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The Man on the Ceiling
Two interwoven memoirs of love, loss, and family with a haunted, frightening edge.
In 2000, American Fantasy Press published an unassuming chapbook titled The Man on the Ceiling. Inside was a dark, surreal, discomfiting story of the horrors that can befall a family. It was so powerful that it won the Bram Stoker Award, International Horror Guild Award, and World Fantasy Award--the only work ever to win all three. Now, Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem have re-imagined the story, expanding on the ideas to create a compelling work that examines how people find a family, how they hold a family together despite incomprehensible tragedy, and how, in the end, they find love.
Loosely autobiographical, The Man on the Ceiling has the feel of a family portrait painted by Salvador Dali, where story and reality blend to find the one thing that neither can offer alone: truth.
In 2000, American Fantasy Press published an unassuming chapbook titled The Man on the Ceiling. Inside was a dark, surreal, discomfiting story of the horrors that can befall a family. It was so powerful that it won the Bram Stoker Award, International Horror Guild Award, and World Fantasy Award--the only work ever to win all three. Now, Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem have re-imagined the story, expanding on the ideas to create a compelling work that examines how people find a family, how they hold a family together despite incomprehensible tragedy, and how, in the end, they find love.
Loosely autobiographical, The Man on the Ceiling has the feel of a family portrait painted by Salvador Dali, where story and reality blend to find the one thing that neither can offer alone: truth.
416 pages, Paperback
First published March 4, 2008
18 people are currently reading
472 people want to read
About the author
Steve Rasnic Tem
457 books306 followersSteve Rasnic Tem was born in Lee County Virginia in the heart of Appalachia. He is the author of over 350 published short stories and is a past winner of the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His story collections include City Fishing, The Far Side of the Lake, In Concert (with wife Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior, Celestial Inventories, and Onion Songs. An audio collection, Invisible, is also available. His novels include Excavation, The Book of Days, Daughters, The Man In The Ceiling (with Melanie Tem), and the recent Deadfall Hotel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
June 13, 2008
Wow, I'm speechless. Is this really supposed to be a horror book? The only horror here is that I paid 15 bucks for this book and spent time that I'll never get back reading it. Thats the true horror!!
I really am at a loss for words. I'm scratching my head, not understanding the world anymore. What just happened? Was I just hit by a bus and am now in a coma, playing out my own version of hell- making me read things so bad I want to pull the plug?
The opening of the book states: Everything we're about to tell you is true . No sh*t it's true, because only real life could be so terribly boring. It's such a short read and yet in all that time I felt like someone was physically kicking me in the nuts as I turned each page, preparing me for what I was about to read- seeing words that I can never unsee again.
Stay away. This belongs on the 7th level of hell it's so evil.
I really am at a loss for words. I'm scratching my head, not understanding the world anymore. What just happened? Was I just hit by a bus and am now in a coma, playing out my own version of hell- making me read things so bad I want to pull the plug?
The opening of the book states: Everything we're about to tell you is true . No sh*t it's true, because only real life could be so terribly boring. It's such a short read and yet in all that time I felt like someone was physically kicking me in the nuts as I turned each page, preparing me for what I was about to read- seeing words that I can never unsee again.
Stay away. This belongs on the 7th level of hell it's so evil.
February 11, 2008
I wanted to like this book. From the description on the back cover, I thought I would. After all, it won the Bram Stoker Award, International Horror Guild Award, and World Fantasy Award. But I didn't care for it. It wasn't horribly written. In fact, the writing style of both Melanie and Steve are easily readable. However, toward the end there's a passage about floating. I marked the page because that's how I felt reading the book. I felt like I had floated through all 300+ pages, buoyed by the softness of the words with nothing to jar me or particularly grab my attention. There was a story here, of that I feel sure. Unfortunately, the authors weren't compelled to really share the details of the story itself and instead focused more on internal swirlings of thought. They alluded to a story but never brought it to fruition.
December 13, 2017
This is an absolutely brilliant piece of work, part fiction, part biography, moving, disturbing, vibrant and unforgettable. It wipes the floor with many Booker nominees and other "literary" works.
July 8, 2017
Co-written by husband and wife horror writers, this is among the most beautiful melding of fiction and autobiographical non-fiction that I've encountered. What's real and fact is ever-moving...but, as they say, "everything we're about to tell you is true." I recommend this intensely, however hard it is to read in its pain.
The authors adopt children from haunted pasts, and... I'm not going to say what happens, this horrific, incomprehensible thing. Their book is the writers' way of coping, of healing, of never being able to heal.
