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Holes for Faces
One of the most respected living horror writers in the world, Campbell has more awards for his horror tales than any other author, and "is likely to be remembered as the leading horror writer of our generation," according to S.T. Joshi. One of the heirs apparent to early-twentieth-century American author H. P. Lovecraft, Campbell's horror stories are often set in contemporary Merseyside, England, his own hometown, and involve quite ordinary characters. His unsettling, dreamlike prose, however, transforms his work into very effective horror fiction.
The fourteen stories in this collection are:
“Passing Through Peacehaven”
“Peep”
“Getting It Wrong”
“The Room Beyond”
“Holes for Faces”
“The Rounds”
“The Decorations”
“The Address”
“Recently Used”
“Chucky Comes to Liverpool”
“With the Angels”
“Behind the Doors”
“Holding the Light”
“The Long Way”
The fourteen stories in this collection are:
“Passing Through Peacehaven”
“Peep”
“Getting It Wrong”
“The Room Beyond”
“Holes for Faces”
“The Rounds”
“The Decorations”
“The Address”
“Recently Used”
“Chucky Comes to Liverpool”
“With the Angels”
“Behind the Doors”
“Holding the Light”
“The Long Way”
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 2013
25 people are currently reading
1775 people want to read
About the author
Ramsey Campbell
857 books1,592 followersRamsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
October 11, 2013
Ramsey Campbell is a giant in the field. Love or hate his work, there is no denying it. With nearly fifty years of experience under his belt, the Liverpool native has surely made his mark in weird fiction history. Starting his long career with Lovecraft Mythos stories, yet set in his own fictional section of England, Ramsey has thoroughly explored all aspects of the uncanny.
Holes For Faces is Campbell’s latest collection, recently published by Dark Regions Press, and contains fourteen stories from the past decade. Every story showcases Campbell’s talents for hinting at the weird, making the mundane horrifying, and conveying Campbell’s signature sense of paranoia. Campbell’s stories have a certain nightmarish qualities to them, and his protagonists are almost always alone with seemingly no one to turn to who would understand them.
The one common thread tying all these stories together are the themes of youth and age. Almost every story features either a child protagonist, or an older man protagonist, while some stories prominently feature both ends of the spectrum. Parallels are drawn between both ages, aging characters are sometimes treated simply, as if they havee regressed to small children.
The stories prominently featuring age as a theme often take a similar approach, in that the old men and women are usually suffering from confusion. The Address is a prime example. The main character is looking for a station, yet is entirely lost. The people he encounters offer little to no help, either sending him in a direction that leads to nothing, or speaking down to him as if he is a child or simple in the head. The man’s confused search soon becomes something much darker when he comes across what appears to be a school and decides to ask someone for directions. Recently Used is a tragic story, seeing an older man woken up in the middle night by a phone call, only to rush to the hospital to see his wife who is in critical condition. The story is a nightmare of anxiety, much like The Address, as the man rushes through the labyrinthine hospital unable to find the proper ward. Until the end it’s hard to tell whether the man is experiencing something supernatural, or if he is simply not mentally competent. In The Rounds, an old man tries to make his way home on a train, only to become obsessed with a suitcase a Muslim woman leaves behind. Suspecting terrorism the man does his best to keep the suitcase in sight, yet the story soon becomes an endless loop of him going through the same motions station after station, never able to escape. Keeping with the train themes, Passing Through Peacehaven features another older protagonist, who stops at a decrepit train station, where he awaits the next train. The station seems abandoned, although at times he hears a voice over the speakers and catches glimpses of what may be another person.
Campbell also writes youth well. Holes for Faces features a particularly nervous boy, on vacation in Italy with his parents. He already seems to be a bit of a nervous wreck, but when the family decides to take a tour of some catacombs, the boy becomes particularly fixated on holes where some corpses’ faces should be. The rest of the vacation becomes a nightmare, as holes in general start to become a source of extreme anxiety and fear for the boy. Chucky Comes to Liverpool, one of my favorites, plays with the idea of British urban legends about the killer doll Chucky from the Child’s Play films. The youth, as well as a coalition of moms, blame the Child's Play films for inspiring several violent crimes perpetrated by young men and women. The main character’s mother is a member of this coalition, and is doing her part to ban the “video nasties” while her son and his friend, in true fourteen year old fashion, decide they want to see what all the fuss is about. The boy becomes obsessed, then frightened with his obsession, and decides to do what he can to put an end to Chucky, ironically becoming the violent sociopath himself. Holding The Light is bit more straightforward. Two young teenagers visit a spooky tunnel, and take turns walking it in the dark. The Long Way follows a young boy who routinely goes across the council estate to help his paraplegic uncle with his grocery shopping. Things become complicated when the boy sees something moving about in an abandoned house and begins to fear going to his uncle's.
While Campbell covers both youth and old age, some of the most successful stories are the ones that combine both. There is often the continued theme of the old characters being misunderstood and looked down upon by their own children or their peers, usually seen as incompetent to take care of their grandchildren. This is first explored in Peep, in which a grandfather is once again haunted by a terrifying game from his childhood, which interferes with his being able to watch over his own grandkids. The Decorations, the first of two Christmas themed stories, draws strong parallels between a boy and his grandmother. Being of that age where the realities of the world start to become clear, the boy and his mother visit his grandparents for the holidays. It soon becomes apparent that his grandmother is losing it, and she has an obsessive fear of a creepy Santa Claus decoration. The boy struggles, on one hand he shares her fear and believes her, but on another hand he tries to “be a man” and help convince her it's alright. The end is ambiguous, and leaves readers wondering whether the boy truly experiences the supernatural, or if he simply shares his grandmother's madness. In contrast, Behind The Doors features the grandfather as the protagonist, instead of the grandson. The grandfather's bad memories of school return when his grandson brings home an advent calendar from the grandfather's old teacher. The grandfather's obsession with the calendar and the number game that the teacher plays leads him to lose everything. Going with the theme of mentally incompetent elders paired with youth, With the Angels has one of the book's darker endings. Two old women visit their families old house with some grandchildren, but one of the women is not quite up to the task of watching the kids.
Ramsey Campbell's skills are on full display with the collection, and the common theme of youth and old age make for a collection that is solidified in theme. Definitely a welcome addition to the master's bibliography.
Review originally appeared on my blog, The Arkham Digest.
Holes For Faces is Campbell’s latest collection, recently published by Dark Regions Press, and contains fourteen stories from the past decade. Every story showcases Campbell’s talents for hinting at the weird, making the mundane horrifying, and conveying Campbell’s signature sense of paranoia. Campbell’s stories have a certain nightmarish qualities to them, and his protagonists are almost always alone with seemingly no one to turn to who would understand them.
The one common thread tying all these stories together are the themes of youth and age. Almost every story features either a child protagonist, or an older man protagonist, while some stories prominently feature both ends of the spectrum. Parallels are drawn between both ages, aging characters are sometimes treated simply, as if they havee regressed to small children.
The stories prominently featuring age as a theme often take a similar approach, in that the old men and women are usually suffering from confusion. The Address is a prime example. The main character is looking for a station, yet is entirely lost. The people he encounters offer little to no help, either sending him in a direction that leads to nothing, or speaking down to him as if he is a child or simple in the head. The man’s confused search soon becomes something much darker when he comes across what appears to be a school and decides to ask someone for directions. Recently Used is a tragic story, seeing an older man woken up in the middle night by a phone call, only to rush to the hospital to see his wife who is in critical condition. The story is a nightmare of anxiety, much like The Address, as the man rushes through the labyrinthine hospital unable to find the proper ward. Until the end it’s hard to tell whether the man is experiencing something supernatural, or if he is simply not mentally competent. In The Rounds, an old man tries to make his way home on a train, only to become obsessed with a suitcase a Muslim woman leaves behind. Suspecting terrorism the man does his best to keep the suitcase in sight, yet the story soon becomes an endless loop of him going through the same motions station after station, never able to escape. Keeping with the train themes, Passing Through Peacehaven features another older protagonist, who stops at a decrepit train station, where he awaits the next train. The station seems abandoned, although at times he hears a voice over the speakers and catches glimpses of what may be another person.
