Nasty Stories

by Brian McNaughton

Brian McNaughton's masterful "nasty stories" will shock, amaze, and delight you. From twists upon medieval torture chambers to the weirdest Little Red Riding Hood you'll ever meet, Nasty Stories will take your breath away and hold you rapt: a delightful nightmare of terror and humor in equal parts. Once you've read it, you'll know to be afraid!

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Brian McNaughton was an American writer of horror and fantasy fiction who mixed sex, satire and black humour. He also wrote thrillers.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 2 out of 5]

27 nasty stories by a very talented writer wasting much of his talent, alas. by "nasty" I don't just mean wall-to-wall gore and fucking, which would not necessarily be an issue for me. these stories do have tons of gore and sex, and much that is graphically scatalogical as well. really sickening stuff at times. they also have a genuinely nasty sensibility: joyously juvenile, sniggeringly sadistic, viciously mean-spirited, not to mention misogynist and homophobic. I don't particularly admire contes cruel and so I didn't particularly admire this collection. yet it was all still... fun, in its way? McNaughton writes like writing is a breeze; he is almost casually masterful in his ability to toss off a cleverly ironic bit of dialogue or an elegant descriptive sentence, which can be startling when his tales are often so crass and so broadly horrific. and his narratives, even in the shortest of his short stories, are often surprisingly complex. he was an ingenious and very original writer. RIP!

there were three stories that I might read again. (in bold below.) the first two reminded me of his brilliant cult classic The Throne of Bones with their dark fantasy settings, plots that hinge on misuse of magic, and of course their cruel humor. the third is set in an aristocratic English milieu and is chock-full of clockwork automatons and sport-fucking.

okay time to take a shower, these stories made me feel unclean. so very nasty!

☢

"Conversion of St. Monocarp" - nasty Medieval body-switcher gets her just reward

"Nothing But the Best" & "Drink Me" - nasty body-switching wizard gets his just reward - twice!

"Interrupted Pilgrimage" - nasty Medieval illusion-caster gets his just reward

"The Hole" - nasty young voyeur gets his just reward

"Changes" - nasty normal reality gets turned into an even nastier abnormal reality

"Lovelocks" - nasty ninny in love gets his just reward

"Fantasia on 'Little Red Riding Hood'" - nasty author reimagines a classic fairy tale

"ystery orm" - deranged student's nasty nightmares turn into nastier daymares

"Water and the Spirit" - nasty warlord is the recipient of some nasty revenge from a dead water wizard; in the end, the nastier of the two will survive!

"Congratulations" - nasty tv grifter gets his just reward; nice witch is nice to her neighbors

"Why We Fear the Dark" - nasty cop is also a nasty cat

"The Disposal of Uncle Dave" - nasty husband is also a nasty toad

"Getting It All Back" - nasty parents falsely accused of sexual abuse by their nasty children; nasty daughter gets her just reward

"Undying Love" - nasty necrophiliac finally lays a live one

"Child of the Night" - vampire-seeking youth finds his questions answered by a nasty priest

"The Dunwich Lodger" - nasty motel manager versus his nasty father; abused wife meets nasty sorceror

"Annunciator" - cryo-frozen head awakens to a nasty future

"Rubber-Face" - nasty colonialist gets his just reward in the Congo; rubber magic is nasty magic

"Herbert West- Reincarnated" - nasty Herbert West finds new employment in nasty Nazi Germany; a nasty Jesus Christ is reanimated, nastily

"La Fille aux Yeux d'Email" - nasty English earl versus nasty French clockmaker; lots of nasty sex with a nasty countess and a nasty maid

"Star Stalker" - nasty supermodel hires some nasty cops

"Marantha's Tale" - nasty illusion-casting creature called a 'bog-losel' gets its just reward

"To My Dear Friend, Hommy-Bet" - nasty hack author receives a nasty fanzine and a nastier creature from a nasty amateur book reviewer. so much nastiness!

[Hail Hydra! ~Dave Anderson~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If you value your life and your sanity, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!”

[Tazio Bettin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Throne of Bones with all myself, so much so that I decided to buy this book. I had high hopes. Some of these short stories are good. Many are rather disappointing, either because they're too short, or because they feel incomplete or half-hearted. Yeah, they're nasty, but not with that elegance and conviction that made me love the Throne of Bones. Which is unfortunate, because I really wanted to love this book, but I can't really recommend it.

[Christopher Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a few longer 4 or 5 star stories hiding in this collection of experiments. La Fille aux Yeux d'Email is the highlight, the most explicit story in the collection and also the most entertaining for how it departs from some of McNaughton's typical subject matter to tell a weird story about lifelike automatons. Oddly relevant now that people are falling in love with large language models.

There's also a good and twisted take on Herbert West, in which McNaughton seems to be a taking a swipe at HP Lovecraft's racism and other views that would have found a home in WW2 Germany.

There are small bits of cleverness in the other stories but many of the plots don't go anywhere and feel like experiments in a subject matter or premise that he got bored with and decided to end prematurely. Some were boring and completely skippable, like 'Fantasia on 'Little Red Riding Hood', but most have extremely readable and absorbing prose. McNaughton makes writing look easy even when he doesn't bother to develop his plots much.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het zijn ook echt nasty stories. Sommige zijn behoorlijk seksueel getint, andere gewoon echt naar. Het was een interessante afwisseling die me wel met regelmaat verraste.