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Worse Things Waiting
A rivetting and terrifying sequel to "Downward to Darkness" by the World Fantasy Awardwinning Secret Master of Horror
159 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2000
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79 people want to read
About the author
Brian McNaughton
39 books76 followersBrian McNaughton was an American writer of horror and fantasy fiction who mixed sex, satire and black humour. He also wrote thrillers.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 18, 2021
layers upon layers hidden in this thin, trim, tidy little work of Lovecraftian horror. pure nihilism, yet this sleek and snazzy number never bores, and is written with flair and wit. protagonist Amy expands upon her supporting role as survivor of the massacre of humans and dogs that ended the prior book and now takes center stage in her return to her hometown, 4 years later. it seldom bodes well to be the hero in a McNaughton novel. in less intelligent hands, she would have been portrayed as pure victim; the author instead gives her a lively, quirky personality, one that is defined by her solitary nature, the insecurities drilled into her by her now-deceased mother, and an sardonic, idiosyncratic perspective on her own life and the people in it. Amy is unimpressed by the urbane Satanist manipulating her, as well as by her co-protagonist, a true crime "reporter" who falls quickly in love with her and apparently thinks it is appropriate to run around shirtless with dickey under a cheap blazer. the book also features a fascinating couple, neighbors to Amy in the apartment complex built on top of a garbage heap slash graveyard: an insightful and slutty Marxist shacked up with a boyfriend who is both studly, bullying Neanderthal and ambitious, bookish aspirant to supernatural powers. there are fascinating layers to these two misfits who find themselves in over their heads. they may have to deal with manipulating poor Amy while trying to get over the latest traumatic sex & magic orgy gone terribly awry, but there are indeed worse things waiting for them (and Amy) when the graveyard one is living on top of holds a sadistic, long-dead sorceress eager to return to the world of the living and try on some new clothes. and by "new clothes" (her words, not mine), I mean "new human bodies" of course.
review for preceding novel: Downward to Darkness
review for preceding novel: Downward to Darkness
July 31, 2025
(Spoilers for the the first book)
This sequel to Downward to Darkness is at or near that same level of schlocky horror goodness, but I was pretty skeptical during the opening chapters. I’d already read this several years back under its original title from 1980, Satan’s Seductress, and even though this version is supposedly heavily revised, I couldn’t tell much of a difference other than some slightly more modern references (replacing news anchorman Walter Cronkite with Peter Jennings, for instance). It’s not as immediately absorbing as its predecessor, and the protagonists aren’t nearly as charismatic initially, but it eventually turns into a fast-paced, tripped-out blast. And the characters grew on me.
The basic gist is that Amy, the lone survivor of the massacre at the end of the previous book, is now a young adult who’s just moved into a new residential apartment complex in town that’s mostly filled with younger residents like herself. She’s always been on the timid and awkward side socially — more so after the horrors she experienced— and she’s trying to be a bit more outgoing. It seems to be going well at first, but what’s with the voices she’s hearing while suffering sleep paralysis? They appear to be talking about her, and even making her do things while awake. And why are certain moments in her life repeating themselves like Groundhog Day? The other tenants seem to be affected too. Well, turns out that the apartments were Just her luck.
Meanwhile, a schlubby, oafish writer for sleazy crime magazines named Martin is in town doing research for a story about the killings from the first novel, and he’s the main offender when it comes to unlikable characters. He’s not too bad once you get to know him, though. But definitely annoying. And arrogant. He tracks down Amy (with her being the Final Girl of the massacre it’s important he interviews her) and immediately has the hots for her. Actually he’s in love, to an embarrassing degree. She can’t stand him, but they’re going to have to work together if there’s any chance of stopping the growing evil that’s being resurrected and slowly manifesting at the site of Amy’s apartment complex. Too bad Martin’s a hardcore skeptic, rationalizing everything even when directly confronted by some eldritch abomination, which is irritating to say the least. Then again, I’d probably do the same.