The below passage, from Melanie's perspective on her own writing, is one with which I identify deeply in my own work and reasoning...that is, I think I've said something similar but with a modicum of this elegance:
"Often I write about people I don't understand, ways of being in the world that baffle me. I want to know how people make sense of things, what they say to themselves, how they live. How they name themselves to themselves.
Because life is hard. Even when it's wonderful, even when it's beautiful -- which is a lot of the time -- it's hard. Sometimes I don't know how any of us makes it through the day. Or the night.
The world has in it: Children hurt or killed by their parents, who would say they do it out of love. Children whose beloved father, uncles, brothers, cousins, mothers love them, too, fall in love with them, say anything we do to each other's bodies is okay because we love each other, but don't tell anybody because then I'll go to jail and then I won't love you anymore. Perverted love.
The world also has in it: Children whose only chance to grow up is in prison, because they're afraid to trust love on the outside. Children who die, no matter how much you love them. Impotent love.
And the world also has in it: Werewolves, whose unclaimed rage transforms them into something not human but also not inhuman (modern psychiatry sometimes finds the bestial 'alter' in the multiple personality). Vampires, whose unbridled need to experience leads them to suck other people dry and are still not satisfied. Zombies, the chronically insulted, people who will not feel anything because they will not feel pain. Ghosts.
I write in order to understand these things. I write dark fantasy because it helps me see how to live in a world with monsters.
But one day last week, transferring at a crowded and cold downtown bus stop, late as usual, I was searching irritably for my bus pass, which was not there, and then for no reason and certainly without conscious intent my gaze abruptly lifted and followed the upswept lines of the pearly glass building across the street, up, up, into the Colorado-blue sky, and it was beautiful.
It was transcendently beautiful. An epiphany. A momentary breakthrough into the dimension of the divine.
That's why I write, too. To stay available for breakthroughs into the dimension of the divine. Which happen in this world all the time. I think I always write about love."
The authors adopt children from haunted pasts, and... I'm not going to say what happens, this horrific, incomprehensible thing. Their book is the writers' way of coping, of healing, of never being able to heal.
The below passage, from Melanie's perspective on her own writing, is one with which I identify deeply in my own work and reasoning...that is, I think I've said something similar but with a modicum of this elegance:
"Often I write about people I don't understand, ways of being in the world that baffle me. I want to know how people make sense of things, what they say to themselves, how they live. How they name themselves to themselves.
Because life is hard. Even when it's wonderful, even when it's beautiful -- which is a lot of the time -- it's hard. Sometimes I don't know how any of us makes it through the day. Or the night.
The world has in it: Children hurt or killed by their parents, who would say they do it out of love. Children whose beloved father, uncles, brothers, cousins, mothers love them, too, fall in love with them, say anything we do to each other's bodies is okay because we love each other, but don't tell anybody because then I'll go to jail and then I won't love you anymore. Perverted love.
The world also has in it: Children whose only chance to grow up is in prison, because they're afraid to trust love on the outside. Children who die, no matter how much you love them. Impotent love.
And the world also has in it: Werewolves, whose unclaimed rage transforms them into something not human but also not inhuman (modern psychiatry sometimes finds the bestial 'alter' in the multiple personality). Vampires, whose unbridled need to experience leads them to suck other people dry and are still not satisfied. Zombies, the chronically insulted, people who will not feel anything because they will not feel pain. Ghosts.
I write in order to understand these things. I write dark fantasy because it helps me see how to live in a world with monsters.
But one day last week, transferring at a crowded and cold downtown bus stop, late as usual, I was searching irritably for my bus pass, which was not there, and then for no reason and certainly without conscious intent my gaze abruptly lifted and followed the upswept lines of the pearly glass building across the street, up, up, into the Colorado-blue sky, and it was beautiful.
It was transcendently beautiful. An epiphany. A momentary breakthrough into the dimension of the divine.
That's why I write, too. To stay available for breakthroughs into the dimension of the divine. Which happen in this world all the time. I think I always write about love."
June 7, 2019
It's not really memoir or fantasy or horror, yet somehow it is a bit of all three. At it's core, this book is simply the tale of Steve and Melanie, their lives, their life together, their children, and in the midst of it the heartbreak of loss and need to understand.
I would place this along the lines of literary fiction more than anything, and that's ok, because a story is just story; but this story is well written and engaging. It is really a collection of little stories that let the reader peek inside this family's life, and I, for one, am grateful for that glimpse.
