BOOK REVIEW: Horrorology edited by Stephen Jones & illustrated by Clive Barker ★★★☆☆

WARNING. SOME SPOILERS. (I’ll try to keep it light).

And I’m back, sorry. I haven’t done a book review for about a year. There really is no excuse. I’m lazy. So why now? Why do a book review on Horrorology? To put it simply, I need to get back into reviewing and short stories is the easier option.

I’ll start with the prologue and epilogue because they go hand in hand.

The prologue is titled The Library of The Damned. The narrator addresses the audience about the time he was in the titular library and came across these ‘most decadent, blasphemous, sacrilegious tomes and documents’. Whoever has read these stories were driven mad and clawed out their own eyes. That bad, huh? One book, in particular, Lexicon of Fear, is said to be the worst of the lot. So, what do you do in this situation? Of course, you steal the book and tell your fellow humans about a terrible book that sits on a shelf of evil! Plus, we’ve been warned – there’s no going back once we’ve read these gruesome tales of horror, fear and gore.

The epilogue: Once (I assume) you’ve read of the stories you should be scared out of your wits. You had been warmed and now you’re cursed and probably will die. GREAT!

Each of the twelve stories begins with a Barker illustration, a dictionary definition on the story’s title and an example in italics. I’ll mention my favourites by giving it a 5 star.

Accused by Robert Shearman
Rating: 3.5/5

When you believe that you have been given or inherited special powers which can be used to cause harm to others. Such as circus clowns…
This story was bizarre yet simple at the same time. Susan Pitt believes she is cursed or rather has a ‘gift’ of killing clowns at a circus, with her mind, which makes it three clowns at three stages of her life. She doesn’t take much notice of this gift until her sister Connie dies of cancer and takes care of her niece Ruth, who mentions to Susan ‘that the people we kill come back to us’. Since the third clown’s death Susan avoids going to the circus, but when Ruth insists on going (and so does Greg, Susan’s husband) she has no choice but to confront her fears.

It’s fairly well written with a good plot twist. Although a short story, Shearman took his time to create a not so confident character like Susan who, despite dealing with hardships of going through her parents’ divorce and her sister’s death, Susan manages to hold it all together, despite the fact she starts to hallucinate the clowns she thinks she’s killed. It’s a brilliant start to this anthology about fear, but not the best one. It did drag on at times. I do look forward to reading more of Shearman’s work.

Afraid by Clive Barker
Rating: 2/5

When you realise that the person you love is not what you thought they were. In fact, they may not even be a person at all…
Marianne and Vigo are a hot, passionate couple. But things turn a bit weird when she figures out he’s not a human and wants to run away. Vigo (I think) is a demon/vampire thing who gives her an ultimatum. If she stays he’ll reveal what he is and she can never leave him but if she walks away now then she can never come back. Jeez, what’s a girl to do?

This was just soft porn with twisted morality. This gets the lowest rating because it wasn’t scary and sort of stupid, I mean, you run-like-hell-away from your demon lover. Right…? Well. I suppose you don’t when he’s so good in bed and has an alluring big package. I’ve read Barker’s The Thief of Always, (one of my favourites), but this one was just WTF?

Afterlife by Michael Marshall Smith
Rating: 4/5
Sometimes, before you die, you need to have learned how to live…
Robert is going through a mid-life crisis. His wife has left him for her boss. So, he gets a motorbike and goes on a road trip, trying to finding meaning in his unsatisfied life. He meets Hecate, Kate for short, a red-haired woman at a bar who just wants him to give her a lift to someplace. After a few pages, you get the idea that Robert is dead and that he’s taken over (I think) Death’s job to collect souls when peoples’ time comes to an end, forever riding on his motorbike which he refers to as his ‘pale horse’.

The writing is abstract so you don’t get it till the end. It wasn’t scary, more like the Sixth Sense sort of deal. It was way better than the previous story.

Chilling by Pat Cadigan
Rating: 3.5/5
A terrible cold that goes so deep that it has the power to affect the seasons themselves…
Journalists Lucy and MillieLou investigate a series of frozen bodies (like frozen to the core) during a heatwave of June 1980, Kansas. They discover a pattern, where essentially the more people that are frozen to death in the summer, the milder the winter would be. If not, then you’re in for some terrible winter storms.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I mean, jeez, this one was unnecessary long. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, and I nearly lost interest. Maybe it’s saving grace was what Lucy had to sacrifice something when she touched a frozen corpse. She was warned by the MD.

Decay by Mark Samuels
Rating: 3.5/5
The terrible thing that happens to everyone around you when the world suddenly changes…
Riaz is working for Hermes X, a shadowy organisation (not explained well) and is paid to stake out two individuals who seem to have something to do with inventing a reality warping device (or something along those lines). It does not end well for Riaz.

This story was very vague and at times confusing, but the only saving factor was the ending. I would have given the story a higher rating. Apart from that, I will be sure to check out Samuels’s other works.

Faceless by Joanne Harris
Rating: 4/5
The shadow that is always waiting for you when you travel back to a strange old house in your memories…
It’s a short, poignant story about loss. The main character (MC), is recalling the death of his mother. He also feels haunted by her and the Small Thing, an entity, that appears from the corner of his eyes. Sixty years later, he’s gone back to the house, recalling memories and encountering the Small Things.

The ending is ambiguous as you don’t know if he is dead and has gone home. The style of writing was good, really emoting of what grief is like, like no matter what happens, you always find your way home.