While this novel isn’t as elegantly-written or refined as McNaughton’s later work like 1997’s The Throne of Bones, or even Satan's Surrogate aka The House Across the Way which was published just a couple years after this one, it’s still upper-tier pulpy B-horror insanity, imo, at least after its slow burn beginning, with an that left me scratching my head, in a good way. I know McNaughton thought this and his other early novels were garbage, and maybe they are, but they’re fun as hell. And very well-written for garbage, with loads of imaginative scenarios that can be both horrifying and ridiculous at the same time.
McNaughton is probably my pick for most unjustly neglected writer from the horror boom era, but at least he eventually received some recognition for The Throne of Bones before his death. I’ve almost made my way through his entire oeuvre, and soon I’ll have to resort to the Lovecraftian porno novels that he wrote as Sheena Clayton in the early 80s, which are next to impossible to find, at least physically (I was able to find epub versions online). I’m sure I’ll get to them eventually, as his stuff is damn addictive.
June 13, 2013
Worse Things Waiting is the third Lovecraftian novel of Brian McNaughton. Like the others, it had an original cheapo mass market paperback, Satan's Seductress from 1981. I quickly leafed through that book and I don't think it had the same pornographic bent that Satan's Love Child did but I can't be certain. At any rate, in 2003 Wildside Press issued this very nice trade paperback edition that allowed the author to correct the text to his preferred version. Thank you, Wildside Press! Page count is 159 with text starting on page 7. There is no cover art again, somewhat typical for Wildside Press' editions of McNaughton's work (his two short story collections and Downward to Darkness). The several line biography in the back is the same as in the other books in this series. Editing and production qualities are good.
Worse Things Waiting is a direct sequel to Downward to Darkness. In fact, I think it is rather difficult to make sense of what is happening in WTW if you haven't read DTD. It probably still works as a book but do yourself a favor, and read Downward to Darkness before coming to this book; it's a very fun read and can be recommended on its own merits anyway. Four years after the events in DTD Amy Miniter returns to Mt. Tabor, CT. She is now the sole survivor who has any connection to the massacre at the end of DTD. Rose Laughlin was found guilty of murdering everyone else and died in an asylum a few years ago. George Spencer has vanished and is assumed to be traveling abroad. His son, Howard, was assumed to have run off with the cheerleader, Shana, while Bruce never awoke from his coma. She has become very withdrawn and socially timid; her very idealized fantasy life has nothing to do with the way she actually interacts with the world. She is fixing up her mother's home for sale while living at Brooksprite Gardens, a new apartment complex built on land reclaimed from the town dump (and you remember what was buried there...). Her neighbors, Toni Sloane and her boyfriend Todd figure into the story too. Martin Paige is a hack author of letters to men's magazines and has ghost written a book that was made into a movie for a famous writer he despises, Hogarth Zuner, all the while working on his magnum opus, a fantasy The Swords of Windsor. I have to say that these two main characters are so deftly drawn the really do jump off the page and become alive. This was some of my favorite writing by McNaughton; the reader really identifies with his characters. In fact Martin Paige's life predicament was presented in such a razor sharp fashion that I wondered if part of him was autobiographical, considering Mr. McNaughton worked 10 years as a night manager in a motel. Martin has come to Mt. Tabor with the hopes of writing a true crime article about the massacre at the mill, and as such he is desperate to meet Amy. When he finally does encounter her he comes across as a pathetic and somewhat creepy loser to her, while he is so smitten he falls hopelessly in love. Amy has been having weird dreams, for lack of a better word, where two voices are speaking in her head and making her do things she otherwise wouldn't, and where time seems to be rather malleable. Little does she know that she is not the only person experiencing this. It also turns out Dr. Howard Ashcroft is still around, still attempting to find the Necronomicon, still attempting to obtain power while presenting himself to the world at large as an eccentric earth loving pagan. He tries to entice Amy to a pagan Sabbath, aiming to use her innocence as a sacrifice, much the same as he did in Downward to Darkness. Meanwhile, still pursuing his story, Martin breaks into George Spencer's house, finding his notes and the Necronomicon. As Amy's visions become weirder and more intense, Martin manages to meet George. At least he meets the brief earthly manifestation of what usually happens to a Master of the Runes who spends too much time reading the Necronomicon. He tells Martin what is happening, that the resurrected Mirdath desires human existence again so much she has made a compact with an unimaginably horrible entity, That Which Is(Not). Amy is her intended vessel, and Howard is her willing (if unwitting) tool. Martin makes a frantic attempt to rescue her. The ending is anything you could hope for in a mythos novel.