In my opinion, this is a great piece of literature that reminds us of what writing is meant to do: tell the truth as best we can.
I would place this along the lines of literary fiction more than anything, and that's ok, because a story is just story; but this story is well written and engaging. It is really a collection of little stories that let the reader peek inside this family's life, and I, for one, am grateful for that glimpse.
In my opinion, this is a great piece of literature that reminds us of what writing is meant to do: tell the truth as best we can.
June 19, 2019
Very weird story/memoir. I absolutely didn't get it. Is this fantasy? The author says it's true but...huh?
November 13, 2017
Interesante experimento que se sale de los géneros y habla de lo personal de una manera oscura. El hombre del cielorraso (o el hombre en el techo) es algo que se nos presenta y no sabemos qué. Lxs escritorxs combinan su intimidad con miedos personales y lo transforman en un hombre que observa el acaecer de la vida. Está ahí cuando nacen sus hijos, cuando les sucede algo e incluso le echan la culpa por lo que les pasa. Pensar el lugar común es ver en ese hombre como el miedo al miedo, ese que se sale de los objetos y se figura dentro del miedo en sí. El miedo en sí viene con nosotros y lo traducimos como podemos. En el caso de ellxs es un hombre que observa desde arriba.
February 11, 2020
Unlike anything I’ve ever read. I’m not sure I can even say I enjoyed ALL of it, but the sheer creativity of it is undeniably admirable and transfixing, and, as a writer (as much as I can call myself one), I found myself very inspired by it. If nothing else, reading this sure counts as one heck of an experience.
January 10, 2021
“Sometimes not getting there is half the fun.”
Like Zeno’s Paradox? Or a tontine of one’s children reversed? Until I reach beyond the ceiling towards the God and Goddess, both as one.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
Like Zeno’s Paradox? Or a tontine of one’s children reversed? Until I reach beyond the ceiling towards the God and Goddess, both as one.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
August 7, 2022
I think the biggest tip off on this book is the description that relates to another story that isn't linked. 'There was this really great story that won several awards! We took it and 're-imagined' it to make it about us.' And it shows. The best parts are what can be likened back to the original story, please go find it. This is so frustrating. It's so frustrating when people publish fanfiction.
February 23, 2021
The emperor has no clothes.
November 11, 2022
I think I would have liked this more in it's original novella form.
February 2, 2025
Well-written but not my cup of tea
July 22, 2013
Steve Rasnic is a familiar name if u read horror anthologies. His surreal stories never fail to leave an impression.
But this book, co-written with wife Melanie, is an expansion of a novella that won 3 major awards - World Fantasy Award, Bram Stoker Award and The International Horror Guild Award. Does it mean it's that good? Not quite. It just means that this books is hard to categorise into any one genre.
Written as a memoir of themselves, Steve and Melanie take turns writing the narrative from their distinctive points of view. The original novella probably takes up the first third of the book where the "Man on the Ceiling" is the archetype bogeyman that every household fears. But rather than being horrific, it reads more like the fears of parenthood. And what every parent fears would befall their child, if left unprotected.
Here is where opinions will diverge. If you're looking for a plot, or storyline, or even a mystery; u will not find it here. The narrative goes on from start to end, only differing in tone depending on who's holding the pen - Steve or Melanie.
Melanie's writing is more straight-forward, relating how they've acquired their five adopted children - each a little damaged in their own way - and her deep-set fears of her own childhood. Any parent would be able to relate to this. It's heartfelt and honest, and the lines blur that u can't be sure how much is fiction and how much is reality.
But it's Steve's writing that's transcending - his surreal undertone marks his perpetual struggle as a horror writer, and how his strange thoughts affects his relationship with his family. There are some passages that flow like poetry, where it becomes so vivid, that i had to pause and take a breath before i continued on.
The combination of husband-wife narrative works like magic for this book, working off each other to continue the tale of their children and the darkness that lives with them. However, what comes through the most is their perseverance and their love for each other and their children.
You will not find any ghosts or murderers here, neither any blood nor gore. But what u will get is a very honest depiction of what a nightmare is, especially one that takes most of your life to accept, and with your whole family's sanity at stake.
There is a line from the last few pages that says it best: "It may not be the best thing, it may not be the best way, but you do the best you can. You do what it is you do. And this is what we do."
~ shob
But this book, co-written with wife Melanie, is an expansion of a novella that won 3 major awards - World Fantasy Award, Bram Stoker Award and The International Horror Guild Award. Does it mean it's that good? Not quite. It just means that this books is hard to categorise into any one genre.
