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67th out of 165 books
—
245 voters
Monstrous Affections
by
David Nickle (Goodreads Author)
A young bride and her future mother-in-law risk everything to escape it. A repentant father summons help from a pot of tar to ensure it. A starving woman learns from howling winds and a whispering host, just how fulfilling it can finally be. Can it be love?
Paperback, 292 pages
Published
October 1st 2009
by Chizine Publications
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Oh, Canada, our literary neighbors to the North. If us Americans paid too much attention to you we might begin to feel a little embarrassed that we alone are not the sole creators of literary culture this side of the Europe (nevermind those Southerns who write in another language, we can shove them aside easy enough). It is a good thing we generally ignore your writers, we might start to feel some kind of envy. And then we might have to blow you up. That's what happens. Or just wreck your econom...more
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This isn't a book of horror stories. This is a book of dread, and sadness, and bitter regrets. Dried tears, just departed, and knowing that the same tears will be back the next day. It creeps on you, the language does. You don't notice it until it's already upon you.
That being said, The Sloan Men is in a different class than the rest of the stories. And Trombone Slide is so subtle it takes a throwaway line to move it all into focus.
That being said, The Sloan Men is in a different class than the rest of the stories. And Trombone Slide is so subtle it takes a throwaway line to move it all into focus.
Pros: variety of stories, different lengths and wildly different subject matters, though provoking, unsettling
Cons: several stories require some thought to understand, with one being beyond my comprehension
This is a great collection of horror stories. There's variety in length and subject matter, with most having horrifying twist endings of some sort that make you rethink what you believed was happening in the story. Mr. Nickle brings in different mythologies, which was fun. And they all deal wi...more
Cons: several stories require some thought to understand, with one being beyond my comprehension
This is a great collection of horror stories. There's variety in length and subject matter, with most having horrifying twist endings of some sort that make you rethink what you believed was happening in the story. Mr. Nickle brings in different mythologies, which was fun. And they all deal wi...more
Just finished reading Monstrous Affections (2009) by David Nickle; a collection of 10 short stories originally published between 1994 and 2007 and 3 previously unpublished stories. I saw this book while browsing the new science fiction and fantasy shelf at the local Barnes and Noble. The cover (called jarring) caught my attention and I bought it. I wouldn’t call this science fiction or fantasy, it’s horror; which is OK with me. I like horror well enough, and frankly, based on the cover it’s what...more
This review appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction in June, 2011.
Monstrous Affections
by David Nickle
Chizine Publications, 2011
292 pp.
$18.95 TPB
ISBN: 978-0-9812978-3-5
Review by Ursula Pflug
David Nickle’s collection "Monstrous Affections" opens with a story about a bride’s first meeting with her mother-in-law. It turns out there’s something fearsomely strange about "The Sloan Men," except that part of their strangeness is an ability to wipe awareness of this troubling fact from their...more
Monstrous Affections
by David Nickle
Chizine Publications, 2011
292 pp.
$18.95 TPB
ISBN: 978-0-9812978-3-5
Review by Ursula Pflug
David Nickle’s collection "Monstrous Affections" opens with a story about a bride’s first meeting with her mother-in-law. It turns out there’s something fearsomely strange about "The Sloan Men," except that part of their strangeness is an ability to wipe awareness of this troubling fact from their...more
David Nickle’s "Monstrous Affections" is a collection of thirteen dark and unusual short stories that will pluck readers from their comfort zones and drop them into a landscape that ranges from the merely disturbing to the outright bizarre. These stories vary somewhat in quality, and while I can’t say that I enjoyed all of them equally, I will attest that this collection as a whole will linger in my memory for a good long while.
If you are looking for a book that will challenge you as a reader an...more
If you are looking for a book that will challenge you as a reader an...more
Jun 13, 2011
Michèle
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
all literature and fantastic amators,
Shelves:
fantastic-fantasy
An excellent introduction to the weird and subtly scary collection of short-stories from Dave Nickle.
