Literary Horror discussion

I was surprised to discover just now that Peter Straub passed away two months ago. "Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn."

I found this out as I was reading brief reviews of his novella, "Fee." One place it was published was in the anthology Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror. It held the position of last story and some reviewers were highly critical of it, recommending other readers pass it by, another saying he wished he had. Yet the story had the following award nominations:
Preliminary Nominees, 1994 Stoker, Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Nomination, 1995 World Fantasy, Best Novella
Does anyone know what the deal is with this novella? Why do some find it so objectionable?

Anyhow, I am sad to read of Straub's passing. I absolutely loved reading his Ghost Story in the late 1970s when I was a teen, not because I loved horror so much then, but because I tried to read everything on the New York Times top ten best seller list (fiction), which this book certainly was. I remember the novel as being extremely long and wonder if I'd have the patience to read such a tome these days.

I went on to try other work of his. His collaboration with Stephen King (The Talisman was a DNF for me though; I wasn't sure which of the two to blame for that. Then his Shadowland was so bad it was not only a DNF for me, but a barely started. I never gave Straub another try after that. These were all my youthful attempts to read Straub. I feel certain as a maturer adult now I'd better apprecaite him.

I must admit to finding myself curious about "Fee"? Is anyone up for a buddy read of this novella?

If anyone did have an interest in reading "Fee" as a buddy read, I'd recommend acquiring the story by purchasing The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub, Volume Two for $5.99. The second volume contains Straub's eight novellas:

Blue Rose
The Buffalo Hunter
Mrs. God
Bunny Is Good Bread
Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff
Pork Pie Hat
A Special Place: the Heart of a Dark Matter
The Process (is a Process All Its Own)

"Bunny Is Good Bread" is Straub's reworking of "Fee." In any event, I'll be reading it.

I probably won't be reading Fee (sorry) because I don't own it. but to honor Straub's passing, I did buy Special Place, The Process, and the full-length version of Mrs. God (which I loved as a novella in one of his collections).

Fee is not available in Germany. Sorry! If I would have found it, I would have bought it.

The Talisman- I didn’t finish it either.

Vavita wrote: "Fee is not available in Germany."

I don't believe "Fee" can be found by itself in any language. The best chance of finding it in German, I think, is to find a translation of Magic Terror. One of the stories in this collection is "Fee," or rather "Bunny Is Good Bread," Straub's retitled version of "Key." I know the collection has been translated into French and into Russian, therefore it probably was into German as well.

Warning: I think from reading reviews of Magic Terror that people's objection to the story "Bunny is Good Bread" is that it contains elements of child abuse, to answer my earlier question.

mark wrote: "I probably won't be reading Fee (sorry) because I don't own it. but to honor Straub's passing, I did buy Special Place, The Process, and the full-length version of Mrs. God (which I loved as a nove..."

Good to know there is an expanded version of "Mrs. God." Thanks!

I didn't know that either, until I read an article about his passing in The Bulwark. lots of great info about him in there.

Further research leads me to the conclusion "Key" aka "Bunny Is Good Bread" might not be the optimum starting place. That story is part of his Blue Rose series:

1 Blue Rose (1985) Novella
2 Juniper Tree (1988) Novelette
3 Koko (1988) Novel
4 Mystery (1990) Novel
5 The Ghost Village (1992) Novelette
6 The Throat (1993) Novel
7 Fee (1994) also appeared as Bunny Is Good Bread (2000) Novella

Since #1 and #7 are both novellas, they may be found in the book I cited in message 2 of this thread. The two novelettes are in The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub Volume One (found on Amazon for $5.99 as a Kindle). And of course the three novels are available separately.

By the way, I read in an interview that Straub himself considers his Koko the best book he ever wrote. He said, in effect, that he measured all of his subsequent efforts as he would write them against what he felt he achieved with that novel.

I just finished the first novella in this seven-work series. It was absolutely magnificent, an amazing literary achievement as far as I'm concerned. I reviewed it by itself here, if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Oh my! This series is quite something. Just when I thought I might have read Straub's most disturbing work, I read "The Juniper Tree" last night, a novelette maybe 70% as long as "Blue Rose." (I only noticed two minor typos in this story, by the way. Maybe the editors did a better job with Volume 1.) The title of the story gives no warning of the nature of the story. Perhaps titling it (view spoiler)["Portrait of a Molestee" (hide spoiler)] would have been too on the nose.

I am not sure how this story fits in the "Blue Rose" cycle. None of the key characters in "The Juniper Tree" are named. So it's not necessarily tied in because the characters repeat, which is what I expected. Maybe it's tied in because of how disturbing the content is, or how autobiographical it is, perhaps the fact that nothing supernatural occurs in either story so far, so it certainly can't be classified as dark fantasy.

I don't rate "The Juniper Tree" as highly as I rate "Blue Rose." Sure, Straub wrote the heck out of the story with masterful artistry. Its realism, just as in "The Blue Rose," contributes directly to the horror because you know, just know things like this happen in a way similar if not sometimes identical to this in real life. But the story is not as complicated as "Blue Rose." There are fewer moving parts, fewer characters struggling against one another, less dialogue. I like having those extra features, which is in part why I rated "Blue Rose" a masterpiece. Maybe the lack here is to bring out the central horror more vividly, tighten the focus on it, since the narrative can't dwell overlong there. If so, it worked.

The other part of the story that didn't grab me was the nostalgia factor. Straub mentions all these artists from the childhood of an era that preceded mine that I know nothing of, film stars mostly, some music performers I think. I'm not sure; I didn't look them up. Even if these stars were of my era and I recognized them, like when Stephen King does nostalgia, I still don't really dig it. Both Straub and King use nostalgia almost as if they were a character in their stories, but it smacks too much of living in the past for me. I don't view the present as being so awful that I need to do that, personally.

Probably Straub brought in these nostalgia features to show how the horror of what happened (view spoiler)[to this boy would rob him of his chance to ever be able to look back on his past and appreciate it, not have it be tainted. In other words, this piece's villain stole more than the protagonist's innocence, as if that were not bad enough. (hide spoiler)]

Next up is the novel, Koko. I'm in luck. One of the branch libraries in my county carries a copy, and it's not checked out. (Go figure!) I've electronically requested the book be sent to the branch I visit. Modern technology; gotta love it!

I really appreciate these in-depths thoughts on this cycle. please post links to your reviews if you decide to continue reading. I had big issues with The Throat (still a worthwhile read imo) but enjoyed Mystery and Koko well enough. very curious as to what you think of all three.

My review of Koko: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...