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The Small Assassin
A mother nearly dies in childbirth and develops the delusion that her new-born baby is trying to murder her - but is it a delusion?
15 pages, Magazine
First published January 1, 1962
11 people are currently reading
742 people want to read
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,427books24.2kfollowersRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
December 4, 2023
The young Ray Bradbury was obsessed with children and death, and when he does write about adults they are often simpleminded, childlike weirdos. (You can hear the influence of Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson on every page.) When he inevitably combines children and death together you get the best story here, “The Man Upstairs�, where this kid (he’s around 10 years old like in all RB stories) lives in a house where they rent a spare room to a strange guy, and the kid conceives the notion that this tenant is not human, and so why, just naturally, the kid takes a long kitchen knife and visits the tenant and proves his point. He disembowels the guy and brings bits of what he finds back downstairs :
”Grandma, what’s this?�
She glanced up, briefly, over her glasses. “I don’t know.�
It was square, like a box, and elastic. It was bright orange in color. It had four square tubes, colored blue, attached to it. It smelled funny.
I like the casual way the ordinary American kid turns into a murderer just because he thought there was something wrong with that guy.
The other freaky story here is “The Handler�, in which a mortician gets sneered at and belittled continually by the people of the town and so naturally gets his revenge on them after they die, by doing all kinds of nasty stuff to their bodies. In the light of the (UK) David Fuller case from last year, and of course, the Jimmy Savile scandal, this story has many more horrific reverberations to it than Ray Bradbury intended, but what he intended was quite unpleasant enough.
”Grandma, what’s this?�
She glanced up, briefly, over her glasses. “I don’t know.�
It was square, like a box, and elastic. It was bright orange in color. It had four square tubes, colored blue, attached to it. It smelled funny.
I like the casual way the ordinary American kid turns into a murderer just because he thought there was something wrong with that guy.
The other freaky story here is “The Handler�, in which a mortician gets sneered at and belittled continually by the people of the town and so naturally gets his revenge on them after they die, by doing all kinds of nasty stuff to their bodies. In the light of the (UK) David Fuller case from last year, and of course, the Jimmy Savile scandal, this story has many more horrific reverberations to it than Ray Bradbury intended, but what he intended was quite unpleasant enough.
May 9, 2013
This a well-crafted collection of short stories that had been written early in the career of this well-known author.
The horror in many of the stories is gradually unfolded with the deteriorating sanity of the protagonist, or with the protagonist's growing awareness that something is not quite right. Deteriorating sanity features in the eponymous story of the collection when a mother fears her newborn wants to kill her; a tourist develops an obssessive desire to leave a Mexican village after seeing some mummified human remains with her husband in 'The next in line'; another female tourist or traveller obssesses over the tombstone left by the previous tenant of a room she and her husband rent for the night in 'The tombstone'; and a male teacher develops an obssessive fear of the children he teaches in 'Let's play “poison�'. Those protagonists already insane or cognitively impaired to begin with include an elderly woman who describes to her sister a macabre dream or insight about her town's drainage system in 'The Cistern'; a young man goes to extraordinary and macabre lengths to satisfy his obssession with suppressing noise at his home in 'The smiling people'; and an undertaker/embalmer's bizarre treatment of the dead in 'The handler'.
Stories that deal with the protagonist's increasing awareness of something strange include: 'The lake', in which a young man is confronted by a bad event from his childhood; 'The crowd', where a crash victim notices something strange about the crowd that gathers around him at the scene; 'Jack-in-the-box', where a young boy discovers that there's more to the world beyond the limits that had been set for him; 'The man upstairs', which deals with a boy's suspicions about a strange lodger; 'The night', in which another boy learns that grown-ups have fears and uncertainties too; and in 'The dead man', yet another boy (who is not the sole protagonist) learns a few things about an old man who believes himself to be dead. Even in a couple of these stories, sanity is an issue for one or more characters, so it can be said that insanity in one form or another is a major theme in this book.
There are a few stories that have supernatural elements to them or that they involve strange coincidences that could be seen as having a supernatural cause, so it's not all about madness! But I'll leave the reader to find these stories himself/herself. Also, while there are some shocks and macabre elements to many of the stories, there is no reliance on gore as is more common in today's writing, although it seems likely that readers of these stories at the time they were first published might've been disgusted by some of what they read.
