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lakserk's review against another edition
4.0
The stories:
The School Friend: An old school friend of the protagonist returns to her father’s house after his death. The house seems to have a weird effect upon her. A masterful story, a subtle journey into female oppression, a spin on speculative fiction of the created, and a hint of Greek mythology, with strong Lynchean vibes, as well as a cryptic finale; this is a tour de force of Aickman motifs.
Ringing the Changes: A couple visit a seaside village where bells seem to be constantly ringing and the border between life and (un)death is occasionally thinning. Less abrupt than the average Aickman, this is an exemplary lesson of how to craft an unsettling settlement. Strong aesthetical hints of the Carnival of Souls.
Choice of Weapons: A young man falls furiously in love at the first sight of a woman, becoming obsessed with her and ending up in a weird house crossing shoulders with even more weird characters. It takes the reader through a spectral range of expectations before abruptly ending, leaving him dazed with a quintessential Aickmanish ending.
The Waiting Room: A man spends the night alone in a haunted train station room. This short story is much smoother than its other counterparts. A traditional ghost tale which is a delight to read, creating a much appreciated wintry atmosphere.
The View: An artist ends up in the secluded manor of a woman, in an island where space seems to be malleable. The book’s largest story, this has an almost dreamlike quality and more than a hint of Odysseus’ time with Circe and Calypso as well as folktales of time spent in fairyland. Can be a bit slow-moving, but ultimately satisfying.
Bind Your Hair: A woman visits her fiance’s village and family. She meets an eccentric old lady and wanders in the countryside discovering a strange labyrinth and equally bizarre guides. A folk-horror masterpiece, slightly hinting of Machen’s The White People, also doubling over as a subtle study of the collective versus the individual (rural/urban, traditional/modern), of boundaries and their dissolving. My personal favourite of the book.
Full review here: https://industriesofinferno.github.io/books/2020/07/02/robert-aickman-dark-entries.html
The School Friend: An old school friend of the protagonist returns to her father’s house after his death. The house seems to have a weird effect upon her. A masterful story, a subtle journey into female oppression, a spin on speculative fiction of the created, and a hint of Greek mythology, with strong Lynchean vibes, as well as a cryptic finale; this is a tour de force of Aickman motifs.
Ringing the Changes: A couple visit a seaside village where bells seem to be constantly ringing and the border between life and (un)death is occasionally thinning. Less abrupt than the average Aickman, this is an exemplary lesson of how to craft an unsettling settlement. Strong aesthetical hints of the Carnival of Souls.
Choice of Weapons: A young man falls furiously in love at the first sight of a woman, becoming obsessed with her and ending up in a weird house crossing shoulders with even more weird characters. It takes the reader through a spectral range of expectations before abruptly ending, leaving him dazed with a quintessential Aickmanish ending.
The Waiting Room: A man spends the night alone in a haunted train station room. This short story is much smoother than its other counterparts. A traditional ghost tale which is a delight to read, creating a much appreciated wintry atmosphere.
The View: An artist ends up in the secluded manor of a woman, in an island where space seems to be malleable. The book’s largest story, this has an almost dreamlike quality and more than a hint of Odysseus’ time with Circe and Calypso as well as folktales of time spent in fairyland. Can be a bit slow-moving, but ultimately satisfying.
Bind Your Hair: A woman visits her fiance’s village and family. She meets an eccentric old lady and wanders in the countryside discovering a strange labyrinth and equally bizarre guides. A folk-horror masterpiece, slightly hinting of Machen’s The White People, also doubling over as a subtle study of the collective versus the individual (rural/urban, traditional/modern), of boundaries and their dissolving. My personal favourite of the book.
Full review here: https://industriesofinferno.github.io/books/2020/07/02/robert-aickman-dark-entries.html
lakserk's review against another edition
5.0
The stories:
The School Friend: An old school friend of the protagonist returns to her father’s house after his death. The house seems to have a weird effect upon her. A masterful story, a subtle journey into female oppression, a spin on speculative fiction of the created, and a hint of Greek mythology, with strong Lynchean vibes, as well as a cryptic finale; this is a tour de force of Aickman motifs.
Ringing the Changes: A couple visit a seaside village where bells seem to be constantly ringing and the border between life and (un)death is occasionally thinning. Less abrupt than the average Aickman, this is an exemplary lesson of how to craft an unsettling settlement. Strong aesthetical hints of the Carnival of Souls.
Choice of Weapons: A young man falls furiously in love at the first sight of a woman, becoming obsessed with her and ending up in a weird house crossing shoulders with even more weird characters. It takes the reader through a spectral range of expectations before abruptly ending, leaving him dazed with a quintessential Aickmanish ending.
The Waiting Room: A man spends the night alone in a haunted train station room. This short story is much smoother than its other counterparts. A traditional ghost tale which is a delight to read, creating a much appreciated wintry atmosphere.
The View: An artist ends up in the secluded manor of a woman, in an island where space seems to be malleable. The book’s largest story, this has an almost dreamlike quality and more than a hint of Odysseus’ time with Circe and Calypso as well as folktales of time spent in fairyland. Can be a bit slow-moving, but ultimately satisfying.
Bind Your Hair: A woman visits her fiance’s village and family. She meets an eccentric old lady and wanders in the countryside discovering a strange labyrinth and equally bizarre guides. A folk-horror masterpiece, slightly hinting of Machen’s The White People, also doubling over as a subtle study of the collective versus the individual (rural/urban, traditional/modern), of boundaries and their dissolving. My personal favourite of the book.