Campbell also writes youth well. Holes for Faces features a particularly nervous boy, on vacation in Italy with his parents. He already seems to be a bit of a nervous wreck, but when the family decides to take a tour of some catacombs, the boy becomes particularly fixated on holes where some corpses’ faces should be. The rest of the vacation becomes a nightmare, as holes in general start to become a source of extreme anxiety and fear for the boy. Chucky Comes to Liverpool, one of my favorites, plays with the idea of British urban legends about the killer doll Chucky from the Child’s Play films. The youth, as well as a coalition of moms, blame the Child's Play films for inspiring several violent crimes perpetrated by young men and women. The main character’s mother is a member of this coalition, and is doing her part to ban the “video nasties” while her son and his friend, in true fourteen year old fashion, decide they want to see what all the fuss is about. The boy becomes obsessed, then frightened with his obsession, and decides to do what he can to put an end to Chucky, ironically becoming the violent sociopath himself. Holding The Light is bit more straightforward. Two young teenagers visit a spooky tunnel, and take turns walking it in the dark. The Long Way follows a young boy who routinely goes across the council estate to help his paraplegic uncle with his grocery shopping. Things become complicated when the boy sees something moving about in an abandoned house and begins to fear going to his uncle's.
While Campbell covers both youth and old age, some of the most successful stories are the ones that combine both. There is often the continued theme of the old characters being misunderstood and looked down upon by their own children or their peers, usually seen as incompetent to take care of their grandchildren. This is first explored in Peep, in which a grandfather is once again haunted by a terrifying game from his childhood, which interferes with his being able to watch over his own grandkids. The Decorations, the first of two Christmas themed stories, draws strong parallels between a boy and his grandmother. Being of that age where the realities of the world start to become clear, the boy and his mother visit his grandparents for the holidays. It soon becomes apparent that his grandmother is losing it, and she has an obsessive fear of a creepy Santa Claus decoration. The boy struggles, on one hand he shares her fear and believes her, but on another hand he tries to “be a man” and help convince her it's alright. The end is ambiguous, and leaves readers wondering whether the boy truly experiences the supernatural, or if he simply shares his grandmother's madness. In contrast, Behind The Doors features the grandfather as the protagonist, instead of the grandson. The grandfather's bad memories of school return when his grandson brings home an advent calendar from the grandfather's old teacher. The grandfather's obsession with the calendar and the number game that the teacher plays leads him to lose everything. Going with the theme of mentally incompetent elders paired with youth, With the Angels has one of the book's darker endings. Two old women visit their families old house with some grandchildren, but one of the women is not quite up to the task of watching the kids.
Ramsey Campbell's skills are on full display with the collection, and the common theme of youth and old age make for a collection that is solidified in theme. Definitely a welcome addition to the master's bibliography.
Review originally appeared on my blog, The Arkham Digest.
November 10, 2014
3.5; Ramsey Campbell is without a doubt one of the greatest living writers of supernatural fiction; unfortunately, after hitting the heights in the mid-aughts with the likes of The Overnight and The Grin of the Dark, he has seemingly been in something of a thematic rut. So if you're familiar with Campbell's oeuvre, you'll be able to forecast where most of these stories are headed without much difficulty, but even so, there are some very strong pieces included that show the Liverpudlian master at his best.
September 10, 2013
Reviewed for Horror-Net: http://www.littlebunnycthulhu.com/
As I was reading Holes for Faces, a new collection of short stories by Ramsey Campbell, all I could keep thinking was, How is it possible I’ve never read any Campbell before? Where have I been?
Seriously, WHERE? I cast my mind back through the horror anthologies I’ve read over the years, and somehow, I’ve never come across him before. But I’m so glad I have now.
Holes for Faces is a quiet, quietly astonishing cluster of tales (14, to be exact) that remind me strongly of old Twilight Zone episodes, where the true horror is always something man visits upon man, or that man draws up from the well of his own insecurities. If you’re looking for blood, gore, snarling monsters and/or gratuitous sex, this is not the collection for you.
The main characters are either elderly or children—the powerless, in other words. The elderly have the expected fears of their own mortality, of losing their loved ones, of losing their faculties (both mental and physical); but they also have the fears of becoming irrelevant, of losing touch with the world around them. The main character in “Peep” has a visit from his adult daughter, her husband and their children. They chide him for not owning a cell phone, for trying to feed them fried food, for getting overwhelmed by the shopping mall. Another character, in “Getting it Wrong,” is a film buff who lost his video store business, and now works at a movie theater to support himself. He doesn’t understand the youngsters around him who have never heard of Alfred Hitchcock or Cary Grant. Again, I kept thinking of the Twilight Zone: “You have no function, Mr. Wordsworth, you're an anachronism, like a ghost from another time. . . You are obsolete.”
Indeed, the characters that populate these tales are like their own ghosts—largely ignored, dismissed, solitary. Traditionally, the very old and the very young are considered to be the most in touch with supernatural forces—they are the closest, chronologically speaking, to whatever comes before or after life. The young have overactive imaginations and the old reconnect with their spiritual or superstitious natures.
The children in these stories are frequently being raised by a single parent, or otherwise have unfair burdens placed upon them. In “Holding the Light,” a teenage boy must deal with his autistic cousin. In “The Long Way,” another boy serves as the go-between for his parents and his disabled uncle. When things go awry in their lives, children are quick to blame themselves, an unfortunate byproduct of youthful self-absorption. Guilt and anxiety dogs their steps as they struggle to meet the expectations of their friends and family. It’s no wonder, then, that when these children slip up, their terrors take on unspeakable manifestations.
I have long been of the opinion that to be a good author, one has to be a connoisseur of small gestures. Campbell perfectly depicts the interaction between his characters—friends, relatives, waiters, passersby. He captures the awkwardness or the frustration of many of these interactions. Sometimes, the thing you dread most is the holidays, when you will be trapped at yet another insufferable family function. I was also struck by Campbell’s ability to show how the human mind makes bizarre connections. In the titular story, a young boy is vacationing with his parents in Italy. The parents are on the verge of splitting up. His mother is an absolute nightmare—nagging, criticizing, wound tight with her own worries and fears. She does not wish to stray too far from their hotel room for fear of “gangsters.” The young boy observes that the Italians sound an awful lot like gangsters in films he’s seen. Then, his parents decide to take him on a tour of the catacombs, which are called the “underworld.” (Taking an eight-year-old to this particular attraction seems questionable to me, but then, his parents are educators, so one assumes they’re hoping he’ll absorb the historical significance.) He absorbs a lot more than that—he knows that the underworld is associated with gangsters. All of these negative connotations swirl in his young mind as he sees skeletons preserved in the walls, with holes where their heads should be. This is how neuroses are born. For the rest of the trip, the poor kid sees faces everywhere he looks, his anxiety growing along with the looming specter of his parents’ divorce.
All the stories have themes and images in common. Many of the characters are traveling, whether just out walking, commuting, or actually traveling abroad. Many of the stories take place around the holidays, when people’s tension levels tend to be at an all-time high. Campbell has a real gift for subtly building and sustaining atmosphere: unease, dread, confusion, panic. A pervasive sense that something is not quite right.
I think my favorite tale was “The Address,” a brutally effective story about an elderly man who gets lost and stumbles upon a scene right out of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, or Lord of the Flies.
I suppose it should come as no surprise that Campbell, as a master of the craft, is also a pleasing stylist. I was struck by descriptions like “unraveling skeins of rain,” or “He managed to breach the carapace of a second potato . . .”
It’s always a delight to discover a great author you’ve never read before. I look forward to treating myself to a Campbell retrospective.
As I was reading Holes for Faces, a new collection of short stories by Ramsey Campbell, all I could keep thinking was, How is it possible I’ve never read any Campbell before? Where have I been?
Seriously, WHERE? I cast my mind back through the horror anthologies I’ve read over the years, and somehow, I’ve never come across him before. But I’m so glad I have now.
