Dahl is a master at introducing readers to a new sense of what lurks beneath the ordinary. read full description
reviews
Jul 05, 2011
K. Axel
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I must admit that when I first purchased this book, I really thought it was a book for children. Why did I think this? Well, mostly because I've only read childrens' books by Roald Dahl. This is not a book for children!
This is another review-in-progress, starting with the very first story.
Taste is the story of two men, Mike Schoefield and Richard Pratt. They have this curious tradition that Mike finds a wine, a really good wine, and then Richard has to guess what it is. H More...
This is another review-in-progress, starting with the very first story.
Taste is the story of two men, Mike Schoefield and Richard Pratt. They have this curious tradition that Mike finds a wine, a really good wine, and then Richard has to guess what it is. H More...
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Dec 06, 2010
Matt
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I didn't really know what to expect going into reading the adult works of Roald Dahl. I had some previous familiarity with his work, but it had been basically nothing but children's books. I really enjoyed 'Matilda' when I was young, and in the last two years I picked up 'Boy', and 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' both of which I thought were pretty good. To say that the Dahl of his children's books and the Dahl of his adult writings seem to be two entirely different people is an understatement.
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Oct 20, 2011
Mark
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I will rate each story on it's own merit and then come back and give an overall review on the book as a whole.
I want to give this book 4 stars,but 3 seems more acurate. I wish this was done on a scale of 1-10 and this would likely be a 7 or 7. I love short stories, and this was a very fun and nice diversion. If you are between books or like short stories, and like to indulge in just one or two from time to time this is a nice book to have on hand. I usually prefer darker and more sus More...
I want to give this book 4 stars,but 3 seems more acurate. I wish this was done on a scale of 1-10 and this would likely be a 7 or 7. I love short stories, and this was a very fun and nice diversion. If you are between books or like short stories, and like to indulge in just one or two from time to time this is a nice book to have on hand. I usually prefer darker and more sus More...
Jul 14, 2009
Ro
rated it:
Hands down one of THE most delightful books I've read in a while. It's not often I find myself itching to flip forward in the book because I simply can't take the suspense; with this collection of short stories, I was doing that every time I picked it up! You know there's a twist coming, you think you've predicted what it'll be, but you're surprised every time. Roald Dahl managed to keep my level of anticipation and suspense at a nearly fevered pitch throughout the entire work, and there were
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Nov 12, 2010
Rebecca
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Roald Dahl is, or should be, well known for his superb and highly imaginative stories for children, but he also had a remarkable and very different talent for adult literature. He always displays an acid, witty and even macabre sense of humour, insisting on human miseries: greed, deceit and revenge are mixed up from apparently innocent attitudes to obtain surprising and sometimes exhilarating results. If you read all the tales in a row, as I did, you may be a little exhausted at the end, but you
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Jan 12, 2011
Linda
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I didn't know that Dahl wrote children's stories until just a few years ago. I discovered him through his adult stories. Although somewhat dated now, the stories are well written and all have "twisted" endings (which is what I love about them). Dahl always drops clues about the ending but you never seem to pick them up until, wham, the ending hits you. Some of his stories were adapted for episodes of The Twilight Zone (and yes, I remember seeing them although I didn't know they wer
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Sep 15, 2011
ilaria
rated it:
Non ho dato voto pieno a questo libro a causa di un mio personalissimo limite verso i racconti. Mi lasciano sempre quel non so che, mi sembra sempre che non ci sia tutto quel che ci si aspetterebbe. Vabbè.
Penso comunque che Dahl, in questa prova "per adulti", sia, come sempre, geniale.
Ho trovato dei punti comuni ai racconti: l'estremo amore per l'arte, in tutte le sue forme, sia essa architettura, pittura, scultura, musica; l'adorazione per le scommesse che spesso inserisce nella narr More...
Penso comunque che Dahl, in questa prova "per adulti", sia, come sempre, geniale.
Ho trovato dei punti comuni ai racconti: l'estremo amore per l'arte, in tutte le sue forme, sia essa architettura, pittura, scultura, musica; l'adorazione per le scommesse che spesso inserisce nella narr More...
