Customer Reviews

My Favorite Horror Story

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have quite a few horror anthologies, but I don't have several of the stories in this collection. What a bargain. Not a clunker in the bunch. Whether you're new to horror or an old hand, this is a great book to have.

"My Favorite Horror Story" is exactly what it says it is. A handful of today's better known horror authors, including the omnipresent Stephen King, and the slightly less inevitable Poppy Z. Brite ( I loved her introduction to Ramsey Campbell's "The Pattern." Very funny.) The main drawback to this book is that some of the stories have been very heavily anthologized, such as the two Lovecraft tales and Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." And can anyone actually read "Young Goodman Brown" and not suffer horrible high-school flashbacks? That said, let us move on to the high points of the anthology. My three favorites would be the aforementioned "The Pattern," which is among Campbell's best work and is absolutely terrifying. I believe that Mr. Campbell has always done his best work in short fiction (with exceptions such as "The Parasite") and this story serves to reinforce my opinion. Look up his excellent short story collections "Waking Nightmares," and "Ghosts and Grisly Things" if you have an interest in his style. "The Father-Thing" by Philip K. Dick may seem to be out of place in a horror anthology at first, but after you read it, you may never look at your dad in the same way! Chilling. All of the late Mr. Dick's books come VERY highly recommended from me. "The Inner Room" by Robert Aickman may not seem to be as relentlessly horrifying as some of the other stories, but it has a way of nagging at your mind that leads to some very disturbing thoughts. Seek out "Cold Hand in Mine" which is lamentably out of print, for more work by this unsung hero of atmospheric, ghostly horror tales. All in all, this is quite a good collection. Every fan of horror will find something they like here.

What a great idea for a book! Wish the introductions were a little more detailed in some cases (Mr. King...), and as in any anthology not every story will be to your taste, but I enjoyed the added bonus of knowing which author chose which story. Now I've got to run out and find some more M.R. James. If you want to read the stories that inspired your favorite masters of the macabre, this is a great place to start.

Short story collections are always fun and this one is no exception. The Robert Bloch story was really great, I had actually read it before, but I think a lot of his work is out of print now so maybe most people haven't. "The Human Chair" was a highlight by a lesser known Japanese writer, this story is decidedly creepy. My favorite story in the collection is "Patterns" by Robert Aickman. This story is really genuinly frightening and gave me chills. The Lovecraft story has been heavily anthologized, so you probably have read it already. Its a great collection, and I would highly recommend it.

This is a GREAT anthology. The best writers in Horror select their favorite horror stories. The best thing about that is they tell you why. It helps understand what to look for in a horror story, what makes one great, and why so much in horror is just dross. We see just how important Robert Bloch has been and, sadly, much of his work is out-of-print. Richard Matheson is here too, of course, and the story selected is one I wasn't familiar with. The classics are here too: The Tell-Tale Heart, Young Goodman Brown, and two from Lovecraft. The most interesting selection is The Human Chair by Edogawa Rampo, selected by Harlan Ellison.

Fifteen modern-day authors of horror were asked to chose the short story that influenced them the most, that left the biggest impression, and the stories chosen were some of the best I've ever read. "The Father Thing" by Philip K. Dick was incredibly chilling, and "The Inner Room" by Robert Aickman will probably always nag at my mind. It's unfair to single out these two stories, though, because all were very, very good. I have quite a few horror anthologies, but didn't have all these stories. This is a definite must-have for anyone who likes good, scary short stories.

I agree with a lot of what the other reviewers said. A few of these stories are heavily anthologized. I think I've been assigned to read "The Tell-Tale Heart" no less than 15 times in my life as a student, and for that, I chide Joyce Carol Oates for her laziness (or maybe she was just being honest).

Some of the author introductions to stories are overblown or surprisingly unrelated to the selection that follows. But for the most part, this was an enlightening collection of stories, and some are extraordinarily creepy and stay with you long after you're done reading.

I think about "The Dog Park" by Dennis Etchison a lot, mainly because I live in L.A. and can see that he got the culture here and found a way to parlay it into a story about lost ideals and the vultures -- real, metaphorical -- who circle above the hopeful artists, waiting to strike.

"The Human Chair" by Edigawa Rampo pops into my head now and again too. A great twist. This was like the most thrilling, most bizarre "Tales from the Darkside" episode you never saw. It has a distinctly Japanese edge to it -- a little mythic, a lot grotesque. This story made me want to seek out more Japanese genre fiction.

I don't want to comment on every story, because I'd be here forever. Many of these (i.e. "The Distributor" by Richard Matheson) are classics I never knew about but see repeated everywhere now that I've read them. It's funny -- ever since reading "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" in this collection, I see references to it everywhere. Producers want scripts just like it. And if you think about it, that's exactly what half the Hollywood horror stories are like these days -- dealing with that limbo area surrounding death -- "Is he dead, does he know he's dead?," etc.

"The Pattern" by Ramsey Campbell is totally freaky. I mean, seriously. Don't read it in the dark when you're about to go to sleep in an otherwise empty apartment. Make sure someone's there with you. That's the most satisfaction I got from a horror story in 15 years. The only other time I was ever that scared was after I read "Children of the Corn" when I was 9 years old. This story can return you to that level of primal, irrational fear.