Holes for Faces is a quiet, quietly astonishing cluster of tales (14, to be exact) that remind me strongly of old Twilight Zone episodes, where the true horror is always something man visits upon man, or that man draws up from the well of his own insecurities. If you’re looking for blood, gore, snarling monsters and/or gratuitous sex, this is not the collection for you.
The main characters are either elderly or children—the powerless, in other words. The elderly have the expected fears of their own mortality, of losing their loved ones, of losing their faculties (both mental and physical); but they also have the fears of becoming irrelevant, of losing touch with the world around them. The main character in “Peep” has a visit from his adult daughter, her husband and their children. They chide him for not owning a cell phone, for trying to feed them fried food, for getting overwhelmed by the shopping mall. Another character, in “Getting it Wrong,” is a film buff who lost his video store business, and now works at a movie theater to support himself. He doesn’t understand the youngsters around him who have never heard of Alfred Hitchcock or Cary Grant. Again, I kept thinking of the Twilight Zone: “You have no function, Mr. Wordsworth, you're an anachronism, like a ghost from another time. . . You are obsolete.”
Indeed, the characters that populate these tales are like their own ghosts—largely ignored, dismissed, solitary. Traditionally, the very old and the very young are considered to be the most in touch with supernatural forces—they are the closest, chronologically speaking, to whatever comes before or after life. The young have overactive imaginations and the old reconnect with their spiritual or superstitious natures.
The children in these stories are frequently being raised by a single parent, or otherwise have unfair burdens placed upon them. In “Holding the Light,” a teenage boy must deal with his autistic cousin. In “The Long Way,” another boy serves as the go-between for his parents and his disabled uncle. When things go awry in their lives, children are quick to blame themselves, an unfortunate byproduct of youthful self-absorption. Guilt and anxiety dogs their steps as they struggle to meet the expectations of their friends and family. It’s no wonder, then, that when these children slip up, their terrors take on unspeakable manifestations.
I have long been of the opinion that to be a good author, one has to be a connoisseur of small gestures. Campbell perfectly depicts the interaction between his characters—friends, relatives, waiters, passersby. He captures the awkwardness or the frustration of many of these interactions. Sometimes, the thing you dread most is the holidays, when you will be trapped at yet another insufferable family function. I was also struck by Campbell’s ability to show how the human mind makes bizarre connections. In the titular story, a young boy is vacationing with his parents in Italy. The parents are on the verge of splitting up. His mother is an absolute nightmare—nagging, criticizing, wound tight with her own worries and fears. She does not wish to stray too far from their hotel room for fear of “gangsters.” The young boy observes that the Italians sound an awful lot like gangsters in films he’s seen. Then, his parents decide to take him on a tour of the catacombs, which are called the “underworld.” (Taking an eight-year-old to this particular attraction seems questionable to me, but then, his parents are educators, so one assumes they’re hoping he’ll absorb the historical significance.) He absorbs a lot more than that—he knows that the underworld is associated with gangsters. All of these negative connotations swirl in his young mind as he sees skeletons preserved in the walls, with holes where their heads should be. This is how neuroses are born. For the rest of the trip, the poor kid sees faces everywhere he looks, his anxiety growing along with the looming specter of his parents’ divorce.
All the stories have themes and images in common. Many of the characters are traveling, whether just out walking, commuting, or actually traveling abroad. Many of the stories take place around the holidays, when people’s tension levels tend to be at an all-time high. Campbell has a real gift for subtly building and sustaining atmosphere: unease, dread, confusion, panic. A pervasive sense that something is not quite right.
I think my favorite tale was “The Address,” a brutally effective story about an elderly man who gets lost and stumbles upon a scene right out of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, or Lord of the Flies.
I suppose it should come as no surprise that Campbell, as a master of the craft, is also a pleasing stylist. I was struck by descriptions like “unraveling skeins of rain,” or “He managed to breach the carapace of a second potato . . .”
It’s always a delight to discover a great author you’ve never read before. I look forward to treating myself to a Campbell retrospective.
January 14, 2014
As a note, this is one of about 5 (ish) collections of short stories I started reading last year but had a story or two (or, in cases a story or five) to finish. One of my early-in-the-year reading goals to go back and pick them up and finish them out. Yes, this will inflate my reading-tally for the year. No, I do not mind.
As for a review of the book, I have written about it elsewhere. Here is a brief review from my blog, which will mostly suffice for now:
I want to take a moment and expand upon the "elderly characters in horror" motif. Of the fourteen stories, many of them deal with the struggles of the elderly in some way or another. Stories that have a central, elderly character: "Passing through Peacehaven", "Peep", "The Room Beyond", "The Rounds", "The Address", "Recently Used", "With the Angels", and "Behind the Doors". That's eight, all of which deal with loss of spouses, dementia, being treated like a child by your own children, being weighed down with memories, and a sense of being out of place. Of the remaining, "Holes for Faces" has an older couple as side characters, while "The Decorations" and "The Long Way Home" both deal with younger people's brush up with older relatives [though the relatives tend to be the victims rather than the villains]. "Getting it Wrong" can be conceived of as an older man, though it does not have to be. Only two of the stories "Chucky Comes to Liverpool" and "Holding the Light" deal entirely with younger people.
Anyone wishing to study non-standard horror character types would find this book of interest. And it's not just that he deals with the topics, he deals with them well. Campbell uses his standard tools of social awkwardness, isolation, and misunderstanding and anchors them realistically in the issues that elderly face in the Western world. Bravo for that.
As for a review of the book, I have written about it elsewhere. Here is a brief review from my blog, which will mostly suffice for now:
I knew I would like Holes For Faces before I read it, because I am a big Campbell fan, but the most surprising quality about it is how well the stories in it can creep me out without even trying that hard. Campbell's blend of social confusion, indefinite happenings, personal struggle, and inchoate nastiness taps into both the build up towards dread and the slow descent of after, while often removing the peak wallop that balances between the two. For example, look at stories like the eponymous "Holes for Faces" where you are told it is a kid's delusions and you still buy into the vibe by the force of language. Or "Decorations", a Christmas themed story nearly entirely about being sucked into a relative's paranoia. Holes also has "Getting It Wrong", and that one should definitely be read, as a typically Campbellian character is plucked from his intellectual smugness as hinted nastiness happens to a person he barely knows. It is a deconstruction of Campbell's tropes—person in a dark room, trying to enjoy himself without being bothered by others, but keeps having his evening disturbed by smarmy but dangerous phonecalls—and one of the few stories by him in which the events drive a character out of his shell instead of deeper in. The collection gets bonus points for being one of the most concentrated studies of elderly characters in horror, and the change of perspective it brings. (source)
I want to take a moment and expand upon the "elderly characters in horror" motif. Of the fourteen stories, many of them deal with the struggles of the elderly in some way or another. Stories that have a central, elderly character: "Passing through Peacehaven", "Peep", "The Room Beyond", "The Rounds", "The Address", "Recently Used", "With the Angels", and "Behind the Doors". That's eight, all of which deal with loss of spouses, dementia, being treated like a child by your own children, being weighed down with memories, and a sense of being out of place. Of the remaining, "Holes for Faces" has an older couple as side characters, while "The Decorations" and "The Long Way Home" both deal with younger people's brush up with older relatives [though the relatives tend to be the victims rather than the villains]. "Getting it Wrong" can be conceived of as an older man, though it does not have to be. Only two of the stories "Chucky Comes to Liverpool" and "Holding the Light" deal entirely with younger people.
Anyone wishing to study non-standard horror character types would find this book of interest. And it's not just that he deals with the topics, he deals with them well. Campbell uses his standard tools of social awkwardness, isolation, and misunderstanding and anchors them realistically in the issues that elderly face in the Western world. Bravo for that.
November 26, 2015
As well written as ever, but a bit repetitive - confused old men or children spiral deeper into their own fears in most of these stories and the cumulative effect can be one of excessive sameness. Some of the same devices are repeated, like mishearing aural cues in ominous ways. 'The Rounds', in which War On Terror paranoia is parlayed into a Phildickian reality disruption is a highlight.
