Four Dark Nights [Mass Market Paperback]

Bentley Little (Author), Douglas Clegg (Author), Christopher Golden (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A generously unrestricted theme events that take place in a single terrifying night and talented contributors build high expectations for this quartet of brand new horror novellas, most of which, alas, disappoint in their failure to develop a plot suitable for their length. Bentley Little's "The Circle," the only tale that faithfully limits its events to a single evening, presents three interrelated vignettes of weird incidents in a suburban neighborhood, all of which prove to have an explanation that is surprisingly humdrum by genre standards. Christopher Golden's "Pyre," in which a young woman comes to terms with her estranged father by means of supernatural experience, depends on a labored back story about a Maine island haunted by Viking ghosts. In "Jonah Rose," Tom Piccirilli spends more time elaborating his narrator's convoluted history as a former faith healer who took up with sideshow freaks than establishing that history's bearing on his mission to rescue his kidnapped son from a strange urban underworld. Only Douglas Clegg's "The Words," about two teenage outsiders whose alienation leads them into the creepy "world of Nowhere," uses its expansive length to build the atmosphere and tension crucial for orchestrating its unsettling events. Each of these stories has its moments, which suggests their authors might have produced better offerings outside the anthology's write-to-format limitations.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (December 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843951532
• ISBN-13: 978-0843951530
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,263,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Four Nights of Terror, December 14, 2002

By 

Sebastien Pharand (Orléans, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Four Dark Nights (Hardcover)

What happens when you take four masters of the macabre and ask them to write a horror tale that unfolds under the course of one night? Well, the results is Four Dark Nights, an anthology that takes four of the best names in today's horror field to display their widly twisted imaginations.

The first fourth is a nasty little story called The Circle by Bentley Little. The story plays with time, and with your mind, in amazing ways. You will find a whole neighbourhood blasted into a complete nightmare when a spell is cast of them all. You can't ever predict what's going to happen. The story is also darkly funny. This is the best thing Little has written in a while.

The next two stories, unfortunately, do not display the best of their authors. Christopher Golden's Pyre has its heart in the right place, but its slow-pace and its very predictable payoff take too much away from the story. Here,you find a young woman who wants to resurrect her father to make things right with him again. Tom Piccirilli's Jonah Arose might be too dark original for its own good. The story is a little too depressing and a little to anti-climactic. A pack of dead (or are they?) freak-show attractions are trying to find the narrator's son and rescue him from his demented kidnapper in a world that is eerily similar to ours, but also fundamentally different. Piccirilli's style takes too long to get accustomed to, and the story takes too much time to unfold for you to really fully enjoy yourself.

The heart of this book is written by today's most powerful, most imaginative and most entertaining horror writer. Douglas Clegg has a unique voice that is both strong and magical. And his story The Words does not disappoint. You can always count on Clegg to deliver the goods and he does so again this time around, and then some. In this story, a group of teenage highschoolers find themselves stranded in an abandoned church where an evil force has been resurrected. Clegg has an amazing ability to create characters you care for and want to know more about. The story is scary, fast-paced and very affecting. Douglas Clegg is bound to become one of the most important voice in today's horror field.

These four novellas will provide a great deal of entertainment. Maybe it wasn't fair to pit Golden and Piccirilli against masters like Little and Clegg. But in any case, the book is more than worth its price for its opening and closing stories. The two tales in between are just icing on an already very colorful cake.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A worthy horror anthology, February 28, 2005

By 

ThePaperbackStash.com (FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four Dark Nights (Hardcover)

Mix four masters of horror, give them free reign with their imaginations, and what do you have? A book worth reading, that's what!

Bentley Littles 'The Circle' starts off the fun. Although different, dark, twisted, and out there, it skids off the road a bit too much at times. I couldn't get into the characters, some of the imagery painted seemed overdone to the point of writing it just to shock the reader, and the ending left me disturbed, not necessarily in a good way.

Christopher Goldens' Pyre was an occupying, fascinating tale about a young girl who, after losing her father, goes over the edge to bring him back for a showdown. The theme was pure bliss, making me want to read more, more, and even more when it was all done with. The characters were convincingly written, multi-dimensional, and lingering. Goldens' writing style is both fierce and strong.

Tom Piccirilli's Jonah Arose is a mixed blessing. The story didn't do it for me, but it was written with a talented hand. The wording was as smooth as butter, the characterization was potent, and the ending strange. It just took a bit too long to get off, I was confused much of the time, since the tale was so 'out there'.

The last offering, Douglas Cleggs' The Words, ties in with Goldens as the winner. Intriguing, different, suspenseful, and creepy, it's a simple tale that holds much more beneath the surface.

In the mood for a good horror anthology? How can you go wrong with four in-depth novellas from these authors? Simple - you can't.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Great Stories, Two Pretty Good Ones, October 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Four Dark Nights (Hardcover)

The entries by Golden and Picirrilli are not bad if a trifle long, but the ones by Clegg and Little are outstanding. Little's story in particular, with its "Pulp Fiction"-esque time jiggling, is a standout. Scary and poignant at the same time, as well as being wildly original. This is a superior collection by four of horror's current top talents.