Customer Reviews

Dark Companions

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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Though it lacks the career-defining arc of ALONE WITH HORRORS, I really feel like this is the strongest collection of Campbell's stories, and thereby one of the strongest horror collections period. This can sit on the shelf beside GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY, easy.

When I reach the conclusion of any given Campbell story, I find myself re-reading the tale immediately, to catch all the little hints and bits of foreshadowing that he'd been dangling in my face all along. These tales are especially strong in that regard. Better every time you read them--there's always something more waiting for you.

Quite simply, this is one of the best collections of ghost stories ever written, worthy to stand on the shelf beside the work of M.R. James, Henry James, Robert Aickman, Edgar Allan Poe and whomever else you place in your horror pantheon. It is regrettable that the U.S. edition lacks the terrifying "The Trick," which appeared later in WAKING NIGHTMARES - the U.K. and U.S. editions of DARK COMPANIONS differ by 4 tales - but this is made up for by the presence of the quite different, but equally terrifying "The Pattern". How was this excellent book ever allowed to lapse out of print?

Few writers can even come close to the strange, nightmarish stories of Ramsey Campbell and, in this collection, he is in top form. Several of these tales will keep you up late at night, looking in the shadows, listening to those stranges noise that keep getting louder, as if they were getting closer. Don't read it alone.