Full review here: https://industriesofinferno.github.io/books/2020/07/02/robert-aickman-dark-entries.html
The School Friend: An old school friend of the protagonist returns to her father’s house after his death. The house seems to have a weird effect upon her. A masterful story, a subtle journey into female oppression, a spin on speculative fiction of the created, and a hint of Greek mythology, with strong Lynchean vibes, as well as a cryptic finale; this is a tour de force of Aickman motifs.
Ringing the Changes: A couple visit a seaside village where bells seem to be constantly ringing and the border between life and (un)death is occasionally thinning. Less abrupt than the average Aickman, this is an exemplary lesson of how to craft an unsettling settlement. Strong aesthetical hints of the Carnival of Souls.
Choice of Weapons: A young man falls furiously in love at the first sight of a woman, becoming obsessed with her and ending up in a weird house crossing shoulders with even more weird characters. It takes the reader through a spectral range of expectations before abruptly ending, leaving him dazed with a quintessential Aickmanish ending.
The Waiting Room: A man spends the night alone in a haunted train station room. This short story is much smoother than its other counterparts. A traditional ghost tale which is a delight to read, creating a much appreciated wintry atmosphere.
The View: An artist ends up in the secluded manor of a woman, in an island where space seems to be malleable. The book’s largest story, this has an almost dreamlike quality and more than a hint of Odysseus’ time with Circe and Calypso as well as folktales of time spent in fairyland. Can be a bit slow-moving, but ultimately satisfying.
Bind Your Hair: A woman visits her fiance’s village and family. She meets an eccentric old lady and wanders in the countryside discovering a strange labyrinth and equally bizarre guides. A folk-horror masterpiece, slightly hinting of Machen’s The White People, also doubling over as a subtle study of the collective versus the individual (rural/urban, traditional/modern), of boundaries and their dissolving. My personal favourite of the book.
Full review here: https://industriesofinferno.github.io/books/2020/07/02/robert-aickman-dark-entries.html
frahhn's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very pleasantly surprised! I went in cold with low expectations and found these stories fascinating and enthralling. I would argue that more than half of them have queer subtexts too which was a nice surprise. These reminded me of “readable” stories in the vein of HG Wells and Poe, who unfortunately have a tendency to put me to sleep.
My favorites are
“The school friend” and “bind your hair” with my lease favorite being “choose your weapons.”
My favorites are
“The school friend” and “bind your hair” with my lease favorite being “choose your weapons.”
dbaldachino's review
dark
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
iztrkfliers's review against another edition
4.0
The stories I enjoyed the most in this collection were:
1. The School Friend
2. Ringing the Changes
3. Choice of Swords
4. Bind Your Hair
1. The School Friend
2. Ringing the Changes
3. Choice of Swords
4. Bind Your Hair
blatanville's review
4.0
Strange and unsettling, like Shirley Jackson, but with supernatural locales and scenes instead of Jackson's domestic terrors.
bryce_is_a_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
No one omits narrative information to greater effect than Aickman.
loribulb's review against another edition
4.0
I picked up this book after a friend of mine told me the short stories I wrote reminded her of Robert Aickman. I did not realize at the time what a compliment she had paid me.
The variety is what I enjoyed most about this collection. While some ran to the more the traditional formats of ghosts and graveyards (The Waiting Room) or zombies (Ringing the Changes- at least I *think* that was zombies) others I'm still trying to figure out (Choice of Weapons. I need to read it again, I think.)
My favorite by far, for the atmospheric sense of dread, as well as its independent female protagonist, was Bind Your Hair. It can be hard to read literature that was written at a different time, even just 50 years back, because the language and formatting can feel so foreign. I'll admit there were a few challenges in that regard to these stories, but it just took a little time to get in the right groove. The scares were not jumpy or "gotchas!" but rather carefully crafted ideas that seemed rooted, at times, in the psyches of the main characters as much as from any outside influences.
The stories are well constructed, tidy, and without any extraneous descriptions or fillers. That compact storytelling is part of what made them, at first, difficult stories to read. The flow is totally different from modern literature. I suspect that the few I had real trouble with (like that Choice of Weapons- honestly, wtf?) I'll understand more if I go back and reread. The text holds everything I'll need... I think I just wasn't as attentive as I needed to be.
The variety is what I enjoyed most about this collection. While some ran to the more the traditional formats of ghosts and graveyards (The Waiting Room) or zombies (Ringing the Changes- at least I *think* that was zombies) others I'm still trying to figure out (Choice of Weapons. I need to read it again, I think.)
My favorite by far, for the atmospheric sense of dread, as well as its independent female protagonist, was Bind Your Hair. It can be hard to read literature that was written at a different time, even just 50 years back, because the language and formatting can feel so foreign. I'll admit there were a few challenges in that regard to these stories, but it just took a little time to get in the right groove. The scares were not jumpy or "gotchas!" but rather carefully crafted ideas that seemed rooted, at times, in the psyches of the main characters as much as from any outside influences.
The stories are well constructed, tidy, and without any extraneous descriptions or fillers. That compact storytelling is part of what made them, at first, difficult stories to read. The flow is totally different from modern literature. I suspect that the few I had real trouble with (like that Choice of Weapons- honestly, wtf?) I'll understand more if I go back and reread. The text holds everything I'll need... I think I just wasn't as attentive as I needed to be.
a_monkey's review against another edition
3.0
Subtle enough to mistakenly seem ponderous, but expertly crafted and deeply, believably weird.