Written as a memoir of themselves, Steve and Melanie take turns writing the narrative from their distinctive points of view. The original novella probably takes up the first third of the book where the "Man on the Ceiling" is the archetype bogeyman that every household fears. But rather than being horrific, it reads more like the fears of parenthood. And what every parent fears would befall their child, if left unprotected.
Here is where opinions will diverge. If you're looking for a plot, or storyline, or even a mystery; u will not find it here. The narrative goes on from start to end, only differing in tone depending on who's holding the pen - Steve or Melanie.
Melanie's writing is more straight-forward, relating how they've acquired their five adopted children - each a little damaged in their own way - and her deep-set fears of her own childhood. Any parent would be able to relate to this. It's heartfelt and honest, and the lines blur that u can't be sure how much is fiction and how much is reality.
But it's Steve's writing that's transcending - his surreal undertone marks his perpetual struggle as a horror writer, and how his strange thoughts affects his relationship with his family. There are some passages that flow like poetry, where it becomes so vivid, that i had to pause and take a breath before i continued on.
The combination of husband-wife narrative works like magic for this book, working off each other to continue the tale of their children and the darkness that lives with them. However, what comes through the most is their perseverance and their love for each other and their children.
You will not find any ghosts or murderers here, neither any blood nor gore. But what u will get is a very honest depiction of what a nightmare is, especially one that takes most of your life to accept, and with your whole family's sanity at stake.
There is a line from the last few pages that says it best: "It may not be the best thing, it may not be the best way, but you do the best you can. You do what it is you do. And this is what we do."
~ shob
March 31, 2008
"She wanted to go there with him. She didn't ever want to go there." Yep, that kind of sums is up. Never quite sure what the Hell this book was or what it was trying to accomplish -- whether it was fantasy, horror, memoire or even some unclassifiable combination of any or none of the above -- The Tems gave a go of spinning a tale of family, marriage, loss and life, only to succeed in making our (the readers') heads spin. The book comes off more like a dream than anything, and as with most hallucinations, upon waking, the reader approaches consciousness unable to get any closer to what the story is really all about. There is no antagonist in the traditional or any other sense other than the authors' own neuroses. One caveate is the deep sense of overpowering grief at the death of a child, but even here you're not quite sure if said event ever happened, if it's all a dream, or it simply occured in the mind(s) of the protagonist(s)/author(s). Because it's difficult differentiating between dream and waking, and between story-truth and story-within-a-story, you're never able to truely latch on to any character -- never able to really care about anyone in the story -- and thus when something even remotely tragic happened to someone you never really care. Speaking of tragedy, gentle readers, this is NOT a horror novel. Who in Marketing (with a capital "M") decided to put this book on the same shelf with any of the Tems' other true horror stories? Onward. The writing is not particularly memorable here either. There will be some who disagree with this point, and to those few (maybe two) I would ask they find one single page where the Tems didn't use the simple and cheap tactic of combining opposites (like the one opening this critique) in their prose. Unlike Dickens's "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," the use of two extremes for purposes of illustration as part of a writing style, here, in "The Man on the Ceiling," is much overused to the point of distraction. Bah! "She wanted to go there with him. She didn't ever want to go there." I actually caught myself reading furiously to find the next stylistic transgression rather than to learn something new about any of the character apparitions...And that's probably more than enough for this space. Please, gentle reader, don't read it...don't ever go there...
August 17, 2008
The cover says "A Novel {maybe}" and the two narrators are named Steve and Melanie Tem, and they talk about family life in intimate ways, so maybe it is autobiography, but with certain fantasy elements. (It's in the fantasy section of my library.) The book was based on a novella of the same name which won several prizes in the horror/fantasy world. The gist: The narrators talk about storytelling (both are writers) and their relationship with each other, and their relationships with their 5 adopted children, but a great deal of it is dedicated to fear and imagination. The time shifts from the first meeting to years down the road when they have grandchildren. It was a fairly quick read, though it runs 366 pages, because of the conversational tone it takes. The narration goes from Steve to Melanie and back endlessly. I was not blown away, but I liked it, and so there you go.
