The Weird O' It

by Clive Pemberton

Extravagant and powerful tales of horror in the "raw heads and bloody bones" type, the stories of Clive Pemberton are most properly considered among the antecedents of the "Weird Tales" traditions. Ghastly monsters, reanimated corpses and blood-curdling tales of terrible vengeance from beyond the grave; the lively macabre stories contained in this book are as fresh and readable today as they were in their original publication nearly one-hundred years ago.

Genres: Horror

221 pages, Hardback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Canavan]

✭✭

“The Spider” ✭✭
“The Pool” ✭✭
“The Will of Luke Carlowe” ✭½
“The Wedding Guest” ✭✭
“The Soul of Nina Ventrix” ✭✭
“The Bulb” ✭✭½
“‘Purple Eyes’” ✭✭
“A Hundred Years Dead” ✭✭
“A Dead Man’s Bargain” ✭½
“The Compact” ✭✭½
“The Mark of the Beast” ✭½

All stories published 1906.

[Axolotl]

Please do not believe the publisher's blurb above. I have read few books as poor as this one. It was so bad, in fact, that I consider "House of Blood" by Bryan Smith an enormous literary achievement---a fine and intellectually stimulating read, even---by comparison. These weak, contrived and trifling ultra-short stories are further marred by a singular lack of conception in both plot and character. Of course, many horror stories are, at times, light where character development/plot are concerned but it is my belief that the average "horror reader" is somewhat inured to horror's proverbial "strawmen", so to speak. Be this as it may, at least two-dimensional is some sort of dimension. Indeed, even two-dimensional would be preferable to Pemberton's tepid rogue's gallery of pale Poe imitations. Worst of all, Mr. Pemberton is seemingly incapable of sustaining one iota of interest for longer than a few sentences at a stretch before pulling the rug out from under himself with his general bungling and ham-fistedness. Both plot and devices here are so obvious, they beggar belief with their ineptitude. One can only feel glad that he wasn't very prolific or indeed recognized at all in his own lifetime. I for one would not have missed this if it had never been dredged up from the mire of literary failure by the good folks at Midnight House who, by the way, have done great books by quality writers like Charles Birkin, Jean Ray, Bob Leman and even the fantastically weird "Echo of a Curse" by R.R. Ryan to name but a few examples.

The one saving grace of this colossal waste of cellulose is that you can point out Mr. Pemberton's obvious weaknesses as a writer as you read each story. This veritable catalog of "don'ts" can be instructive and, perhaps---who knows?---even make you a better writer in the process. If you would like to give it a try, I will gladly sell my copy of this inessential volume to you.