Search - Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories

Disappointing. Recommend Wolfsbane and Mistletoe instead of this book.

22 authors come together to write some humorous paranormal short stories. For me there weren't many laugh out loud moments, but some disturbing moments, maybe. Some of my favorites were:

THE BEST

KELLEY ARMSTRONG - THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD
This one inspired me to add a character to a book I am writing. I just enjoyed the liteness of it and the mixture of the paranormal.

JOE R. LANSDALE - MR. BEAR
Mr. Bear was one disturbing bear. I don't know if this is really one of the best, but I will never forget it. The beginning was hard to get into, but I kept reading ... and, you know, I don't know if I should have.

JEFF STRAND - THE BELL FROM HELL
This was one of the funniest things I have read in a while. It's about a guy who works in an office building and keeps a bell on his desk. He says if it is rung 666 times, the devil will appear.

JIM BUTCHER - DAY OFF
I had never read anything by Jim Butcher before, but I had seen some of the Dresden Files on TV. So most of the time I was picturing the actor who played Dresden, and I enjoyed it. Most of the reviews say this story was lacking the regular horror of the Dresden stories, but I didn't mind the lack of it.

LUCIEN SOULBAN - HELL IN A HANDBASKET
Also a little disturbing but humorous at the same time. I only remember bits and pieces. I think there was something about a baby sent down to Hell in a handbasket, and the demons were trying to figure out why it was there. The ending ends up being pretty funny.

NANCY KILPATRICK - BITCHES OF THE NIGHT
About a typecast vampire from Transylvania and his three bitches of the night.
A funny story; it won't have you rolling on the floor, but it was decent.


ONLY OKAY

CHARLAINE HARRIS - AN EVENING WITH AL GORE
WILL LUDWIGSEN - A GOOD PSYCHO IS HARD TO FIND
SHARYN MCCRUMB - DEAD HAND
STEVEN SAVILE - DEAR PRUDENCE



UNMEMORABLE

CHRISTOPHER WELCH - THE ELDRITCH PASTICHE
MATT VENNE - ELVIS PRESLEY AND THE BLOODSUCKER BLUES
MARK ONSPAUGH - OLD SCHOOL
J.A. KONRATH & F. PAUL WILSON - THE SOUND OF BLUNDER
D. L. SNELL - LOVE SEAT SOLITAIRE
DON D'AMMASSA - NO PROBLEM
JANET BERLINER - HIGH KICKS AND MISDEMEANOURS
ERIC JAMES STONE - PR PROBLEMS
SHERRILYN KENYON - WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD
MIKE RESNICK - A VERY SPECIAL GIRL
NANCY HOLDER - I KNOW WHO YOU ATE LAST SUMMER

I'm a fan of paranormal books, and I like all of the authors on the cover - Kelley Armstrong, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jim Butcher, so I got this. But I'm not a horror fan, and this turned out to be fairly uninteresting. It says it's humourous horror, but I didn't think very many of the stories were funny.

The big names:
Kelley Armstrong - Jaime Vargas from the Women of the Otherworld series is being pestered by a ghost.
Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden has a day off scheduled.
Charlaine Harris - Features environmentalists with a big idea for change. Not a Sookie story.
Sherrilyn Kenyon - A guy gets an unexpected inheritance. Does not appear to be related to any of her series.

The only ones I thought were actually funny were by Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Mike Resnick, and Eric James Stone.

Some of the stories are great, some are okay, and others I don't get. My faves were "Mr. Bear," "Hell in a Handbasket," and "Day Off." I love Charlaine's Southern Vamp series, but the story in the book didn't impress me much.

Some of the stories sucked and didn't seem like horror stories.Overall was ok.

Personally I thought this book was great. It was funny and disturbing...and I liked it!