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A review by mad_about_books
Dark Screams: Volume Two by Robert R. McCammon, Richard Chizmar
5.0
This second volume of DARK SCREAMS does not disappoint. You can always rely on Cemetery Dance and Brian Freeman and Richard Chizmar to have a finger on the pulse of what is best in the horror genre.
The beauty of horror is its multifaceted face. We who read it know all the tropes from ghosts to vampires to zombies. We also know that some of the most chilling novels and stories in the genre are the ones that injure the psyche. These are the tales we know can happen. Then there is that fine line between supernatural horror and psychological horror that makes us pause, look for reality where none exists or look for comfort in that which cannot. DARK SCREAMS, VOLUME TWO dares to look horror head on, no matter the consequence.
The Deep End
by Robert R McCammon
Sometimes a reader connects with a story in ways the author surely never intended. In the very first paragraph of the story, the words "where his son had drowned two weeks ago" could have been my words. The loss of a child of any age is unbearable beyond belief. My son, a bit more than twice the age of the victim, had a wife and two babies; things Neil would never have. The devastating grief of a father for his son (or, in my case, a mother for her son) warrants the darkest of screams.
McCammon is a masterful storyteller that I met for the first time between the covers of his epic, Armageddon tale SWAN SONG, in 1987. I am never disappointed by his writing.
Interval
by Norman Prentiss
One of the big problems with reviewing a short story anthology is that it can be really hard to just hint at the content of a particular story without giving it all away. While reading "Interval," I was struck by the way it changed focus from one dark idea to another. Each one could lead to a different conclusion, but instead each was more and more like collapsing a spyglass in that the scope became less distant.
If These Walls Could Talk
by Shawntelle Madison
The haunted house theme is one of horror's greatest tropes. It differs from the classic ghost story by making an inanimate object the main character in a study of good and evil. Walls cannot talk, but they can certainly tell a dark tale.
The Night Hider
by Graham Masterton
If you read horror, you have read Graham Masterton; he is, after all, one of the genre's grand masters. How do you deal with the monster under the bed, the thing in the toilet, the creature in the closet? These things send me under the covers, head first, and silently screaming.
Whatever
by Richard Christian Matheson
I've noticed that music has become an integral part of recent stories and novels of a dark and horrific nature. Maybe it's just the choices I've made, and maybe it's because my somewhat eclectic taste in music and literature were bound to come together. Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll can be a very dark and disjointed roller coaster ride.
The beauty of horror is its multifaceted face. We who read it know all the tropes from ghosts to vampires to zombies. We also know that some of the most chilling novels and stories in the genre are the ones that injure the psyche. These are the tales we know can happen. Then there is that fine line between supernatural horror and psychological horror that makes us pause, look for reality where none exists or look for comfort in that which cannot. DARK SCREAMS, VOLUME TWO dares to look horror head on, no matter the consequence.
The Deep End
by Robert R McCammon
Sometimes a reader connects with a story in ways the author surely never intended. In the very first paragraph of the story, the words "where his son had drowned two weeks ago" could have been my words. The loss of a child of any age is unbearable beyond belief. My son, a bit more than twice the age of the victim, had a wife and two babies; things Neil would never have. The devastating grief of a father for his son (or, in my case, a mother for her son) warrants the darkest of screams.
McCammon is a masterful storyteller that I met for the first time between the covers of his epic, Armageddon tale SWAN SONG, in 1987. I am never disappointed by his writing.
Interval
by Norman Prentiss
One of the big problems with reviewing a short story anthology is that it can be really hard to just hint at the content of a particular story without giving it all away. While reading "Interval," I was struck by the way it changed focus from one dark idea to another. Each one could lead to a different conclusion, but instead each was more and more like collapsing a spyglass in that the scope became less distant.
If These Walls Could Talk
by Shawntelle Madison
The haunted house theme is one of horror's greatest tropes. It differs from the classic ghost story by making an inanimate object the main character in a study of good and evil. Walls cannot talk, but they can certainly tell a dark tale.
The Night Hider
by Graham Masterton
If you read horror, you have read Graham Masterton; he is, after all, one of the genre's grand masters. How do you deal with the monster under the bed, the thing in the toilet, the creature in the closet? These things send me under the covers, head first, and silently screaming.
Whatever
by Richard Christian Matheson
I've noticed that music has become an integral part of recent stories and novels of a dark and horrific nature. Maybe it's just the choices I've made, and maybe it's because my somewhat eclectic taste in music and literature were bound to come together. Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll can be a very dark and disjointed roller coaster ride.