I have really enjoyed these books of Mr. McNaughton. Worse Things Waiting was even better than Downward to Darkness. A very clever plot is served up with gallows humor, believable dialogue and full blooded characters. Just like DTD, it captivated me so much I polished it off in one night and was left wanting more. I would say I liked DTD and WTW more than I liked Balak by Rainey, and maybe more than Where Goeth Nyarlathotep by Reiner. Based on this I have already started reading his last novel, The House Across the Way, after which I will seek out a copy of Gemini Rising. Highly recommended!
Worse Things Waiting is a direct sequel to Downward to Darkness. In fact, I think it is rather difficult to make sense of what is happening in WTW if you haven't read DTD. It probably still works as a book but do yourself a favor, and read Downward to Darkness before coming to this book; it's a very fun read and can be recommended on its own merits anyway. Four years after the events in DTD Amy Miniter returns to Mt. Tabor, CT. She is now the sole survivor who has any connection to the massacre at the end of DTD. Rose Laughlin was found guilty of murdering everyone else and died in an asylum a few years ago. George Spencer has vanished and is assumed to be traveling abroad. His son, Howard, was assumed to have run off with the cheerleader, Shana, while Bruce never awoke from his coma. She has become very withdrawn and socially timid; her very idealized fantasy life has nothing to do with the way she actually interacts with the world. She is fixing up her mother's home for sale while living at Brooksprite Gardens, a new apartment complex built on land reclaimed from the town dump (and you remember what was buried there...). Her neighbors, Toni Sloane and her boyfriend Todd figure into the story too. Martin Paige is a hack author of letters to men's magazines and has ghost written a book that was made into a movie for a famous writer he despises, Hogarth Zuner, all the while working on his magnum opus, a fantasy The Swords of Windsor. I have to say that these two main characters are so deftly drawn the really do jump off the page and become alive. This was some of my favorite writing by McNaughton; the reader really identifies with his characters. In fact Martin Paige's life predicament was presented in such a razor sharp fashion that I wondered if part of him was autobiographical, considering Mr. McNaughton worked 10 years as a night manager in a motel. Martin has come to Mt. Tabor with the hopes of writing a true crime article about the massacre at the mill, and as such he is desperate to meet Amy. When he finally does encounter her he comes across as a pathetic and somewhat creepy loser to her, while he is so smitten he falls hopelessly in love. Amy has been having weird dreams, for lack of a better word, where two voices are speaking in her head and making her do things she otherwise wouldn't, and where time seems to be rather malleable. Little does she know that she is not the only person experiencing this. It also turns out Dr. Howard Ashcroft is still around, still attempting to find the Necronomicon, still attempting to obtain power while presenting himself to the world at large as an eccentric earth loving pagan. He tries to entice Amy to a pagan Sabbath, aiming to use her innocence as a sacrifice, much the same as he did in Downward to Darkness. Meanwhile, still pursuing his story, Martin breaks into George Spencer's house, finding his notes and the Necronomicon. As Amy's visions become weirder and more intense, Martin manages to meet George. At least he meets the brief earthly manifestation of what usually happens to a Master of the Runes who spends too much time reading the Necronomicon. He tells Martin what is happening, that the resurrected Mirdath desires human existence again so much she has made a compact with an unimaginably horrible entity, That Which Is(Not). Amy is her intended vessel, and Howard is her willing (if unwitting) tool. Martin makes a frantic attempt to rescue her. The ending is anything you could hope for in a mythos novel.
