Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror [Kindle Edition]

Ramsey Campbell (Author), Graham Masterton (Author), C.J. Henderson (Author), Jeffrey Thomas (Author), Randy Chandler (Author), Tim Curran (Author), Garry Bushell (Author), Z.F. Kilgore (Author), Angel McCoy (Author), Cheryl Mullenax (Author, Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

by Rebekah McKendry, Fangoria Magazine

Last week, I received a copy of VILE THINGS: EXTREME DEVIATIONS OF HORROR in the mail from Comet Press. The book is an anthology style collection of stories from a variety of writers including Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterson, and CJ Henderson. I read horror almost everyday and very little actually disturbs me. That doesn t mean they aren t good, it just takes a lot to disturb me.

On Wednesday night, I was having my hair streaked purple. This is a long process that takes several hours, so before departing for my hair appointment, I grabbed the copy of VILE THINGS from my desk to peruse while I sat. I got to the salon, and as they started to turn my red locks to grape, I began reading VILE THINGS. This was not what I expected. This was intense.

Over the next few hours, I found myself cringing, shifting around uncomfortably in my chair, and even at times looking away to take a short break from the disturbing tales I was reading. This book is not just your basic horror stories. This is extreme s**t.

Edited by Cheryl Mullenax, VILE THINGS: EXTREME DEVIATIONS OF HORROR is not for the light horror fan. The stories are not just extreme horror, but also extreme gore and sex...a triple threat of fun in my eyes. Some of the highlights for me were The Worm by John Bruni, which involved so much icky incest that I thought I was going to put down my book in exchange for a nice clean copy of hair-salon Cosmopolitan. The Rat King by Jeffery Thomas put a nice new twist on Nazi/ Holocaust horror. I also really enjoyed Fungoid by Randy Chandler, which rivaled a short story from Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted as my most cringe-worthy reading material. Don t read that one on a full stomach or if you are really sensitive about your genitals. Let s just say when a monster fungus clogs up your plumbing , you may have to snake your snake .

The writers in the collection are a mix of award winning horror masters and some clearly up-and-coming writers. Quite a few of the authors are just starting their literary careers, and this immaturity sometimes glares through in the wording and structure. However, the intense story lines and disturbing plots shine over the sometimes awkward writing styles and occasional poor analogies.

This book is a definite for any extreme horror fan. Full of terror, sex, and gore, I don t recommend this for the faint of heart or for a light read at a beauty salon.

--Fangoria Magazine

Product Description

Fangoria Magazine Review:
This book is a definite for any extreme horror fan. Full of terror, sex, and gore, I don't recommend this for the faint of heart.

Rue Morgue Magazine Review:
But dismembered members aside, there are no cheap gross-outs here; even though the focus is clearly on the vile and unpalatable these don't feel like stories that were written with the sole purpose of being labeled "extreme horror" or to merely revel in their graphic, gory descriptions. Simply put, Vile Things is every deviant horror fan's wet dream.

Monster Librarian Review:
Vile Things is one of the stronger horror anthologies I have come across in some time, its theme literally appears to be centered around creatures, topics, or situations that are so vile it would send a shiver down your spine. It includes stories from both established and newer horror authors, and some of the stories are more extreme than the usual fare.

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror is the ultimate collection of extreme horror from award winning masters and up-and-coming authors of macabre fiction.

Witness the history of a sexually rapacious zombie . . . A starving soldier descends into insatiable ghoulism . . . A concentration camp SS guard gets a taste of his own medicine . . . Recycling takes on a whole new grisly meaning when a man obsessed with going green discovers a regenerative serum . . . A man buys his alcoholic mother a bottle of tequila--with the wrong kind of worm . . . An occult detective moves to a town in the Jersey Pine Barrens and discovers its sinister past--and his own . . . and much more!

Table of Contents:

The Fisherman by Brian Rosenberger
Fungoid by Randy Chandler
Tenants Rights by Sean Logan
Again by Ramsey Campbell
Maggots by Tim Curran
Going Green by Stefan Pearson
Coquettrice by Angel Leigh McCoy
The Fear in the Waiting by C.J. Henderson
The Worm by John Bruni
Sepsis by Graham Masterton
What You Wish For by Garry Bushell
The Devil Lives in Jersey by Z.F. Kilgore
Rat King by Jeffrey Thomas
The Caterpillar by C. Dennis Moore
Poor Brother Ed or The Man Who Visited by Ralph Greco, Jr.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 408 KB
• Print Length: 212 pages
• Publisher: Comet Press; First edition (January 23, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0035RPHKI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,960 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shock Room: Vile Things, September 10, 2009

By 

S. P. Miskowski (West Coast, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror (Paperback)

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror
Edited by Cheryl Mullenax

Featuring new or recent fiction by a dozen authors and anchored by reprints from horror literary giants Ramsey Campbell and Graham Masterton, the 2009 Comet Press anthology Vile Things answers such questions as:

How can a mad scientist, who is also a family man, keep his household electronics running once he decides to go green?

