edgar Allen Poe and even with those there are some I like more than others. I do prefer the originals more than the retellings but overall the retellings were okay. My favorite of the retellings was The Glittering Death and of course you can see there was one I didn’t finish.

I can see a lot of people who are huge fans of short stories enjoying this collection more than I did but I did like it for the most part. Most of these authors I had never even heard of so at least I know if I enjoyed their story I might enjoy more from them!

So if your a fan of short stories, retellings or just Edgar Allen Poe then give it a try.

The Narrator

There was a different narrator for each story and somewhere better than others but overall I liked them. I think I seen where the authors narrated their own stories but not entirely sure, but anyway they were pretty decent.