I hesitated a long time before buying the book (a little because of the cover), but when I discovered Claude Lalumière's stuff, and more Chizine novels, I told myself it was time I try some fantastic-horror.
So I plunged into Dave Nickle dark fantastic tales, and emerged a happy camper. I began each story with apprehension... and the darkness is never where you expect it to be. The first (and re...more
I hesitated a long time before buying the book (a little because of the cover), but when I discovered Claude Lalumière's stuff, and more Chizine novels, I told myself it was time I try some fantastic-horror.
So I plunged into Dave Nickle dark fantastic tales, and emerged a happy camper. I began each story with apprehension... and the darkness is never where you expect it to be. The first (and re...more
A collection with a decent few tales, "The Webley" and "The Mayor Makes a Brief Statement and Then Take Questions," pockmarked with the usual horror/Southern/Canadian Horror genre short story conventions.
Yeah, yeah, I admit it bought this for the cover. As you can tell by the rating, I got what I deserve.
Don't succumb to impulse buys. Lesson learned.
Yeah, yeah, I admit it bought this for the cover. As you can tell by the rating, I got what I deserve.
Don't succumb to impulse buys. Lesson learned.
Overall a very interesting collection of Canadian themed thriller/horror stories. A little uneven across the entire collection, but a few of the stories are such standouts that they override the less-compelling works.
I admit, I got sucked in by the creepy cover. Something about that face just gives me the willies! At any rate, I enjoyed some of the stories and some just didn't come together for me. One or two seemed to not be stories at all but several paragraphs with no discernable beginning or end.
Review to come. 3.5 stars - there are some excellent stories in here, and some that I wasn't so taken with, but a great little collection all in all.
This book should be used to teach how to write dark short fiction. None of these stories relies on blood & gore to tie your stomach into knots. It is about normal people thrown into horrible situations, battling horrors both within and without.
Nickle doesn't need to rely on break-neck pacing or over the top horror to pull you into the lives of these all-too-real characters and force you to confront what all good horror stories should do: Force yourself to consider what would you have done di...more
Nickle doesn't need to rely on break-neck pacing or over the top horror to pull you into the lives of these all-too-real characters and force you to confront what all good horror stories should do: Force yourself to consider what would you have done di...more
This book suffered from some of the things that always irritate me about short stories...sudden jerking twists at the end being the biggest. That said, the concepts presented were new and unique. The writing was spectacular.
What a wild ride. From the unexpected end of Sloan Men, the freaky horror of Tar Baby, the fun and fear of Swamp Witch and the Tea-Drinking Man (Swamp Witch is my favorite character) all the way to an unlikely love interest in Polyphemus' Cave. It's hard to pick a favorite tale of the whole bunch. I recommend this for anybody who likes to be surprised by a tale, rather than trod along familiar paths.
I liked some stories better than others.. but I guess that's typical with most books of short stories. Some of them I just didn't GET and some I just thought were really out there (not that there is anything wrong with that). Not bad, but not amazing either.
Awful, awful.
Nicely crafted, surprisingly dark short stories. After the first few, I actually dreaded reading the rest of them. Could be I was just in a strange mood, but they struck me as terribly sad and relentless.
A little uneven. I loved the more open-ended, almost abstract pieces, like The Sloan Men, Other People's Kids, and The Inevitability of Earth.
1 like · like · see review
These stories are of uneven quality--some are very well written while others seem pointless. Nickle is good at creating a sense of imbalance and dread.
May 13, 2013
Mayra
marked it as to-read
May 08, 2013
Benoît
added it
Feb 18, 2013
Matthew Rogers
marked it as to-read
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David Nickle lives and works in Toronto. He's had more than 30 short stories published in magazines, anthologies and online, and adapted for television. In 1997, he and Edo Van Belkom won a Bram Stoker Award for their short story "Rat Food." In 1993, he and Karl Schroeder co-wrote "The Toy Mill" and won an Aurora Award for short form work in English. In 1997, they published The Claus Effect, an ex...more
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