Reviews

Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology by Richard Wells

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cranberry__sauce's review

4.0

"Laura Silver Bell" by Sheridan Le Fanu
written in annoying Northumbrian dialect but still pretty good. i found that either reading it out loud or consciously in my head helped
rating: 4/5

"Man-Size in Marble" by Edith Nesbit
rating: 3.5/5

"Thrawn Janet" by Robert Louis Stevenson
remember how the first story was written in an almost-unreadable dialect? well this one is 10 times worse
rating: 1/5

"The Withered Arm" by Thomas Hardy
rating: 4/5

"Pallinghurst Barrow" by Grant Allen
rating: 5/5

"Devil of the Marsh" by H. B. Marriott-Watson
i never thought a piece of literature could be too weird but with this i was proven wrong
rating: 2.5/5

"The Sin-Eater" by Fiona Macleod
rating: 1.5/5

"The Shining Pyramid" by Arthur Machen
rating: 4.5/5

"The Black Reaper" by Bernard Capes
rating: 2/5

"The Ash-Tree" by M. R. James
rating: 5/5

"Out of the Sea" by A. C. Benson
rating: 4/5

"Gavon's Eve" by E. F. Benson
rating: 3/5

"A Witch-Burning" by Mrs Baillie Reynolds
rating: 3.5/5

"The Music on the Hill" by Saki
the deer scene in this walked so the goat scene in the witch could run
rating: 5/5

"The Tarn of Sacrifice" by Algernon Blackwood
rating: 4.5/5

"How Pan Came to Little Ingleton" by Margery Lawrence
rating: 3.5/5

"All Hallows" by Walter de la Mare
rating: 3.5/5

"Randalls Round" by Eleanor Scott
rating: 4/5

"The First Sheaf" by H. R. Wakefield
rating: 3.5/5

"Cwm Garon" by L. T. C. Rolt
rating: 4/5

"The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson
previously rated here
rating: 3.5/5

"The Lady on the Grey" by John Collier
misogynist men getting their just deserts is always great
rating: 4.5/5

"Bind Your Hair" by Robert Aickman
rating: 5/5

mbenzz's review

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This was not what I thought it would be. DNF'd at 32%.

creepycrawlyvee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

unbeeleafable's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

wunkymatts's review

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4.0

This a beautiful book with some real gems of stories. Every story is accompanied with its own linocut by Richard Wells add something really special as well.

There were a few of stories I didn't get on with so well. A couple were written in such thick dialect they were difficult to read and a couple just seemed to meander off and not go anywhere. Conversely, there were also one or two that seemed to end very abruptly and could have gone on for a bit longer.

'Man Size in Marble' by Edith Nesbit was a beautiful, atmospheric tale that utilised the horrors of the Norman invasion well. 'How Pan Came to Little Ingleton' by Margery Lawrence wasn't exactly 'horror' but quite a funny, heart warming tale of a young man coming to understand that there is wisdom in the old ways. I was reminded how gorgeously unsettling Shirley Jackson's 'The Summer People' is and how much I adore MR James when I read his 'The Ash-Tree'. I also very much approve of the avenging ghost in John Collier's 'The Lady of the Grey' ensuring a pervy old toff chasing local farm girls gets his just desserts.

Folk horror has often been described as 'an outsider meddles' and I enjoy that description. Indeed there were a lot of good examples of that in this collection, but there were other themes too. A lot of the stories picked up the theme of Christianity coming into conflict with the pagan gods, and I enjoyed how sometimes they came to an easy truce. Others seemed to recognise the inherent uneasyness of some landscapes and that feeling, creeping up on you through the autumn mist, and that's what I'm really chasing when I turn to folk horror.