A product of its time, the women in the stories are generally portrayed as housewives or as mothers/maternal figures and this possibly reflects the young Ray Bradbury's primary experiences of adult women by his twenties. While some women are portrayed as being (maternally) level-headed (notably in 'The man upstairs' and 'The night', and in the case of the sister in 'The cistern'), they tend to be portrayed as anxious, neurotic, hysterical or insane. But while some of Bradbury's male characters also suffer from anxiety or lose their sanity, men tend to be less over-wrought or are more sceptical than their female counterparts. Also reflecting the time in which the stories were written is a doctor's somewhat paternalistic attitude � as much towards a distraught housewife as to her husband, such as when he tells the latter '“Go on along now, and take that look off your face�' (p. 17), as if he were dismissing a child.
Children, especially boys aged between eight and thirteen, feature as the protagonist or as secondary characters in six of the stories (and as murder victims in one other story). Again, this may reflect Bradbury's youth when he might have drawn on his own life experiences in writing these tales, but stories centreing on childhood characters are, I think, very successful because many adult and teenage readers will find some point of familiarity in them (such as school, teachers, street games, pranks, toys, spankings, rules, ice-cream, sandcastles, bedtimes, looking through coloured glass, the mystery of death, and childhood perceptions of the world around them or of the strange behaviours of grown-ups). In each of the stories of this collection, children, especially the boy protagonists, while lacking information or maturity, are nevertheless intelligent and observant.
One thing I found intriguing about Bradbury's style is his fairly frequent use of smells or odours in his descriptions. These evoked familiar situations, times, places, and people's ages/identities. Consider these examples:
Familiar people:
Seasonal odours:
Familiar places:
Contrasting places/moods:
Contrasting ages:
Using the sense of smell seems to be an effective way of conveying atmosphere, sense of place and personal identity � my surprise at its frequency in this volume underlines how under-utilised it seems in much modern fiction.
Another thing I liked about these stories is that, while some of them are set in a given year (for example, 'The lake' is set in 1943 while both 'The night' and 'The man upstairs' are set in 1927), they could easily be read as tales set in the present day. Even the absence of any mention of mobile phones, personal computers and the Internet, for example, is hardly noticeable. Except in one story, 'The tombstone', where a husband and wife are said to be driving a model-T Ford, cars are referred to only generically, not by their make or model. Occasionally, we do get references to things that are different � that the starter of a car was controlled via a pedal instead of with the ignition key (p. 44), that a tourist used a 'little box Brownie' as his camera (pp. 26, 37), that fifteen thousand dollars was a remarkable salary (p. 10), that people still possessed razor strops and spanked their children with them (pp. 103, 157), that a farm would only cost $500 (p. 173), or that children would listen to records as opposed to CDs or iPods and that the music concerned was by 1920s bands/singers like the Knickerbocker Quartet and Al Jolson (p. 155). That these stories could otherwise be read as being set in the present day rather than between the 1920s and 1940s will mean that these stories retain their appeal as (near-) contemporary fiction for some time to come.
I would recommend this book as a quick, enjoyable read for anybody who likes subtle horror.
Uploaded 7 May 2011; edited 9 May 2013.
The horror in many of the stories is gradually unfolded with the deteriorating sanity of the protagonist, or with the protagonist's growing awareness that something is not quite right. Deteriorating sanity features in the eponymous story of the collection when a mother fears her newborn wants to kill her; a tourist develops an obssessive desire to leave a Mexican village after seeing some mummified human remains with her husband in 'The next in line'; another female tourist or traveller obssesses over the tombstone left by the previous tenant of a room she and her husband rent for the night in 'The tombstone'; and a male teacher develops an obssessive fear of the children he teaches in 'Let's play “poison�'. Those protagonists already insane or cognitively impaired to begin with include an elderly woman who describes to her sister a macabre dream or insight about her town's drainage system in 'The Cistern'; a young man goes to extraordinary and macabre lengths to satisfy his obssession with suppressing noise at his home in 'The smiling people'; and an undertaker/embalmer's bizarre treatment of the dead in 'The handler'.
Stories that deal with the protagonist's increasing awareness of something strange include: 'The lake', in which a young man is confronted by a bad event from his childhood; 'The crowd', where a crash victim notices something strange about the crowd that gathers around him at the scene; 'Jack-in-the-box', where a young boy discovers that there's more to the world beyond the limits that had been set for him; 'The man upstairs', which deals with a boy's suspicions about a strange lodger; 'The night', in which another boy learns that grown-ups have fears and uncertainties too; and in 'The dead man', yet another boy (who is not the sole protagonist) learns a few things about an old man who believes himself to be dead. Even in a couple of these stories, sanity is an issue for one or more characters, so it can be said that insanity in one form or another is a major theme in this book.
