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The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels
An anthology of outstanding short novels of horror includes works by Stephen King, Arthur Conan Doyle, Russell Kirk, Algernon Blackwood, Lucius Shepard, A.C. Benson, T.E.D. Klein, Oliver Onions, John Metcalfe, and David Case
518 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Mike Ashley
278 books131 followersMichael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 20, 2014
I recently got this book from the public library. Thus far I've read _Nadelman's God_ by T.E.D. Kline which is a quite interesting mix of horror and humor. I'm now on _Fengriffen_ by David Case, which I've heard great things about. I've read the story "The Monkey" by Stephen King before. I consider it a novelette, not a novella, though.
Table of Contents:
The Monkey by Stephen King
The Parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle
There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding by Russell Kirk
The Damned by Algernon Blackwood
Fengriffen by David Case
The Uttermost Farthing by A.C. Benson
The Rope in the Rafters by Oliver Onions
Nadelman's God by T.E.D. Kline
The Feasting Dead by John Metcalfe
How the Wind Spoke at Madaket by Lucius Shepard
update 4/3: Finished reading _Fengriffin_ by David Case. This Gothic novella was adapted into the early '70s movie as And Now The Screaming Starts! The first person narrator is a medical doctor, specializing in the then new science of psychology. The narrator is asked by Fengriffin to treat his wife Catherine, who is pregnant. Fengriffin's wife seems to be in what we nowadays call 'depression'. However, Catherine says that a supernatural curse is the cause of her problems. Our narrator, though, does not believe in the supernatural. It turns out that Catherine was right. This Gothic novella is excellently constructed and has marvelous passages.
Started reading _There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding_ by Russell Kirk.
update 4/5 Russell Kirk was a professor of history and a conservative political philosopher. He also wrote supernatural fiction, such as this novella _There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding_, which won a World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. The main character, Frank, is a petty thief who has been in and out of jail. He is of strong build, but hates violence. Frank is seeking shelter from the harsh winter, and enters a uninhabited, but nice house in an abandoned town. Frank learns some things about the former inhabitants of the house from the family pictures and a letter he discovered. The letter refers to a terrible event, and a person who lived with the family, also named Frank, and then breaks off. The next morning, Frank awakes, with the inhabitants of house around him. Frank has gone back in time.
Prisoners escaped from the nearby prison, and some prisoners with weapons break into the house. At this point, Frank is faced with a choice: he sees a clear means for him to escape, or he can fight against the home invaders. He chooses the latter course, and kills, in defense of the family, the home invaders. But Frank is mortally wounded. Frank comes back to the present time. Frank is back in the abandoned house and Frank sees his gravestone near the house which says "...who saved us and died for us..."
An emotionally moving story. The story, with its elements of Roman Catholic theology and violence leading to redemption, reminded me of the fiction of Flannery O'Connor.
I plan to read next _The Damned_ by Algernon Blackwood.
update 4/13 After reading about the first ten pages of _The Damned_ by Algernon Blackwood, I gave up. Nothing seemed to happen in the story. His other work is much better.
Read _How the Wind Spoke at Madaket_ by Lucius Shepard. An air elemental wreaks death and destruction. The air elemental, though, acts different when around two characters, one, a writer, the other, a bag lady--the air elemental acts like a pet around them. The writer and the bag lady also happen to be psychic. These two psychics try to distract the air elemental in order to let others flee.
"The Uttermost Farthing" by A.C. Benson. The editor of this volume says that this story was not published during A.C. Benson's lifetime, but in 1926.
This story turned out much better than I expected. I'm a bit wary about fiction published before 1930 (like the Algernon Blackwood story I mentioned) because literary minimalism is more to my taste.
Wikipedia says of literary minimalism : ... is characterized by an economy with words and a focus on surface description. Minimalist writers eschew adverbs and prefer allowing context to dictate meaning. Readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a story, to "choose sides" based on oblique hints and innuendo, rather than reacting to directions from the writer.
A.C. Benson's story is occult/evil spirit horror, a style of horror fiction that resonates with me. The narrator is a middle aged writer, who befriends an older man, name Bendyshe. Bendyshe is a successful businessman, has a likable personality, and is held in high regard by others. To the narrator's surprise, Bendyshe also is interested in the paranormal. Bendyshe thinks his house is haunted, and asks our narrator to stay with him for a while as an objective, outside observer. There are, indeed, paranormal happenings in the house. The narrator learns of a previous inhabitant of the house, who, it was rumored, experimented in the occult. This previous inhabitant kept a book of his occult researches hidden. Bendyshe thinks that the evil spirits in the house are trying to protect the book from being found and destroyed. Bendyshe, the narrator, and a Vicar seek this book to destroy it.
It was refreshing to see A.C. Benson trying to do something different with the haunted house story. In his story, one of the characters even remarks, on certain ghost stories, why would spirits want to re-enact tragic and horrible events? A.C. Benson, in his story, eschews this cliche.
