A Weighty Tome: 2020 Challenge: The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

This thread is open to discuss The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories by Jeff VanderMeer.



Synopsis
From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.

Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities. You won't find any elves or wizards here...but you will find the biggest, boldest, and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled.
The Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miéville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon.

The Weird is the winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

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[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

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[Devann]

Hey everyone, this is a super long book so I'm going to be trying to read a set number of stories every month to keep on track. Obviously people can jump in whenever they want and skip around or whatever but the schedule I'm going to try to keep to is below. I just divided it up by # of stories and not necessarily by length so I think each month ranges in word count from 30k to 100k depending on the length of the stories. Also maybe this list will help people decide if they want to read it since it lets them see the authors featured.

JANUARY

Foreweird by Michael Moorcock
Introduction by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

1. “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908, Alfred Kubin
2. “The Screaming Skull,” 1908, F. Marion Crawford
3. “The Willows,” 1907, Algernon Blackwood
4. “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910, Saki
5. “Casting the Runes,” 1911, M.R. James
6. “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles,” 1912, Lord Dunsany
7. “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912, Gustav Meyrink
8. “The Dissection,” 1913, Georg Heym
9. “The Spider,” 1915, Hanns Heinz Ewers

FEBRUARY

10. “The Hungry Stones,” 1916, Rabindranath Tagore
11. “The Vegetable Man,” 1917, Luigi Ugolini
12. “The People of the Pit,” 1918, A. Merritt
13. “The Hell Screen,” 1918, Ryunosuke Akutagawa
14. “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919, Francis Stevens
15. “In the Penal Colony,” 1919, Franz Kafka
16. “The White Wyrak,” 1921, Stefan Grabinski
17. “The Night Wire,” 1926, H.F. Arnold
18. “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929, H.P. Lovecraft

MARCH

19. “The Book,” 1930, Margaret Irwin
20. “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930, Jean Ray
21. “The Shadowy Street,” 1931, Jean Ray
22. “Genius Loci,” 1933, Clark Ashton Smith
23. “The Town of Cats,” 1935, Hagiwara Sakutar
24. “The Tarn,” 1936, Hugh Walpole
25. “Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937, Bruno Schulz
26. “Far Below,” 1939, Robert Barbour Johnson
27. “Smoke Ghost,” 1941, Fritz Leiber

APRIL

28. “White Rabbits,” 1941, Leonora Carrington
29. “Mimic,” 1942, Donald Wollheim
30. “The Crowd,” 1943, Ray Bradbury
31. “The Long Sheet,” 1944, William Sansom
32. “The Aleph,” 1945, Jorge Luis Borges
33. “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949, Olympe Bhêly-Quénum
34. “The Summer People,” 1950, Shirley Jackson
35. “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951, Margaret St. Clair
36. “The Hungry House,” 1951, Robert Bloch

MAY

37. “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952, Amos Tutuola
38. “‘It’s a Good Life,’” 1953, Jerome Bixby
39. “Mister Taylor,” 1952, Augusto Monterroso
40. “Axolotl,” 1956, Julio Cortázar
41. “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956, William Sansom
42. “The Howling Man,” 1959, Charles Beaumont
43. “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963, Mervyn Peake
44. “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967, Michel Bernanos
45. “The Salamander,” 1967, Mercè Rodoreda

JUNE

46. “The Ghoulbird,” 1967, Claude Seignolle
47. “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967, Gahan Wilson
48. “Don’t Look Now,” 1971, Daphne Du Maurier
49. “The Hospice,” 1975, Robert Aickman
50. “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976, Dennis Etchison
51. “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976, James Tiptree, Jr.
52. “The Beak Doctor,” 1977, Eric Basso
53. “My Mother,” 1978, Jamaica Kincaid
54. “Sandkings,” 1979, George R.R. Martin

JULY

55. “Window,” 1980, Bob Leman
56. “The Brood,” 1980, Ramsey Campbell
57. “The Autopsy,” 1980, Michael Shea
58. “The Belonging Kind,” 1981, William Gibson/John Shirley
59. “Egnaro,” 1981, M. John Harrison
60. “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982, Joanna Russ
61. “The New Rays,” 1982, M. John Harrison
62. “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984, Premendra Mitra
63. “Soft,” 1984, F. Paul Wilson