June 3, 2013
Have you ever grown up, even grown old, with a writer?
When I was a kid, I read collections of horror stories. One of the first names I recognized was “Ramsey Campbell.”
I liked his relatable characters and settings. As a fan of Monty Python and Hammer Films, I liked his Britishness. Most of all, I liked his ability to create suspense and unease in mundane locations; cul-de-sacs, theaters, residential streets.
I lost track of Campbell for some years, but eagerly grabbed his novel “A Grin In The Dark.”
Oy, was I disappointed! The novel had such great ideas (laughter as an ur-language? Hell yes!) but the ending struck me as flat, and the protagonist’s fate sealed without a sporting chance.
Since then, Campbell’s work had seemed repetitive and his menaces had turned from familiar to caracatures. Boy or man of education and lower-middle class. Having an urgent errand. Bullied by someone stupider, boorish, or poor. In a public place which was now unkempt, and slowly becomes more surreal and disorienting. Vague but horrid fate.
“Holes For Faces” is a collection of short stories written by Ramsey Campbell. There are a few formulaic plots in it, but where before I saw fear of the lower class and changing times, I now see the fear of growing old and infirm.
Being of a certain age now, I can relate to these stories.
Campbell’s strengths are still evident. He writes characters who are vulnerable skeptics fumbling to control their lives.
A boy with his family at Christmas, as they try to adapt to Grandma’s advancing senility. An old man with a decades-old grudge against his teacher. A husband trying to find his injured wife in a labyrinthine hospital. It doesn’t take much to turn these very real situations into something appalling.
For all his limitations, Ramsey Campbell is still refreshing and necessary in today’s horror scene. His style is a claustrophobic, third-person limited. There is no gore, violence is only implied, and his language is vivid and lyrical. He is an always-welcome change from the splattery and the Big Themes offered by many other writers.
I recommend this collection, but do not read it all at once. Grab a couple of stories then do some errands, or talk to your nicer neighbors. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can imagine these stories happening to you or your friends, and that will give an even more fulfilling chill.
When I was a kid, I read collections of horror stories. One of the first names I recognized was “Ramsey Campbell.”
I liked his relatable characters and settings. As a fan of Monty Python and Hammer Films, I liked his Britishness. Most of all, I liked his ability to create suspense and unease in mundane locations; cul-de-sacs, theaters, residential streets.
I lost track of Campbell for some years, but eagerly grabbed his novel “A Grin In The Dark.”
Oy, was I disappointed! The novel had such great ideas (laughter as an ur-language? Hell yes!) but the ending struck me as flat, and the protagonist’s fate sealed without a sporting chance.
Since then, Campbell’s work had seemed repetitive and his menaces had turned from familiar to caracatures. Boy or man of education and lower-middle class. Having an urgent errand. Bullied by someone stupider, boorish, or poor. In a public place which was now unkempt, and slowly becomes more surreal and disorienting. Vague but horrid fate.
“Holes For Faces” is a collection of short stories written by Ramsey Campbell. There are a few formulaic plots in it, but where before I saw fear of the lower class and changing times, I now see the fear of growing old and infirm.
Being of a certain age now, I can relate to these stories.
Campbell’s strengths are still evident. He writes characters who are vulnerable skeptics fumbling to control their lives.
A boy with his family at Christmas, as they try to adapt to Grandma’s advancing senility. An old man with a decades-old grudge against his teacher. A husband trying to find his injured wife in a labyrinthine hospital. It doesn’t take much to turn these very real situations into something appalling.
For all his limitations, Ramsey Campbell is still refreshing and necessary in today’s horror scene. His style is a claustrophobic, third-person limited. There is no gore, violence is only implied, and his language is vivid and lyrical. He is an always-welcome change from the splattery and the Big Themes offered by many other writers.
I recommend this collection, but do not read it all at once. Grab a couple of stories then do some errands, or talk to your nicer neighbors. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can imagine these stories happening to you or your friends, and that will give an even more fulfilling chill.
August 26, 2016
I am sad to say that I have not read as much of Ramsey Campbell‘s work as I should. I have only tried one of his older novels and it did not completely work for me, so I was a bit apprehensive about this one. I usually have a hard time with collections because I find a lot of the time the stories can be very inconsistent. Not, so with Holes For Faces. While some stories resonated more with me than others, I thought that they all were very good. Looking back I think that I should have reviewed these as I was going along, but once I started, I didn't want to stop.
Evidently, there is a reason Ramsey Campbell is considered a master. Because he is. This short story collection proves it. Now I get to go back and pick up some of his older stuff. Nice.
Evidently, there is a reason Ramsey Campbell is considered a master. Because he is. This short story collection proves it. Now I get to go back and pick up some of his older stuff. Nice.
Want to read
February 9, 2015This a one of 300 copies signed and numbered by the author.
May 25, 2020
I used to be a big Ramsey Campbell fan, but realised I had not read any of his work in twenty years, so I grabbed this collection of short stories.
I’m not sure if the stories weren’t his best, or if I just wasn’t as big a fan any more, but I didn’t love this collection. Still, if you’re in the mood for some unsettling tales then this is worth a read, although I would say go for Robert Aickman instead.
I’m not sure if the stories weren’t his best, or if I just wasn’t as big a fan any more, but I didn’t love this collection. Still, if you’re in the mood for some unsettling tales then this is worth a read, although I would say go for Robert Aickman instead.
Want to read
August 6, 2013Received notice yesterday (August 5) that I'd won this book in their social media giveaway! wOOt!
April 16, 2025
The cover art by Randy Broecker on these Drugstore Indian Press Ramsey Campbell trade paperbacks is something else. It's gross and morbid and I can't stop staring at it. I think it's infecting my dreams. The stories are paranoiac and claustrophobic and everything else loveable about this author. And without expounding on why, I'll say that 'Holes for Faces' is just about the best title for a book of horror stories that I've ever come across.
September 20, 2014
Ramsey Campbell is my favorite writer. His are the first stories I read in any anthology in which he's featured, and I've consumed more of his novels than any other writer. His collection of stories, ALONE WITH THE HORRORS, would be my "trapped on a deserted island" book choice for entertainment (in case being alone on an eerie, silent island at night wouldn't be unnerving enough). Holes For Faces is another great collection of supernatural horror by a grandmaster of the genre.
1."Passing Through Peacehaven" (2011) - A man on his way home finds himself in a strange subway station listening to the cryptic, barely audible messages over the intercom. This is a nice atmospheric piece of creeping dread.
2. "Peep" (2007) - A grandfather struggles to watch his unruly twin grandkids when his daughter and son-in-law come to visit. Reminders of the elderly aunt he was afraid of as a child are never far from his mind as he starts seeing signs she may now be stalking him from beyond the grave.
3. Getting It Wrong" (2011) - An unpopular man named Edgeworth employed at a movie theater begins receiving calls from an attractive coworker at night asking him for answers to trivia questions about old movies. The male host of the show sounds vaguely threatening as he interacts with Edgeworth, who thinking it's a prank, purposely answers the question wrong. The tension mounts as this eerie story advances towards its chilling conclusion.
4. "The Room Beyond" (2011) - Returning to his hometown for a funeral, a man reminisces about his childhood spent with his aunt and uncle. An eerie pall hangs over the hotel where he's staying, a place he and his beloved relatives used to dine. Murmuring and other ominous sounds begin to be heard from the adjoined room next door. The atmosphere of this story is heavy with eerie ambience and somber loneliness.
5. "Holes For Faces" (2013) - On vacation with his parents, a boy is deeply disturbed upon seeing the headless, skeletal remains in the walls of Italy's catacombs. He then starts catching glimpses of an obscured face following him as they continue through the tunnels.
6. "The Rounds" (2010) - A man repeatedly sees people attempting to leave a mysterious bag unattended on an underground train.
7. “The Decorations” (2005) – A boy, visiting his grandparent’s house with his parents for the holidays, is disturbed by his grandmother’s obsession with the plastic, lighted Santa on their roof. She believes something malicious she calls "the worms" inhabits it. This is a great tale of Christmas horror with a fantastic ending!