Why should you never cross the threshold of an apartment that bears an obscene portrait of a rooster?

How do you get even with a roommate whose only crime is being irresistible?

Rarely does one volume of work by such a wide range of experienced and emerging writers offer the abundance of creepiness found in Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror. Maggots, animals and people slither this way and that, sometimes erotically, sometimes horrifically and occasionally both--as in Angel Leigh McCoy's devilishly sensual "Coquettrice." In addition to McCoy's story, I especially liked the ruthless wit of Stefan Pearson's "Going Green." But there are many delights to be found here.

In Sean Logan's geek revenge story "Tenant's Rights" a slovenly upstairs renter turns peeping tom, drilling holes in the floor to spy on the handsome roommate whose sexual charisma--and magnificent hair--have driven him to distraction. The anti-hero of "The Caterpillar" by C. Dennis Moore stumbles toward a state of grace and awe, thanks to an unexpected connection to his disfigured young cousin.

These are not typical or predictable tales of horror. While a couple of the pieces lack polish, there is no shortage of originality. If you think, as I do, that the most exotic images and disturbing acts lurk in the basement next door or the apartment across the hall, here is the material for your next nightmare.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly conventional despite the title but a few stories do stand out, January 16, 2010

By 

Whitt Patrick Pond "Whitt" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror (Paperback)

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror is something of a mixed bag. What you get out of it will largely depend on just what you're looking for when you want to read horror. If you want stories that will make you squirm, then Vile Things will definitely succeed on that level. Every story in this anthology has a fairly high "ick" factor and if that's what scares you, then this is definitely an anthology you'll want to read.

For myself, however, this anthology was a bit disappointing. When I see a sub-title promising "Extreme Deviations of Horror", I expect stories that will really push the envelope, that will be so unsettling as to generate controversy or come with a cautionary note. Vile Things is not, despite its title, one of those anthologies. Most of the stories were - other than the high ick factor - fairly conventional, and far too many rely on what I would term the 'outside agent' factor, i.e. horrible things happen but it's because of some third-party making them happen, which both distances the reader from the horror and removes any responsibility for the character's actions. It's the literary equivalent of "The devil made me do it!", which is not at all the same as a deal-with-the-devil story. For me, real horror, the best horror, leaves the reader unsettled, altering their world view in such a way that they don't feel quite as safe or comfortable as they did before reading the story. A really good horror story will stay with the reader long, long after the reading is done.

From that perspective, there are a few stories here that I can recommend, first and foremost being Ramsey Campbell's "Again" where a lone hiker takes the path less traveled and witnesses something that neither he nor the reader will ever be able to get out of their head. It is a mark of Campbell's mastery of the genre that he twists the knife at the very end with a single word that takes the reader from being merely repulsed to being truly horrified. Tim Curran's "Maggots" follows the descent of a French soldier in Napoleon's retreat from Moscow from desperation into damnation. While it relies on an outside agent, it is the best ghoul story I've ever read, all the more so as it is told from the ghoul's point of view. If you've ever wondered what it would be mean to be a ghoul - and why you'd never, ever want to be one - this is a must read. Jeffrey Thomas' "Rat King" takes on a seemingly overused plot - a Nazi concentration camp guard becomes the victim of his victims - but takes it in a very disturbing direction. And even as you realize that this isn't the story you'd expected it to be, you will not be able to stop until the very end, when the unnamed guard's parting words leave you feeling unsettled and unclean.

All in all, this is not a bad anthology. At least three of the stories are first-rate by any horror standard, and the rest are really a matter of just what in particular the reader is looking for in horror. If you want something that will make you squirm and keep you squirming from beginning to end, then this is a book you'll want to read. If you want something that will unsettle you, that will stick uncomfortably in your mind long after you've put the book aside, then the three stories I mentioned will make it worth your while.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the squeamish, March 17, 2010

By 

Kevin L. Kennel - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror (Paperback)

This anthology at first seems like a book that is built upon gross things and who wants a horror story where there is only gore? But if you get past the first couple stories or skip them, you will find there is some good writing in there. Particularly "The Devil Lives in Jersey" by Z.F. Kilgore and "Sepsis" by Graham Masterson. There is some humor in here. "Tenant's Rights" by Sean Logan will have you laugh and squirm at the same time and so will "Going Green" by Stefan Pierson. A good book for those looking for some blood, guts, and other sick things in their horror stories.