Book Review: Fright Time (1995)

Well, well, well.

We’re back again!

Thanks to all you guys who checked out past posts and followed this blog or on Instagram, just want to say thank you after being awol for MONTHS and I love doing this so just seeing activity and views, makes me feel good.

If you missed previous blog posts such as Rosemary’s Baby, HP Lovecraft or The Beast of Loughby Island, I’ve linked them if you’re curious. Now this might be the last reading review for a hot second because the last book I just finished was Norse Mythology and that’s not horror though there were some wild moments in that. And the next book is Stephen King’s IT and that will take a while. So, with that said, more quirkier posts from the past will make a return and I may do some previous book reviews here from 2023.

Today, however, we’re gonna talk about a young adult/teen, maybe middle school geared horror book that I swore was from the 80s. It is not. It is a series from the 90s and in a world of Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark books and Fear Street, we have Fright Time. 3 “spine-tingling tales” that range from a haunted battleground to a haunted house, I will dissect all three to rank them from favorite to maybe it needed more for me to care.

Spoilers beware!

This is like a mini anthology horror series and I didn’t realize that until I noticed three different authors. I initially thought it was one author doing three stories but here we are. What I will say off the bat is that the writing styles of these authors felt similar and I wonder if that’s on purpose. I think how they approached their stories were different enough that one will rank lower (slightly) than the other two. We have “Don’t Breathe”, “Overnight-Mare” and “It’s in the Attic” and out of the three, which one sounds interesting in the title alone? Leave a comment below on that one!

The best one, in my opinion, is the first story, “Don’t Breathe”. I must have blacked out at some point prior to reading this because the summaries of the stories are on the back and this one reads “Ricky is excited when his family suddenly moves to Florida. But the new town is almost too perfect. Everyone is too friendly, too polite, even the kids! And what’s this mysterious stuff being piped through the vents? Even in his own house? Maybe it’s just his imagination, Ricky thinks, until he discovers the hideous secret the whole town is hiding. But will it be too late…?” To be fair, this is a pretty good summary of the story. We follow Ricky, who is asthmatic, and his family moving to Florida when his father gets a new job and he has to start right away. This story handles isolation, friendship, the lack of trust between kids and adults, and spooky gas. I gave this one a 3.5 out of 5. Not bad at all.

Second place goes to “It’s in the Attic” and the summary reads “Maddy’s friends envy for living in such a mysterious old house. But Maddy’s not so sure. Not when candles blow themselves out, stairs creak when there’s nobody on them, and a strange haunted voice calls out for help. But when Maddy starts to speak in the voice of the ghost, can anyone help her?” If you’ve seen the episode of Hey Arnold, “Ghost Bride”, it’s legit the same kind of story with a jilted and very scorned would be bride, slight possession of Maddy, and another point of view of new kid entering a new environment from moving into a new town, house, school, etc. What I enjoyed about this story is the discussion of the bride and her story and how it affected her in living life and as a ghost as well as the house that Maddy lives in. It’s like all of the trauma is still attached to the house, not just in presence. And I also like that Maddy has her brother as a support system through this, even the new friends a little as well. I gave this one a 3.3 out of 5.

And the last story is “Overnight-Mare” and honestly, it doesn’t do anything new. “The guys are all geared up for an overnight camp out. Jumping a fence (that was the FIRST mistake) into off limits territory makes it seem even more daring (dumb choices). But nobody’s ready (CLEARLY) for the ghosts of a long-ago battle who drag kids into a life or death war to finish. In the heat of attack, who’s the real enemy… and who’s even real?” I wonder if the author, Anne Wolfe, was inspired by Gettysburg because that was ALL I kept thinking of when I read this so in a way, this became predictable. I did like some aspects of 2 out of the 3 kids being “involved” in battle while another one just slept? I do wish it was a little more ballsy like, perhaps the kids don’t get to leave. But we need to have some hope, I assume. This received a 3 out of 5 from me.

With all that being said, if I came across the other books under the Fright Time umbrella in the wild, I’d pick it up. I think these stories are more advanced than Goosebumps when it comes to subject matter and if you don’t want comedic relief like RL Stine establishes, these are more up your alley. I will give it credit for that. It’s on par with Are You Afraid of the Dark as well as being more serious and mature and there’s variety.

I enjoyed this anthology for the most part and give credit where it’s due. Fright Time, 1995, check it out and I will see you guys next week!