31 Days of Halloween - Day 4

I'm not a big fan of themed anthologies. I'm okay with author specific anthologies and  genre specific anthologies such as Year's Best Horror because the stories, while being all horror stories,  are varied enough in content, voice, and even tone. But give me an anthology that's all stories about vampire's, werewolves, zombies, or what have you and my eyes begin to glaze over after about three of them, and no matter how well written, or how different the approach is in each, the common denominator in each of the stories gives them all a sameness that makes it difficult to appreciate each story on its own merits. I'm a little more tolerant with ghost/haunted house stories, because they are almost like comfort food, especially read late at night in the middle of winter or during inclement weather. 

This is why I can recommend Marvin Kaye's Ghosts, but not so much his anthology Devils & Demons. While the book does contain some gems, particularly a couple of humorous stories, this anthology really suffers from the problem of sameness. The majority of the stories here are of the deal with the devil type, which go out of their way to differentiate themselves from the Faust model by being self consciously aware of teh Faust model and then playing with that, often in the same manner of having the protagonist outsmart the demon with whom they made their deal and thus cheating them out of the collection of what is due. 

This may have been a more successful book had I merely dipped into it from time to time to read one story every now and again, but that's not how I read books. The similarities of the stories did lead me to reading it in chunks over time while reading other books in between, but also made me wonder if this wasn't a sub-genre in need of a serious retooling. Marvin Kaye knows the horror genre well and is a deservedly well-respected editor and anthologizer (as well as author himself). I can only imagine that he felt some frustration at finding a very narrow window of story-types when making his selections for this particular anthology. 

While the contents weren't varied enough, the cover by Edward Gorey makes this a worthy purchase on its own. 

    

31 Days of Halloween - Day 7

Witches & Warlocks - Marvin Kaye, editor.
Guild America Books. 1989.

I've already written about a couple other anthologies edited by Marvin Kaye in Halloween Countdown's past. This one, centered around witches and warlocks, obviously, is varied enough in its content that it never becomes monotonous. Like any collection, there are going to be some stories more outstanding than others, and this is no exception, only here there are far more hits, and no outright duds. All of this beneath a gorgeous wrap around cover by Edward Gorey ( a print of which adorns one of the walls in my home).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12

I like to read more short stories for this season, than novels, for some reason. Here are some recommendations.



I really enjoyed Joe Hill's novel "Heart Shaped Box" about the consequences of a Rock musician purchasing a ghost, and a not too friendly ghost at that. His short story collection, "20th Century Ghosts," which will go on sale this coming Tuesday, October 16th, is even better. Hill is quickly becomming the best writer of horror fiction out there. It's dark, strange, and funny, and stays with you long after you've finished reading it. This collection is worth picking up even if it only contained "Pop Art" ( one of the most original, and the best stories I've read. Period.) and "Voluntary Committal." I liked everything else in the collection, but these two really resonated with me.



I haven't had a chance to read this year's anthology, "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" 2007, but I've read all the previous 19 volumes, and recommend them all (though the first few were simply fanatsy. Horror was added later). This series collects what truly are examples of the best short story and poetry being written in the genre, and collects it from very wide ranging sources. The recaps for novels, non-fiction, graphic novels, movies and television, and children's books which fill the anthology's first couple hundred pages will have you scouring for even more treasure.



"The Halloween Reader" is a collection of short stories, poems, play excerpts and miscellany from Halloween's earliest traditions, when people really did fear being whisked away by fairies (such as in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's chilling "The Child That Went Away With the Fairies") and viewed Halloween as a time where they really would be visited by the spirits of the dead, and have their fortunes told to reveal the identities of their future spouses. This collection is more of a historical curiosity than an entertaining read, but if you're interested in Halloween's origins you might want to pick this up.



Finally, a book I haven't read in a few years, but a fond favorite is "Ghosts," a collection of ghost stories edited by Marvin Kaye. This is a thick collection of tales, and is now out of print, but worth obtaining.

These books are best read alone, late at night, when the wind is blowing outside, and rain and dead leaves are pelting your windows. Only a single light should be turned on, or better yet a candle. Never mind that creaking floor board. It's just the house settling, or is it you, unsettling?