AUGUST

64. “Bloodchild,” 1984, Octavia Butler
65. “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984, Clive Barker
66. “Tainaron: Mail From Another City,” 1985, Leena Krohn
67. “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987, Garry Kilworth
68. “Shades,” 1987, Lucius Shepard
69. “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988, Harlan Ellison
70. “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988, Ben Okri
71. “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989, Elizabeth Hand
72. “Family,” 1989, Joyce Carol Oates

SEPTEMBER

73. “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990, Poppy Z. Brite
74. “The End of the Garden,” 1991, Michal Ajvaz
75. “The Dark,” 1991, Karen Joy Fowler
76. “Angels in Love,” 1991, Kathe Koja
77. “The Ice Man,” 1991, Haruki Murakami
78. “Replacements,” 1992, Lisa Tuttle
79. “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993, Marc Laidlaw
80. “The Country Doctor,” 1993, Steven Utley
81. “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994, Martin Simpson

OCTOBER

82. “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994, William Browning Spencer
83. “The Delicate,” 1994, Jeffrey Ford
84. “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994, Stephen King
85. “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995, Angela Carter
86. “The Meat Garden,” 1996, Craig Padawer
87. “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997, Stepan Chapman
88. “Yellow and Red,” 1998, Tanith Lee
89. “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998, Kelly Link
90. “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000, Caitlín R. Kiernan

NOVEMBER

91. “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001, Michael Chabon
92. “Details,” 2002, China Miéville
93. “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002, Michael Cisco
94. “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002, Neil Gaiman
95. “The Cage,” 2002, Jeff VanderMeer
96. “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003, Jeffrey Ford
97. “The Town Manager,” 2003, Thomas Ligotti
98. “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003, Brian Evenson
99. “The White Hands,” 2003, Mark Samuels

DECEMBER

100. “Flat Diane,” 2004, Daniel Abraham
101. “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005, Margo Lanagan
102. “The People on the Island,” 2005, T.M. Wright
103. “The Forest,” 2007, Laird Barron
104. “The Hide,” 2007, Liz Williams
105. “Dust Enforcer,” 2008, Reza Negarestani
106. “The Familiars,” 2009, Micaela Morrissette
107. “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009, Steve Duffy
108. “Little Lambs,” 2009, Stephen Graham Jones
109. “The Portal,” 2010, J. Robert Lennon
110. “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010, K.J. Bishop

Afterweird by China Miéville

[Cathy M.]

I like the schedule, thanks Devann!

Adding the list & my ratings to keep track :)

1. “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908, Alfred Kubin ★
2. “The Screaming Skull,” 1908, F. Marion Crawford ★★ 1/2
3. “The Willows,” 1907, Algernon Blackwood ★★
4. “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910, Saki ★★★ 1/2
5. “Casting the Runes,” 1911, M.R. James ★★
6. “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles,” 1912, Lord Dunsany ★★ 1/2
7. “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912, Gustav Meyrink ★★★
8. “The Dissection,” 1913, Georg Heym ★★
9. “The Spider,” 1915, Hanns Heinz Ewers ★★★★

10. “The Hungry Stones,” 1916, Rabindranath Tagore ★★
11. “The Vegetable Man,” 1917, Luigi Ugolini ★★★★
12. “The People of the Pit,” 1918, A. Merritt ★★★★
13. “The Hell Screen,” 1918, Ryunosuke Akutagawa
14. “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919, Francis Stevens
15. “In the Penal Colony,” 1919, Franz Kafka
16. “The White Wyrak,” 1921, Stefan Grabinski
17. “The Night Wire,” 1926, H.F. Arnold
18. “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929, H.P. Lovecraft

