A review by cmcrockford
American Supernatural Tales by S.T. Joshi

4.0

Good selection of American horror writers from the 18th century to the 21st - interesting that Joshi skips the 1960's entirely. It's easy to pick up trends here - the writers move from ghost stories to more abstract horror and then back and forth from pulp and basic horror to abstraction, depending on the time period. Past the 1980's the stories move back into abstract horror, Lovecraft making his toxic, superb influence known once again. Some great stories here with a selection of classics and ones I'd read before in that bunch. "Long Distance Call" by Matheson is still incredibly effective, as was "The Call of Chtulu" of course. The best unread one for me was probably "The Events At Poroth Farm" - a masterpiece of dread and use of a single sentence to scare the fuck out of me. Joshi is apparently a bully but he has fine taste.