Fright Time #1 (Fright Time, #1) by Rochelle Larkin

Fright Time #1 (Fright Time, #1) Reviews

• 
  Josiah

  Imitations of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books seemed to be everywhere in the 1990s. Most put their own spin on the concept of juvenile horror, and Fright Time did so by including three short stories in each book, written by a different trio of little-known authors in every volume. This first installment begins with Madman on Main Street by Elaine A. Kule. Twelve-year-old Michael Dane has no enthusiasm for school, but works hard on his newspaper route to earn money for all the personal expenses his parents won't cover. He doesn't mind waking up before the sun...until a new name pops up on his customer list. Abner Hilks lives at 200 Main Street, a residence abandoned for many years and humored to be haunted, and the first time Michael meets him, the old man creeps him out. He can read Michael's thoughts, and stalks him around the neighborhood and beyond. Without Michael's consent, the old man uses his supernatural powers to improve the quality of his schoolwork, with the implied understanding that soon he will demand something in return. Can Michael stop Abner before he shifts to terrorizing the whole town?
  
  Story number two is It's Almost Dark by Jane Ehlers. Spencer Kadison and Ben have been friends most of their lives. Mrs. Kadison tells fortunes for a living and Mr. Kadison creates scary picture books for kids, so their house is an endless source of entertainment. But when Mr. K. uses a new printer to make copies of his illustrations of some fierce-looking goblins, Ben and Spencer realize they're all in trouble. Every time Mr. K. makes a copy, the goblin appears somewhere in the real world, as big and nasty as in his stories. One night when Mr. and Mrs. K. are away and Ben sleeps over at Spencer's house, the goblins kidnap Spencer's little sister Shannon and threaten to do worse. The boys' only hope is to use the printer to conjure a hero who can conquer the goblins, but surviving to implement the plan is easier said than done.
  
  The finale for this first Fright Time collection is Scary Harry by Terry Patrick. Jesse and his fourteen-year-old big brother Harry are used to moving because of their father's job as a computer software consultant. The brothers are close, so they don't mind working together to help the family move, but Harry's attitude changes when they arrive in Parkville. He barely speaks to Jesse, and is getting bigger, hairier, and eating bananas by the dozen. His parents are unconcerned and Jesse has no idea what's going on until his new neighbor, a girl named Izzy, tells him a scientist used to live in the house. He did crazy experiments with animals; what if something he left behind is causing Harry to change? Jesse and Izzy sneak around searching for evidence, but when Harry catches them, he acts more aggressive than he ever used to. Would he hurt his brother? Jesse doesn't want to find out. He and Izzy go looking for the scientist who moved away, hoping he knows how to fix Harry's problem, but will all end well between these brothers who used to be good friends?
  
  Baronet Books, the imprint that published the Great Illustrated Classics series for kids, was also responsible for Fright Time, and I see similarities in overall design and writing style. The three stories in this book don't stand up to scrutiny, but there are a scattering of interesting moments. Madman on Main Street is probably best of the three, followed by Scary Harry, with It's Almost Dark a distant third. The stories would be more effective if their foundational logic were steadier, but it's possible I'd rate this book one and a half stars. Certain Fright Time collections were better, and I recommend those. The series has some fun to offer.
• 
  Thomas

  Well, it's Fright Time's turn for a second round. The first one was good, mostly a solid collection of 3 60-ish page stories, although they could be a bit rough around the edges in places. This is the first one, so was a good start? Let's see.
  
  Madman on Main Street (Elaine A Kule):
  
  This one I'm not sure how to feel about. Micheal is a not so great student with a paper route. He delivers to Main Street and meets a man named Abner, who appears to be strange. Soon he finds his assignment are being magically finished for him, and Abner seems to be doing him a solid. However, the guilt soon gets to him, since he's now being praised for improvement he's not actually making, and Abner may have his reasons for doing this. I liked that there was a bit to this one as far as theming goes. Micheal actually does grow a tad by the end, as Abner takes advantage of his laziness and such.
  
  It's an interesting angle and that stuff honestly did work for me. There's this neighbor girl named Cara, who I liked. Micheal first finds her annoying but later teams up with her and grows to not mind her, which I liked. However, there's some drawbacks here. This is the same author as the first story in the one I reviewed for the blog and sadly the writing has flaws here too. It's hard to described but the way Micheal talks can be a tad annoying and a bit too "Cheeky". It personally didn't go into being totally unbreable, it's not Ghosts of Camp Massacre or even Trick or Trap levels, but it's enough to take away from it. Hell, there's a typing error at one point, it says "I was Mom" instead of "It was Mom". Oof.
  
  Abner's plan is weird, kind of wild in a sort of fun but just kind of odd way. I don't get really why he's going this far too do this. The solution is slightly less of a deus ex machine as in the one I reviewed, but it still feels a bit odd, and a character kind of shows up in a forced way.
  
