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8th out of 13 books
—
4 voters
Worse Than Myself
by
Adam Golaski
Light crept across the snow in the backyard and the snow became blindingly bright--it seemed more than white, seemed more like empty space, like a crisp sheet of paper just fed through the roller of a typewriter.
Adam Golaski spins dark, weird tales in the original sense of the word: uncanny, unearthly, sometimes fantastic and always slightly off-center. These are stories
...moreHardcover, 216 pages
Published
July 17th 2008
by Raw Dog Screaming Press
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Golaski’s stories are scary,compelling and addictive because each of them hones in on a familiar and permanent source of human anxiety—the fear of sinking into an obsession, paranoia about the opposite sex, the fear of squandering your life, the fear of helplessness.The prose is poetic but taut—the tension keeps building—and the stories are driven with a succession of striking, eerie images—a deer in a bed, a staircase corkscrewing down into the earth, a long bridge clogged with zombies, a trapp...more
Even now I am thinking as to why I had deducted 2 stars while rating this book. It contains some of the most literate and powerful stories that I have read in recent times, but the stories are universally sad, and often in more Aickmanesque vain than is palatable for me. Perhaps an attempted summary would be able to explain the reasons behind my rating: -
One: New England & New York
1) The Animator's House: A superb horror story, containing another chilling short-short inside it.
2) In The Cell...more
One: New England & New York
1) The Animator's House: A superb horror story, containing another chilling short-short inside it.
2) In The Cell...more
I was lucky enough to meet Adam Golaski at Readercon. After that, I caught his story "The Man from the Peak" in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year and that was all the impetus I needed to immediately pick up Worse Than Myself.
If I say that none of the other stories in Worse Than Myself are ever quite as good as "The Man from the Peak," don't construe that as a condemnation, since "The Man from the Peak" may be one of the best short stories I've ever read. Worse Than Myself is an incredibly s...more
If I say that none of the other stories in Worse Than Myself are ever quite as good as "The Man from the Peak," don't construe that as a condemnation, since "The Man from the Peak" may be one of the best short stories I've ever read. Worse Than Myself is an incredibly s...more
This book excels in the respect it shows the unknown, loading the reader with searing images and then leaving them to stare at a blank wall and be haunted by the lurid negative. Resonant images thread through the book, familiar characters in familiar lives are suddenly jerked into the bizarre like bait on fish hooks, and so many of the horrifying elements feel fresh, new, surprising. Unlike anything I've read.
Dec 03, 2008
Jennifer
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
readers looking for creepy, weird and original short stories
This is a truly rare book, one where you will never guess what's going to happen and one that is deeply creepy, totally devoid of shock value. Ramsey Campbell put it better than I could:
Adam Golaski has an enviable talent for the insidiously weird. His images creep into the imagination and stay in the mind like nightmares you didn't know you had. He's a writer of real originality, subtlety, and eloquent suggestiveness. -- Ramsey Campbell, author The Grin of the Dark
Adam Golaski has an enviable talent for the insidiously weird. His images creep into the imagination and stay in the mind like nightmares you didn't know you had. He's a writer of real originality, subtlety, and eloquent suggestiveness. -- Ramsey Campbell, author The Grin of the Dark
Stunningly good collection of weird, ambiguous horror. All stories were never less than interesting, and at least four or five are genuine classics in waiting. One of the best collection of 'strange stories' (as Robert Aickman called them & I'd guess this author is an Aickman fan) I've read.
Great book - standouts for me were Weird Furkha, The Man from the Peak, and The Dead Gather on the Bridge to Seattle
Delightfully weird and oftentimes downright scary, this collection of short stories has something for everyone. Zombie apocalypse? Yep. Werewolf-like demon girls? Indeed. Astral projection? Uh huh. The only story I didn't love was "The Animal Aspect of Her Movement." The whole bestiality thing was a little too much, even for me. The rest, though? Awesome!
I am a little biased since my brother wrote this but that said I really liked it. "They Look Like Little Girls" was super disturbing.
Seriously creepy and weird (in the best way).
Jun 16, 2013
Kristen Suver
marked it as to-read
May 31, 2013
Ashley
marked it as to-read
May 27, 2013
NeonGladiators
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Aloha
marked it as to-buy
May 06, 2013
Mike
marked it as to-read
Mar 08, 2013
Kyle
marked it as to-read
Feb 27, 2013
Heather Judson
marked it as to-read
Feb 21, 2013
Cassie Robinson
marked it as to-read
Feb 19, 2013
Stefania
marked it as to-read
Jan 30, 2013
Shay
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Jan 23, 2013
DoctorHatchet
marked it as to-read
Jan 17, 2013
Emory
marked it as to-read
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Adam Golaski is a husband and a father. Adam wrote Color Plates (Rose Metal Press, 2009). His translation of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight—"Green"—appears in installments on the critical site Open Letters. His poetry, fiction (horror and otherwise), and non-fiction has appeared in journals such as: word for/word, Supernatural Tales, McSweeney's, Sleepingfish, Conjunctions, and All Hallows. He...more
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