Jan 12, 2010
Ben
rated it:
An absolutely fantastic collection of short stories by one of the greatest authors of all time. Although Dahl is mainly known for his creepy, weird, creative, and hilarious children's books, this collection is intended for adults. Every time I began to read, I had an extremely difficult time putting the book back down. The stories are almost all comical, but they also all tend to have pointed moral lessons or social commentaries within them as well. And, quite unexpectedly, all of the stories te
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Dec 21, 2011
Vivl
rated it: 
About a month ago I wrote: I'm going to try and keep reading this - I've only got through about four stories so far. My main problems are boredom - as others have said the plots of these stories are anything but unexpected, rather being entirely predictable - and the complete lack of any positive qualities, even in passing, in any of the characters. I used to think Dahl was a misogynist, based particularly on 'Kiss Kiss', another collection of his short stories, but I'm beginning to think he was
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Dec 31, 2010
★ Jess
rated it:
I wish I could give this a 3.5
Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors, and I love all his children's books. However, I was not sure what to expect from this collection of short stories aimed at older readers.
I think the main problem, was the first few stories were EXCELLENT, and set the bar way too high for the remaining tales. That is not to say they were bad. Every story was good and enjoyable, its just the first few were truly marvelous.
By far my favorite of the stor More...
Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors, and I love all his children's books. However, I was not sure what to expect from this collection of short stories aimed at older readers.
I think the main problem, was the first few stories were EXCELLENT, and set the bar way too high for the remaining tales. That is not to say they were bad. Every story was good and enjoyable, its just the first few were truly marvelous.
By far my favorite of the stor More...
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Jan 22, 2011
Nath
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jun 25, 2009
will
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I really liked the front cover or at least the front cover of the copy I read and I don't think this review is going to make it onto the back cover. Why do they have to spoil good book covers with crap quotes? Most of the time they're just saying how great it is just to get their newspaper on the back or on the poster. Actually the copy I've got was before what's-his-chops from the Daily Mail and so-and-so from The Times started competing for name space on the back covers, in the days when a sho
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Feb 03, 2012
Michele
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Had the best flashback while reading, "Lamb to the Slaughter," and remembering our 11th grade high school English teacher reading this short story to us. He always tried to make books come alive for us and read us many memorable short stories.
As for the book, it is creepy and wonderful all at the same time. Definitely for grown ups. There are some very unforgettable stories here. Over 400 pages of them so a bit long but worth it.
My favorites: Lamb to the Slaughter, Mrs. More...
As for the book, it is creepy and wonderful all at the same time. Definitely for grown ups. There are some very unforgettable stories here. Over 400 pages of them so a bit long but worth it.
My favorites: Lamb to the Slaughter, Mrs. More...
Sep 13, 2011
Shannon
rated it:
What else could you expect from Roald Dahl but a series of slightly creepy and disturbing short stories? Well I tell you that he doesn't disappoint. Despite firmly believing that I haven't read any of his adult stuff before, I know for sure that I knew some of these stories already. Dare I make the claim that the works of this amazing man are so great that they've turned into frequently told wives tales and ghost stories? Perhaps. If not, then they definitely should be.
Jun 25, 2009
Allison
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The problem with this book is that all of the endings were expected! This would be a great book to use as a model for lessons in irony with a creative writing class, because that is the purpose of every story--to provide an ironic ending to an otherwise relatively mundane story. I like irony as much as anyone else, but none of the endings were surprising. It's hard to stay engaged in a suspenseful short story when you can predict the ending from page two. Luckily, I like to see execution, so
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Nov 02, 2009
I remembered most of these from when I read them years ago. Some of the most famous ones are "Man From the South" about the little man who bets you that you can't light your Zippo ten times in a row; "Parson's Pleasure" about the antiques dealer posing as a cleric to fool bumpkins into selling him their valuable furniture; and "The Way Up to Heaven" about a mean husband who gets his comeuppance for always making his wife late.
Dec 01, 2011
Shawnnita
rated it:
Like others before me I was not really sure what to expect when I picked up this book as all I had read before by Mr. Dahl were books to my son. I have to say that at the end of the day I really looked forward to finding out what would happen next. The stories were short enough to not get bored with the story line but long enough to last a few nights where I wanted to continue reading. I would highly recommend it to friends.