19. “The Book,” 1930, Margaret Irwin
20. “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930, Jean Ray
21. “The Shadowy Street,” 1931, Jean Ray
22. “Genius Loci,” 1933, Clark Ashton Smith
23. “The Town of Cats,” 1935, Hagiwara Sakutar
24. “The Tarn,” 1936, Hugh Walpole
25. “Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937, Bruno Schulz
26. “Far Below,” 1939, Robert Barbour Johnson
27. “Smoke Ghost,” 1941, Fritz Leiber
28. “White Rabbits,” 1941, Leonora Carrington
29. “Mimic,” 1942, Donald Wollheim
30. “The Crowd,” 1943, Ray Bradbury
31. “The Long Sheet,” 1944, William Sansom
32. “The Aleph,” 1945, Jorge Luis Borges
33. “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949, Olympe Bhêly-Quénum
34. “The Summer People,” 1950, Shirley Jackson
35. “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951, Margaret St. Clair
36. “The Hungry House,” 1951, Robert Bloch
37. “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952, Amos Tutuola
38. “‘It’s a Good Life,’” 1953, Jerome Bixby
39. “Mister Taylor,” 1952, Augusto Monterroso
40. “Axolotl,” 1956, Julio Cortázar
41. “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956, William Sansom
42. “The Howling Man,” 1959, Charles Beaumont
43. “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963, Mervyn Peake
44. “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967, Michel Bernanos
45. “The Salamander,” 1967, Mercè Rodoreda
46. “The Ghoulbird,” 1967, Claude Seignolle
47. “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967, Gahan Wilson
48. “Don’t Look Now,” 1971, Daphne Du Maurier
49. “The Hospice,” 1975, Robert Aickman
50. “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976, Dennis Etchison
51. “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976, James Tiptree, Jr.
52. “The Beak Doctor,” 1977, Eric Basso
53. “My Mother,” 1978, Jamaica Kincaid
54. “Sandkings,” 1979, George R.R. Martin
55. “Window,” 1980, Bob Leman
56. “The Brood,” 1980, Ramsey Campbell
57. “The Autopsy,” 1980, Michael Shea
58. “The Belonging Kind,” 1981, William Gibson/John Shirley
59. “Egnaro,” 1981, M. John Harrison
60. “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982, Joanna Russ
61. “The New Rays,” 1982, M. John Harrison
62. “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984, Premendra Mitra
63. “Soft,” 1984, F. Paul Wilson
64. “Bloodchild,” 1984, Octavia Butler
65. “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984, Clive Barker
66. “Tainaron: Mail From Another City,” 1985, Leena Krohn
67. “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987, Garry Kilworth
68. “Shades,” 1987, Lucius Shepard
69. “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988, Harlan Ellison
70. “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988, Ben Okri
71. “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989, Elizabeth Hand
72. “Family,” 1989, Joyce Carol Oates
73. “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990, Poppy Z. Brite
74. “The End of the Garden,” 1991, Michal Ajvaz
75. “The Dark,” 1991, Karen Joy Fowler
76. “Angels in Love,” 1991, Kathe Koja
77. “The Ice Man,” 1991, Haruki Murakami
78. “Replacements,” 1992, Lisa Tuttle
79. “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993, Marc Laidlaw
80. “The Country Doctor,” 1993, Steven Utley
81. “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994, Martin Simpson
82. “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994, William Browning Spencer
83. “The Delicate,” 1994, Jeffrey Ford
84. “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994, Stephen King
85. “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995, Angela Carter
86. “The Meat Garden,” 1996, Craig Padawer
87. “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997, Stepan Chapman
88. “Yellow and Red,” 1998, Tanith Lee
89. “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998, Kelly Link
90. “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000, Caitlín R. Kiernan
91. “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001, Michael Chabon
92. “Details,” 2002, China Miéville
93. “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002, Michael Cisco
94. “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002, Neil Gaiman
95. “The Cage,” 2002, Jeff VanderMeer
96. “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003, Jeffrey Ford
97. “The Town Manager,” 2003, Thomas Ligotti
98. “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003, Brian Evenson
99. “The White Hands,” 2003, Mark Samuels
100. “Flat Diane,” 2004, Daniel Abraham
101. “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005, Margo Lanagan
102. “The People on the Island,” 2005, T.M. Wright
103. “The Forest,” 2007, Laird Barron
104. “The Hide,” 2007, Liz Williams
105. “Dust Enforcer,” 2008, Reza Negarestani
106. “The Familiars,” 2009, Micaela Morrissette
107. “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009, Steve Duffy
108. “Little Lambs,” 2009, Stephen Graham Jones
109. “The Portal,” 2010, J. Robert Lennon
110. “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010, K.J. Bishop

[Claudia]

I agree with Cathy that the schedule looks good. I agree can't wait to start.

