The Box

title: The Box: Uncanny Stories
author: Richard Matheson
genre: short stories/thriller/suspense/fantasy
published: this collection was put together in 2008, but the stories themselves were published between the early 1950's through 1998
pages: 205
source: personal copy
rated: Fun, Bizarre Short Story Collection
3 1/2 out of 5 stars


The Box: Uncanny Stories is a creepy collection of twelve short stories by author Richard Matheson who also wrote I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come.
As with most short story anthologies, I enjoyed some of these tales more than others. In this collection, there were maybe two that I didn't care for.
These stories are strange and suspenseful and have supernatural and fantasy aspects to them. Most of the stories have an unexpected twist to them. I'll mention a few that I enjoyed here in my review.

-Button, Button - A couple is asked to push a button and in return they get fifty thousand dollars. The price however, is that someone they do not know will drop dead. It is mainly the wife who wonders if they should push the button and take the money. I guess the ending fairly quickly, but I enjoyed this one none the less.

-Girl of My Dreams- A woman has vivid nightmares about the ways others will die. Her husband greedily exploits her supernatural ability. Told from the husbands point of view, you really get a feel as to how grimy he is.

-Dying Room Only- This was more of a suspenseful story that got under my skin and made me uncomfortable as I read it. A married couple stops to eat at a small rest stop in the middle of nowhere. After going to the ladies room, the wife comes out to find her husband is missing. There are only locals at this rest stop, and no one wants to answer her questions about her husbands whereabouts.
This is my favorite story of the bunch. It tapped into the fear of being utterly alone and helpless. Matheson sets the mood perfectly, the heat of the day is stifling, as is the wife's slowly growing terror.

-No Such Thing As a Vampire: A woman awakes one day to find tell tale bite necks on herself. She fears the worst, as do the townspeople and her servants. This was a story about revenge and the lengths someone will go to attain it. This one reminded me a bit of Dracula.

-A Flourish of Strumpets: A conservative husband and wife find that each night a different prostitute comes knocking at their door offering her services. The descriptions of these 'strumpets' as well as the uptight husbands reactions had me laughing a bit. This story had a nice twist at the end.

-Creeping Terror : Los Angeles is actually alive and slowly spreading all over the world. Citrus trees begin to grow where they should not, people are struck with the sudden urge to dress for the beach and to cut the tops off their cars to make them into convertibles.
Another story that was bizarre and humorous. I found this story to be very cleverly written. It's written in the form of a paper written for a university class, there's even footnotes included. This one had more of a science fiction feel to it.

Overall this was a nice collection of creepy and bizarre, sometimes even humorous short stories and I enjoyed my introduction Matheson's work. I hope to read more of his books. I have seen a few on screen adaptations.
It's not easy to write good short stories. Matheson did well with most to the ones in this collection, they were short yet packed a punch. These tales felt very Twilight Zone like to me and I enjoyed that.

Interestingly enough, Matheson wrote the short story Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, which was made into one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes starring William Shatner.


About the author:
Richard Matheson is The New York Times bestselling author of I Am Legend, Hell House, Other Kingdoms, Somewhere in Time, The Incredible Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, The Beardless Warriors, The Path, Seven Steps to Midnight, Now You See It…, and What Dreams May Come, among others. He was named a Grand Master of Horror by the World Horror Convention, and received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He has also won the Edgar, the Spur, and the Writer's Guild awards. In 2010, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. In addition to his novels, Matheson wrote screenplays, and he wrote for several Twilight Zone episodes, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” based on his short story. He was born in New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, and fought in the infantry in World War II. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. He lives in Calabasas, California.

Special thanks to Michelle @ The True Book Addict for my copy of this book which I won at her blog.