Alas, even a great writer such as Robert Aickman resorted to the cliche of ghosts reenacting events ("The Station Waiting Room").
Also, the hero of this story, Bendyshe, is an a-typical hero, at least for the fiction of the time. Bendyshe, is a senior citizen who takes the most active role, even is a somewhat of an action hero.
So two more novellas to go.
update 4/19: Actually three novellas to go. All done, had to return the book to the library.
_The Parasite_ was written by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. The novella is written in the format of a journal or diary. The narrator is a professor of medicine. A fellow professor is a parapsychology researcher. (This novella was written in the late 19th Century, when some prominent academics such as William James and Henry Sidgwick investigated parapsychology, so the backdrop of this novella is not that out of the ordinary.) The narrator becomes involved in a parapsychology experiment, starting as a skeptic, ending up as a believer. The test subject is a woman who at first shows powers of hypnosis and suggestion. After these hypnotic experiments, the test subject falls in love with the narrator, but the narrator spurns her, so the psychic get back at him by psychically controlling what he says and does, to the narrator's detriment. The psychic is in poor physical health, so sometimes her psychic power wanes. I rate this story ok.
The Feasting Dead by John Metcalfe. I found this novella somewhat amusing, not due to the content, but due to the overwrought, melodramatic prose style. John Metcalfe was a British writer but this story was published by August Derleth, founder of Arkham House. The narrator is a widower, and he lets his young son periodically stay with another family who are friends with the widower. The narrator's young son becomes friends with a oafish handyman. The son's visitations are cancelled. The oafish handyman then appears to the narrator. The narrator has a bad vibe about this guy, but the son is overjoyed, so the narrator lets the handyman hang around. This handyman has a terrible influence on the son. The health of the narrator's son is increasingly deteriorating. This handyman is like a psychic vampire, draining the son's vitality.
The Rope in the Rafters by Oliver Onions. I do admit that Oliver Onions had one of the better prose styles, but I was underwhelmed by this story. Perhaps this is a too conventional ghost story. The narrator is staying at a place which has a rope hanging from the rafters, and the place has a macabre history: a smuggler used to operate from here, and when the authorities was closing in on him, the smuggler killed himself with that rope. Our narrator senses the presence of the ghost of this smuggler; there is even a smell. And then somebody dies by suicide with this very rope. A lot of words just for this plot?
Some concluding thoughts: This book contains horror novellas, from the late 19th Century to the 1980s. The saying, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" comes to mind. Of the pre-World War II novellas, the only one I liked was The Uttermost Farthing by A.C. Benson. The Algernon Blackwood novella didn't even hold my interest. The post-World War II novellas were generally superior. Encountering the novella _Fengriffin_ was like unearthing a hidden treasure. I'm rating this book 4 stars for a good amount of the fiction here ranges from 3.5 to 5 stars.
Table of Contents:
The Monkey by Stephen King
The Parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle
There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding by Russell Kirk
The Damned by Algernon Blackwood
Fengriffen by David Case
The Uttermost Farthing by A.C. Benson
The Rope in the Rafters by Oliver Onions
Nadelman's God by T.E.D. Kline
The Feasting Dead by John Metcalfe
How the Wind Spoke at Madaket by Lucius Shepard
update 4/3: Finished reading _Fengriffin_ by David Case. This Gothic novella was adapted into the early '70s movie as And Now The Screaming Starts! The first person narrator is a medical doctor, specializing in the then new science of psychology. The narrator is asked by Fengriffin to treat his wife Catherine, who is pregnant. Fengriffin's wife seems to be in what we nowadays call 'depression'. However, Catherine says that a supernatural curse is the cause of her problems. Our narrator, though, does not believe in the supernatural. It turns out that Catherine was right. This Gothic novella is excellently constructed and has marvelous passages.
Started reading _There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding_ by Russell Kirk.
update 4/5 Russell Kirk was a professor of history and a conservative political philosopher. He also wrote supernatural fiction, such as this novella _There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding_, which won a World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. The main character, Frank, is a petty thief who has been in and out of jail. He is of strong build, but hates violence. Frank is seeking shelter from the harsh winter, and enters a uninhabited, but nice house in an abandoned town. Frank learns some things about the former inhabitants of the house from the family pictures and a letter he discovered. The letter refers to a terrible event, and a person who lived with the family, also named Frank, and then breaks off. The next morning, Frank awakes, with the inhabitants of house around him. Frank has gone back in time.
Prisoners escaped from the nearby prison, and some prisoners with weapons break into the house. At this point, Frank is faced with a choice: he sees a clear means for him to escape, or he can fight against the home invaders. He chooses the latter course, and kills, in defense of the family, the home invaders. But Frank is mortally wounded. Frank comes back to the present time. Frank is back in the abandoned house and Frank sees his gravestone near the house which says "...who saved us and died for us..."
An emotionally moving story. The story, with its elements of Roman Catholic theology and violence leading to redemption, reminded me of the fiction of Flannery O'Connor.
I plan to read next _The Damned_ by Algernon Blackwood.
update 4/13 After reading about the first ten pages of _The Damned_ by Algernon Blackwood, I gave up. Nothing seemed to happen in the story. His other work is much better.
Read _How the Wind Spoke at Madaket_ by Lucius Shepard. An air elemental wreaks death and destruction. The air elemental, though, acts different when around two characters, one, a writer, the other, a bag lady--the air elemental acts like a pet around them. The writer and the bag lady also happen to be psychic. These two psychics try to distract the air elemental in order to let others flee.
"The Uttermost Farthing" by A.C. Benson. The editor of this volume says that this story was not published during A.C. Benson's lifetime, but in 1926.
This story turned out much better than I expected. I'm a bit wary about fiction published before 1930 (like the Algernon Blackwood story I mentioned) because literary minimalism is more to my taste.
Wikipedia says of literary minimalism : ... is characterized by an economy with words and a focus on surface description. Minimalist writers eschew adverbs and prefer allowing context to dictate meaning. Readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a story, to "choose sides" based on oblique hints and innuendo, rather than reacting to directions from the writer.
A.C. Benson's story is occult/evil spirit horror, a style of horror fiction that resonates with me. The narrator is a middle aged writer, who befriends an older man, name Bendyshe. Bendyshe is a successful businessman, has a likable personality, and is held in high regard by others. To the narrator's surprise, Bendyshe also is interested in the paranormal. Bendyshe thinks his house is haunted, and asks our narrator to stay with him for a while as an objective, outside observer. There are, indeed, paranormal happenings in the house. The narrator learns of a previous inhabitant of the house, who, it was rumored, experimented in the occult. This previous inhabitant kept a book of his occult researches hidden. Bendyshe thinks that the evil spirits in the house are trying to protect the book from being found and destroyed. Bendyshe, the narrator, and a Vicar seek this book to destroy it.
It was refreshing to see A.C. Benson trying to do something different with the haunted house story. In his story, one of the characters even remarks, on certain ghost stories, why would spirits want to re-enact tragic and horrible events? A.C. Benson, in his story, eschews this cliche.
Alas, even a great writer such as Robert Aickman resorted to the cliche of ghosts reenacting events ("The Station Waiting Room").
Also, the hero of this story, Bendyshe, is an a-typical hero, at least for the fiction of the time. Bendyshe, is a senior citizen who takes the most active role, even is a somewhat of an action hero.
So two more novellas to go.
update 4/19: Actually three novellas to go. All done, had to return the book to the library.
_The Parasite_ was written by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. The novella is written in the format of a journal or diary. The narrator is a professor of medicine. A fellow professor is a parapsychology researcher. (This novella was written in the late 19th Century, when some prominent academics such as William James and Henry Sidgwick investigated parapsychology, so the backdrop of this novella is not that out of the ordinary.) The narrator becomes involved in a parapsychology experiment, starting as a skeptic, ending up as a believer. The test subject is a woman who at first shows powers of hypnosis and suggestion. After these hypnotic experiments, the test subject falls in love with the narrator, but the narrator spurns her, so the psychic get back at him by psychically controlling what he says and does, to the narrator's detriment. The psychic is in poor physical health, so sometimes her psychic power wanes. I rate this story ok.
The Feasting Dead by John Metcalfe. I found this novella somewhat amusing, not due to the content, but due to the overwrought, melodramatic prose style. John Metcalfe was a British writer but this story was published by August Derleth, founder of Arkham House. The narrator is a widower, and he lets his young son periodically stay with another family who are friends with the widower. The narrator's young son becomes friends with a oafish handyman. The son's visitations are cancelled. The oafish handyman then appears to the narrator. The narrator has a bad vibe about this guy, but the son is overjoyed, so the narrator lets the handyman hang around. This handyman has a terrible influence on the son. The health of the narrator's son is increasingly deteriorating. This handyman is like a psychic vampire, draining the son's vitality.
The Rope in the Rafters by Oliver Onions. I do admit that Oliver Onions had one of the better prose styles, but I was underwhelmed by this story. Perhaps this is a too conventional ghost story. The narrator is staying at a place which has a rope hanging from the rafters, and the place has a macabre history: a smuggler used to operate from here, and when the authorities was closing in on him, the smuggler killed himself with that rope. Our narrator senses the presence of the ghost of this smuggler; there is even a smell. And then somebody dies by suicide with this very rope. A lot of words just for this plot?
Some concluding thoughts: This book contains horror novellas, from the late 19th Century to the 1980s. The saying, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" comes to mind. Of the pre-World War II novellas, the only one I liked was The Uttermost Farthing by A.C. Benson. The Algernon Blackwood novella didn't even hold my interest. The post-World War II novellas were generally superior. Encountering the novella _Fengriffin_ was like unearthing a hidden treasure. I'm rating this book 4 stars for a good amount of the fiction here ranges from 3.5 to 5 stars.
September 8, 2024
This was a rock-solid horror anthology. Every story was worth reading, even the stories that were a little weaker in comparison to the others were expertly written, none of them disappointing. The collection covers a wide time span, with the stories' publication dates ranging from the late 1800s to the 1980s. The subjects range from deadly cursed toys, hypnotism gone wrong, an abandoned town with a supernatural imprint of a past horrific event, a house haunted by layers of evil built up over thousands of years, a family curse, a house haunted by the dark occult experimentation of it's previous occupants, a WWI survivor's who's attempt to cope with war trauma is complicated by a ghostly encounter, a corporate hack who dabbled in occult poetry in college becomes stalked by a fan of his forgotten past work, a spirit that depends on draining the life energy of children to survive, and an elemental wind spirit that terrorizes a New England town.
The stories mostly involve slow building suspense and supernatural mystery that create an atmosphere of creeping dread and a fear of the unknown. The stories slowly stalk the reader's consciousness instead of jumping out of the bushes with a chainsaw. There's only a few gruesome scenes in the whole collection, this is more of a thinking person's horror anthology, with some stories that could be considered legit literary horror. There are some common themes that run through many of the stories. The most prevalent is the idea of the rational mind struggling to cope with the unexplainable. There's also a strong presence of the idea that underneath that veneer of the so-called civilized world, there is an undercurrent of mysterious forces that the modern mind would like to ignore until one if forced to confront them face to face. A quote from a story in this collection, "Nadelman's God" by T.E.D Klein, summarizes these themes that run through much of this anthology:
"He remembered something Nicky had once told him back in college, about how you could disprove thousands upon thousands of phony haunted house stories, reports of apparitions, UFO sightings, claims made of psychics and charlatans- but even if a single ghost or spell or saucer could truly be proved to exist, that one example would change everything forever."
The collection opens with the modern horror of "The Monkey" by Stephen King. This was a modern classic re-read, a great story to revisit. I like how the nature of the evil embodied within a toy monkey that causes bad things to happen with the clanking of it's cymbals is never fully explained. The stuffed animal itself is not evil, but somehow, somewhere, sometime, an evil force embedded itself within the monkey. No one knows how or why, or what form or consciousness this evil has, but just that the evil exists and that cute little monkey is capable of terrifying things.
The collection then jumps back into the past the Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Parasite". This was the first non-Sherlock story I've read by Doyle and it became my favorite story of his. It is a reversal of the usual Sherlock Holmes trope of the rational detective finding mundane explanations for seemly uncanny events. In this story, a scientist who prides himself on his materialistic perspective has his world view shaken when he has himself repeatedly hypnotized. He starts out skeptical but then has to confront the fact that his adventures with mesmerism led to experiences that he cannot explain scientifically.
"There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding" by Russell Kirk, is a story about a wandering hobo who is caught out in a snow storm and finds shelter in an abandoned town. He has a criminal past, though he not a malicious man unless provoked. As he takes shelter in an unoccupied house, he finds clues that indicate something disturbing happened in the town before it was abandoned. The story provides both supernatural chills and also a tale of redemption.
Algernon Blackwood really shakes it up with "The Damned". Having read a few of Blackwood's other stories like "The Wendigo" I had high expectations for this story, and it delivered. A brother and sister take an elderly widow up on an offer to stay in her old, creepy mansion inherited from her deceased husband. Before his death, her husband used the mansion as a cult compound. He led his followers in his fanatical fire-and-brimstone religious movement. Strange things happen in the night, and there is a dark presence that can be felt throughout the house and the surrounding property. At first this is attributed to this dark energy of the cult leader, but it is later discovered that the cult leader's behavior in the house was influenced by a more ancient evil that resides in the land the house was built on. This story was brilliant in it's ability to create a foreboding atmosphere.
In "Fengriffen" by David Case, a psychologist is called to a manor in the English countryside to investigate the bizarre behavior of the manor owner's wife. As he investigates the circumstances around the wife's mental state, he uncovers the dark past surrounding the manor and the husband's family. As the psychologist tries to piece together the past events and how they contribute to the wife's condition, he is confronted with circumstances that go outside of the boundaries of his psychological training.
"The Uttermost Farthing" by AC Benson follows an English gentleman who lives a shallow life with little purpose, but is called into supernatural adventure when a friend invites him to stay at his recently purchased house with a sketchy past. His friend is involved in spiritualism, something he himself has no interest in. After witnessing some inexplicable happenings, he his later informed about how the previous owners of the house experimented with black magic and caused their souls to be stuck in limbo within the house after their death.