There are a few stories that have supernatural elements to them or that they involve strange coincidences that could be seen as having a supernatural cause, so it's not all about madness! But I'll leave the reader to find these stories himself/herself. Also, while there are some shocks and macabre elements to many of the stories, there is no reliance on gore as is more common in today's writing, although it seems likely that readers of these stories at the time they were first published might've been disgusted by some of what they read.
A product of its time, the women in the stories are generally portrayed as housewives or as mothers/maternal figures and this possibly reflects the young Ray Bradbury's primary experiences of adult women by his twenties. While some women are portrayed as being (maternally) level-headed (notably in 'The man upstairs' and 'The night', and in the case of the sister in 'The cistern'), they tend to be portrayed as anxious, neurotic, hysterical or insane. But while some of Bradbury's male characters also suffer from anxiety or lose their sanity, men tend to be less over-wrought or are more sceptical than their female counterparts. Also reflecting the time in which the stories were written is a doctor's somewhat paternalistic attitude � as much towards a distraught housewife as to her husband, such as when he tells the latter '“Go on along now, and take that look off your face�' (p. 17), as if he were dismissing a child.
Children, especially boys aged between eight and thirteen, feature as the protagonist or as secondary characters in six of the stories (and as murder victims in one other story). Again, this may reflect Bradbury's youth when he might have drawn on his own life experiences in writing these tales, but stories centreing on childhood characters are, I think, very successful because many adult and teenage readers will find some point of familiarity in them (such as school, teachers, street games, pranks, toys, spankings, rules, ice-cream, sandcastles, bedtimes, looking through coloured glass, the mystery of death, and childhood perceptions of the world around them or of the strange behaviours of grown-ups). In each of the stories of this collection, children, especially the boy protagonists, while lacking information or maturity, are nevertheless intelligent and observant.
One thing I found intriguing about Bradbury's style is his fairly frequent use of smells or odours in his descriptions. These evoked familiar situations, times, places, and people's ages/identities. Consider these examples:
Familiar people:
An odour of tweeds, a pipe, a certain shaving lotion. David was standing over her. And beyond him the immaculate smell of Dr. Jeffers.(p. 8)
There was a movement behind him, and then the odour of soap and water-rinsed flesh, wet towel, fresh cologne; Marie was at his elbow.(p. 27)
The room smelled of [his father], rubbed wood, tobacco, leather, and silver coins.(p. 95)
Skipper is your brother. He is your older brother. He's twelve and healthy, red-faced, hawk-nosed, tawny-haired, broad-shouldered for his years, and always running. [...] Soon he will come clomping in, smelling of sweat and green grass on his knees where he fell, and smelling very much in all ways like Skipper; which is natural.(p. 155)
Seasonal odours:
All of the hot-dog stands were boarded up with strips of golden planking, sealing in all the mustard, onion, meat odours of the long, joyful summer.(p. 63)
...the melancholy smell of autumn settling in around the town.(p. 152)
Familiar places:
Morning was the smell of vines and grapes and moss in his room, a smell of shadowed coolness.(p. 93)
Contrasting places/moods:
Together you walk down St. James street. You smell lilacs in blossom; fallen apples lying crushed and odorous in the deep grass.(p. 157)
[...]
In back of the church a hundred yards away, the ravine begins. You can smell it. It has a dark sewer, rotten foliage, thick green odour.
Contrasting ages:
Gilpatrick laughed softly. 'What woman would marry Odd? Sometimes I almost believe he is dead. He's got an awful odour to him.'
...after looking at Tom's clean, soap-smelling face and seeing the pretty blue jacket his sixteen-year-old girl friend wore....
Using the sense of smell seems to be an effective way of conveying atmosphere, sense of place and personal identity � my surprise at its frequency in this volume underlines how under-utilised it seems in much modern fiction.
Another thing I liked about these stories is that, while some of them are set in a given year (for example, 'The lake' is set in 1943 while both 'The night' and 'The man upstairs' are set in 1927), they could easily be read as tales set in the present day. Even the absence of any mention of mobile phones, personal computers and the Internet, for example, is hardly noticeable. Except in one story, 'The tombstone', where a husband and wife are said to be driving a model-T Ford, cars are referred to only generically, not by their make or model. Occasionally, we do get references to things that are different � that the starter of a car was controlled via a pedal instead of with the ignition key (p. 44), that a tourist used a 'little box Brownie' as his camera (pp. 26, 37), that fifteen thousand dollars was a remarkable salary (p. 10), that people still possessed razor strops and spanked their children with them (pp. 103, 157), that a farm would only cost $500 (p. 173), or that children would listen to records as opposed to CDs or iPods and that the music concerned was by 1920s bands/singers like the Knickerbocker Quartet and Al Jolson (p. 155). That these stories could otherwise be read as being set in the present day rather than between the 1920s and 1940s will mean that these stories retain their appeal as (near-) contemporary fiction for some time to come.
