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A review by mattycakesbooks
American Supernatural Tales by S.T. Joshi
4.0
Pretty awesome. There are naturally a few stories that are a little bit "meh," (Washington Irving's was probably my least favorite, which was a bummer considering how much I love Sleepy Hollow), and I wasn't totally sure how Stephen King's Night Surf was supernatural in any way - it seemed like it took place in the universe of the Stand, but it never mentioned anything that wouldn't qualify as science fiction.
But some of them were truly awesome. There's my favorite H.P. Lovecraft story, the Call of Cthulhu, the incredible Robert Chambers Yellow Sign story, The Events at Poroth Farm which kinda blew me away, and some other genuinely creepy shit, too.
The critic who wrote the intro to the book and the bios on each of the stories annoyed me a bit. I don't really care if my horror stories are "literary" in any way, and literary criticism of Stephen King has always pissed me off, as it seems more like elitists shitting on the literature of the plebes than anything else. King has never pretended to be a great literary artist, so why review him on those merits?
Joshi is, in a sense, better than most literary critics in that he's actually presenting a lot of horror pulp without too much derision, but he does get a little snarky about King and Chambers when he genuinely doesn't need to. But whatever, the collection is fantastic, and him being occasionally annoying doesn't blight any of the stories in the book.
But some of them were truly awesome. There's my favorite H.P. Lovecraft story, the Call of Cthulhu, the incredible Robert Chambers Yellow Sign story, The Events at Poroth Farm which kinda blew me away, and some other genuinely creepy shit, too.
The critic who wrote the intro to the book and the bios on each of the stories annoyed me a bit. I don't really care if my horror stories are "literary" in any way, and literary criticism of Stephen King has always pissed me off, as it seems more like elitists shitting on the literature of the plebes than anything else. King has never pretended to be a great literary artist, so why review him on those merits?
Joshi is, in a sense, better than most literary critics in that he's actually presenting a lot of horror pulp without too much derision, but he does get a little snarky about King and Chambers when he genuinely doesn't need to. But whatever, the collection is fantastic, and him being occasionally annoying doesn't blight any of the stories in the book.