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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
A great collection. Some of the stories were less interesting than others, though the collection as a whole was stellar. There were so many stories that I had heard in some form that I can't believe can be traced back to a single source.
Some stories were good and some were less impactful than I had imagine them to be. Overall I liked it and it is the reason I gave it 4 stars. There might had been also this fact that I'm not someone used to read horror story and even more many short stories of this genre. However it had help me explore more on how horror stories are made and other things. I can finally conclude also that if I was an addept to the horror genre, I think I would have enjoy this book more.
This is an anthology of short stories by Richard Matheson selected by Victor Lavalle. I came across the author in an article about the origin of horror tropes in popular culture and, indeed, gained some insight by reading this collection. Despite their age, many of the stories seem instantly familiar. In fact, reading this book feels a bit like reading the plot of B-movies from the 60s. Richard Matheson clearly had a knack for creating an atmosphere of suspense and dread. Even seemingly mundane activities like driving on a motorway, buying a statue from a flea market, or going Christmas shopping can be transformed into utterly horrifying experiences. His writing style is very sparse, one might even say simplistic, and feels a bit like reading a story from a pulp magazine. The anthology provides a broad selection of quite different stories. Some of the stories are certainly more compelling than others, and some have aged better than others. This is a great book to read for any horror fan. Especially avid readers of Stephen King will probably see the influence of Matheson. For other readers, the book will open a fresh appreciation of the cultural root of the horror and suspense genre in American pulp fiction from the middle of the last century. Even for readers without any of these interests, the book should be enjoyable to read for the pure pleasure of well-crafted suspense in bite-sized stories.
dark
fast-paced
dark
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
fast-paced