8. "The Address" (2011) - An elderly man, venturing out on his own, can't seem to find his way out from the forested area he's traveling through to reach his train. During his search, he happens upon a strange old school.
9. "Recently Used" (2010) - A man receives a phone call from a hospital telling him he should hurry there because his wife is there and has been badly hurt. His trek through the strange hospital is surrealistic and filled with oddities. The final reveal causes you to reassess what you've read.
10. "Chucky Comes To Liverpool" (2008) - A boy becomes obsessed with Chucky from the horror movies despite his domineering mother's activism against such films. He begins to think Chucky is influencing him and his friend for dire purposes.
11. "With The Angels" (2008)- A woman returns to the house where she she grew up, remembering how much her grandmother disliked and mistreated her. She also remembers her grandfather tossing her lovingly into the air while telling her an angel might catch her if she's good enough. She wonders what would catch her if she wasn't good enough as she catches glimpses of dark things around her. This is another eerie, atmospheric tale.
12. "Behind the Doors" (2010) - A grandfather becomes concerned after his grandson's math teacher gives the boy an Advent Calendar in the days leading to Christmas Day. The teacher is the same man who taught and tormented the grandfather forty years previous. Festering with hate spurred by his memories of the teacher, he starts trying to figure out what the teacher's end goal might be and how to stop it.
13. "Holding the Light" (2011) - Tom's handicapped cousin Lucas suggests exploring a section of old irrigation tunnels rumored to be haunted at Halloween. He reluctantly agrees rather than watch the "kid movie" Lucas wants to see at the theater, but it seems something else lurks in the darkened underground passageway.
14. "The Long Way" (2008) - This novelette focuses on a boy who walks to his wheelchair-bound uncle's retirement village every Saturday to help him buy groceries. The route takes him past a section of housing that has been vacated due to its proximity to a wooded area frequented by criminals. Through the doorway of one of those abandoned houses, the boy notices an obscured figure that appears to be leaning on sticks. There’s something unnatural about the way it moves incrementally closer to the open doorway each time he passes. Like with everything Campbell writes, the atmosphere is charged with potential menace. This is another tale of subtly-increasing supernatural menace.
1."Passing Through Peacehaven" (2011) - A man on his way home finds himself in a strange subway station listening to the cryptic, barely audible messages over the intercom. This is a nice atmospheric piece of creeping dread.
2. "Peep" (2007) - A grandfather struggles to watch his unruly twin grandkids when his daughter and son-in-law come to visit. Reminders of the elderly aunt he was afraid of as a child are never far from his mind as he starts seeing signs she may now be stalking him from beyond the grave.
3. Getting It Wrong" (2011) - An unpopular man named Edgeworth employed at a movie theater begins receiving calls from an attractive coworker at night asking him for answers to trivia questions about old movies. The male host of the show sounds vaguely threatening as he interacts with Edgeworth, who thinking it's a prank, purposely answers the question wrong. The tension mounts as this eerie story advances towards its chilling conclusion.
4. "The Room Beyond" (2011) - Returning to his hometown for a funeral, a man reminisces about his childhood spent with his aunt and uncle. An eerie pall hangs over the hotel where he's staying, a place he and his beloved relatives used to dine. Murmuring and other ominous sounds begin to be heard from the adjoined room next door. The atmosphere of this story is heavy with eerie ambience and somber loneliness.
5. "Holes For Faces" (2013) - On vacation with his parents, a boy is deeply disturbed upon seeing the headless, skeletal remains in the walls of Italy's catacombs. He then starts catching glimpses of an obscured face following him as they continue through the tunnels.
6. "The Rounds" (2010) - A man repeatedly sees people attempting to leave a mysterious bag unattended on an underground train.
7. “The Decorations” (2005) – A boy, visiting his grandparent’s house with his parents for the holidays, is disturbed by his grandmother’s obsession with the plastic, lighted Santa on their roof. She believes something malicious she calls "the worms" inhabits it. This is a great tale of Christmas horror with a fantastic ending!
8. "The Address" (2011) - An elderly man, venturing out on his own, can't seem to find his way out from the forested area he's traveling through to reach his train. During his search, he happens upon a strange old school.
9. "Recently Used" (2010) - A man receives a phone call from a hospital telling him he should hurry there because his wife is there and has been badly hurt. His trek through the strange hospital is surrealistic and filled with oddities. The final reveal causes you to reassess what you've read.
10. "Chucky Comes To Liverpool" (2008) - A boy becomes obsessed with Chucky from the horror movies despite his domineering mother's activism against such films. He begins to think Chucky is influencing him and his friend for dire purposes.
11. "With The Angels" (2008)- A woman returns to the house where she she grew up, remembering how much her grandmother disliked and mistreated her. She also remembers her grandfather tossing her lovingly into the air while telling her an angel might catch her if she's good enough. She wonders what would catch her if she wasn't good enough as she catches glimpses of dark things around her. This is another eerie, atmospheric tale.
12. "Behind the Doors" (2010) - A grandfather becomes concerned after his grandson's math teacher gives the boy an Advent Calendar in the days leading to Christmas Day. The teacher is the same man who taught and tormented the grandfather forty years previous. Festering with hate spurred by his memories of the teacher, he starts trying to figure out what the teacher's end goal might be and how to stop it.
13. "Holding the Light" (2011) - Tom's handicapped cousin Lucas suggests exploring a section of old irrigation tunnels rumored to be haunted at Halloween. He reluctantly agrees rather than watch the "kid movie" Lucas wants to see at the theater, but it seems something else lurks in the darkened underground passageway.
14. "The Long Way" (2008) - This novelette focuses on a boy who walks to his wheelchair-bound uncle's retirement village every Saturday to help him buy groceries. The route takes him past a section of housing that has been vacated due to its proximity to a wooded area frequented by criminals. Through the doorway of one of those abandoned houses, the boy notices an obscured figure that appears to be leaning on sticks. There’s something unnatural about the way it moves incrementally closer to the open doorway each time he passes. Like with everything Campbell writes, the atmosphere is charged with potential menace. This is another tale of subtly-increasing supernatural menace.
August 12, 2013
If there is a better writer of psychological horror than Ramsey Campbell, let them step forward! This collection of short stories (mostly [but not all] reprints of fiction found in a variety of magazines) is a strong statement to the horror genre that Campbell still reigns supreme.
The fourteen stories in this collection are:
“Passing Through Peacehaven”
“Peep”
“Getting It Wrong”
“The Room Beyond”
“Holes for Faces”
“The Rounds”
“The Decorations”
“The Address”
“Recently Used”
“Chucky Comes to Liverpool”
“With the Angels”
“Behind the Doors”
“Holding the Light”
“The Long Way”
Starting off with “Passing Through Peacehaven” we immediately understand that we are in the hands of a master — one who can expose us to horror without resorting to copious amounts of blood and gore. Campbell expertly works on the psychology of the human mind and takes us to places that we can understand but generally don’t go.
Campbell creates characters that are all too real. Characters that are identifiable… often ourselves…and it’s that identification that scares the crap out of us…because we too could go to those dark places Campbell’s characters dwell.
If there is a theme that runs amongst these stories, it is youth and age. Our main characters in each story is either a youngster, or an aged person (is the working-class age group too busy to notice the horror around them?).
In “Peep” we experience what it must be like to be that older, slower grandfather, tasked with watching his grandchildren for the day, not being able to keep up. But one of my favorites in this collection is “Getting It Wrong.” This story hits every anxiety nerve just so, surprises a little, and truly gets under the skin. It definitely struck me that this could easily have been an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone episode … in a good way … as it was easy to visualize.
One of my other favorites (it’s actually quite hard to choose as they are all so good) was the last piece “The Long Way.” Although I’ve no experiences quite like this, I couldn’t help but think Campbell somehow knew me and wrote about my youth.
