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ctgt's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes getting what we want is painful.
Despite the title most of these stories were not what I would consider horror, much more on the fantastical or weird side of the spectrum. Four standout stories I want to bring to your attention.
The Mermaid-what happens if you just decide to believe in something no matter what anyone else thinks?
The desire I felt was poison. I knew it was fatal and yet such was its sweetness that I willingly succumbed.
'You seem to think that everyone lives in the same world. But there are many worlds. The world you live in isn't just a place, it's a path that begins with your beginning and ends with your ending,'
Cousin X-a look at a youth who is different
Sasha flinched inwardly to see his flesh raised in a crude map of white scars. The impression that he had been shattered and impossibly glued back together was suddenly heightened. Sasha felt a touch of the unreal.
Life is nothing but a finitude of moments, objects, senses. This finitude is a very delicate thing, very precarious.
It seems to me that human society is bent upon a whole contract of lies. It starts in childhood, when we are brought up on all sorts of happy-ever-afters, which we then reject in early adulthood. But then, in order to enter into a relationship with someone and start the cycle over, those lies once again become necessary.
A Lake-Concerning a lake with some mysterious qualities. This is my favorite story of the collection and is reminiscent of The Aokigahara Forest in Japan. You can see the Ligotti influence in Cousin X but it really comes to the forefront in this tale.
Time, too, seemed to exist in complete isolation from the world outside the lake.
The unmasked void was infinitely greater in extent, both temporal and spatial, than the lost universe. It was not mere darkness, nor mere emptiness, but a chilling bottomlessness so great it was all-powerful, the gaping, grinding maw beneath every action and every frozen instant of existence.
It brought him instead something more terrible than fear. It brought him knowledge. His undoing was already fixed, it was an accomplished fact.
The Tattoist-an artist deals with unexpected consequences after tattooing a young man.
I get customers from all different backgrounds, but still he managed to look painfully out of place. Then it occurred to me that he would look out of place almost anywhere on Earth.
"It really did hurt, but then, facing up to what we want is often painful. The hardest thing we do.'
To be astonished at one's own work is involuntarily to disclaim it. I had no more created this tattoo than a father can be said to create their daughter.
If you enjoy fantastic, weird and (at times)pessimistic stories then definitely check out this collection.
Despite the title most of these stories were not what I would consider horror, much more on the fantastical or weird side of the spectrum. Four standout stories I want to bring to your attention.
The Mermaid-what happens if you just decide to believe in something no matter what anyone else thinks?
The desire I felt was poison. I knew it was fatal and yet such was its sweetness that I willingly succumbed.
'You seem to think that everyone lives in the same world. But there are many worlds. The world you live in isn't just a place, it's a path that begins with your beginning and ends with your ending,'
Cousin X-a look at a youth who is different
Sasha flinched inwardly to see his flesh raised in a crude map of white scars. The impression that he had been shattered and impossibly glued back together was suddenly heightened. Sasha felt a touch of the unreal.
Life is nothing but a finitude of moments, objects, senses. This finitude is a very delicate thing, very precarious.
It seems to me that human society is bent upon a whole contract of lies. It starts in childhood, when we are brought up on all sorts of happy-ever-afters, which we then reject in early adulthood. But then, in order to enter into a relationship with someone and start the cycle over, those lies once again become necessary.
A Lake-Concerning a lake with some mysterious qualities. This is my favorite story of the collection and is reminiscent of The Aokigahara Forest in Japan. You can see the Ligotti influence in Cousin X but it really comes to the forefront in this tale.
Time, too, seemed to exist in complete isolation from the world outside the lake.
The unmasked void was infinitely greater in extent, both temporal and spatial, than the lost universe. It was not mere darkness, nor mere emptiness, but a chilling bottomlessness so great it was all-powerful, the gaping, grinding maw beneath every action and every frozen instant of existence.
It brought him instead something more terrible than fear. It brought him knowledge. His undoing was already fixed, it was an accomplished fact.
The Tattoist-an artist deals with unexpected consequences after tattooing a young man.
I get customers from all different backgrounds, but still he managed to look painfully out of place. Then it occurred to me that he would look out of place almost anywhere on Earth.
"It really did hurt, but then, facing up to what we want is often painful. The hardest thing we do.'
To be astonished at one's own work is involuntarily to disclaim it. I had no more created this tattoo than a father can be said to create their daughter.
If you enjoy fantastic, weird and (at times)pessimistic stories then definitely check out this collection.
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