"The Rope in The Rafters" by Oliver Onions is in part a ghost story, but the supposed ghosts only play a supporting role in the story as a whole. A survivor of the First World War, wounded in both body in mind, is invited by his sister to stay in her chateau in France that she is having remodeled. He was previously institutionalize in England, and sees a stay in the chateau as a way recover to something more resembling a normal life. He later learns about the chateau's dark past and has a supernatural encounter that causes his mental recovery to regress. As he tries to make sense of this ghostly encounter, he also struggles to come to terms with his facial disfigurement left over from the war. He works these things out in a journal, along with overarching issues about life and death as a whole. This was a dense and thought provoking tale that defies classification as a simple "ghost story".
I thought "Nadelman's God" by T.E.D Klein, was the highlight of the collection. It's a story with engaging characters, suspense, sardonic humor, and mind twisting mystery. The titular character, Nadelman, works as an advertising executive and is having a mid-life crisis. Though he lives a comfortable life, he feels like something is missing, and he is also having an extramarital affair. Back when he was in college, he had literary aspirations and dabbled in the occult. He once wrote an occult influenced poem that written as an invocation for a Luciferian deity embodied with the spirit of rebellion and chaos. A rock band named Jizzmo later adopted this poem as lyrics to a song. Nadelman is later contacted by a Jizzmo fan who has taken on a project to use the lyrics to bring the god described in the poem into being. This initial contact turns into a case of stalking that disrupts Nadelman's stale corporate life and causes him to confront his old creative self who lies buried within his current mundane persona. This was my first time reading T.E.D Klein, and with this fascinating story, I am inspired to read more of his work.
"The Feasting Dead" by John Metcalfe is an enigmatic story of an English widower who sends his son to stay with a friend at his chateau in rural France. His son exhibits strange behavior after retuning, though his son tells him he didn't want to come back to England. The father later gets some vague information about something strange happening at the chateau. Things get stranger after a servant from the chateau travels to England to stay with him. The story gets weirder and weirder as it progresses and otherworldly events manifest.
The collection closes at gale force with " How The Wind Spoke At Madaket". An author recovering from a divorce caused by a failed attempt at an extramarital affair moves into a cottage in a coastal New England town outside of Nantucket. The demons of his past haunt him as he resumes his work in solitude by the sea. He later rekindles the lost spark of romantic love within himself with a woman of the town. Meanwhile, his psychic perceptions give him signals of dread and send him into fits. He, his new love, and the people of the town are soon forced to face a mysterious force of nature, a conscious spirit of wraith that wields the force of the destructive power of wind. This entity has a mind and will of it's own and can use powerful blasts of wind as either a targeted weapon or as a tool of mass destruction. This was a superb story that is both character driven and fantastical, capturing both the human element and the element of paranormal forces.
"The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels" shows, once again, that the "Mammoth Book" series is an excellent go-to source to find great stories and to discover new authors across many genres. After having previously read "The Mammoth Book of Terror", and "The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction", this "Mammoth" collection is a further example of strength of this brand.
The stories mostly involve slow building suspense and supernatural mystery that create an atmosphere of creeping dread and a fear of the unknown. The stories slowly stalk the reader's consciousness instead of jumping out of the bushes with a chainsaw. There's only a few gruesome scenes in the whole collection, this is more of a thinking person's horror anthology, with some stories that could be considered legit literary horror. There are some common themes that run through many of the stories. The most prevalent is the idea of the rational mind struggling to cope with the unexplainable. There's also a strong presence of the idea that underneath that veneer of the so-called civilized world, there is an undercurrent of mysterious forces that the modern mind would like to ignore until one if forced to confront them face to face. A quote from a story in this collection, "Nadelman's God" by T.E.D Klein, summarizes these themes that run through much of this anthology:
"He remembered something Nicky had once told him back in college, about how you could disprove thousands upon thousands of phony haunted house stories, reports of apparitions, UFO sightings, claims made of psychics and charlatans- but even if a single ghost or spell or saucer could truly be proved to exist, that one example would change everything forever."
The collection opens with the modern horror of "The Monkey" by Stephen King. This was a modern classic re-read, a great story to revisit. I like how the nature of the evil embodied within a toy monkey that causes bad things to happen with the clanking of it's cymbals is never fully explained. The stuffed animal itself is not evil, but somehow, somewhere, sometime, an evil force embedded itself within the monkey. No one knows how or why, or what form or consciousness this evil has, but just that the evil exists and that cute little monkey is capable of terrifying things.
The collection then jumps back into the past the Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Parasite". This was the first non-Sherlock story I've read by Doyle and it became my favorite story of his. It is a reversal of the usual Sherlock Holmes trope of the rational detective finding mundane explanations for seemly uncanny events. In this story, a scientist who prides himself on his materialistic perspective has his world view shaken when he has himself repeatedly hypnotized. He starts out skeptical but then has to confront the fact that his adventures with mesmerism led to experiences that he cannot explain scientifically.
