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A review by tombomp
The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Vol. 1 by Ryan Cagle, James D. Jenkins
3.0
Overall I feel it's a mixed bag and it averages out at 3 or maybe 3.5 if you're generous. There's a few really good stories, a few duds, then a bunch of stuff that's sometimes pretty good but nothing exciting enough to recommend. I'm still glad I read it and enjoyed the experience because it's cool seeing horror from around the world and the different styles and things referenced.
Uironda: does the "mysterious place existing somehow right alongside ours and you could easily slip into it" thing but by making the protagonist a trucker it draws something new out of it, showing trucking as a parallel world already and for one to slip out of everyone's lives isn't so strange. There's a little bit of a silly twist at the end but the grotesque imagery there is wonderful and the whole thing really stuck in my head. Great stuff. 4/5
Mater Tenebrarum: don't really understand this one. Poor homeless orphan kind of wanders around a town as an apprentice to a witch? It has shaggy dog story vibes, and not the clever kind. Just felt like nothing happened and it didn't explore anything. 1.5/5
the Time Remaining: a great exploring of a simple concept, the lives kids breathe into their toys and what happens when it collides with the "white" lies of a dodgy parenting technique. There's a few bits of supernatural stuff here but the real horror is the intensity of the kid trying to "save" his "sick" toy and the lengths he goes to, which is all realist. Again, really great 4/5
The Angle of Horror: maybe partly a translation thing but relies on you finding them talking about "seeing the angle" believably sinister rather than them doing a maths problem. Otherwise... Idk? A story about alienation and depression? Kinda. I thought it was going to be a vampire story but no. Not sure what's going on here. 2/5
Down, in their World: a creepy and ultimately gory story about the things that end up in abandoned mines in Romania. Not really my sort of horror but pretty good 3/5
The Collector: pretty clichéd and goofy and predictable but very short and the final image is still pretty great just on its own 3/5
Señor Ligotti: hmmm. Not sure what to say about this one. Does some mildly scary but in a confusing way things then ends on a reveal that feels kind of whiffed. 2.5/5.
The Illogical Investigations: there's a couple of wonderfully gory images here but it's wrapped up in a weird frame story of a group of policemen that feels like it's supposed to be funny but without being funny and that punctures the scary atmosphere rather than forming a clever contrast. I admit translation might be the issue here but! 2.5/5
Menopause: A short story with a great absurd concept that doesn't outstay its welcome. Maybe not very horror and a littlleee uncomfortable with certain language relating to trans stuff but it's such a good idea I can't not love it 4/5
The Bones in her Eyes: Just a straightforwardly well-written great horror story. Variations on are pretty common but it's just really solidly and scarily done. Great 4/5
Twin Shadows: ehhh I dunno. I guess it's like, a vampire story? Given she appears to hang from a rod in the wardrobe from the first page. She's like, a stillbirth who became a vampire? And then after a story about her relationship with her twin sister over like 20 years she idk just felt like a dumb ending and overall didn't do anything for me. 2/5
Backstairs: man. A really uncomfortable story that gets more and more uncomfortable the more it goes on. Major trigger warning for child sexual abuse and connected stuff. It starts as a psychiatrist treating a child patient who's having terrifying nightmares but there's a "massager" involved and the story builds on sexual themes and around crossing the boundary to becoming an adult woman and the way people see you and it changes you until the final horrific reveal that. Despite being on such intense themes it doesn't feel exploitative and only shows a little explicity at the very end - the feeling of violation and a cycle of misogynistic violence is present mostly through suggestion and parallel through the rest. Maybe for other people it doesn't come off or crosses the line but it's the best I've read so far. 4.5/5
Pale Toes: a spontaneous cave trip with a random guy in France goes wrong for a couple. There's one really good little scene and there's some interesting elements around sex and age but it feels like it doesn't cohere super well? And shows a bit more of the things it doesn't need to and a little bit too little of the things it should. It's ok and there's interesting stuff just not quite there. 3/5
Kira: about regretting lost love at a South African lake. The horror element is pretty small and not very exciting. It sort of fits into the rest of the story but there's just not really much to this one, either in scares or something to think about. Cool dog though. 2.5/5
Donation: Hmm... I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. A bratty kid at the door taking mild advantage of people who won't just kick him out leads to two people talking about their relationship and it's dramatic. I was waiting for some sort of... Something but it was weird. Tense but because I kept imagining there would be something more that didn't come. The couple flip between reacting so meekly and so extremely that it gives you whiplash. The horror element is pretty weak because what the boy does is so tame, relatively. I dunno. Wasn't feeling it. 2.5/5
Tiny Women: Very short and doesn't do much but just the concept of a colony of tiny women living like bedbugs is fun as a short sketch. Not exactly horror but bedbugs are terrifying enough so 3.5/5
Mechanisms: an interesting story that juggles the emotions around parenthood and close relationships and "pursuing your dream" Vs stability and responsibility. The horror is there and then you think it's normal and then suddenly it's back again and at the end everything comes together in a completely bizarre ending with an incredibly image 4/5
The House of Leuk Dawour: is this... An anti drug story? There's a sort of cliched element to this and it doesn't do much with it but it's fine and short and I enjoyed finding out about another country's mythology. 3/5
The White Cormorant: a classic tale of someone being told not to do something and then doing it for some reason and then it's bad? Plus the ending is... eh. Mostly a horror story about sailing being dangerous tbh. 2.5/5
All the Birds: the horror is mild and very obscure - maybe what happens at the end makes more sense to someone with a Filipino background - but it's a sweet story about lesbian love and missed opportunities and I'm a sucker for anything with lesbian stuff sorry 3.5/5
