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A review by guarinous
The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan
3.0
The Shapes of Midnight is a horror collection by Joseph Payne Brennan originally released in 1980, to be re-released this year by Dover Publications. The Dover version collects ten of his best tales, which range from explorations of madness ("Diary of a Werewolf", "The Impulse to Kill"), to the shifting nature of time ("House of Memory", "The House on Hazel Street").
Easily readable in a single sitting, this collection is sufficiently disturbing, albeit leaning a bit towards prose and structure somewhat more geared to the younger horror reader. The influences are right up front as well for horror fans (the Lovecraftian nature of "The Willow Platform" and "The Horror at Chilton Castle", Poe style unreliable narrators in "Diary of a Werewolf" and "The Impulse to Kill", even an appearance of an Algernon Blackwood-esque Wendigo). Regardless, this is a fun way to spend a couple of hours and get a quick fix of horror.
As a postscript, it would appear the reprint leaves out two stories from the original collection, "Slime" and "Canavan's Back Yard", which are included in Dover's reprint of Nine Horrors and a Dream.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Dover Publications.**
Easily readable in a single sitting, this collection is sufficiently disturbing, albeit leaning a bit towards prose and structure somewhat more geared to the younger horror reader. The influences are right up front as well for horror fans (the Lovecraftian nature of "The Willow Platform" and "The Horror at Chilton Castle", Poe style unreliable narrators in "Diary of a Werewolf" and "The Impulse to Kill", even an appearance of an Algernon Blackwood-esque Wendigo). Regardless, this is a fun way to spend a couple of hours and get a quick fix of horror.
As a postscript, it would appear the reprint leaves out two stories from the original collection, "Slime" and "Canavan's Back Yard", which are included in Dover's reprint of Nine Horrors and a Dream.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Dover Publications.**