I have really enjoyed these books of Mr. McNaughton. Worse Things Waiting was even better than Downward to Darkness. A very clever plot is served up with gallows humor, believable dialogue and full blooded characters. Just like DTD, it captivated me so much I polished it off in one night and was left wanting more. I would say I liked DTD and WTW more than I liked Balak by Rainey, and maybe more than Where Goeth Nyarlathotep by Reiner. Based on this I have already started reading his last novel, The House Across the Way, after which I will seek out a copy of Gemini Rising. Highly recommended!
January 4, 2021
While the original was an engaging bit of Lovecraft by way of Stuart Gordon-esque 1980s excess (think Re-Animator or From Beyond) the sequel feels like a straight-to-video sequel by a lesser director who didn't quite *get* the original.
The characters are broader, the plot less engaging and while the ending is certainly less abrupt, it's also not particularly satisfying.
McNaughton is an intriguing writer, and I'll defo check out some of his collections, but this didn't quite capture the cult charms of its predecessor.
The characters are broader, the plot less engaging and while the ending is certainly less abrupt, it's also not particularly satisfying.
McNaughton is an intriguing writer, and I'll defo check out some of his collections, but this didn't quite capture the cult charms of its predecessor.
September 7, 2025
This is a better book than the first, Downward to Darkness, which was unfocused and a bit too long-winded with the lore. Here we get two main characters that the book spends the lions share of its time with, and a few peripheral characters who we get insight into. They start off as caricatures but become more fleshed out as McNaughton probes into their psyches and their neurosis and their pasts.
It threatens to be a happy book at certain times as Amy and Martin seem perfect for each other if they could only get past their hangups and issues with personal grooming. They are both very skeptical of magic and mysticism and even religion, although Martin has a bleaker view of the universe than Amy. Unfortunately they live in a horror novel universe which means there are great and unspeakable terrors that do sometimes turn their attentions towards humanity. Martin's skepticism and belief that he is being fooled by parlor tricks does him no favors. And Amy invites Satanists into her home because she believes they are no real threat.
The ending is divisive. It's a gut punch to readers but I think it's thematically appropriate, since so much of the book is tied up in ideas of how much we delude ourselves with fantasies and whether or not resisting those fantasies is worthwhile, or whether we should give in. The great, dark powers of the universe taunt the characters with that question in the final image of novel.
Lots of great turns of phrase in this book, which i kept a small list of:
"All of these people had one thing in common with Todd: they were all smart enough to read a lot of books, but not smart enough to evaluate them."
"New York's premier suburban cookbook" to describe The New York Times.
"paperback packets of mental chewing gum" to describe horror novels.
"he's the sort of man who would bid on the contract for his own execution"
"Cynicism, depending as it does on an implied contrast between the real and the ideal, would have no point." When discussing an entity that would flatted out all contrasts in the universe and make Martin's life meaningless, as he takes pride in cynicism.
"It wasn't so familiar and comfortable because its roots lay in some atavistically recalled festival of his Druid ancestors, but because these clever devils had served him up a temptation cut from the meat of his own imagination. The temptation was not merely to join the party; but, by joining it wholeheartedly, and with full knowledge that it was his personal vision, to blot out the real world and live solely in his fantasies." This is the basic theme of the novel I think.
It threatens to be a happy book at certain times as Amy and Martin seem perfect for each other if they could only get past their hangups and issues with personal grooming. They are both very skeptical of magic and mysticism and even religion, although Martin has a bleaker view of the universe than Amy. Unfortunately they live in a horror novel universe which means there are great and unspeakable terrors that do sometimes turn their attentions towards humanity. Martin's skepticism and belief that he is being fooled by parlor tricks does him no favors. And Amy invites Satanists into her home because she believes they are no real threat.
The ending is divisive. It's a gut punch to readers but I think it's thematically appropriate, since so much of the book is tied up in ideas of how much we delude ourselves with fantasies and whether or not resisting those fantasies is worthwhile, or whether we should give in. The great, dark powers of the universe taunt the characters with that question in the final image of novel.