"There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding" by Russell Kirk, is a story about a wandering hobo who is caught out in a snow storm and finds shelter in an abandoned town. He has a criminal past, though he not a malicious man unless provoked. As he takes shelter in an unoccupied house, he finds clues that indicate something disturbing happened in the town before it was abandoned. The story provides both supernatural chills and also a tale of redemption.
Algernon Blackwood really shakes it up with "The Damned". Having read a few of Blackwood's other stories like "The Wendigo" I had high expectations for this story, and it delivered. A brother and sister take an elderly widow up on an offer to stay in her old, creepy mansion inherited from her deceased husband. Before his death, her husband used the mansion as a cult compound. He led his followers in his fanatical fire-and-brimstone religious movement. Strange things happen in the night, and there is a dark presence that can be felt throughout the house and the surrounding property. At first this is attributed to this dark energy of the cult leader, but it is later discovered that the cult leader's behavior in the house was influenced by a more ancient evil that resides in the land the house was built on. This story was brilliant in it's ability to create a foreboding atmosphere.
In "Fengriffen" by David Case, a psychologist is called to a manor in the English countryside to investigate the bizarre behavior of the manor owner's wife. As he investigates the circumstances around the wife's mental state, he uncovers the dark past surrounding the manor and the husband's family. As the psychologist tries to piece together the past events and how they contribute to the wife's condition, he is confronted with circumstances that go outside of the boundaries of his psychological training.
"The Uttermost Farthing" by AC Benson follows an English gentleman who lives a shallow life with little purpose, but is called into supernatural adventure when a friend invites him to stay at his recently purchased house with a sketchy past. His friend is involved in spiritualism, something he himself has no interest in. After witnessing some inexplicable happenings, he his later informed about how the previous owners of the house experimented with black magic and caused their souls to be stuck in limbo within the house after their death.
"The Rope in The Rafters" by Oliver Onions is in part a ghost story, but the supposed ghosts only play a supporting role in the story as a whole. A survivor of the First World War, wounded in both body in mind, is invited by his sister to stay in her chateau in France that she is having remodeled. He was previously institutionalize in England, and sees a stay in the chateau as a way recover to something more resembling a normal life. He later learns about the chateau's dark past and has a supernatural encounter that causes his mental recovery to regress. As he tries to make sense of this ghostly encounter, he also struggles to come to terms with his facial disfigurement left over from the war. He works these things out in a journal, along with overarching issues about life and death as a whole. This was a dense and thought provoking tale that defies classification as a simple "ghost story".
I thought "Nadelman's God" by T.E.D Klein, was the highlight of the collection. It's a story with engaging characters, suspense, sardonic humor, and mind twisting mystery. The titular character, Nadelman, works as an advertising executive and is having a mid-life crisis. Though he lives a comfortable life, he feels like something is missing, and he is also having an extramarital affair. Back when he was in college, he had literary aspirations and dabbled in the occult. He once wrote an occult influenced poem that written as an invocation for a Luciferian deity embodied with the spirit of rebellion and chaos. A rock band named Jizzmo later adopted this poem as lyrics to a song. Nadelman is later contacted by a Jizzmo fan who has taken on a project to use the lyrics to bring the god described in the poem into being. This initial contact turns into a case of stalking that disrupts Nadelman's stale corporate life and causes him to confront his old creative self who lies buried within his current mundane persona. This was my first time reading T.E.D Klein, and with this fascinating story, I am inspired to read more of his work.
"The Feasting Dead" by John Metcalfe is an enigmatic story of an English widower who sends his son to stay with a friend at his chateau in rural France. His son exhibits strange behavior after retuning, though his son tells him he didn't want to come back to England. The father later gets some vague information about something strange happening at the chateau. Things get stranger after a servant from the chateau travels to England to stay with him. The story gets weirder and weirder as it progresses and otherworldly events manifest.
The collection closes at gale force with " How The Wind Spoke At Madaket". An author recovering from a divorce caused by a failed attempt at an extramarital affair moves into a cottage in a coastal New England town outside of Nantucket. The demons of his past haunt him as he resumes his work in solitude by the sea. He later rekindles the lost spark of romantic love within himself with a woman of the town. Meanwhile, his psychic perceptions give him signals of dread and send him into fits. He, his new love, and the people of the town are soon forced to face a mysterious force of nature, a conscious spirit of wraith that wields the force of the destructive power of wind. This entity has a mind and will of it's own and can use powerful blasts of wind as either a targeted weapon or as a tool of mass destruction. This was a superb story that is both character driven and fantastical, capturing both the human element and the element of paranormal forces.
"The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels" shows, once again, that the "Mammoth Book" series is an excellent go-to source to find great stories and to discover new authors across many genres. After having previously read "The Mammoth Book of Terror", and "The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction", this "Mammoth" collection is a further example of strength of this brand.