Snapshots: just a short creepy idea of bad things happening with a photo booth. Somehow it feels a little too "random" for my own taste in horror but it is creepy. 3/5
Uironda: does the "mysterious place existing somehow right alongside ours and you could easily slip into it" thing but by making the protagonist a trucker it draws something new out of it, showing trucking as a parallel world already and for one to slip out of everyone's lives isn't so strange. There's a little bit of a silly twist at the end but the grotesque imagery there is wonderful and the whole thing really stuck in my head. Great stuff. 4/5
Mater Tenebrarum: don't really understand this one. Poor homeless orphan kind of wanders around a town as an apprentice to a witch? It has shaggy dog story vibes, and not the clever kind. Just felt like nothing happened and it didn't explore anything. 1.5/5
the Time Remaining: a great exploring of a simple concept, the lives kids breathe into their toys and what happens when it collides with the "white" lies of a dodgy parenting technique. There's a few bits of supernatural stuff here but the real horror is the intensity of the kid trying to "save" his "sick" toy and the lengths he goes to, which is all realist. Again, really great 4/5
The Angle of Horror: maybe partly a translation thing but relies on you finding them talking about "seeing the angle" believably sinister rather than them doing a maths problem. Otherwise... Idk? A story about alienation and depression? Kinda. I thought it was going to be a vampire story but no. Not sure what's going on here. 2/5
Down, in their World: a creepy and ultimately gory story about the things that end up in abandoned mines in Romania. Not really my sort of horror but pretty good 3/5
The Collector: pretty clichéd and goofy and predictable but very short and the final image is still pretty great just on its own 3/5
Señor Ligotti: hmmm. Not sure what to say about this one. Does some mildly scary but in a confusing way things then ends on a reveal that feels kind of whiffed.
Spoiler
The rich old man who also terrorised him was the executive of the publishing company and did weird shit to get him to write a book? I mean... It's ok but it's kind of just a goofy ending hahaThe Illogical Investigations: there's a couple of wonderfully gory images here
Spoiler
I loved the ending of a guy getting eaten by a tree while hallucinating the tree is like some sort of gingerbread house with an erotic element. Great stuffMenopause: A short story with a great absurd concept that doesn't outstay its welcome. Maybe not very horror and a littlleee uncomfortable with certain language relating to trans stuff but it's such a good idea I can't not love it
Spoiler
a world where when women go through menopause they become menThe Bones in her Eyes: Just a straightforwardly well-written great horror story. Variations on
Spoiler
someone who sucks the life out of you to stop dyingTwin Shadows: ehhh I dunno. I guess it's like, a vampire story? Given she appears to hang from a rod in the wardrobe from the first page. She's like, a stillbirth who became a vampire? And then after a story about her relationship with her twin sister over like 20 years she
Spoiler
kills her sister to make her a vampire or something??Backstairs: man. A really uncomfortable story that gets more and more uncomfortable the more it goes on. Major trigger warning for child sexual abuse and connected stuff. It starts as a psychiatrist treating a child patient who's having terrifying nightmares but there's a "massager" involved and the story builds on sexual themes and around crossing the boundary to becoming an adult woman and the way people see you and it changes you until the final horrific reveal that
Spoiler
the girl is being abused by some sort of creature from beyond while she's sleeping with the complicity and support of her mother. And she may be the creatures daughterPale Toes: a spontaneous cave trip with a random guy in France goes wrong for a couple. There's one really good little scene
Spoiler
where they're in the cave together naked and when weird shit starts happening the guy who led them there starts getting erectKira: about regretting lost love at a South African lake. The horror element is pretty small and not very exciting. It sort of fits into the rest of the story but there's just not really much to this one, either in scares or something to think about. Cool dog though. 2.5/5
Donation: Hmm... I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. A bratty kid at the door taking mild advantage of people who won't just kick him out leads to two people talking about their relationship and it's dramatic. I was waiting for some sort of... Something but it was weird. Tense but because I kept imagining there would be something more that didn't come. The couple flip between reacting so meekly and so extremely that it gives you whiplash. The horror element is pretty weak because what the boy does is so tame, relatively. I dunno. Wasn't feeling it. 2.5/5
Tiny Women: Very short and doesn't do much but just the concept of a colony of tiny women living like bedbugs is fun as a short sketch. Not exactly horror but bedbugs are terrifying enough so 3.5/5
Mechanisms: an interesting story that juggles the emotions around parenthood and close relationships and "pursuing your dream" Vs stability and responsibility. The horror is there and then you think it's normal and then suddenly it's back again and at the end everything comes together in a completely bizarre ending with an incredibly image
Spoiler
of a guy who doesn't want children suddenly developing a nipple that lactates to feed a "bear cub" that's probably something else (dog, possibly?) And asking his husband to take a photoThe House of Leuk Dawour: is this... An anti drug story? There's a sort of cliched element to this
Spoiler
I guess she shot her husband while under the influence thinking he was an evil spirit. and you're left thinking... Was there any supernatural involved actually ooo spookyThe White Cormorant: a classic tale of someone being told not to do something and then doing it for some reason and then it's bad? Plus the ending is...
Spoiler
a time loop?All the Birds: the horror is mild and very obscure - maybe what happens at the end makes more sense to someone with a Filipino background - but it's a sweet story about lesbian love and missed opportunities and I'm a sucker for anything with lesbian stuff sorry 3.5/5
Snapshots: just a short creepy idea of bad things happening with a photo booth. Somehow it feels a little too "random" for my own taste in horror but it is creepy. 3/5