Nov 04, 2010
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 13, 2012
Morteza
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هرگونه حدس پایان داستان منجر به ناامیدی از قدرت پیش بینی شما می شود. تو دنیای داستانهایی که پایانش از همون اول بهت چشمک میزنه این کتاب میشه مجمع الداستان هایی در جهانی دیگر! فقط بخونید و منتظر پایان های غیرمنتظره باشید
Nov 18, 2011
Anna
rated it:
A dark little set of short stories, but not dark and heavy; rather dark with a mischievously sly grin. The set included recurring themes of gambling, people cheating and getting what they deserve (or rather more than they bargained for), and spouses getting even with each other in rather heavy-handed ways. My favourite, I think was Royal Jelly, in which a young baby daughter, listless and losing weight, manages to turn a corner and thrives thanks to the ingenuity of her apiculturist father who m
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Jul 28, 2011
Carolee
rated it:
If adults sat around campfires spinning twisted tales and whispering spooky stories - I'd recount 3 of my favourites from this collection - starting with an ironic eyepopper 'Mrs. Bixby & the Colonel's Coat', then moving on to the suspenseful 'Lamb to Slaughter', and finally finishing up with the scary 'Landlady' cliffhanger. I loved this collection ~ two hours of captivated reading!
Sep 09, 2010
Michelle
rated it:
Just like with any collection of short stories, you have to be careful not to read too many of them at once, otherwise you are going to end up hating the author. So I read this one nice and slow, a story here, a story there, and they were hilarious. Some were predictable, but it was great to read through to the end anyway. Every single one has a twist, thus the title.
Jan 12, 2010
Hilary
rated it:
I've given this book to lots of people over the years. Dahl is, of course, known for his children's books, but these short stories are very, very adult. They're funny and very dark, usually a great surprise to the reader. I'd recommend them to anyone with an offbeat sense of humor.
Jun 12, 2011
Cirque
rated it:
This is an absolutely amazingly good book of short stories, and pretty much the perfect example of what the format is capable of and should be doing. One story was so good that it seriously blew my mind, I had to stop, close the book, sit up in my bed and say "woah." READ IT
Feb 23, 2011
S Shields
rated it:
Absolutely clever and hilarious, deftly written. Every story is a dark gem and an example of a far-reaching imagination and a steel-trap of execution. Prompted me to go back and reread, for the first time since childhood, "James and the Giant Peach." Suddenly Dahl is one of my favorite writers of all time.
Aug 08, 2011
Nura
rated it:
Good stories but not entirely unexpected. By the 5th or 6th story, the reader could already get a feel of what the plots would end up to be.
Liked the Parson's Pleasure story, a good tale of comeuppance. And the Landlady gave me the willies. Was almost hoping that Weaver would just leave the house.
Didn't like Edward The Conqueror. Burning cats are not my thing.
Liked the Parson's Pleasure story, a good tale of comeuppance. And the Landlady gave me the willies. Was almost hoping that Weaver would just leave the house.
Didn't like Edward The Conqueror. Burning cats are not my thing.
Aug 21, 2010
Abbie
rated it:
Brilliant. Funny. And yes, as the title suggests, every tale contained within has a very unexpected ending. What is so fantastic about Roald Dahl is that one rarely sees a repeat of a certain type of character. Everything is fresh!
Sep 20, 2011
Kat
rated it:
Absolutely fantastic! I borrowed this book as something to read during my lunch break at work. The stories are short and move quickly, so you can pop in and out of them without losing your place (unlike Russian literature I brought to lunch before this...). I recognized a number of these stories from elsewhere- Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock episodes from the 1960's which I love. I think if you enjoy the dark humor or strange scenarios of those shows, this will be a great fit for you. He's no
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Sep 21, 2011
The characters seemed to always get what was coming to them but he always left the exact specifications of their demise up to you, which was sometimes maddening but mostly deliciously devious.
Jun 25, 2009
Dahl was my favorite author as a child. I loved "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator". So when looking for books of short stories I was happy to find this collection from Dahl.
Compared to the childhood classics this book of tales is much more disturbing as each tale is some sort of twisted story of people doing disturbing things such as the man in "Man from the South" who makes bets, and demands a finger as payment if More...
Compared to the childhood classics this book of tales is much more disturbing as each tale is some sort of twisted story of people doing disturbing things such as the man in "Man from the South" who makes bets, and demands a finger as payment if More...