December 13, 2024
Disappointing except for 2 stories, the 1st one by Stephen King and the last one. The rest were just boring drivel and I lost interest.
Currently reading
July 10, 2024"Nadelman's God" by T.E.D. Klein - Nadelman creates a new savage god in a college poem that gets adapted in a rock song. A fan uses the instructions provided to create a servant and then contacts Nadelman. Eventually the fan and his mother are killed by the creature and Nadelman is fearful that it is stalking him.
"Fengriffen" by David Case - wc
"The Parasite" by Arthur Conan Doyle - wc
"Fengriffen" by David Case - wc
"The Parasite" by Arthur Conan Doyle - wc
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2023
This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt lost or alone. The author's prose is lyrical and evocative, and the protagonist's journey is both inspiring and relatable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heartwarming and uplifting read.
November 7, 2023
A mix of old stories by Algernon Blackwood, Conan Doyle etc, with some newer ones.
Stephen King's The Monkey is a good opener (which I had read more than once in its original publication).
A number of the stories are okay - nothing amazing, and mostly forgettable, with not the slightest bit of horror managing to surface.
Three others did stand out, though.
There's a Long Long Trail A-Winding, by Russell Kirk
A great ghost story. Slow-build, likeable and sympathetic protagonist, wonderfully creepy snowy setting. I don't want to say much more, except I was fully satisfied with this story, and that's rare for me!
Nadelman's God, by T.E.D. Klein
I loved the opening and the writing. Also the details that make it believable - the world, the character, the revelations. It definitely gripped me, despite the completely (and intentionally) unlikable protagonist. The scene in the occult club at the start was really well done. And the descriptions near the end, of the downbeat beach area he knew as a child, reminded me of something Ramsey Campbell might have written about decaying Liverpool.
The only area where it fell flat for me was the ending. It's a shame, I was ready to be wowed!
How the Wind Spoke at Madaket, by Lucius Shepard
It's a well-done tale and conjures up a creepy threat for the isolated islanders to face. Expect tension to give way to action, twists and some gory scenes.
The ending didn't quite hit the mark.
There was also a botched subplot element.
During the highs I was fully engrossed. This was a story and setting that could have been expanded, perhaps too far: so the decision not to stretch it too thin, but to keep it short and impactful, is to be applauded.
Stephen King's The Monkey is a good opener (which I had read more than once in its original publication).
A number of the stories are okay - nothing amazing, and mostly forgettable, with not the slightest bit of horror managing to surface.
Three others did stand out, though.
There's a Long Long Trail A-Winding, by Russell Kirk
A great ghost story. Slow-build, likeable and sympathetic protagonist, wonderfully creepy snowy setting. I don't want to say much more, except I was fully satisfied with this story, and that's rare for me!
Nadelman's God, by T.E.D. Klein
I loved the opening and the writing. Also the details that make it believable - the world, the character, the revelations. It definitely gripped me, despite the completely (and intentionally) unlikable protagonist. The scene in the occult club at the start was really well done. And the descriptions near the end, of the downbeat beach area he knew as a child, reminded me of something Ramsey Campbell might have written about decaying Liverpool.
The only area where it fell flat for me was the ending. It's a shame, I was ready to be wowed!
How the Wind Spoke at Madaket, by Lucius Shepard
It's a well-done tale and conjures up a creepy threat for the isolated islanders to face. Expect tension to give way to action, twists and some gory scenes.
The ending didn't quite hit the mark.
There was also a botched subplot element.
During the highs I was fully engrossed. This was a story and setting that could have been expanded, perhaps too far: so the decision not to stretch it too thin, but to keep it short and impactful, is to be applauded.
October 12, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Book 94 of 2023. “Horror Novels” edited by Mike Ashley.
Originally published as “The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Stories,” this re-printing contains 10 novellas of different writers pertaining to horror.
The only authors I had any knowledge of were Stephen King and Arthur Conan Doyle, so it was good to read new authors.
The low score isn’t a reflection on the quality of stories in isolation, but that I wouldn’t classify some as horror, at least 3 were gothic; and similar tropes were presented back to back (haunted house, psychic, etc) so it got monotonous.
The score is more a reflection of the editing and compiling more than anything else, my favourite stories were: “The Monkey” by Stephen King (already read as part of one of his collections); “The Parasite” by Arthur Conan Doyle; and “Fengriffen” by David Chase, “Nadelman’s God” by T.E.D. Klein.
I have a few other horror collections so hopefully those meet the brief more!
Originally published as “The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Stories,” this re-printing contains 10 novellas of different writers pertaining to horror.
The only authors I had any knowledge of were Stephen King and Arthur Conan Doyle, so it was good to read new authors.
