Out of the Dark: A Storybook of Horrors

by Steve Rasnic Tem (Contributor)

Steve Rasnic Tem once said his writing was filtered through “a different lens to view the world.” With a style all his own, Tem has galvanized and thrilled fans of weird fiction worldwide. His efforts have earned him the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards. His métier is the monstrous secret, the unsettling darkness hidden within all of us. The anthology you hold in your hands brims with horrors known and unknown.

“Bedtime Story” opens with a line that defines Tem’s style: “I don’t know why bad things happen. There’s never a good reason. They just do.” The story introduces us to a nightmare conjured from the mind of a child, preparing to victimize her own father.

“The Unmasking” takes us into the tortured psyche of a horribly deformed recluse obsessed with the intricacies of human skin. “Outside,” one of several homages to the great H.P. Lovecraft, melds Tem’s uniquely poetic style with the cosmic horror created by that twisted gentleman from Providence.

“The Masque of Edgar Allan Poe” focuses on Tem’s fondness for mask imagery, and how the veneer we wear on the surface can become immobile, consuming our souls. “The Doll Thief” is a deeply disturbing exercise in pathos, perversion and psychosis. In “Pulled Down to Sleep,” a man fights to remain awake, knowing that sleep will doom him to a life of unspeakable nightmares.

“Worms” is a frightening tale of vengeance that will literally leave your skin crawling. With “Mother Hag,” Tem gives us a “grim” fairy tale about monstrous motherly love, courtesy of a grotesque, carnivorous witch. Tem’s unsettling images are brought to life by over a dozen of Jeremy Huet’s masterfully macabre illustrations, created exclusively for this treasury. Oversized at 6½ × 11 inches, with over 600 pages, ribbon marker, top-edge stain, handsome signature page, and attractive dustjacket, this is a phenomenal collection by one of horror’s most distinctive voices.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

640 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2016

About the author

Steve Rasnic Tem was born in Lee County Virginia in the heart of Appalachia. He is the author of over 350 published short stories and is a past winner of the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His story collections include City Fishing, The Far Side of the Lake, In Concert (with wife Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior, Celestial Inventories, and Onion Songs. An audio collection, Invisible, is also available. His novels include Excavation, The Book of Days, Daughters, The Man In The Ceiling (with Melanie Tem), and the recent Deadfall Hotel.

Reviews

[Karl]

This is copy 40 of 320 signed and numbered copies copies 1-300 are forsale, copies I - XX are reserved for contributors and the press, The book is signed by:

Steve Rasnic Tem
Christopher Conn Askew
Jérémy Huet..

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

PASTEL as the colour of the past, and as a story, is a fine climax to what I consider possibly to have been the most important book yet in my life. That’s why I needed to finish it. Out of the dark soon to become into it, I guess, with stoical equanimity and a shrugged-off fear (at least today), weighing up all that Tem has been teaching me. Teaching his sons as well as his fathers, daughters and mothers. A real words’ worth.
“I’m not even sure your children can ever completely be who they’re going to be until you die.”

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Samantha Françoise Dark Regions Press Proofreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this literary piece and had the pleasure of working on it with Crossroads Press. A must read! I have also read the following which is wonderful to add to your collection is "The Harvest Child".