Forgotten by Muriel Gray
Rating: 5/5

When someone, such as a witch, puts a curse on you…
Darren Lowry is a self-obsessed, arrogant, nasty, social media, fame attention seeking guy who is taught a lesson by a witch he meets at a club. When he insults a pair of girls, who are his fans, the witch curses him; he is to be forgotten by everyone he meets. For someone like Darren who’s obsessed with followers, this is his just deserts. He becomes frantic when the people he meets on the street start to forget they were in a conversation with him. Once he accepts that this is a part of him, he kills a man and ends up in a psychiatric programme. But by then the curse is lifted and everyone knows who he is… a murderer.

This story was full of swear words, which I was not expecting. Other than that I enjoyed this story. It was short, simple with a good moral ending and speaks to the age we live in. I’ll be sure to check this author out.

Guignol by Kim Newman
Rating: 5/5
A suspect in a series of murders surrounding a macabre stage production in Paris…
It’s basically the Charlie’s Angels in the 19th century, Paris. Three female assassins, Kate, Clara and Yuki, (dubbed as the Angel of Music) are hired to investigate a series of gruesome murders committed in the Pigalle area. The victims are poor and often unidentified by the police. Evidence points them to the Théâtre des Horreurs, a gore-fest, nightly performances set out to shock the audiences with displays of graphic blood-soaked horror. Guignol (pronounced genyo’l), the leader and star, is the epitome of slash horror, and the three assassins wonder if the show is just a show, or are the killings are actually happening, in front of an unsuspecting audience. And are there powerful people protecting the show from the investigators?

This is one of the first longer stories out of this collection. Descriptive rich characters and consistent with the Grand Guignol atmosphere, it’s well written and pretty close to the horror promised in this collection. I’ll definitely be reading Newman’s work The Angel of Music along with his Anno Dracula series.

Nightmare by Ramsey Campbell
Rating: 4.5/5

When you are inexplicably lost and cannot find your way back…
Violet and Lawrence, a retired couple, are on a trip to revisit some of the places Lawrence remembers from his youth. They arrive to a great viewpoint, only now the area is populated. It’s a village, with its inhabitants unwelcoming to the couple. Then Lawrence goes missing and Violet is beset with finding her husband.

You get a Wicker Man vibe to it, with a tense build-up to the climax. It’s a classic horror story of dreaded fear and a twist that leaves you feeling satisfied. I look forward to reading more of Campbell’s work.

Possessions by Reggie Oliver
Rating: 4.5/5
Objects that you possess which can, in turn, possess others. Such as an old camera…
The MC is cleaning up his dead, maternal uncle’s things, in the old flat. He learns that his uncle Hubert Villier was a photographer in the ’70s and that he invented a weird 3d camera that never made it to mass production. The MC remembers his uncle in his last days but they never had a connection. Then the MC becomes obsessed with a girl in one of the uncle’s pictures whose name is Leila Winstone, an aspiring actress (known for her Hammer Horror flicks). She was in an unhealthy relationship with his uncle. The MC tracks her down to an old people’s home where she freaks out.

I wanted to give this a 5 because I loved the ending (although predictable) but the way the story is told was slow paced. As far as the scary aspect goes, well it wasn’t scary really.

Ripper by Angela Slatter
Rating: 5/5
Just call him Jack…
You know what this one is about. Welcome to the Whitechapel murders in 1888. It’s Jack the Ripper investigation but with a couple of twists. Protagonist PC Kit Caswell (unbeknownst is actually Katherine a woman in disguise) is assisting Edwin Makepeace and Inspector Abberline on the Ripper case. Kit learns from Mary Jane Kelly that Jack is taking trophies from his victims as he believes that they will give him access to supernatural powers.

I loved, loved, LOVED this one! The second longest story in this collection. Kit is instantly a likeable character who has to pose as a man, to earn extra money and to look after her ailing mother and invalid brother. It has themes of women roles in a male-dominated society and witchcraft, about a case simple that can’t be solved because it has deep supernatural roots. The murderer is revealed and although he is vanquished, Kit has to deal with her cover being blown.

I enjoyed Slatter's writing as it was rightly paced and I wasn’t bored at all. In fact, I wish to know and read more about Kit’s adventures because the last page left with a possible sequel. I’ll definitely be going to check her work out.

Vastation by Lisa Tuttle
Rating: 5/5
That feeling of absolute dread you experience when something invisible enters your life….
On the 2nd October 1881, in Poughkeepsie, New York, scholar Robert Augustus Lowry sees a demon in his house. His daughter Minnie sees it too but reacts differently, if not oddly admiringly this thing. Things escalate pretty quickly at Minnie is left with a bloody house and has to stage a break-in.

Vastation means ‘the purification of someone or something by the destruction of evil qualities or elements; spiritual purgation’ or ‘devastation’. I had to clear that up because as I was reading this story, I had no idea what had happened. It like flew right past my head. This one was freaky and seamlessly done that I didn’t realise when ‘the change’ happened. Tuttle’s writing was fantastic and I’ve added her to my future author of work I got to read list.

Summary

So, what did I think? I love reading short stories in general, but the horror genre is something I usually put off because it’s not really my cup of tea. Although a majority of the stories failed to scare me (the illustrations were perfect), there were a variety of writing styles, tone, unique and detailed stories as you would expect in an anthology. Guignol and Ripper, although long and detailed, were the best in this collection. Accursed, Possession and Vastation had great plot twists. I was not a fan of Afraid.

If you're looking for a variety of language, themes, viewpoints, tone and authors then Horrorology has it all. But honestly, it’s not the best collection I’ve read.

Overall Average Rating: 3/5
Publishers: September 22nd 2016
Publication date: Jo Fletcher Books
Genre: Horror/Short Stories/Anthology