The Cat-Dogs

Rating:
Summary: The Cat-Dogs and Other Tales of Horror (6 Short Stories)
Review: "The Cat-Dogs" opens with the same-named short story by Susan Price. It takes place in England, where a lot of these stories occur. This one is about a young woman who raises a litter of unknown animals (a mix between cats and dogs), only to have them grow bigger and seek human victims. By the synopsis on the back cover, I thought this book was about creatures like this; but the other five short stories involve everything from possessed pianos ("The Piano" by Diane Hoh) to houses ("The House That Jack Built" by Garry Kilworth) to train stations ("The Station With No Name" by Colin Greenland), as well as other beings like the Devil ("The Devil's Footprints" by Malcolm Rose) and a group of vengeful toys ("Softies" by Stan Nicholls).

With just six short stories, you would think this book would be a breeze to finish, but a lot of the stories were rather long-winded and boring, averaging some 30-odd pages each. And some of the endings were incomplete, flat-out silly even. But for young horror fans who like stories where the bad guys wins overall, then "The Cat-Dogs" is worth checking out.