Samantha Kolesnik

I'm not sure if it's me but I read two short story anthologies this year and I didn't really like either of them. I really wanted to like this one too. Kolesnik's TRUE CRIME is an amazing book that I enjoyed. I was hoping for something equally strong. However, when it came down to it, the stories here were mostly just there. Enjoyable but then forgettable. There was only one that I liked enough to consider a favorite and to list below. The others, well, I forgot more of them than I remembered.

"The Cucuy of Cancun" by V. Castro - A demon living in Cancun enjoys her job but needs a change.… (mer)

My worst vacation experiences amount to nothing more than sunburn, missed opportunities, and that end-of-the-week readiness to return home. But you hear stories of vacations gone wrong. Missed flights, unfortunate accidents, disease, and untimely death

And then you have WORST LAID PLANS, a collection of vacation stories that are even more insidious and terrifying in their telling

Like with all anthologies, there are some that fall short of the mark and others that knock it out of the park. On the whole though this collection really works. I also really appreciated the variety of vacation locales, from the typical beachfront resorts and cross country road trips to less common places like underground caverns and the streets of Malaysia

Overall this collection of stories was a lot of fun. I like books and movies set in exotic locations or about vacations gone wrong, so it was neat to get a bunch of snapshot stories in this vein. And while some were less than spectacular, most I really enjoyed.… (mer)