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Reviews
Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961-1991 by Ramsey Campbell
mialeyden's review
Of the stories I read I only liked one. I dnf'd when I felt a reading slump lurking behind the digital pages.
loonyboi's review against another edition
2.0
Some of these stories are very good, but a lot of them (at least half, I'd say) just didn't work for me. It's too bad, because this is my first Campbell book, and I'm left unsure of whether or not I'd like his other stuff.
rancidslopshop's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
kingofblades113's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
marcel's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
favs: heading home, down there, apples
second favs: the man in the underpass, the voice of the beach, again, old clothes, where the heart is
second favs: the man in the underpass, the voice of the beach, again, old clothes, where the heart is
lamusadelils's review against another edition
3.0
Ramsey Campbell me recuerda a esos profesores pedantes pero cool que hablan como si siempre tuvieran la razón... porque la tienen. Y éste libro es como tener un álbum de su etapa emo de la adolescencia.
gaiusgermanicus's review against another edition
2.0
I DNF'ed it at about 55%. Some stories are decent. The writing is mostly decent, but sooo boring. There is no suspense, the stories end where they should only begin, you don't care about the MCs, even though most of the time you are in their minds, since the stories are 1st person.
I usually give 1 stars to stuff I can't finish, but this wasn't horrible or even badly written, just very boring.
I usually give 1 stars to stuff I can't finish, but this wasn't horrible or even badly written, just very boring.
stevendedalus's review against another edition
4.0
A very able Lovecraft successor whose comfortably middle class, white, stodgy protagonists are assailed by an unfathomable chaos lurking just below their ordered lives.
It's a conservative horror: the ghouls are always outcasts: the homeless, old women. So it does rub the wrong way with its literal demonization of those outside the norm even if the disordered dread is effective. You start cheering on the horrors; Campbell rarely features likeable protagonists.
When he does stray from his formula, featuring a recently married woman, he is most effective though the WASP aesthetic still shines through. He's a great stylist for nameless, faceless creepiness, but the collection definitely feels of the old school, rearward looking. I'd like to see what he's done recently and if he's applied his talents to a more modern, variegated world existing now that all his characters seem to fear so much.
It's a conservative horror: the ghouls are always outcasts: the homeless, old women. So it does rub the wrong way with its literal demonization of those outside the norm even if the disordered dread is effective. You start cheering on the horrors; Campbell rarely features likeable protagonists.
When he does stray from his formula, featuring a recently married woman, he is most effective though the WASP aesthetic still shines through. He's a great stylist for nameless, faceless creepiness, but the collection definitely feels of the old school, rearward looking. I'd like to see what he's done recently and if he's applied his talents to a more modern, variegated world existing now that all his characters seem to fear so much.
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