His Hideous Heart Blog Tour: Review

His Hideous Heart
Editor: Dahlia Adler
Genre: YA Anthology/Short Stories/Retellings
Release Date: September 10, 2019
Publisher: Flatiron Books

Description:

The Cask of Amontillado. The Tell-Tale Heart. The Pit and the Pendulum. Filled with love and loss, vengeance and regret, the dark, chilling stories of Edgar Allen Poe have haunted us for over 150 years. Now, thirteen of YAs most celebrated writers reimagine Poe’s stories for a new generation.

These contemporary retellings will grab readers by the throat and drag them along to surprising and unsettling places, whether they are Poe aficionados or new newcomers to these classics. Tiffany D. Jackson, award-winning author of Monday’s Not Coming, transports “The Cask of Amontillado” to the streets of Brooklyn during the present day West Indian Day Carnival in Brooklyn. Poet amanda lovelace finds new meaning in the classic poem “The Raven” by blotting out words from the original lines. And Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series, gives the unreliable voice narrating “Metzengerstein” a contemporary edge.

With the original stories printed in the back of the book, HIS HIDEOUS HEART offers up a fun way to meet Poe for the first time, or for readers to revisit old favorites with fresh eyes. His work reminds us why we love to be scared, whether we get that thrill from watching the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, visiting a haunted house at Halloween, or by reading Poe’s spine-tingling stories.  

 

His Hideous Heart is an imaginative YA anthology of retellings from some of the most well known and loved stories of Edgar Allan Poe. I'm an incredibly huge fan of Poe (if you couldn't tell by my blog name!) so I was really excited when I heard about this book. I've read several of the various authors other works and loved them, so I was expecting this to be amazing. I wasn't sure how they would reimagine Poe's tales, but I was excited to find out.

One thing I immediately liked about the book was that it not only contained the retellings but also included the original works by Poe that had inspired the others. It's great for readers that are new to Poe as well as those already familiar with his works but would like a refresher on them and to help compare and/or contrast them with the new reimaginings.  I have both a B.A. and an M.A. in English, so Poe is not only a favorite of mine but one I've studied academically. 

Since this is an anthology, it's a bit unrealistic to expect to love every single story. And I have to admit that my feelings for these tales ranged from really liking them to being a bit upset because I felt the originals were too different to the new ones. I really wanted to love each and every one of these stories, but ultimately I had a mix of reactions and emotions. Some of the ones I really liked were "She Rode a Horse of Fire," "The Glittering Death," "A Drop of Stolen Ink," "Happy Days, Sweetheart," "Changeling," "The Oval Filter," and "Red." They elicited the same feelings as Poe's originals and were both well written and imaginative. I liked the new spin each author brought to the table and each were able to bring their stories to life with lots of vivid imagery and detailed descriptions. I found that the other stories were too far from Poe's originals that I couldn't connect with them and ended up disappointed. 

Also, I felt like there was an overabundance of diverse characters, namely LGBTQ, which felt forced. Please don't get me wrong, I'm all about diverse characters of all kinds and I love to connect with them. But it felt like a lot of these stories were about girls in love - and as I mentioned, it just felt so forced. Like they were written on purpose with these aspects in mind and the tale was kind of secondary. I hope that makes sense. I felt that the characters' relationships overshadowed the main plot of the story (which happens with lots of books I encounter). And being a huge Poe fan, I guess I'm biased toward the actual gothic story and not so much the diversity of the characters and their love interests. Again, I want to reiterate that I'm all for diverse characters of all kinds, but in this specific case, some of them felt forced and ruined the story for me. This is only my personal opinion and definitely not something that other readers will be bothered by. I only want to be honest about how I felt about the stories. That being said, I absolutely loved the concept of the book - particularly because they were based on my favorite classic author and I'm really into retellings. I'd definitely recommend this book to Poe fans old and new, as well as readers who enjoy horror, paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, and romance.

 

Dahlia Adler is an Associate Editor of mathematics by day, a blogger for B&N Teens, LGBTQ Reads, and Frolic by night, and an author of Young Adult and New Adult novels at every spare moment in between. Her books include the Daylight Falls duology, Just Visiting, and the Radleigh University trilogy, and her short stories can be found in the anthologies The Radical Element, All Out, It’s a Whole Spiel, and His Hideous Heart, which she also edited. Dahlia lives in New York with her husband, son, and an obscene amount of books, and can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @MissDahlELama.