As the publisher’s website proclaims:
Holes for Faces collects many of his best tales from the first decade of this century. An attempt to avoid a haunted house leads into worse danger. The announcements at a railway station deal with stranger things than trains, and is that another railway station in the distance or a different kind of destination? A childhood game becomes a source of terror, and so does a radio quiz show. Even Christmas decorations may not be trusted, and beware of that Advent calendar! A hotel provides amenities you mightn’t welcome, and a visit to a tourist attraction attracts an uninvited follower. A train journey may never end, unless it already has, and a visit to a hospital brings back more than memories. A myth about a horror film has unwanted consequences. There are angels you mightn’t want to see too clearly, if that’s what they are. And you’ll have to decide if it’s better to stay in the dark or see what’s waiting there. You’ll find uncanny dread in these pages, and disquiet and terror, but also poignancy and comedy of paranoia.
If you are new to Ramsey Campbell… this is a great place to start. If you’ve read Campbell before, you won’t want to miss this collection. If you ever thought about read horror but don’t know where to start, this is a great introduction.
I can’t recommend this highly enough.
The fourteen stories in this collection are:
“Passing Through Peacehaven”
“Peep”
“Getting It Wrong”
“The Room Beyond”
“Holes for Faces”
“The Rounds”
“The Decorations”
“The Address”
“Recently Used”
“Chucky Comes to Liverpool”
“With the Angels”
“Behind the Doors”
“Holding the Light”
“The Long Way”
Starting off with “Passing Through Peacehaven” we immediately understand that we are in the hands of a master — one who can expose us to horror without resorting to copious amounts of blood and gore. Campbell expertly works on the psychology of the human mind and takes us to places that we can understand but generally don’t go.
Campbell creates characters that are all too real. Characters that are identifiable… often ourselves…and it’s that identification that scares the crap out of us…because we too could go to those dark places Campbell’s characters dwell.
If there is a theme that runs amongst these stories, it is youth and age. Our main characters in each story is either a youngster, or an aged person (is the working-class age group too busy to notice the horror around them?).
In “Peep” we experience what it must be like to be that older, slower grandfather, tasked with watching his grandchildren for the day, not being able to keep up. But one of my favorites in this collection is “Getting It Wrong.” This story hits every anxiety nerve just so, surprises a little, and truly gets under the skin. It definitely struck me that this could easily have been an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone episode … in a good way … as it was easy to visualize.
One of my other favorites (it’s actually quite hard to choose as they are all so good) was the last piece “The Long Way.” Although I’ve no experiences quite like this, I couldn’t help but think Campbell somehow knew me and wrote about my youth.
As the publisher’s website proclaims:
Holes for Faces collects many of his best tales from the first decade of this century. An attempt to avoid a haunted house leads into worse danger. The announcements at a railway station deal with stranger things than trains, and is that another railway station in the distance or a different kind of destination? A childhood game becomes a source of terror, and so does a radio quiz show. Even Christmas decorations may not be trusted, and beware of that Advent calendar! A hotel provides amenities you mightn’t welcome, and a visit to a tourist attraction attracts an uninvited follower. A train journey may never end, unless it already has, and a visit to a hospital brings back more than memories. A myth about a horror film has unwanted consequences. There are angels you mightn’t want to see too clearly, if that’s what they are. And you’ll have to decide if it’s better to stay in the dark or see what’s waiting there. You’ll find uncanny dread in these pages, and disquiet and terror, but also poignancy and comedy of paranoia.
If you are new to Ramsey Campbell… this is a great place to start. If you’ve read Campbell before, you won’t want to miss this collection. If you ever thought about read horror but don’t know where to start, this is a great introduction.
I can’t recommend this highly enough.
July 31, 2013
Ramsey Campbell is a powerhouse name in horror and in his latest, Holes for Faces, he offers up a collection of short stories. For those not familiar with Campbell’s work this is a great introduction. For those already well-versed, it might feel a bit too familiar.
If that sounds contradictory, it is. Campbell’s style is classic English Gothic, heavy on the atmosphere, tone, and suspense rather than the gore and bloodshed. In the long British tradition, he takes the mundane events of life and gives them a most sinister twist. The fear is subtle and sublime; creeping up on you and catching you unaware. For old and new readers alike, he lures you into the shadows quite wonderfully. The difficulty for those familiar with his work is characterization and theme. The stories here have a common thread that when read all together can feel too close to his other work.
Fans of Campbell should take this collection in small pieces. He’s still a stellar, much needed voice in horror. His vague sense of unease that grows into sheer terror is a welcome change from the splatter/ gore. There is always the question of where reality has ended and madness has begun. “Peeps” takes us on a macabre trip through surreal madness. “Getting It Wrong” explores the nightmares of aging and that subtle shift into the unreal world of possible senility as we lose the connections with the modern world. The title story, “Holes for Faces,” is a tale of sliding realities in which our protagonist sees a very different world around him. He becomes aware of the horrors that no one else can see. These stories reflect Campbell’s ability to take normal and tilt it just far enough to create fear. This could happen to you he reminds us and that is the greatest fear of all.
Originally published at Horror Novel Reviews
http://bookloversnevergotobedalonerev...
If that sounds contradictory, it is. Campbell’s style is classic English Gothic, heavy on the atmosphere, tone, and suspense rather than the gore and bloodshed. In the long British tradition, he takes the mundane events of life and gives them a most sinister twist. The fear is subtle and sublime; creeping up on you and catching you unaware. For old and new readers alike, he lures you into the shadows quite wonderfully. The difficulty for those familiar with his work is characterization and theme. The stories here have a common thread that when read all together can feel too close to his other work.
Fans of Campbell should take this collection in small pieces. He’s still a stellar, much needed voice in horror. His vague sense of unease that grows into sheer terror is a welcome change from the splatter/ gore. There is always the question of where reality has ended and madness has begun. “Peeps” takes us on a macabre trip through surreal madness. “Getting It Wrong” explores the nightmares of aging and that subtle shift into the unreal world of possible senility as we lose the connections with the modern world. The title story, “Holes for Faces,” is a tale of sliding realities in which our protagonist sees a very different world around him. He becomes aware of the horrors that no one else can see. These stories reflect Campbell’s ability to take normal and tilt it just far enough to create fear. This could happen to you he reminds us and that is the greatest fear of all.
Originally published at Horror Novel Reviews
http://bookloversnevergotobedalonerev...
August 18, 2013
Ramsey Campbell is perhaps a bit like Marmite. So I rushed to buy this book, downloaded it straight away, and enjoyed it as much as I thought I would.
He has two main themes in his writing: he is the best contemporary Lovecraftian writer and he has a long track record in his own brand of psychological horror. His characters are outsiders; estranged from their societies and families, prone to their own fears and dark thoughts, vulnerable to supernatural exploitation as they agonise over whether the phenomena are real or the products of their fevered minds. This collection falls mainly into the latter category.
There are two outstanding stories: the title track, featuring a boy frightened by the skeletons in Italian catacombs (how lame that sounds compared with the story) and struggling with his own family anxieties; and the wonderful "Chucky Comes To Liverpool" which draws on Campbell's long-held interest in cinema and strong views on the scapegoating of horror films for social ills. Other good stories include "Peep", "The Decorations" and "The Room Beyond". There's also a nicely gory story of what appears to be school sports-day revenge in "The Address".
So, why isn't this five stars? The stories often appear to be similar in inspiration and concept. The alienated grandparent appears a few times, for example. This isn't really a problem if you like Campbell's writing - if you open a volume by MR James you don't have much choice other than antiquarian scholars stumbling into the supernatural - but more variety would have made a more rounded collection.
I will end up regretting that minor observation as I'm now reading "The Last Revelation of Gla'aki", which is firmly Lovecraftian Campbell, and is shaping up to be five stars!
He has two main themes in his writing: he is the best contemporary Lovecraftian writer and he has a long track record in his own brand of psychological horror. His characters are outsiders; estranged from their societies and families, prone to their own fears and dark thoughts, vulnerable to supernatural exploitation as they agonise over whether the phenomena are real or the products of their fevered minds. This collection falls mainly into the latter category.