[Devann]

i read the foreweird and introduction today so like ...not much to talk about so far but sounds interesting and i'm glad to see them mention including female authors and poc/authors from countries that american/western audiences might not be familiar with, although it does seem to still be very male and like american/european centered but i guess it also depended on what stories they could get the rights for etc

[Cathy M.]

I've tried reading the Foreword and it lost me a couple times. Might skim thru it and just head straight to the 1st story.

[Devann]

i don't think it's especially necessary to understanding the stories - although i haven't actually started them yet lol i am still in such a slump. but basically just describing what they consider 'weird' fiction and how they put the book together

[Devann]

[edit: gonna try to rate each story and unfortunately this one is ★☆☆☆☆]

well i finally read the first story, the other side. gotta say it's not really off to a great start for me but i was expecting to struggle a bit with the earlier works in this book. i think my main problem is that it's an excerpt and didn't actually make any sense to me. (view spoiler)[i mean it sets it up like 'here's an excerpt about this sleeping sickness' and then suddenly there's a bunch of animals everywhere and everything is rotting for some reason and also we've got a bunch of random women flashing people and also one that got eaten by a dog??? what??? how is any one of those relevant to the others?? (hide spoiler)] i guess it definitely qualifies as weird but i'm thinking this excerpt might not make much sense outside of the book it is a part of, at least not to me. maybe you guys will get something more out of it lol

[Cathy M.]

I'll get started on the 1st couple stories this weekend! Though not looking forward to that 1st excerpt... I have a feeling I won't much understand it either.

[Devann]

haha it's only about 7,500 words so at least it doesn't take long. i'll try to knock out another one this weekend too

[Devann]

ok read another story! you guys gotta start soon :p gonna try to do ratings for them all because there's no way i'm gonna remember what i liked or not by the end of the year

the screaming skull
★★★☆☆

definitely better than the first story! looking at it over 100 years later it does seem a bit predictable - or maybe that's just me - but it's way better than the first one in that it [gasp] makes sense. kind of gave me an edgar allan poe vibe although the narrative style is more stream of consciousness and less ...idk flowery or atmospheric i guess? gotta say i'm now wondering if (view spoiler)[this method of murder would actually work or be as undetectable as it is here. i mean idk how exactly your ear canal connects to your brain and i'm sure pouring boiling metal in there is going to ruin your ear / hearing at the very least but whether it would undetectably go all the way into your brain i'm just like hmmm i wonder. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

I didn't read much this weekend but finally got thru that 1st story The Other Side. Definitely agree with your 1-star rating for it. I'd rate it the same.

(view spoiler)[1st off, we were just thrust into this "world" with no information and it all just happened so quickly. I mean we didn't even have any info about the MC whose POV we're seeing. Add to that none of the other referenced characters were anyone we've seen or gotten to "know" so whatever happened to them was like, Eh, who cares. I didn't even mind not knowing anything about the sleeping sickness, it was just that all these events didn't mean anything because they all just seemed so random. The snakes and bugs would've had me packing up and getting the hell out of there so I didn't understand why all these people just sat around taking it. And yes, that whole animals & bugs taking over didn't really make sense. Like why? I could understand the cats and dogs, but where the hell did the tiger, leopards, gazelles, parrots, crocodiles, alligators and bears come from? Like where is this supposed to BE? Then when the MC kept mumbling Patera, I kept thinking, who/what is that? And at the end, Patera was the "Lord" but then turned into the American? It really was confusing. (hide spoiler)]

I'm glad that one is over. Putting in the excerpt was I think a bad choice of the editors. I actually think I'll enjoy the more modern works better than the older ones, especially due to the writing styles. But gotta get thru these 1st!

I need to read 1 other book then will start the 2nd story.

[Devann]

yeah the only reason i mentioned the (view spoiler)[sleeping sickness was because the editors specifically chose to mention that in the very short introduction then threw us into this excerpt that had NOTHING to do with that. so i kept trying to think 'how is this related to that' and could never connect it. at first i thought the 'decay' was because everyone was asleep and not doing anything? but then they WEREN'T asleep and also yeah where did all the animals come from. did they break out of zoos?? (hide spoiler)] definitely not checking out the full book of that lol

agree that i'm looking forward to when we get to the 50s at least lol. part of why i read this is because i want to read more older works and i figured short stories would be better, but i still find it difficult sometimes.