The low score isn’t a reflection on the quality of stories in isolation, but that I wouldn’t classify some as horror, at least 3 were gothic; and similar tropes were presented back to back (haunted house, psychic, etc) so it got monotonous.
The score is more a reflection of the editing and compiling more than anything else, my favourite stories were: “The Monkey” by Stephen King (already read as part of one of his collections); “The Parasite” by Arthur Conan Doyle; and “Fengriffen” by David Chase, “Nadelman’s God” by T.E.D. Klein.
I have a few other horror collections so hopefully those meet the brief more!
July 12, 2021
A really disappointing anthology. If you did a venn diagram of what I like in horror fiction and what Ashley likes, there would be nothing in the middle. First off, few of these stories are horror; they're more like Gothic fiction. Secondly, with just a few exceptions, the stories are basically identical: someone gets summoned to a haunted house in the country; a woman is having some mental issues; and some psychic stuff happens. Which brings me to #3: most of these stories feature my #1 most-hated horror-fiction trope: the psychic. Is there anything more boring and less scary than the psychic? Worse than this, it's incredibly dated; even when this book was published in 1988, it was a century past its expiration date.
A terrible anthology. Avoiding Ashley in the future.
A terrible anthology. Avoiding Ashley in the future.
October 14, 2023
Aside from Stephen King's short story "The Monkey" which actually really creeped me out, the other stories were long-winded and written with such high-brow language that I couldn't connect to the story or the characters. For many of the authors, it took three paragraphs to summarise something that only needed about three sentences max. Stephen King is an author from those times that was made to last generations, and he's honestly one of few.
April 3, 2020
The editing in this book is horrendous. One story, halfway through, became the end of the previous story. Spelling is a bit off as well. A few stories were good, most are just difficult to read or enjoy. Kind of boring. Best is King, 2nd is Shepard at the end.
June 6, 2020
I liked maybe two of the stories in it.. Thoroughly disappointed.
February 22, 2025
A good compilation
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December 8, 2020
Some of the stories here are excellent (Fengriffen, The Feasting Dead, and The Rope In The Rafters are my top three), while others are terrible (the Kirk story, in particular. I don't see why people call this story a classic, I was bored out of my mind reading it, and I've found it in at least three anthologies. I've never found a single story by him that struck me as scary or even interesting). Incidentally, I can't help but wonder why the cover is the same as that of The Hephaestus Plague, as the two books have nothing to do with each other beyond them both being horror. As for the stories:
The Monkey: A cursed toy causes death to people around it. Not bad, but not my favourite of King's stories.
The Parasite: Psychic vampirism in the victorian era. Solid, but not particularly exciting story; still worth a read.
There's A Long Long Trail A Winding: A hobo takes refuge in a seemingly haunted house, the ghosts (of a rich family
That used to live there) aren't particularly interesting or frightening, some random escaped prisoners break into the house . Vaguely preachy, overly sentimental, not remotely frightening, ultimately boring.
The Damned: A man comes to stay at an old house where the place's dark history has a malignant effect on the current occupants. A nicely atmospheric haunted house story, somewhat familiar, but with some good scenes; there's a moment involving a tree that struck me as being particularly unsettling.
Fengriffen: an old house, a woman suffering from a strange illness, a family curse, a madman living in the woods, a neglected cemetery, a demonic presence: all ingredients for a fine gothic horror story. The best story in the book.
The Monkey: A cursed toy causes death to people around it. Not bad, but not my favourite of King's stories.
The Parasite: Psychic vampirism in the victorian era. Solid, but not particularly exciting story; still worth a read.
There's A Long Long Trail A Winding: A hobo takes refuge in a seemingly haunted house, the ghosts (of a rich family
That used to live there) aren't particularly interesting or frightening, some random escaped prisoners break into the house . Vaguely preachy, overly sentimental, not remotely frightening, ultimately boring.
The Damned: A man comes to stay at an old house where the place's dark history has a malignant effect on the current occupants. A nicely atmospheric haunted house story, somewhat familiar, but with some good scenes; there's a moment involving a tree that struck me as being particularly unsettling.
Fengriffen: an old house, a woman suffering from a strange illness, a family curse, a madman living in the woods, a neglected cemetery, a demonic presence: all ingredients for a fine gothic horror story. The best story in the book.
Read
December 18, 2012Unfair to rate this book, as I only bought it as the simplest (and most affordable) way to read David Case's Fengriffen, which I greatly enjoyed. Case is an unfairly forgotten author of horror fiction, and Fengriffen is a quietly hysterical story in the gothic vein - crumbling mansion, stormy nights, curses and villainy, and a supernatural element that remains elusive until the brilliant climax. Well worth the price of admission in itself, and possibly the only contender for an actual 'short novel' in the book - Stephen King's contribution is only 30 pages long, for crying out loud.
December 12, 2010
Haven't finished it. Pretty good so far although a few of the stories are heavily written and require much patience.
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