I would recommend this book as a quick, enjoyable read for anybody who likes subtle horror.
Uploaded 7 May 2011; edited 9 May 2013.
October 29, 2016
So spooky. It makes me more anxious to have a child.
"Strange, red little creatures with brains that work in a bloody darkness we can't even guess at. Elemental little brains, as warm with racial memory, hatred, and raw cruelty, with no more thought than self-preservation. And self-preservation in this case consisted of eliminating a mother who realized what a horror she had birthed. I ask you, doctor, what is there in the world more selfish than a baby? Nothing!"
"Strange, red little creatures with brains that work in a bloody darkness we can't even guess at. Elemental little brains, as warm with racial memory, hatred, and raw cruelty, with no more thought than self-preservation. And self-preservation in this case consisted of eliminating a mother who realized what a horror she had birthed. I ask you, doctor, what is there in the world more selfish than a baby? Nothing!"
September 25, 2021
After nearly dying during childbirth, a woman is convinced that her baby is trying to kill her. After months path she remains convinced of this and wants to take a vacation away from the baby. Her husband wants to help her by sending her to a psychiatrist, while her doctor tries to assure the husband that it’s more common than he thinks.
“It’s quite natural for mothers to hate their children, sometimes. We have a word for it- ambivalence. The ability to hate, while loving. Lovers hate each other, frequently.�
I mean, what he’s saying is true.
Alice, the distraught mother explains why babies are inherently amoral:
“Oh Dave, once it was just you and me. We protected each other, and now we protect the baby, but get no protection from it. […] You’re protected from my hurting you by my love […] I feel no fear of you, because love cushions all your irritations, unnatural instincts, hatred and immaturities. But - what about the baby? It’s too young to know love, or a law of love, or anything, until we teach it.�
But then� after a suspicious death of the mother. the father begins to think the baby is in fact a killer. He realizes babies are quite selfish, yet have the perfect alibi- they are weak and helpless and assumed to be innocent. The doctor of course assumes he’s going crazy as the husband explains his line of reasoning.
“How many mothers have died at the birth of their children? […] I ask you, doctor, what is there in the world more selfish than a baby? Nothing!�
But then� after a suspicious death of the father, the doctor second guesses himself. He wonders if he’s also going crazy or if this 4 month old baby really is a killer. Who could have turned off the gas while the father was sleeping? And why is the baby no longer in his crib? The doctor is third in line to accept that this baby is a killer.
“I’ll find you somewhere in the house, hiding, pretending to be something you are not.�
Are the characters experiencing a shared delirium? Perhaps the idea became contagious once there was a shred of evidence to support it (the mysterious death of the mother).
Whether it’s a delirium or reality, the characters are sane enough to explain what is happening and why. And their line of reasoning isn’t that far from the truth. Babies take and don’t give, they don’t know morality, they are presumed innocent despite this.
The delirium has a grain of truth in it.
“It’s quite natural for mothers to hate their children, sometimes. We have a word for it- ambivalence. The ability to hate, while loving. Lovers hate each other, frequently.�
I mean, what he’s saying is true.
Alice, the distraught mother explains why babies are inherently amoral:
“Oh Dave, once it was just you and me. We protected each other, and now we protect the baby, but get no protection from it. […] You’re protected from my hurting you by my love […] I feel no fear of you, because love cushions all your irritations, unnatural instincts, hatred and immaturities. But - what about the baby? It’s too young to know love, or a law of love, or anything, until we teach it.�
But then� after a suspicious death of the mother. the father begins to think the baby is in fact a killer. He realizes babies are quite selfish, yet have the perfect alibi- they are weak and helpless and assumed to be innocent. The doctor of course assumes he’s going crazy as the husband explains his line of reasoning.
“How many mothers have died at the birth of their children? […] I ask you, doctor, what is there in the world more selfish than a baby? Nothing!�
But then� after a suspicious death of the father, the doctor second guesses himself. He wonders if he’s also going crazy or if this 4 month old baby really is a killer. Who could have turned off the gas while the father was sleeping? And why is the baby no longer in his crib? The doctor is third in line to accept that this baby is a killer.