[Cathy M.]

Yea, I guess it was more about the effect to the cause (sleeping spell). (view spoiler)[But it seemed like it should've been WAAAAAYYYY longer than 6 days for the mating frenzy & sudden appearance of all these things (animals, bugs, etc). Still would've liked more of an introduction to the MC at least so we cared where his journey was taking him.

I'm not interested either, though I do want to see how long the actual book is to get a gauge on how much more there was to the story. As confusing and lacking as this excerpt was, can't see what else can happen in this story. Except maybe the MC's existential crisis, which I guess we just got a glimpse of at the end there. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

I need to go back and read the intro again but reading this synopsis might've given us a better understanding of what we were going into!

The Other Side tells of a dream kingdom which becomes a nightmare, of a journey to Perle, a mysterious city created deep in Asia, which is also a journey to the depths of the subconscious. Or as Kubin himself called it, 'a sort of Baedeker for those lands which are half known to us'.

And FYI - the paperback is 320 pages!! Skimming thru some of the reviews actually gives more information (view spoiler)[(like who Patera is & why he seemed to hate the American so much!) (hide spoiler)]... and it might not have been as bad if we had this before reading!

Talk about utter fail...

[Devann]

haha i still feel like it might be a bit too 'out there' for me but yeah a better introduction might have helped

[Devann]

read another one today

the willows ★★★☆☆

this one was maybe a bit word for me [20k for this story alone, that's basically a novella], but i did find it enjoyable overall so i'll give another 3 star rating. creepy idea with the willows and everything and also puts me in mind of my own thankfully much smaller misfortunes on a river. we just have small rivers here but one time my roommate lost the top part of his dentures when he went under briefly and hit a rock and another time i cut my foot on something and it got infected and i had to get IV antibiotics. rivers will definitely get you lol

[Devann]

did another one today

Sredni Vashtar ★★☆☆☆

this one didn't make me mad like the first one but i didn't really find anything likable in it either so two stars. it was just under 2,000 words so not really enough to tell a compelling story in my opinion and mostly i'm just sitting here going 'why???'. also wondering why some english guy decided to take the pen name of 'saki' but whatever the reason i'm sure it's not great lol

[Cathy M.]

I'm on the 3rd story now & will comment on both 2nd & 3rd stories tonight :)

[Devann]

ok cool :) the willow story is definitely the longest one i had scheduled for this month so once you get through that i think it will seem more manageable lol

[Cathy M.]

#2 - The Screaming Skull
Rate: Not quite 3 stars, not as bad as 2 stars so 2.5 stars it is!

Should be subtitled "The Ramblings of an Old Man", though in its defense, the intro did state it was an "example of modern monologue, veering on stream-of-consciousness at times."
(view spoiler)[I enjoyed the sleepy and dark tone of the story, and the psychological "suspense" of the story. It was entertaining, though at times the ramblings of the MC sort of lost me and I had to power thru to move forward.

I've never heard of the whole lead in the ear thing before (that I recall) so that was an interesting way to off someone. No blood, no evidence (since it was inserted pretty far into the ear canal). But you would think there would be some outward sign. Of course forensics was only in the beginning stages so they probably didn't know to look for anything.

Once we got little tidbits it was easy to predict what would come next, but I did not imagine that the skull/Mrs Pratt would want to exact revenge not only on her husband for killing her but for the MC who told her husband about a death carried out in this manner. It wasn't really his fault! I just thought the skull really wanted to stay in that house. But at the same time I thought it was a little too expected to end in the way that it did. That last surprise. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

#3 - The Willows
Rate: 2 stars

(view spoiler)[God this one bored me. It took me several tries to get into the story, and it was hard to get thru it. I don't know why but it just did not hold my attention until closer to the end when more things were happening. That's not to say the story wasn't well written. I think it was, it just wasn't calling to me.

It was hard for me to picture the setting - they were on an island on a river, and I've seen big rivers before but it just didn't compute in my head because I kept picturing something smaller and thought it shouldn't be that hard to escape!

