Let me break down each tale, by telling you which ones I loved and which I did not.
I loved The Tell-Tale Heart. This is a story of how your own conscience can betray you and give you up. I also really enjoyed The Murders In The Rue Morgue. It was an interesting whodunnit with an unexpected outcome.
I did not like The Cask of Amontillado. It was just confusing and I don't get it at all.
I also did not like The Masque of the Red Death. I tell you this, the story made me never want to go to a ball and engage in revelry. Thankfully, I don't see any balls in my future. The rest of the stories were decent. And all-in-all I am glad I read some Poe. Another great classic writer that I can add to my read list!

This was my first time reading Edgar Allan Poe, I know it is a shame. I'd been planning to read some of his works for a while though, ever after I read Ray Bradbury's story Usher II in the collection The Illustrated Man. Luckily, this short collection contained two of the stories that were very important in Usher II.

This is dark fiction as dark fiction is supposed to be. In The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator is desperately trying to prove how he is completely sane, which will only result of course in proving his insanity. Really nice stories, I want to read more.

~Little Black Classics #31~

The last of my pre-written posts. 

I prefer classic horror because it deals with ghost stories being told at a holiday party or other ways to distance the story from the reader enough so I can enjoy the story without putting myself into nightmare situations.

Some favorites include The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the House of Usher. I read two Great Illustration of the Classics versions of classic horrors that work with my brain (Frankenstein and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Last year's pick, The Turn of the Screw, was much too wordy for me to enjoy the story. I have tried to read Dracula in the past, but I made it all of 25 pages and noped out of it.This year I am reading Tales of Mystery & the Macabre by Elizabeth Gaskell.

JD Robb/Nora Roberts 

Lynn Cahoon

Susan Elia MacNeal

Shelly Laurenston

Edgar Allen Poe

Victor LaValle