“I’ll find you somewhere in the house, hiding, pretending to be something you are not.�
Are the characters experiencing a shared delirium? Perhaps the idea became contagious once there was a shred of evidence to support it (the mysterious death of the mother).
Whether it’s a delirium or reality, the characters are sane enough to explain what is happening and why. And their line of reasoning isn’t that far from the truth. Babies take and don’t give, they don’t know morality, they are presumed innocent despite this.
The delirium has a grain of truth in it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2020
A surprisingly cracking collection of short horror/dark fantasy horror stories.
March 31, 2025
A collection of 13 horror short stories from the 1940s-50s.
The Small Assassin has a completely bonkers premise that is kind of fun in its silliness. One in a billion newborn babies is born with X-Men style powers, able to climb out of their crib and run around the house, killing people.
Apart from that, my favorite stories in the collection were:
The Crowd - a simple but effective story about a man who is in a car accident and afterwards becomes obsessed with how quickly the crowd of onlookers formed. Things get even stranger when he does some research and finds the same faces repeating in pictures of crowds across different times and places.
Jack-in-the-Box - Edwin is a young boy who lives with his mother in "the universe." He is forbidden from going outside, where the "monsters" will kill him. Perfectly highlights the cruelty of keeping a child too sheltered and isolated.
The Man Upstairs - is a genuinely creepy vampire(?) story from the point of view of a little boy.
Some of the stories here are almost purely about the atmosphere (The Cistern, The Night)- but what an atmosphere they evoke! Thick with dread and the realization that everyone is alone and afraid, while at the same time having some of the most beautiful language and imagery.
Oh, and The Handler is effectively disturbing and very gross - about a funeral director who takes all of his rage out on the bodies he's preparing.
The Small Assassin has a completely bonkers premise that is kind of fun in its silliness. One in a billion newborn babies is born with X-Men style powers, able to climb out of their crib and run around the house, killing people.
Apart from that, my favorite stories in the collection were:
The Crowd - a simple but effective story about a man who is in a car accident and afterwards becomes obsessed with how quickly the crowd of onlookers formed. Things get even stranger when he does some research and finds the same faces repeating in pictures of crowds across different times and places.
Jack-in-the-Box - Edwin is a young boy who lives with his mother in "the universe." He is forbidden from going outside, where the "monsters" will kill him. Perfectly highlights the cruelty of keeping a child too sheltered and isolated.
The Man Upstairs - is a genuinely creepy vampire(?) story from the point of view of a little boy.
Some of the stories here are almost purely about the atmosphere (The Cistern, The Night)- but what an atmosphere they evoke! Thick with dread and the realization that everyone is alone and afraid, while at the same time having some of the most beautiful language and imagery.
Oh, and The Handler is effectively disturbing and very gross - about a funeral director who takes all of his rage out on the bodies he's preparing.
January 28, 2025
به راحتی از بچه دار شدن میتون� منصرفت کنه.
خودِ اینفوهازارد هست این کتاب
عجیب خندم گرفت اواخرش.
خودِ اینفوهازارد هست این کتاب
عجیب خندم گرفت اواخرش.
May 17, 2023
Some crackers in here: my favourites were The Small Assassin, The Man Upstairs, The Tombstone and The Handler.
January 28, 2025
A fine collection of shorts from one of the masters of cultivating them. Some linger a bit too long in their prose, but all provide deliciously nasty twists and turns to keep you reading. Like all good collections, the last tale is one of the best, but there’s a tasty mixture of yarns present.
November 1, 2023
Bradbury Horror
26 October 2023
It is interesting to discover that an author who is famous for one book, or one style of book, comes out with a collection of books of what appears to be a completely different genre. This was the case with and it also seems to be the case with Ray Bradbury. If you have heard of that name before then I am not surprised since he is the author of one of the famous dystopian stories of the 20th century (), one that seems to regularly rear its ugly head (Michael Moore has made reference to this book with the title of a couple of his films).
Okay, the blurb at the beginning of this book mentions that it is a collection of tales of horror, but as I think about it, you could easily make the claim that dystopian novels are also stories of horror. Like, if you have seen the movie Brazil you will know what I am talking about, and seems to have quite a few horror elements to it as well. Yet, another thing that seems to regularly come to mind is that a lot of science fiction also falls into the horror category. Actually, I remember at one of my bookclubs, somebody made a comment that horror is basically the same as urban fantasy.