Lots of great turns of phrase in this book, which i kept a small list of:
"All of these people had one thing in common with Todd: they were all smart enough to read a lot of books, but not smart enough to evaluate them."
"New York's premier suburban cookbook" to describe The New York Times.
"paperback packets of mental chewing gum" to describe horror novels.
"he's the sort of man who would bid on the contract for his own execution"
"Cynicism, depending as it does on an implied contrast between the real and the ideal, would have no point." When discussing an entity that would flatted out all contrasts in the universe and make Martin's life meaningless, as he takes pride in cynicism.
"It wasn't so familiar and comfortable because its roots lay in some atavistically recalled festival of his Druid ancestors, but because these clever devils had served him up a temptation cut from the meat of his own imagination. The temptation was not merely to join the party; but, by joining it wholeheartedly, and with full knowledge that it was his personal vision, to blot out the real world and live solely in his fantasies." This is the basic theme of the novel I think.
October 12, 2023
Compelling Story That Doesn't Stick the Landing
Well, that was a wild ride, but sadly I feel the story ended too abruptly.
This was a random pick of a Brian McNaughton work, since I loved "The Throne of Bones". I did not read "Down into Darkness" (not was I even aware that this book was a sequel to it), so I didn't have any context for the characters or plot.
The book (novella) started off strong. One chapter in and I was intrigued. As the story unfolded, so too did an underlying mystery. I was hooked. It was a real page turner for me, and I read eagerly, looking forward to a resolution, some resolution at least. Instead I got the equivalent of a car doing 80 right into a brick wall. What happened?
I don't mean, "I don't understand the ending" (it is cynical and a bit if a gut punch if you're invested in the two main characters), but that it seemed to reach a rushed, lackluster conclusion that did not do the build up justice.
I can only assume this novella has a sequel, and along with its predecessor, compromises a proper novel, that when taken altogether has a more natural and satisfying climax and denouement. I hope so, because "Worse Things Waiting" came so close to being good, but didn't stick the landing.
Well, that was a wild ride, but sadly I feel the story ended too abruptly.
This was a random pick of a Brian McNaughton work, since I loved "The Throne of Bones". I did not read "Down into Darkness" (not was I even aware that this book was a sequel to it), so I didn't have any context for the characters or plot.
The book (novella) started off strong. One chapter in and I was intrigued. As the story unfolded, so too did an underlying mystery. I was hooked. It was a real page turner for me, and I read eagerly, looking forward to a resolution, some resolution at least. Instead I got the equivalent of a car doing 80 right into a brick wall. What happened?
I don't mean, "I don't understand the ending" (it is cynical and a bit if a gut punch if you're invested in the two main characters), but that it seemed to reach a rushed, lackluster conclusion that did not do the build up justice.
I can only assume this novella has a sequel, and along with its predecessor, compromises a proper novel, that when taken altogether has a more natural and satisfying climax and denouement. I hope so, because "Worse Things Waiting" came so close to being good, but didn't stick the landing.
June 2, 2018
This book sucked ass. There was so many grammar mistakes there was spelling, spacing, and just poor grammar. It's like no one took the time to edit the book, it's like they just went "Oh look someone wrote a book lets just print it and not check for errors.". The only thing about the book I liked was the fact that the good guy lost. You don't see that very often in book it's usually the good guy that wins but in this book he lost to the villain and that was a refreshing change,but other then that nothing exciting stuck out for me.
The book follows a struggling author to his next book in hopes of making it big. On that note I would like to apologize to Brian for not liking his book. I understand that you and all the other authors out there struggle, work hard, and spend hours and hours writing your books and that deduction and hard work is appreciated to bring the reader something to read but sometimes it's just not that good. I'm sorry.
The book follows a struggling author to his next book in hopes of making it big. On that note I would like to apologize to Brian for not liking his book. I understand that you and all the other authors out there struggle, work hard, and spend hours and hours writing your books and that deduction and hard work is appreciated to bring the reader something to read but sometimes it's just not that good. I'm sorry.
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