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Title: Slay Ride
Series: ———-
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Weird Fiction
Pages: 213
Words: 86K
There were 7 short stories and then a full length novel (by the standards of yesteryear, today jackasses call it a novella) by John Wyndham, best known for his novel Day of the Triffids. I was not a fan of that novel and so wasn’t expecting much from this one. I was not disappointed. Wyndham’s novel is boring and blasé and as snobby as you can expect from a London is the Center of the World jackass.
Thankfully, a few of the short stories really carried the collection. Unfortunately, they came before the novel so the book as a whole was dragged down. But looking back, overall things were weird. Every once in a while an Alfred Hitchcock collection includes a story that outright disturbs me and makes me wonder what am I thinking in reading his stuff. This collection had one of those stories.
Party Games by James Burke is about a childrens birthday party where the local social outcast comes uninvited and the story ends with him murdering the birthday boy’s father because the boys locked the outcast in a closet during one game. It was just horrific, not because it was graphic but because the writer did a fantastic job of creating this aura of dread that hung over every paragraph. It was simply unsettling. I think as long as I keep finding stories like this disturbing that I am ok. It will be once I stop being made uncomfortable that I have something to worry about.
★★★☆☆
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Oh does that cover take me back. I remember seeing that in the paperback carousel rack at the library when I was 9 or 10. Don’t think I ever read it, though I was intrigued.
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These covers are great, aren’t they?
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I love all the covers of this era. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but if you ever get to check out Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix you should. It’s like a coffee-table book full of crazy covers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperbacks_from_Hell
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Isn’t that strictly horror related?
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Yeah, if you take “horror” broadly enough. I mean, these Hitchcock covers actually aren’t in it but they’ve got a ton of other thriller stuff.
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Gotcha.
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Did Hitchcock actually toboggan?
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He did. But then he got 2 bullets in the back, lost his memory and became a short order cook at a greasy spoon in Alameda, California. Then his memories returned and he went on a rampage killing everyone involved who had turned on him.
The Hitchcock Identity. I highly recommend it…
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Good morning Booky! At least you found one good one amongst the other stuff.
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Yep, trying to focus on the positive here 😉
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That is creepy. I had no idea Hitchcock edited collections like this. I guess I know him only as a director. and Wyndham… I liked the Triffids movie but have never read the book.
That cover too screams old school
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The movie was fun, wasn’t it? I was pretty let down by how much un-action there was in the book 😦
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Party Game sounds insane and I can see why you felt what you felt.
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It was one of the more disturbing stories that I’ve read in a long time…
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I still want to read dag of the triffids… it was that bad? Milou has an old dvd that i am also interested in watching but dont know if i should now…
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I liked the movie. The book was just boring. The triffids ate very few people, if any, in the book.
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I’m sorry, but that cover. Strange and funny, but also so awesome.
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Hitchcock had a great sense of humor, that’s for sure 🙂
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