  It just aura of feeling a bit weak despite some solid aspects to the story. With some tweaking, this could have been very solid but as it is, it's just fine, with solid parts and weaker aspects.
  
  It's Almost Dark (Jane Ehlers)
  
  Ben likes to hang out with his friend Spencer, who has an interesting family. Notably, his dad works on kids books and computer games, doing designs for the art in them. One he day he buys a new state of the art scanner, that they soon discover can make the characters put in it come to life. Specifically, it unleashes a goblin that terrorizes the kids.
  
  I enjoyed this one. It didn't make much sense at all, and it was out there, but it was fun. The action was constant from the get go and it didn't really drag that much. There was decent danger, including towards a little girl, and it was an enjoyable romp. Nothing deep at all, and logically it's weird, but I can't say it was dull or annoying for the most part. It didn't even have a deus ex machina, as it was setup early on, thankfully. It's an odd solution but it kinda fit.
  
  And it's the first of these I've read to have a twist ending, abiet a predictable one but not terrible. Also, they say Hell, starting to think it's more common in these than I thought. So yeah, dumb fun.
  
  Scary Harry (Terry Patrick)
  
  Jesse's family moves to a new house, where a supposed mad scientist used to live. Apparently he made weird animal hybrids. Soon, his brother Harry starts acting strange, and a bit more...ape-like. I enjoyed this one, probably the most consistent one in here. The brothers care about each other, so thus Jesse is concerned when Harry starts turning into an ape man. It gets started early and flows well, with enough action and suspense.
  
  The reason behind this is pretty silly but at least it's there I guess, and I've seen worse. That and I was ready to be done so i just accepted anything. The solution isn't a deus ex machina at least, it comes in a bit late but is established and used properly. This has another twist ending and the thing it is a payoff too is...odd for sure. Not a bad twist itself I guess.
  
  However, there is another blatant typo, saying "There's no room that could a lab", when I think it's supposed to say "hold a lab". Geez, the editors on these were not great at their job here. Also, they established this sword having marking that look like monkeys and I thought that would payoff. The sword kind of does, but not the markings. Weird. Anyway, it flowed and it was enjoyable, which is all I ask for. And again, more kinda nice sibling stuff here.
  
  Overall, this one was lesser than the one I reviewed. There was some creativity and fun to be had, mostly in the latter two stories. They were silly and weird logically, but did what they set out to do well enough, at least enjoyment wise. That first one at least tries for character stuff but just had some clunky execution along the way.
  
  #9 just had more solid stories with more to them, even if this had better solutions most of the time. This was more in the silly but fun in the right mindset camp. If you can past certain things, it's not bad but honestly I'm huge on these so far. They could be better for sure, but given what they are, I guess you can go for much worse out there. The stories are certainly too long though, the time it took to get through this alone is why I won't read another for a while.
  
  I don't have many in general anyway so whatever. Still, it was fine enough I guess, not lesser than #9, mostly. Bright side, randomizer decided I'm going backwards so next is back to Spinetinglers, with one that looks interesting, I'm hyped for that at least.
  
  See ya then, and also a Fear Street in a few days.
  
• 
  Alice

  Maybe a 3.5. This is a nostalgic read, so I might like it more because of that. However, I did not care that much for the 3rd story "Scary Harry" I know it is a kid book, but it just seemed way too far fetched.
• 
  Colton

  Fright Time was a YA horror series from the nineties. Each book contains three short stories instead of one long one and generally the writing quality is a little better than the myriad of other horror series from that time. Not Pulitzer-award material, but still above-average.
  The first story is about a strange old man who shows up in this town and does some strange things. The second is about a boy whose brother is getting really hairy and acting ape-ish and his searching how to turn him back to normal.
  The third story however is the best and raises the bar for this kind of genre. The story involves a boy who's neighbor's dad illustrates books. The dad's illustrations of goblins are somehow escaping from the page and into real life where they invade the boy's house and kidnap his sister. Full of good prose, great atmosphere, and an engaging storyline, I'd say buy this collection just for this story. Recommended for all ages.
  
• 
  Jenny Clark

  Madman on Main Street- An interesting story, but many things left as a question, like the madmans name and who he really was and his reasons. I do rather like how Micheal actualy learned a lesson from everything.
  
  It's Almost Dark- I enjoyed this one. It's one of the few where the parebts are actualy characters in the story and both were really interesting. I liked the whole idea behind it as well it was rather unique.
  
  Scary Harry- Rather blasiè, done a million times story plot wise. And what was up with Harry at the end? Does he not remember or what? The writting was decent so that's a plus.
  
  Over all, well written and fast moveing, but not much characterization and mostly been there done that plots. Easly enjoyed by younger readers however.
• 
  Liriope

  I read the whole series of these books as a child. They were very enjoyable, and a little more difficult and serious than the Goosebumps series.