This particular story is about a woman that has a baby and is immediately horrified by this baby. The idea behind this is that babies really don’t want to enter the world (and who can blame them) but most of them, while remembering the womb, do not develop consciousness until much later. However, a handful of babies do, and develop a huge resentment towards those who dragged them out of the womb. As such, they become assassins and seek to kill those who are responsible for this atrocity.
The interesting thing about this story is how the baby will target individuals, and since it is a baby, unless you are being targeted, you basically consider the person that is being targeted as simply being hysterical. It turns out that once the baby decides to target you, then the hysteria makes sense, though ironically, nobody believes you.
It is rather interesting reading some of the works of famous authors, especially the works that aren’t as well known as their more famous books. Mind you, there is usually a reason why these works aren’t as well known, but in a lot of cases you will actually find some hidden gems. Okay, this isn’t one of them, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
26 October 2023
It is interesting to discover that an author who is famous for one book, or one style of book, comes out with a collection of books of what appears to be a completely different genre. This was the case with and it also seems to be the case with Ray Bradbury. If you have heard of that name before then I am not surprised since he is the author of one of the famous dystopian stories of the 20th century (), one that seems to regularly rear its ugly head (Michael Moore has made reference to this book with the title of a couple of his films).
Okay, the blurb at the beginning of this book mentions that it is a collection of tales of horror, but as I think about it, you could easily make the claim that dystopian novels are also stories of horror. Like, if you have seen the movie Brazil you will know what I am talking about, and seems to have quite a few horror elements to it as well. Yet, another thing that seems to regularly come to mind is that a lot of science fiction also falls into the horror category. Actually, I remember at one of my bookclubs, somebody made a comment that horror is basically the same as urban fantasy.
This particular story is about a woman that has a baby and is immediately horrified by this baby. The idea behind this is that babies really don’t want to enter the world (and who can blame them) but most of them, while remembering the womb, do not develop consciousness until much later. However, a handful of babies do, and develop a huge resentment towards those who dragged them out of the womb. As such, they become assassins and seek to kill those who are responsible for this atrocity.
The interesting thing about this story is how the baby will target individuals, and since it is a baby, unless you are being targeted, you basically consider the person that is being targeted as simply being hysterical. It turns out that once the baby decides to target you, then the hysteria makes sense, though ironically, nobody believes you.
It is rather interesting reading some of the works of famous authors, especially the works that aren’t as well known as their more famous books. Mind you, there is usually a reason why these works aren’t as well known, but in a lot of cases you will actually find some hidden gems. Okay, this isn’t one of them, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
December 8, 2020
At the risk of evoking what has by now become cliché, a Bradbury short story collection is like a box of chocolates. This is not simply because you never know what you're going to get, but because while all of his stories are delicious, there are always a certain number that, depending upon one's tastes, are especially delectable. This collection, as might be deduced from its title, focuses on Uncle Ray's more macabre side, and it is, perhaps, no coincidence that there are 13 tales told here, all of which previously appeared in "Dark Carnival" (the author's first collection) and/or "The October Country."
Highlights include the title story which is like a cross between The Twilight Zone and The Omen; "The Next in Line," which later formed the basis of "The Mummies of Guanajuato"; the hair-raising "The Crowd," which is one of those uncanny stories which forces the reader to question their own reality; the dystopian "Jack-in-the-Box," which seems to have influenced M. Night Shyamalan; the sly, tongue-in-cheek charm of "The Tombstone"; "The Smiling People," told in the mode of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"; "The Night," which is a meditation on the meaning of death from the perspective of an eight-year-old boy; and the charming and chilling conclusion, "The Dead Man," which closes this volume leaving the reader wanting more.
This is in no way meant to malign the other half a dozen stories collected here. As I stated above, Bradbury's collections are of universally high quality, and the only way to identify the highlights are according to personal taste. I have read nearly three dozen Bradbury books, and have yet to hit a lemon. It is thus, as in the past, that I grant this box of chocolates the blue ribbon.
Highlights include the title story which is like a cross between The Twilight Zone and The Omen; "The Next in Line," which later formed the basis of "The Mummies of Guanajuato"; the hair-raising "The Crowd," which is one of those uncanny stories which forces the reader to question their own reality; the dystopian "Jack-in-the-Box," which seems to have influenced M. Night Shyamalan; the sly, tongue-in-cheek charm of "The Tombstone"; "The Smiling People," told in the mode of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"; "The Night," which is a meditation on the meaning of death from the perspective of an eight-year-old boy; and the charming and chilling conclusion, "The Dead Man," which closes this volume leaving the reader wanting more.
