F/SF

best of Adam's Celtic Vision

I had this paperback in my collection for many years before finally reading the newly released ebook version. It is a very memorable set of stories. I have read a couple of the stories before, certainly Poppy Z. Brite's and Joe Lansdale's, which have appeared elsewhere. I won't review story-by-story, because this is just something you need to discover for yourself. Suffice to say that Monteleone succeeds almost completely in his ambition to create an anthology of stories that don't fall into the conventional categories of horror. There is something to entertain, frighten, amaze, and disgust just about every reader between the covers of this book. The one thing the stories have in common is that they are all well-written. Many of them will stick with you--even the ones you wish would not. ( )

I have the paperback version in my collection, but I must have never read it--because if I had, I would have remembered it. I have read a couple of the stories before, certainly Poppy Z. Brite's and Joe Lansdale's, which have appeared elsewhere. I won't review story-by-story, because this is just something you need to discover for yourself. Suffice to say that Monteleone succeeds almost completely in his ambition to create an anthology of stories that don't fall into the conventional categories of horror. There is something to entertain, frighten, amaze, and disgust just about every reader between the covers of this book. The one thing the stories have in common is that they are all well-written. Many of them will stick with you--even the ones you wish would not. ( )

While there were some great stories in here - "The Calling" is pretty great, likewise "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood" and "Stillborn" - overall there was way too much sex in this collection for me. Not even necessarily sexualized violence, but sex and then something horrific. I'd forgotten that was Such A Thing in 80s/90s horror. ( )