There are two outstanding stories: the title track, featuring a boy frightened by the skeletons in Italian catacombs (how lame that sounds compared with the story) and struggling with his own family anxieties; and the wonderful "Chucky Comes To Liverpool" which draws on Campbell's long-held interest in cinema and strong views on the scapegoating of horror films for social ills. Other good stories include "Peep", "The Decorations" and "The Room Beyond". There's also a nicely gory story of what appears to be school sports-day revenge in "The Address".
So, why isn't this five stars? The stories often appear to be similar in inspiration and concept. The alienated grandparent appears a few times, for example. This isn't really a problem if you like Campbell's writing - if you open a volume by MR James you don't have much choice other than antiquarian scholars stumbling into the supernatural - but more variety would have made a more rounded collection.
I will end up regretting that minor observation as I'm now reading "The Last Revelation of Gla'aki", which is firmly Lovecraftian Campbell, and is shaping up to be five stars!
May 30, 2021
Ramsey Campbell’s skill at evoking physical and mental unease in a reader is nearly without parallel — indeed, I can think of no other writer who so effectively imbues his stories with the type of fever-inducing paranoia and psychological distress that actually makes me ill as I’m reading. Holes for Faces is a collection of uniformly excellent short fiction in that distinctly Campbellian tradition, wherein his visions of terror take on a peculiarly convincing life. Unfortunately, as other readers have addressed, these stories hit on the same handful of themes again and again, to the point of diminishing their impact in the context of their curation together. It makes sense that this would happen — just as other artists feel free to fully explore a narrow set of ideas in certain phases of their work — but one craves variety when the impact of each individual story is so emotionally draining and cumulatively bleak. That said, if you’d prefer to pick and choose stories to read on their own (something I almost always discourage regarding anthologies), my favorites include “The Decorations,” “Chucky Comes to Liverpool,” the title story, and the final, show-stopping quartet of tales. This is dense, literate horror; an impressively high standard for the genre.
June 8, 2013
Ramsey Campbell’s ‘Holes For Faces’ With The Henry James’ Touch
In reading Ramsey Campbell newest novel “Holes For Faces”, a collection of psychological horror stories, some of which are neo-Gothic and others based on ancient history and ancient mysteries, one can be easily fooled the by the seemingly mundane and sublimed beginning of each tale. However as the reader progresses into the tales, the tension increases as the stories become more sinister and, well, down right creepy in that some of the stories make us question our innermost selves. In reading “Holes For Faces”, which I have enjoyed immensely, I discovered that my personal favorites are “Getting It Wrong,” “Holes for Faces”, and “The Rounds”.
HOLES FOR FACES BY RAMSEY CAMPBELL newest collection of unearthly tales and is on sell Tuesday, August 13th 2013 in all its editions, including eBook, paperback, limited and deluxe signed hardcovers at DARK REGIONS PRESS.
Hopefully, in reading “Holes For Faces” you will enjoy it as I have and discover your personal favorites as well.
In reading Ramsey Campbell newest novel “Holes For Faces”, a collection of psychological horror stories, some of which are neo-Gothic and others based on ancient history and ancient mysteries, one can be easily fooled the by the seemingly mundane and sublimed beginning of each tale. However as the reader progresses into the tales, the tension increases as the stories become more sinister and, well, down right creepy in that some of the stories make us question our innermost selves. In reading “Holes For Faces”, which I have enjoyed immensely, I discovered that my personal favorites are “Getting It Wrong,” “Holes for Faces”, and “The Rounds”.
HOLES FOR FACES BY RAMSEY CAMPBELL newest collection of unearthly tales and is on sell Tuesday, August 13th 2013 in all its editions, including eBook, paperback, limited and deluxe signed hardcovers at DARK REGIONS PRESS.
Hopefully, in reading “Holes For Faces” you will enjoy it as I have and discover your personal favorites as well.
December 28, 2014
Ramsey Campbell is a very well respected and prolific British horror writer, often referred to a modern Lovecraft. This collection of short stories is not very Lovecraftian (for that check out his early collection Cold Print). The 14 tales in this collection are disappointingly (almost impressively) samey. They feature only two similar types of main characters (doddering old men or bemused children) who react very similarly to very, very, very similar situations. Only one story managed to generate any atmosphere (the very good "The Address") but these tales generate nary a scare with bland prose and a disappointing lack of breadth. Cold Print failed spectacularly in its Lovecraft aping; this collection fails for different reasons. I'd like to try one of Campbell's novels because, as a massive horror reader, I feel like I might be missing something. Perhaps his long form work shows his strengths more than his short fiction.
July 22, 2014
Campbell is an excellent writer able to build a foreboding setting in just a couple of paragraphs. Sadly, his excellent prose is undermined by lackluster stories and characters. This collection of short stories falls almost entirely flat. In most of them nothing really happens. Worse still, many of the protagonists felt like copies of one another.
These stories are sort of like looking at a black and white photograph. Lots of mood, a good setting, but completely static. If that's your thing, great. I prefer short horror stories where something either happens or the ending promises that untold horrors are about to unfold.
Fans of Campbell might be into this, but this is the first of his works I have read. If you are looking to explore Campbell's writing, don't start here.
These stories are sort of like looking at a black and white photograph. Lots of mood, a good setting, but completely static. If that's your thing, great. I prefer short horror stories where something either happens or the ending promises that untold horrors are about to unfold.
Fans of Campbell might be into this, but this is the first of his works I have read. If you are looking to explore Campbell's writing, don't start here.
July 26, 2014
Reminde me of Lovecraft and the older horror writers, lot's of chills and a little Hitchcock endings. Thoroughly enjoyed Campbell's books.Atmospheric, lost characters(Twilight Zonian?)
February 4, 2024
Ramsey Campbell is a steady, dependable source of quality frights. His collection Holes for Faces is no exception. This collection felt personal to me. Heartfelt. The characters in these stories are often forgotten and older. The world they live in has moved on in an ambivalent way. In these pages, an old man loves his films more than the people in his life. A grandfather is haunted by an aunt and the unending pressure to be perfect she placed on his shoulders. Another grandfather fights for revenge against a math teacher who poisoned his childhood. Trains rush past. Blurred faces look out of windows. In the final story, a boy must brave a walk past a thin, haunted figure to care for his uncle. Caught between the supernatural and the very real struggles his uncle faces, the boy makes a choice. Later, he looks back - another forgotten old man. Maybe that's where we're all headed after all.
April 17, 2022
I only enjoyed a handful of these stories, as they feel primarily geared towards an 'older' reader. It's horror for geriatrics, dealing with issues of memory, a vague sense of uneasiness as things change around you, and critical and untrustworthy adult children. Also, a lot of the stories are annoyingly similar, but maybe if I were the target audience, I wouldn't even have noticed.
January 13, 2025
This book made me shiver and smile in equal measures.
British horror has always captured my attention, dating back to the early 80s when I first started reading Mr. Campbell. PS Publishing has released some amazing collections of his, this is one of them.
Ramsey Campbell first started publishing horror at age 14.
60 years later, and the true face of horror still grins.
British horror has always captured my attention, dating back to the early 80s when I first started reading Mr. Campbell. PS Publishing has released some amazing collections of his, this is one of them.
Ramsey Campbell first started publishing horror at age 14.
60 years later, and the true face of horror still grins.
February 20, 2025
Holes for Faces is tough on the nerves. Every protagonist is already trapped on doom's hamster wheel when we join them for their last few hours before narrative blackout. Two tales, “Holding the Light” and “The Long Way,” have more rounded plot trajectories: by the end of each, we know full well that the protagonist knows full well.
March 15, 2019
My absolute favourite horror author. Very creepy stories. The true definition of eerie and supernatural and creepy. If you want to really be scared, read anything by Ramsey('The Grin of the Dark' is the very best though....).
May 9, 2021
Solid book and writing. While all of the stories in the anthology should have a similar theme this one found a predictable rhythm or system and as the stories progress started to feel predictable. Would be worth a read, even if a little predictable.