This is in no way meant to malign the other half a dozen stories collected here. As I stated above, Bradbury's collections are of universally high quality, and the only way to identify the highlights are according to personal taste. I have read nearly three dozen Bradbury books, and have yet to hit a lemon. It is thus, as in the past, that I grant this box of chocolates the blue ribbon.
November 1, 2024
Some may disagree, but I don't personally like this one that much. These are just my subjective thoughts on the matter.
It's well-told, but I found the main female character is infantilized in a particular way that keeps me from enjoying the interesting premise.
We're meant to contemplate whether the infant has the agency to be a killer, yet the protagonist's attempt to isn't treated with the severity I felt it deserved. If a man had tried to do it, it would be treated with more gravity, I felt - but because it's a "hysterical" woman, it's almost treated as though she's incapable of even grasping the weight of her actions.
Because people in the story didn't take precautions after the , I found it hard to sympathize with the parents, which thus made me less invested in their safety. Something often integral to the plot of a thriller.
Bradbury always writes well, but this one just didn't click with me.
It's well-told, but I found the main female character is infantilized in a particular way that keeps me from enjoying the interesting premise.
We're meant to contemplate whether the infant has the agency to be a killer, yet the protagonist's attempt to isn't treated with the severity I felt it deserved. If a man had tried to do it, it would be treated with more gravity, I felt - but because it's a "hysterical" woman, it's almost treated as though she's incapable of even grasping the weight of her actions.
Because people in the story didn't take precautions after the , I found it hard to sympathize with the parents, which thus made me less invested in their safety. Something often integral to the plot of a thriller.
Bradbury always writes well, but this one just didn't click with me.
March 12, 2025
A collection of Bradbury short horror stories written in the 40s. They certainly had a very tense and dark mood to these stories, but I also wouldn't say they actually were very scary, to me. "The Night" was very atmospheric, about the fears of a young child, which I thought was very effective. Another standout was "The Next in Line," which was about a trip to Guanajuato to visit the (very real) Museo de las Momias or Museum of Mummies. There is such a sense of impending dread throughout the story, that you as the reader start feeling anxiety. Lastly the titular story "The Small Assassin" is a classic, as it's about a new mother's fears that her child is out to kill her. It really puts new meaning in the oft uttered phrase, "I brought you into this world, I can take you out."
Some of these stories though weren't really to my liking, either being too atmospheric/boring, or a little too playful/not very scary. Still, a strong collection of creepy short stories from a master. 3.5/5 rounded down.
Some of these stories though weren't really to my liking, either being too atmospheric/boring, or a little too playful/not very scary. Still, a strong collection of creepy short stories from a master. 3.5/5 rounded down.
October 8, 2017
A collection of mild horror, delivered in a way that only Bradbury could achieve. There's nothing really shocking in most of these tales, but a mild air of unease permeates the golden small town scenes. Bradbury's fiction can come across as a literary wistful Norman Rockwell America, with the saccharine level turned down a few notches and the smell of the evening permeating the streets. You're not going to find the purple chthonic prose of Lovecraft in these works, nor the blood red of Stephen King, but the will appeal to anyone who likes their creepiness to be like the first winter breeze catching you off-guard on an otherwise warm autumn evening.
December 9, 2023
Although I rated this book with 3 stars, it is really a 7/10 (good). In my quest to read all of Ray Bradbury's books, I am about halfway through. This particular book is a collection of short stories - as are most of his books. This one has about 40% (give or take) new stories (stories I have not read yet) and the rest are recycled from his previous books. Nevertheless, the book was good - it was nice to re-read some of his better stories. Bradbury has left an indelible science fiction imprint on my mind, having read some of his books when I was a teenager.
February 28, 2024
Really enjoyed this creepy lil book. My fave stories were The Small Assassin, The Next in Line, Jack-in-the-Box, Let’s Play ‘Poison�, and The Dead Man but I didn’t dislike any of them. Weirdly excessive and unnecessary use of the word ‘breasts� in the whole book though. Particularly interesting use of it when, in ‘The Next in Line�, Marie put her hands to her breasts as if to squeeze and restart her heart when she can’t feel her heartbeat????? That’s not how that works Ray xo
November 21, 2024
I'd not read any Bradbury apart from the obvious one coming into this, so it's perhaps not the best representation of his work. It's nothing if not eclectic and hugely imaginative, but only a couple of the 13 stories here completely drew me in, though they were all entertaining.