Contributors:
Dahlia Adler
Kendare Blake
Rin Chupeco
Lamar Giles
Tessa Gratton
Tiffany D. Jackson
Stephanie Kuehn
Emily Lloyd-Jones
amanda lovelace
Hillary Monahan
Marieke Nijkamp
Caleb Roehrig
Fran Wilde

Product Review from GONE READING

For those of you who haven't come across the fantastic site for bookish gifts, GONE READING, you definitely need to head over there and check things out. It's full of fun and useful gifts for people who love to read (or for yourself!) - including journals, book lights, t-shirts, and book holders - just to name a few products. There's tons of cool stuff available - they even have special collections for fans of Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and (my favorite, of course) Edgar Allan Poe.

I was fortunate enough to receive some items from the site for review and I'm so excited to share them with you all! As you can imagine, I may have hinted  that I'm a huge Poe fan - if the name of my blog isn't enough - and they sent me some items from their exclusive Poe collection. Needless to say, I was ecstatic! Here's my review of the items I received:

One of the things I received was this awesome air freshener. I adore everything about it! The smell is a bit heavy, which may take some people a little while to get used to, but I loved it right away. The picture of Poe with the purple background and border - along with his signature - is fantastic. It's already hanging in my car from the rearview mirror and I plan on keeping him there long after the scent is gone. And because I'm a huge dork, I want to point out a great pun that was on the packaging: it was labeled as Poe-pourri Scent. It made me giggle a bit. :)

Next up is this cute little candle. It's has two wicks and is in a small tin box. The scent is called "Library" - and I LOVE it. I'm not sure if it's the same smell as the air freshener, but I immediately fell in love after smelling it. The description of the scent says it contains cardamom, absynth, and sandalwood. It's a dark, heavy scent - most likely due to the sandalwood, but as I mentioned earlier, I am a big fan of those types of aromas. The little label on the top of the tin has the name of the scent (Library) and what ingredients are used in it. The label also has "ex libris" followed by Poe's signature. I looked this phrase up and it translates to something like "from the library of." So in this case, it states that it's from the library of Edgar Allan Poe. Again, my obsession went into overdrive and I'm going to find a place to showcase the tin because I find it incredibly cool.

Last, but certainly not least, they sent me a reed fragrance diffuser. I've never used one of these before, but I'm definitely going to start with this one. The scent is Library again - and I can't get enough of it! I can't wait to set this up and have my house smelling so good! Everything about this product - from the box the diffuser comes in, to the labels on the bottle - are incredibly detailed. Probably so those with a Poe obsession (me!) get a thrill. The label on the outside of the box (seen in the picture) is basically a larger version of the one found on the candle tin. It has the "ex libris" with Poe's signature and then the name of the scent and the ingredients - along with some other information like how many ounces it contains. The reeds inside are basically self explanatory. I honestly don't know how I could detail them any further. Same goes with the fragrance. It's for function - not fashion - so it doesn't have any cute details. The last thing in the kit is the diffuser base/bottle. It's heavy and made of glass with an opaque brown color to it. It's definitely sturdy, but I wouldn't recommend dropping it on the floor or anything. Then there's the label on the bottle. It's pretty much the same style as the other labels, only with one difference. There's a quote from a poem on the label - I don't know if there are various labels with different quotes on them or if this is the only one - and it's followed by Poe's signature once again. The quote that came on my bottle literally took my breath away when I first saw it. I kinda got chills and misty-eyed. I know - a bit much. I have good reason though! The quote on the label was this: "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." If you're still clueless as to why I'm freaking over this, please check the name of my blog again. To see the name of my blog, which is obviously from this poem, on the label of the bottle blew my mind. For some reason it seemed so personal - like they did it just for me. (I'm sure they didn't, but you know - I can dream.) That was the last straw for me. I'm done for. This diffuser is most definitely going in a special spot so I can showcase the label with my favorite quote of Poe's. 

Now that I'm done fangirling over all of this Poe stuff, I'm going to tell you once more that you should definitely check out this site. There's tons of stuff for everyone - kids, adults, teachers, special collections for super fans, and lots more. It's a perfect place to get gifts for the bookish people in your life - or for getting yourself a little something. They get new items in all the time, so be sure to go back frequently to keep up on all the cool stuff available. 

I want to sincerely thank the people from GONE READING for providing me these items for an honest review. I am now a huge fan and will definitely be doing some shopping there in the near future!

Epic Awesomeness!!

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