The willows, and what happened at night on that island in general, was definitely creepy. But when it 1st started happening, I was like What are these guys smoking in those pipes? It just didn't seem like reality, like maybe they were tripping on something. But then it was like an alternate reality type thing, like a veil to the other side (at least that's what I think happened?), and then I was like They're screwed, they're going to be swallowed up by this place. I was actually surprised that they survived though it was almost a cop out that some stranger ended up becoming the sacrifice.

Eh, wasn't a fan of it and I'm not into analyzing every little thing so moving on! (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

#4 - Sredni Vashtar
Rate: 3.5 stars

(view spoiler)[Simple & quick short story! This didn't seem on the same wavelength as the others so far in the weird aspect but it was enjoyable all the same.

But dude, to have a 10yo boy want to have his guardian killed? A little morbid. I didn't think the ferret had it in him :P But would've been interesting if this had been used as an intro for a character in a longer story, or to have had more of his story. (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Devann wrote: "ok read another story! you guys gotta start soon :p gonna try to do ratings for them all because there's no way i'm gonna remember what i liked or not by the end of the year

the screaming skull
★★..."

Hahaha, *gasp* it did make sense :) And that was exactly it - the Poe vibe (though I don't think I've ever read Poe)...

(view spoiler)[I'm thinking that the lead is so hot it would melt thru any tissue in the ear canal & would actually make it to the brain (& subsequently eat thru brain tissue). Or maybe I'm trying to make it work :) (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

Devann wrote: "read another one today

the willows ★★★☆☆

this one was maybe a bit word for me [20k for this story alone, that's basically a novella], but i did find it enjoyable overall so i'll give another 3 s..."

Those are not fun stories about rivers! The only river I'm "familiar" with is Han River in Seoul which was always super dirty (no going in the water here!) and not fast moving, except for the time in 1990 when it flooded. And I did go to the Grand Canyon when I was in elementary school but only saw it from the top :) And there are the 3 rivers in Pittsburgh, but again, nothing exciting. So my frame of reference wasn't that big.

This one was definitely more atmospheric than the previous one.

[Cathy M.]

Devann wrote: "did another one today

Sredni Vashtar ★★☆☆☆

this one didn't make me mad like the first one but i didn't really find anything likable in it either so two stars. it was just under 2,000 words so not..."

I rated this one higher than you but I think it's mostly because it kept my attention from the beginning. There could've been a lot more details to round it out, like the relationship between the 2.

And hahaha the author probably thought it was cool, and liked Indian/Asian culture or something. He did name the story Sredni Vashtar which was really out of left field and I couldn't see where he would even get a name like that...

Apparently this story was made into an opera, film, television and radio!

[Devann]

re: the screaming skull. haha yes he did tend to go on a bit more than i thought was strictly necessary but i think that was kind of the style back then. (view spoiler)[agree that the lead in the ear thing seems possible but also a bit unlikely. like you'd think some of it might leak out the other ear or the nose or something? but yeah forensics wasn't a huge thing at the time so i guess we can just go with it ;) and maybe she was mad that he was just hanging around living in 'her' house? or maybe she wanted him to shut up XD but i could see how she would think it was 'his fault' even though it definitely wasn't. he couldn't have known her husband was a psychopath! (hide spoiler)]

re: sredni vashtar. it does seem like it would be more of an introduction to something larger rather than something to stand on its own. i guess maybe the 'point' is to raise questions but after those two longer stories it just really threw me on how short it was.

and yeah i'm wondering if this saki guy was like an early 20th century version of a weeaboo lol like 'ok i'm gonna have a cool japanese pen name and name my story something vaguely indian sounding'. although when i put 'Sredni Vashtar' into google translate it says it's bulgarian but also just translates it to 'middle vashtar' so idek. interesting that the story was adapted into so many mediums though since it's so short. i guess maybe it was good for a beginning idea and then other people could build off it how they wanted.

re: the wiilows. we have a few rivers around here and they are very slow moving usually but when it rains all bets are off lol my injury wasn't even when there was a lot of water, it was actually when it was really low and we had to get out and walk our floats over a really shallow bit and there was a ledge i didn't realize and i slipped off it and cut my foot really deep on the rock. my roommate's was when it was really fast but also we were being dumb and like playing in the fast part because ~ooh water slide~ and he went under and knocked his teeth out. AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE HAD FAKE TEETH. he came up and he was like 'i lost my teeth' and i was like EXCUSE ME???? apparently he lost them all in a car wreck and just never told me lol