August 6, 2022
As always a fine short story collection from Mr Campbell. On a negative note I'm never going to buy an advent calender ever again
July 7, 2024
7/10
August 1, 2013
Overall review:
This is an uneven anthology from an otherwise good author (I've read, enjoyed other works by him). Here's why -
What I liked about it: Campbell is good at creating Old School horror/shivery moods (think Oliver Onions and M.R. James), so most, if not all of the stories in this collection are dread-effective in tone.
I also admire how Campbell utilized recurring symbols and elements, like trains, childhood memories, familial discord, Hitchcockian intrigue, etc. to thematically link said pieces into the aforementioned mood consistency.
What I didn't like about it: Many of the stories and characters were too long, too passive (action-wise) and too similar in structure and attitudes - almost to the point of being carbon copies of works that preceded them. There wasn't enough variation in his framing of his tales or diversity among his characters to make each of these stories burst with distinctive vigor. This makes Holes a sometimes interesting but often disappointing anthology.
This collection is worth checking out for a few bucks, or borrowing from the library. If you're into the older style of horror which puts a heavy emphasis on mood, like Campbell, Onions or James, this may very well be worth picking up for more than a few dollars.
Standout stories:
1.) "Holes For Faces": Childhood terrors, parental discord and a creepy Italian tour haunt a boy. Excellent, dread-suffusive work.
2.) "Getting It Wrong": An asocial, disgruntled cineaste (Eric Edgeworth) finds himself participating in a dark, strange game show where providing wrong answers can prove agonizing.
3.) "The Decorations": Sad, dark Xmas tale about a boy and his mentally unstable grandmother.
4.) "With the Angels": Creepy tale about two sisters - one of them a mother of three - visiting their dead grandmother's house.
5.) "Chucky Comes to Liverpool": An overprotective mother, obsessed with banning the Child's Play movies, brings about a real tragedy. Interesting, different story.
6.) "The Rounds": Islamophobia, media distortion, conspiracy theories and Hitchcockian intrigue build as a wary, heroic man tries to stop what appears to be a terrorist attack. Excellent, suspenseful.
7.) "The Long Way": An imaginative boy's fear of a spooky neighborhood plays out in a sad, sometimes terrifying manner. Good story, marred by a forced 'end on a spooky note' finish.
(This review originally appeared on the Reading & Writing By Pub Light site.)
This is an uneven anthology from an otherwise good author (I've read, enjoyed other works by him). Here's why -
What I liked about it: Campbell is good at creating Old School horror/shivery moods (think Oliver Onions and M.R. James), so most, if not all of the stories in this collection are dread-effective in tone.
I also admire how Campbell utilized recurring symbols and elements, like trains, childhood memories, familial discord, Hitchcockian intrigue, etc. to thematically link said pieces into the aforementioned mood consistency.
What I didn't like about it: Many of the stories and characters were too long, too passive (action-wise) and too similar in structure and attitudes - almost to the point of being carbon copies of works that preceded them. There wasn't enough variation in his framing of his tales or diversity among his characters to make each of these stories burst with distinctive vigor. This makes Holes a sometimes interesting but often disappointing anthology.
This collection is worth checking out for a few bucks, or borrowing from the library. If you're into the older style of horror which puts a heavy emphasis on mood, like Campbell, Onions or James, this may very well be worth picking up for more than a few dollars.
Standout stories:
1.) "Holes For Faces": Childhood terrors, parental discord and a creepy Italian tour haunt a boy. Excellent, dread-suffusive work.
2.) "Getting It Wrong": An asocial, disgruntled cineaste (Eric Edgeworth) finds himself participating in a dark, strange game show where providing wrong answers can prove agonizing.
3.) "The Decorations": Sad, dark Xmas tale about a boy and his mentally unstable grandmother.
4.) "With the Angels": Creepy tale about two sisters - one of them a mother of three - visiting their dead grandmother's house.
5.) "Chucky Comes to Liverpool": An overprotective mother, obsessed with banning the Child's Play movies, brings about a real tragedy. Interesting, different story.
6.) "The Rounds": Islamophobia, media distortion, conspiracy theories and Hitchcockian intrigue build as a wary, heroic man tries to stop what appears to be a terrorist attack. Excellent, suspenseful.
7.) "The Long Way": An imaginative boy's fear of a spooky neighborhood plays out in a sad, sometimes terrifying manner. Good story, marred by a forced 'end on a spooky note' finish.
(This review originally appeared on the Reading & Writing By Pub Light site.)
February 21, 2014
Holes for Faces by Ramsey Campbell - review copy - a collection of 14 short stories that display Campbell's writing range.
The fourteen stories in this collection are:
"Passing Through Peacehaven"
"Peep"
"Getting It Wrong"
"The Room Beyond"
"Holes for Faces"
"The Rounds"
"The Decorations"
"The Address"
"Recently Used"
"Chucky Comes to Liverpool"
"With the Angels"
"Behind the Doors"
"Holding the Light"
"The Long Way"
Campbell horror is most often of the 'corner of your eye' type. He builds up atmosphere and tension by describing how the protagonist senses the world around him. It's a subtle style that often brings the biggest chills after you finish the last sentence or paragraph. Very eerie and difficult to pull off. Yet Campbell does it brilliantly time and time again. I suspect such a style will not be to all tastes especially for those that prefer their horror more front and center; aka in your face.
That is not Campbell’s style. He is a clever writer whom oft constructs sentences that lead your train of thought down one avenue but when you get to the end of one, you find yourself at a different destination.
The collection does contain several pieces that are more forward in their presentation of horror including:
"Chucky Comes to Liverpool" - based on the real life Liverpool incident where two ten year old boys took an even younger child - two years old - and beat him to death. This story uses Chucky the possessed dummy from the movies as the spring board for evil.
"Getting It Wrong" - gives new meanings to the quiz show - 'lifeline' term. Here the protagonist learns that he is not being put on and has been conscripted into a deadly version of one.
Of the subtle ones:
‘Peep’ – gave me the biggest creeps.
The characters in Campbell’s stories tend to be either older or young boys/teenagers; times in one’s life when our grasp on reality is at its most tenuous. They are also the times in our lives when we are most susceptible to being plagued by our fears. Be they real or imagined. Or
about monsters or mortality.
Campbell's writing requires the reader to do some imaginative legwork and if you are up to it - the rewards are plentiful and often leave lasting impressions.
The fourteen stories in this collection are:
"Passing Through Peacehaven"
"Peep"
"Getting It Wrong"
"The Room Beyond"
"Holes for Faces"
"The Rounds"
"The Decorations"
"The Address"
"Recently Used"
"Chucky Comes to Liverpool"
"With the Angels"
"Behind the Doors"
"Holding the Light"
"The Long Way"
Campbell horror is most often of the 'corner of your eye' type. He builds up atmosphere and tension by describing how the protagonist senses the world around him. It's a subtle style that often brings the biggest chills after you finish the last sentence or paragraph. Very eerie and difficult to pull off. Yet Campbell does it brilliantly time and time again. I suspect such a style will not be to all tastes especially for those that prefer their horror more front and center; aka in your face.
That is not Campbell’s style. He is a clever writer whom oft constructs sentences that lead your train of thought down one avenue but when you get to the end of one, you find yourself at a different destination.
The collection does contain several pieces that are more forward in their presentation of horror including:
"Chucky Comes to Liverpool" - based on the real life Liverpool incident where two ten year old boys took an even younger child - two years old - and beat him to death. This story uses Chucky the possessed dummy from the movies as the spring board for evil.
"Getting It Wrong" - gives new meanings to the quiz show - 'lifeline' term. Here the protagonist learns that he is not being put on and has been conscripted into a deadly version of one.
Of the subtle ones:
‘Peep’ – gave me the biggest creeps.
The characters in Campbell’s stories tend to be either older or young boys/teenagers; times in one’s life when our grasp on reality is at its most tenuous. They are also the times in our lives when we are most susceptible to being plagued by our fears. Be they real or imagined. Or
about monsters or mortality.
Campbell's writing requires the reader to do some imaginative legwork and if you are up to it - the rewards are plentiful and often leave lasting impressions.
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