August 30, 2014
So just like what I've said before, I only bought this book because of the awesome cover. Then I just realized that the book also won three major awards namely Bram Stoker, and the two awards I forgot. So I was assuming that it must be a REALLY, REALLY GREAT book. Well, my expectations didn't really satisfy nor failed me. For me the book was caught up between good and okay. I like the story of the creepy man on the ceiling that torments the Terms, although that story didn't develop and bloom at the end. The writing technique's really vivid and rich though I felt that there's a lack of a stable and concrete plot. Anyway, I still like the cover and I still like the book. Don't judge me for judging a book by its cover.
July 16, 2009
It says something when the best thing about a book is it's cover art. I did sorta like it, but after the awesome title chapter, it really went downhill. The book becomes overlong and extremely repetitive. The book did not live up to the potential of the novella which forms the title chapter. The novella is awesome and most definitely worth reading. It's a shame that the rest of the book isn't better. So much of it feels cobbled together, and unnecessary. Why did they include that here? And why do they keep saying, "Everything we are telling you is true" OVER and OVER again? It's like they think if they repeat it enough times, it will make it true.
September 14, 2015
This book is an art book. Not a book about art, but art in the form of the written word and placed in a book. It is truly my idea of great literature-full of metaphor, pain, joy, reality and dreamscape. It is a memoir weaved with daydream and night dream weaved with universal truths. It Is haunting and beautiful. It is the work of a husband and wife team bravely revealing their deepest fears, hopes and experiences-the contents of their souls. There are many sentences in this book that I know will stick in my mind forever. That is one of my favorite things about good books.
July 11, 2008
If you're looking for 'traditional' horror, you will HATE this book. There aren't any vampires, werewolves or Lovecraftian creatures lurking about; instead the horrors here are a bit more hidden and much more common.
If you don't want enlarge, expand, or transcend what your definition of 'horror' is, then don't even bother with this... there are plenty of other books out there that'll make your reading experience happier.
If you don't want enlarge, expand, or transcend what your definition of 'horror' is, then don't even bother with this... there are plenty of other books out there that'll make your reading experience happier.
July 8, 2008
This was written by Steve Tem and his wife Melanie Tem - I was impressed at how they wove their two styles and voices together - the organization of the book left me slightly unsatisfied - but Steve said it himself at one point late in the book - that he hadn't expected to say so much and yet he hadn't said much at all - that's how it always is with my own writing - I recommend this book to anyone who likes surrealism and poetic fiction (nonfiction)
December 22, 2008
I finished this book today and I am still not quite sure what it is about. I am leaning towards thinking that it is about absolutely nothing at all. Apparently, this novel stems from a novella that won many awards. If that is the case, lengthening the novella to novel size and sucked dry any meaning or feeling the authors originally intended. I would give this 1 star, but as I actually managed to finish it, the book gets 2 from me.
February 7, 2009
This book is hard to describe. It is hard to pin down what the actual meaning of the book is and I think every reader reading it could take something different from this book. I wouldn't label this books as horror, unless horror is realizing that all families live, die and have skeletons that float around them.
It's the perfect book to read when I need to get a flare of artistic brilliant. It is so beautifully written that endless ideas flow and it's the perfect solutions to artist's block.
It's the perfect book to read when I need to get a flare of artistic brilliant. It is so beautifully written that endless ideas flow and it's the perfect solutions to artist's block.
April 5, 2010
I didn't particularly like this book. I was looking for a regular novel with a continuous story line. This book isn't bad, though. It brings up interesting ideas about memories and fears which are presented with poetic and abstract writing as well as straight narrative. It talks A LOT about parenthood which I just don't relate to, therefore I got bored and took it back to the library before finishing.
March 25, 2014
This maybe novel is like a beautiful conversation with a couple of close and fairly eccentric friends. I've heard reviews say that this novel tells instead of showing, and that it lacks plot and story. Those comments are true in a sense, but only partially. The authors are fantastic storytellers. If you are willing to take part in this odd memoir then I would definitely recommend picking up this book.
This is one of my favorite books, and my favorite to recommend.
This is one of my favorite books, and my favorite to recommend.
May 14, 2008
An almost seamless mix of everyday life, fantasy, and horror. It was like listening to a story while also being in the story teller's head - I don't think I've ever read anything like it. I don't usually like horror, but it was like they went into my head and picked out every day scary things (death, childhood fears, etc.) and embellished them.
August 27, 2008
Man on the Ceiling by Steve and Melanie Tem: Written in narrative with chapters alternating between Steve and Melanie, Man on the Ceiling is a dark, surreal trip into their imaginations and nightmares. Partially autobiographical, the strong emotions relating to family, loss, and guilt entwined to make me feel as if I were an eavesdropper into their private lives.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews