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A review by kcrawfish
A Collapse of Horses: Stories by Brian Evenson
3.0
3.5 stars
I enjoyed this collection of strange, eerie short stories for the sheer creativity in its pages.
Brian Evenson sits across a fire pit in our minds, hands spread, eyes bulging, weaving tales reminiscent of ghosts and goblins but missing that clumsy touch campfires stories often have. With him we travel from space to prison to Utah and each story is stranger than the last. One particular tale that stuck in my mind was about psychological torture and control, so you know that if you don't enjoy one story, one is coming that will be right up your alley.
My few complaints would be that a) most of the tales weren't scary enough for me. This is definitely a personal preference and could, for some people, be a very positive thing. Most of these won't keep you up late at night because your heart is hammering. If anything I stayed up to turn over the tales in my mind like bizarre artifacts.
b) Many, perhaps all, of their endings were left unresolved. I understood this was to leave an eerie uncertainty, but I would have liked a few of them to have a full ending so that I could see the devastation that resulted from the scary beginnings.
I enjoyed this collection of strange, eerie short stories for the sheer creativity in its pages.
Brian Evenson sits across a fire pit in our minds, hands spread, eyes bulging, weaving tales reminiscent of ghosts and goblins but missing that clumsy touch campfires stories often have. With him we travel from space to prison to Utah and each story is stranger than the last. One particular tale that stuck in my mind was about psychological torture and control, so you know that if you don't enjoy one story, one is coming that will be right up your alley.
My few complaints would be that a) most of the tales weren't scary enough for me. This is definitely a personal preference and could, for some people, be a very positive thing. Most of these won't keep you up late at night because your heart is hammering. If anything I stayed up to turn over the tales in my mind like bizarre artifacts.
b) Many, perhaps all, of their endings were left unresolved. I understood this was to leave an eerie uncertainty, but I would have liked a few of them to have a full ending so that I could see the devastation that resulted from the scary beginnings.