Out of print for years until recently (thanks to the Paperbacks From Hell series) this collection of 13 short weird horror stories by Lisa Tuttle is absolutely essential. ( )

First off Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA
This is likely to be my only review this week due to the baking frenzy I'm currently in. My reading time has been drastically reduced at the moment.

I love that Valancourt Books is re-releasing all these great horror classics from the 70s and 80s. I have been on a mission to read the ones I have missed the first time around. If you also missed out or were too young back in the heyday of horror I strongly recommend checking out all that is available from Valancourt.
A Nest of Nightmares contains 13 short stories originally published in 1986. They feel surprisingly timeless other than one person's desperate need to make a phone call which made that particular story feel dated, though anyone who survived the years without a cell phone will still understand what it was like to not have constant and instant access to make a call.
The stories are quite dark and more than one tale focuses on the dissolution of a relationship, where the horror is perhaps the feeling of being left out, abandoned, forgotten and lost. There is the conventional creature feature type horror, and haunted objects and a weirdly current feeling in the tale of a woman looking forward to the fence she's heard they are building to keep people from getting into the country from Mexico. There were only a couple of stories that missed the mark with me. I would recommend this to all who enjoy short horror stories with unexpected endings. ( )

3.5/4 stars! RTC ( )