Fearful Symmetries [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Thomas F. Monteleone (Author), Rick Hautala (Foreword), Matt Eames (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 27 reprints in Monteleone's story collection span the last 22 years and are as much a chronicle of the course horror fiction has taken in that time as they are of the author's career. Several are solid dark fantasies that strive for a subtle sense of unease rooted in the troubled emotions of their characters. In the best of them, "Rehearsals," a Twilight Zone–type memory tale, a man watches his childhood replay itself as a painful stage drama he's desperate to rewrite. "Love Letters" is a skillfully underplayed blend of supernatural horror and psychological suspense, written as an exchange of letters in which one correspondent reveals an increasingly inhuman sensibility. Monteleone (Eyes of the Virgin, etc.) has used virtually every classic horror trope, from vampires in "Triptych di Amore," in which a seductive lamia destroys celebrity artists over the centuries, to Lovecraftian monsters in the tongue-in-cheek "Yog Sothoth, Superstar." Some stories that originally appeared in narrowly defined theme anthologies don't hold up well on their own, while others add little to overly familiar themes. Nevertheless, these solidly crafted tales consistently evoke an enjoyably unsettling mood of horror. FYI:Monteleone's nonfiction collection, The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association (2003), won a Stoker Award.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications; Sgd Ltd edition (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587670534
• ISBN-13: 978-1587670534
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,321,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific compilation of horror-dark fantasy tales, December 28, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fearful Symmetries (Hardcover)

This is a terrific compilation of many of Thomas F. Monteleone's horror-dark fantasy tales published mostly in the 1980s (nine) and 1990s (fifteen) with two from this decade. Each entry includes a newly written "introduction" (more like background information/commentary) that enhances the reading and footnotes that though insightful and interesting can prove distracting. The stories run the gamut of horror and dark fantasy from obsession and revenge suspense to black magic and lethal monsters. Every contribution is gripping but especially thrilling is those (most of them) in which Mr. Monteleone avoids overindulging his morality gene such as "The Roadside Scalpel" and "Rehearsals". Some eerie scary illustrations by Matt Eames augment this fine anthology that fans of the author or the horror genre will want to read.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh ideas or new twists, November 23, 2010

By 

Sweetjane (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Fearful Symmetries (Hardcover)

I read a lot of short stories and many of those stories have the same or similar ideas. Monteleone has created fresh themes or put a new twist on familiar ones. There are many stories about the Devil, but the author combines that with the strong love between a grandfather and his grandson in "The Night is Freezing Fast." Other tales have been told about going back in time to change one's life, but "Rehearsals" puts a man's life on a stage with him as the participating audience. Most of my favorites are about children. "The Mechanical Boy" gives us a disturbed child finding his place in the world. "The Cutty Black Sow" chillingly describes a child's fear of an old legend. The one I liked best, "Yesterday's Child," is rather Bradbury-esque in telling how a suicidal man is saved by an unlikely encounter on Halloween. "Spare the Child," "No Pain, No Gain" and "Love Letters" are new and different. "The Wager" made me feel claustrophobic and "Between Floors" made me laugh. I wasn't terrified by any of the stories, but I don't think that was Monteleone's intent. What he has done is written a diverse group of stories with something for everyone. He also has written an introduction to each story, telling what inspired its creation.