'Where Spirits Gat Them Home' is John Crowley at his usually subversive, enchanted best. Also, I'm a sucker for stories taking place in an amusement park, so 'Mory' hit the right nerve. Michael Bishop's 'Mory' is a standout, a disconcerting farce about bad luck personified, and the unusual embodiment of 'evil' comes across equally haunting and surreal. Uneven but occasionally brilliant collection from 1977, several years before the 'horror boom' took hold of the publishing world. OVERALL: Maybe my expectations were too high, but if you're making your way through out-of-print horror, don't feel bad about putting this one at the bottom of the stack. No need to hunt this down for King's incredible story, though. Among these other writers, the breadth of King's talent illuminates the page. Grant introduces King as a newcomer who is "not very visible to the community of fantasy authors," but also someone that he can "vouch for." Indeed so. Most often the stories slowly drift away until finally there are no more words.Įxceptions to this include "Picture" by Robert Block, which is a delightful frolic with the devil, and "NONA" by Stephen King which is written so beautifully it brings tears.
None of the characters leap off the page and their journeys rarely end with satisfaction. Others might devote great energy in describing a house, only to forsake that setting for another. Many entries vaguely introduce entire families of characters, then confuse with pages and pages of unattributed dialogue. The issue is simply that the writing is, overall, extremely poor.
My negative reaction to this collection has nothing to do with the lack of drama in the stories. That's not exactly true, but even if it were, I'd be okay with that. Others might call 'quiet horror' stories in which nothing happens. Grant advocated for "quiet horror" which, if I'm interpreting it right, has more to do with subtle uneasiness than actual scares. Grant (1942 - 2006) himself was a prolific and notable novelist, though now he seems to be mostly forgotten. This collection won the World Fantasy Award (notably beating SK's collection Night Shift) and features heavy weights like Ramsey Campbell, Robert Bloch, and a story by Stephen King. Given the popularity of Shadows anthologies, however, I came in with higher expectations than typical.
For every standout there's ten others that are absolute garbage. Reading out-of-print horror books from the '70s and '80s requires patience.
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