Roald Dahl is most beloved and best known for his best-selling children’s works: James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George’s Marvelous Medicine.
Because he is so well-known for his children’s works, I had never heard of this collection before. But it is perfect for the Halloween season, and I am really pleased with its realism. His children’s stories are, of course, a little magical, but his tales for adults are creepy in the I-Could-Actually-Imagine-This-Happening-And-Its-Super-Creepy-kind-of-way.
Skin And Other Stories is a perfect read for anyone wanting to get into the spirit of Halloween with scary stories, or anyone who wants a bit of light reading. Because it is a collection of short stories, they can be read individually (for those who like to read just a chapter before bed) or all-together in one sitting. The title hints at the element of creepy, suspenseful stories with strange twists, full of truly unexpected endings and twisted ideas that only someone with a mind of horror could conjure. I won’t give much away, but I will say you will surely be surprised by the endings!
My favorite was the first, Skin, a tale illuminating the danger of owning one-of-a-kind-artwork: everyone will want it, for themselves. Trust no one.
The collection contains Dahl’s short stories: Skin; Lamb to the Slaughter; The Sound Machine; An African Story; Galloping Foxley; The Wish; The Surgeon; Dip in the Pool; The Champion of the World; Beware of the Dog; My Lady Love, My Dove. It was first published in the May 17, 1952 issue of The New Yorker, and was later featured in the collection Skin and Other Stories, published in 2000.
If you like these stories, there are also more collections of Roald Dahl’s horror for adults. My two favorites are Madness: more collected horror shorts written by Dahl, and Fear: collected horror stories written by Dalhs favorite authors.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, South Wales. In 1953, he published the best-selling story collection Someone Like You and married actress Patricia Neal. He published the popular book James and the Giant Peach in 1961. In 1964, he released another highly successful work, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was later adapted for two films. Over his decades-long writing career, Dahl wrote 19 children’s books. He died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England.
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Bibliophiles fear the day when brick-and-mortar stores are phased out and e-books rule the market. Those of us addicted to collecting paper books and maintaining our bookshelves know that the age of the book is not dying; rather, books are fast moving to the digital sphere. And we don’t like it. Regardless of the benefits offered by technology, our nostalgic hearts yearn for the smell of worn pages and the sensation of flipping through a thick volume – neither of which can be fulfilled by e-readers.
MANDY'S READING LIST 