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A review by reads_vicariously
In Nightmares We're Alone by Greg Sisco
5.0
You know those books that completely subvert your expectations? The ones that linger in the mind long after you finish, rolling around and revealing layer after layer of brilliance. Ones where the longer you meditate on them the better they are (and that's not discounting how great they were in the immediate reading)?
Well, if you haven't guessed where I'm going...THIS is one of those books.
All I knew going in was: this is a collection of three interconnected novellas, the stories span several different genres in horror, Sadie Hartmann (aka Mother Horror) dug it, and that Off Limits Press can do no wrong so I was likely to enjoy it. Happy to say it was all the above and beyond.
- Story 1: haunted doll torments young girl; brutal shocker of an ending
- Story 2: phony medium uses sex to fill a void and trees start growing from his fingertips; scenes of full on eye-averting body/eco horror mixed with meditations on relationships, identity, and fatherhood
- Story 3: older woman takes care of her mother who is terrified a malicious presence will take her if she's left alone; slow-burn dread and despair that rises into taunt suspense before falling into a reality-shattering ending; upends the whole collection on its head
All three stories have a basic premise structuring them, but did you notice how increasingly complex they got (and how much harder of a time I had distilling them into concise summaries)? I absolutely love the way the author did this. We begin with a child, move to a young adult, and end with an elderly woman. What starts as a straight-forward evil doll story ends as a cosmic, existential reckoning. I was not prepared to wrestle with such heavy philosophizing on the meaning of life, but it elevates the collection to a whole other level.
Another thing I loved is how the stories are all connected to each other. I'll try not to go into spoilers here, but each protagonist was a side character in one of the other stories. It was so cool to get insight on some of the overlapping scenes from a different character's perspective; to see how things affected each character differently and learn more about their motivations and personalities.
As mentioned previously, the author presents us with a variety of different genres in horror and nails each of them perfectly. The pacing is fantastic and the stories are very character-driven, full of emotion and complexity. I'm speaking in vague terms for this review because I went in blind and that's the best way to go. Just know that I loved this book and the more I reminisce, the more it creeps up my "best of" list for 2021.
Well, if you haven't guessed where I'm going...THIS is one of those books.
All I knew going in was: this is a collection of three interconnected novellas, the stories span several different genres in horror, Sadie Hartmann (aka Mother Horror) dug it, and that Off Limits Press can do no wrong so I was likely to enjoy it. Happy to say it was all the above and beyond.
- Story 1: haunted doll torments young girl; brutal shocker of an ending
- Story 2: phony medium uses sex to fill a void and trees start growing from his fingertips; scenes of full on eye-averting body/eco horror mixed with meditations on relationships, identity, and fatherhood
- Story 3: older woman takes care of her mother who is terrified a malicious presence will take her if she's left alone; slow-burn dread and despair that rises into taunt suspense before falling into a reality-shattering ending; upends the whole collection on its head
All three stories have a basic premise structuring them, but did you notice how increasingly complex they got (and how much harder of a time I had distilling them into concise summaries)? I absolutely love the way the author did this. We begin with a child, move to a young adult, and end with an elderly woman. What starts as a straight-forward evil doll story ends as a cosmic, existential reckoning. I was not prepared to wrestle with such heavy philosophizing on the meaning of life, but it elevates the collection to a whole other level.
Another thing I loved is how the stories are all connected to each other. I'll try not to go into spoilers here, but each protagonist was a side character in one of the other stories. It was so cool to get insight on some of the overlapping scenes from a different character's perspective; to see how things affected each character differently and learn more about their motivations and personalities.
As mentioned previously, the author presents us with a variety of different genres in horror and nails each of them perfectly. The pacing is fantastic and the stories are very character-driven, full of emotion and complexity. I'm speaking in vague terms for this review because I went in blind and that's the best way to go. Just know that I loved this book and the more I reminisce, the more it creeps up my "best of" list for 2021.