The standout for me was The Night - a tale which taps brilliantly into the feelings of horror we have inwardly as a result of panic and anxiety, and looks at how this tightens our imagination and senses.
The standout for me was The Night - a tale which taps brilliantly into the feelings of horror we have inwardly as a result of panic and anxiety, and looks at how this tightens our imagination and senses.
October 12, 2024
A very early collection, and some of the stories are a little different in style from his usual; more allusive and slippery. Still creepy and with his usual settings and preoccupations, but as if he hadn't yet fully settled on a voice. While some of the experiments weren't to my taste, it also added a little variety and surprise.
August 4, 2017
7/10
A great collection of early horror/sci-fi.
As Bradbury was such a trailblazer in the genre/s reading these stories in 2017 the plot twists can feel a little obvious but that's probably because of the writers who stood on his shoulders and furthered the craft in more recent years.
A great collection of early horror/sci-fi.
As Bradbury was such a trailblazer in the genre/s reading these stories in 2017 the plot twists can feel a little obvious but that's probably because of the writers who stood on his shoulders and furthered the craft in more recent years.
February 16, 2018
Ray Bradbury is a master in creating tension. I felt uncomfortable reading some of these stories, which is exactly what I should've felt in the moment.
Also I like reading about evil kids because kids are evil, okay?
Also I like reading about evil kids because kids are evil, okay?
September 12, 2018
This book is a collection of sinister short stories reminiscent of Poe's dark tales from the fringes of the supernatural.
Some of the stories are better than others, as is to be expected, but what is consistent is Bradbury's literary style. I really like his SF for his traditional, descriptive prose in a genre that doesn't normally sit so close to classic literary style and this style of his works well with the type of 'horror' story in this book.
He writes good, solid characters who fit neatly into their respective narratives and ties together each short story neatly.
I found a number of the stories themselves to be a bit too predictable and the final, dramatic reveal was often too heavy handed, where a subtler method of delivery could easily have been concocted. I have given Bradbury the benefit of the doubt here though because these stories are from 60 or 70 years ago. All literature grows from that which came before so it's probable that these stories which appear out-dated to me were much more cutting edge at the time they were written.
To summarise, a number of well written, spooky stories usually with a predictable twist like you might expect from Tales of the Unexpected.
Some of the stories are better than others, as is to be expected, but what is consistent is Bradbury's literary style. I really like his SF for his traditional, descriptive prose in a genre that doesn't normally sit so close to classic literary style and this style of his works well with the type of 'horror' story in this book.
He writes good, solid characters who fit neatly into their respective narratives and ties together each short story neatly.
I found a number of the stories themselves to be a bit too predictable and the final, dramatic reveal was often too heavy handed, where a subtler method of delivery could easily have been concocted. I have given Bradbury the benefit of the doubt here though because these stories are from 60 or 70 years ago. All literature grows from that which came before so it's probable that these stories which appear out-dated to me were much more cutting edge at the time they were written.
To summarise, a number of well written, spooky stories usually with a predictable twist like you might expect from Tales of the Unexpected.
May 21, 2023
R.B. no decepciona con su forma de narrar estos cuentos. Algunos más sencillos que otros, no de emérita lo cautivadores y envolventes que son cada un de ellos, dejando(me) con un sabor de hambre de más.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 16, 2024
Very morbid short story, not particularly my tastes but it was for school so lol. Essentially the baby is the killer, very strange stuff indeed. The prose was quite good though, it was written well and I was engaged just the content of the story was a little too morbid for my tastes.
March 16, 2018
It's hard to comment much on some writings without spoiling the read. I enjoyed this thought-provoking, clever short piece. Very different from Fahrenheit 451 in some ways.
January 21, 2019
Not quite to the creep level of "the illustrated man" but still so hauntingly Bradbury :)
July 13, 2020
Lo escuché como podcast. Este cuento da aún más miedo porque puedes perfectamente imaginarte al pequeño asesino. Excelente
September 17, 2020
Awesome short story.
October 11, 2020
Bradbury is such a good writer. He just draws me into the setting and gets me watching the scene unfold with all five senses. I only wish these were a little scarier haha, but still a fun read.
August 31, 2023
Damn dude that’s a serial killer baby.
September 26, 2024
Dark and twisted tale from one of the greats. Bradbury writes a tale that any sleep-deprived new parent can relate to...and fear.
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