This book has several stories that anyone who's the least into anthologies has seen many times before: 'The Father-Thing,' 'The Colour Out of Space,' 'Young Goodman Brown,' 'The Tell-Tale Heart,' 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.' But these are all solid, enjoyable tales, and worth rereading (of all of them, 'The Tell-Tale Heart,' loses its flavour fastest), and more recent, less familiar works are also included. (It's also nice to see relatively less-anthologised works by a couple of authors: 'A Warning to the Curious' instead of James's far more famous 'Lost Hearts,' for example.)

The chronological mix is carried off well; a look at the 'Acknowledgements' page shows that, of the copyrighted stories, three date from the 20s, two each from the 50s and 70s, and one each from the 40s, 60s, and 90s; an additional five are out of copyright. The introduction states that this is 'by no means a complete retrospective of the horror genre, but can be considered a collection of the evolution of horror.' A chronological arrangement might have brought out the concept of evolution better, but the selection itself is essentially solid, with only a couple of weak spots.

Even if you're familiar with all the stories, this collection is worth getting for the introductions to each story, penned by the modern author who selected the story as his favorite. They vary in length, from Stephen King's quarter-page blurb for 'Sweets to the Sweet' to Richard Laymon's anecdotal (I am tempted to say 'colorful') four pages and three lines regarding 'The Colour Out of Space.' They're good reading on their own merits and for the most part succeed in exciting the reader about the stories they accompany.

Take note: Most of the stories are fairly subtle and psychological, as much fantasy as horror, and sometimes not even particularly chilling. Suggestive cover art notwithstanding, there's certainly too little gore for coarser tastes. These stories are considered classics for good reason: The emphasis is on strong, original plots and evocative prose, not threadbare ideas prettied up with gratuitous mayhem, like a garish cover on a rotting sofa.

End of caveat. Enjoy the book.

The problem for the editor of any anthology, especially of a genre the editor is particularly fond of, is what to put in and what to leave out. When it comes to the horror field, people's favorites might overlap, but there are always going to be fans of certain stories who will be disappointed when their favorites aren't included in any type of 'best of' compilation.

Mike Baker and Martin Greenberg neatly avoid that criticism with this collection by soliciting the favorite stories of some of the leading names in horror, by asking luminaries from Stephen King to Poppy Z. Brite what story affects them the most. The results are, in my opinion, certainly above the average, and the collection as a whole has several things going for it. First of all, though, I don't believe the contents are listed anywhere, so for those who may be interested, it might be helpful to know what's inside.

Sweets to the Sweet, by Robert Bloch
The Father-Thing, by Phillip K. Dick
The Distributer, by Richard Matheson
A Warning to the Curious, by M.R. James
Opening the Door, by Arthur Machen
The Colour out of Space, by H.P. Lovecraft
The Inner Room, by Robert Aickman
Young Goodman Brown, by Nathanial Hawthorne
The Rats in the Walls, by H.P. Lovecraft
The Dog Park, by Dennis Etchison
The Animal Fair, by Robert Bloch
The Pattern, by Ramsey Campbell
The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe
An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce
The Human Chair, by Edogawa Rampo

Rather than comment on the individual stories, I wanted to concentrate on the merits of the anthology as a whole, as without a doubt, many of these stories are certifiable classics. The advantages to this particular collection is that it is a inexpensive introduction to some authors I didn't have much experience with, but had been curious about for some time, such as M. R. James and Arthur Machen. Additionally, even though I was much more familiar with Robert Bloch and H.P. Lovecraft, I don't currently have any examples of their writing. I had wanted to introduce H.P. Lovecraft to my fiancee for some time, so that when I referred to him she would know what I was talking about, but I doubted that she would like him to the point that I needed to buy a whole collection of his stories. This anthology solves that problem.

Lastly, as a bit of a surprise, I was introduced to Edogawa Rampo, who I was completely unfamiliar with, but found that I enjoyed his contribution very much. That and the Robert Aickman story, which I did not have in my other collections of his, were the highlights to me.

The only real drawbacks are the availability of several of the selections in so many other anthologies. 'Young Goodman Brown', 'An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, and 'The Tell-Tale Heart' must be in hundreds. The Hawthorne and Bierce selections are often even in high school and college literature course books. Still, that's a minor complaint, and over all, this is a terrific (or terrifying) overview of the genre.

These stories are hand picked by some of the best writers of horror so you know they're good. 'Selected and introduced by such masters of the genre as Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison and Joyce Oates, these terror-filled tales are certain to set your pulse pounding and spine tingling until the very last page.' Robert E. Howard was mentioned alongside H.P. Lovecraft as I would have selected Pigeons From Hell by REH. A writer of horror that is a must read is Hazel Heald who has some stories in H.P. Lovecraft Horrors in the Museum and one in particular called 'Winged Death' is frightening to the bone - nightmarish! Neither read all four of her stories at once nor at night all alone as I still think of her 'Winged Death' even now months later.

Also recommended: Hazel Heald's four stories in Lovecraft Horrors in the Museum, The Black Stranger & Other American Tales-Robert E. Howard, Blood & Thunder, The Life & Art of REH - Mark Finn, One Who Walked Alone-Novalyne Price, Solomon Kane, Kull, Conan, Bran Mak Morn, Conan, The Best of REH 1 & 2, Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter, Jack London, Two-Gun Bob, Hitchcock, & Poe.