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A review by percystjoan
The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson
5.0
brian evenson you madman, you've done it AGAIN
as soon as i finished [b:Father of Lies|25330309|Father of Lies|Brian Evenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448320154l/25330309._SX50_.jpg|141655] i knew that i needed to read more evenson ASAP and now i can confirm that i'm fully obsessed with his work. there's such an incredible range in subject and genre in this collection, but somehow each one is both such a standout in its particular genre while also retaining his personal flair - not to mention they're scary as FUCK. i fully got chills from like.... 2/3 of these? which is an impressive success rate and i know i'm going to be thinking about them for a long long time. for sure check this out if you like horror. there's something for everyone, as long as you like scary: dystopian, classic gothic, sci-fi, cerebral psychological, really anything you can ask for. there's a definite bent towards apocalyptic sci-fi, which really worked for me (oddly enough as sci-fi horror isn't always my favorite).
i think what makes these stories work so well despite the disparity of setting is that they all have a similar underlying theme of interrogating what it means to be human/what makes a person themself and how that personhood can be warped and changed. we see that come up again and again: in dystopian settings where the characters grapple with humanity's tendency towards destruction and whether they deserve to be wiped out; in gothic fiction where characters appear human at first and turn out to be something entirely else; and most alarmingly, in stories where characters realize that the people they've loved and known their entire lives were never the people they appeared to be.
a lot of what's scary in these stories revolves around the warping of humanity to something other - often the real horror lies not in what horrible acts have been committed, but in the anticipation of the horror yet to come. evenson has a really excellent grasp of timing and he knows exactly how to build a chilling, awful story and then end it at just the right time to leave you imagining the rest. can confirm, that is SO much scarier than being told what happens. (i'm going to be thinking about his haunting, the coldness of his eye, and palisade for a LONG time - genuinely terrifying.) just so so good, i can't wait to read more!
individual ratings:
leg - 3/5
in dreams - 5/5
myling kommer - 3/5
come up - 5/5
palisade - 4/5
curator - 4/5
to breathe the air - 5/5
the barrow-men - 5/5
the shimmering wall - 5/5
grauer in the snow - 3/5
justle - 4/5
the devil's hand - 5/5
nameless citizen - 3/5
the coldness of his eye - 5/5
daylight come - 4.5/5
elo havel - 5/5
his haunting - 5/5
haver - 3.5/5
the extrication - 3/5
a bad patch - 4/5
hospice - 3.5/5
the glassy, burning floor of hell - 4/5
as soon as i finished [b:Father of Lies|25330309|Father of Lies|Brian Evenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448320154l/25330309._SX50_.jpg|141655] i knew that i needed to read more evenson ASAP and now i can confirm that i'm fully obsessed with his work. there's such an incredible range in subject and genre in this collection, but somehow each one is both such a standout in its particular genre while also retaining his personal flair - not to mention they're scary as FUCK. i fully got chills from like.... 2/3 of these? which is an impressive success rate and i know i'm going to be thinking about them for a long long time. for sure check this out if you like horror. there's something for everyone, as long as you like scary: dystopian, classic gothic, sci-fi, cerebral psychological, really anything you can ask for. there's a definite bent towards apocalyptic sci-fi, which really worked for me (oddly enough as sci-fi horror isn't always my favorite).
i think what makes these stories work so well despite the disparity of setting is that they all have a similar underlying theme of interrogating what it means to be human/what makes a person themself and how that personhood can be warped and changed. we see that come up again and again: in dystopian settings where the characters grapple with humanity's tendency towards destruction and whether they deserve to be wiped out; in gothic fiction where characters appear human at first and turn out to be something entirely else; and most alarmingly, in stories where characters realize that the people they've loved and known their entire lives were never the people they appeared to be.
a lot of what's scary in these stories revolves around the warping of humanity to something other - often the real horror lies not in what horrible acts have been committed, but in the anticipation of the horror yet to come. evenson has a really excellent grasp of timing and he knows exactly how to build a chilling, awful story and then end it at just the right time to leave you imagining the rest. can confirm, that is SO much scarier than being told what happens. (i'm going to be thinking about his haunting, the coldness of his eye, and palisade for a LONG time - genuinely terrifying.) just so so good, i can't wait to read more!
individual ratings:
leg - 3/5
in dreams - 5/5
myling kommer - 3/5
come up - 5/5
palisade - 4/5
curator - 4/5
to breathe the air - 5/5
the barrow-men - 5/5
the shimmering wall - 5/5
grauer in the snow - 3/5
justle - 4/5
the devil's hand - 5/5
nameless citizen - 3/5
the coldness of his eye - 5/5
daylight come - 4.5/5
elo havel - 5/5
his haunting - 5/5
haver - 3.5/5
the extrication - 3/5
a bad patch - 4/5
hospice - 3.5/5
the glassy, burning floor of hell - 4/5