[Devann]

finally did another one of these today

★★☆☆☆ “Casting the Runes,” 1911, M.R. James

it really isn't a bad story and it's probably more of a 2.5 but unfortunately this entire thing just seemed to go in one ear and right out the other. like i literally just read it and all i could say was 'uh, they were trying to solve some kind of mystery?'. i'm sure some of that is my own mental state lately but there was just not a single thing that made an impression on me. kind of disappointing since the writer of the magnus archives podcast has said he uses m.r. james for inspiration and i really love that podcast so i was planning on trying to read more of his work.

[Devann]

and another one

★★★☆☆ How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles

another very short one here. i feel like a lot of these early stories are just me rating them all 2.5 and trying to decide whether to round up or down lol but i did find this one interesting and i think it had a more 'modern' narration style with like less flowery language and more action than some of the others and also with the narrator addressing the reader directly. would have actually liked for this one to be a bit longer but alas

[Devann]

i did two today and hope to do the last one for this month tomorrow. these were both incredibly short but i did like them in spite of that

★★★☆☆ “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912, Gustav Meyrink

i really wish this one was longer because i love stuff with marionettes and also the (view spoiler)[thing with the performers dying in front of the audience reminded me a bit of the prestige movie (hide spoiler)] definitely has a good atmosphere but sooo sooo short

★★★☆☆ “The Dissection,” 1913, Georg Heym

this one is definitely more of a prose-poem like it says in the introduction paragraph but again i think it had some really good imagery and interesting ideas

the next story is a bit longer so i'm hoping it will be good lol

[Devann]

finally read the last january story today! i actually really liked this one and decided to give it my first 4 star rating of the book

★★★★☆ “The Spider,” 1915, Hanns Heinz Ewers

(view spoiler)[i guess it was still pretty straight forward once the woman across the street was revealed but i think it was still well written and definitely had more of a modern tone. also heck yeah supernatural female murderers lol. this reminded me a lot of the screaming skull story from earlier actually but i think the stream of conscious narration style was much better done in this one and it actually built suspense instead of just 'what is this dude going on about' (hide spoiler)]

[Alissa]

Finished The Spider today and decided to pop in and see where you lot were at. I have to say I was reading your reviews and finding that for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything about most of the stories from just the titles. I actually went back through the book to get a refresher lol... I actually found The Other Side intriguing at the beginning but then terribly confusing. Anyone else moved to find and read the whole story?

[Devann]

haha yeah a lot of these were not very memorable just from the title. i mean screaming skull, man in the bottle, dissection, and the willows are memorable but just because they are such literal titles for what happens in the stories. and sredni vashtar because it's so baffling to me. but yeah the other ones i'm just like um which one was that again??

i definitely would not want to read the rest of the other side, although i guess it might make the whole thing make more sense. idk it just seemed like one of those things where they pile weird thing on top of weird thing and then MAYBE it makes some amount of sense at the end but i just generally don't like things like that. like i'm good with weird but there still need to be ...rules. or a point or something

[Cathy M.]

Okay, I've been reading this one for the last week and FINALLY finished it!!!!!! Running a little behind but am trying to get caught up in the next day or two!

#5 “Casting the Runes”
Rate: 2 stars

I thought it started out ok and thought it would be a good one but after the 1st couple pages I put it down and every time I picked it up again, I'd read a few sentences and could not get into it again. But I was just like you Devann, in 1 ear, out the other. It felt like run on sentences and dull conversation. Like the whole runes thing I didn't get. And I didn't get Karsell. I had to go back and re-read sections to somewhat understand it and the whole getting the paper back to Karswell so the ending made more sense.

I might have enjoyed it more if I read it in 1 sitting, and was in the mindset to read this piece, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for it. So the rating is more on me. I think I'll tag it to go back to it sometime to see if I maybe enjoy it more.

[Cathy M.]

Re The Other Side, I'm not sure. On 1 hand, that whole excerpt was confusing and didn't make a lot of sense. But going back and reading the synopsis, in the whole of the story, it probably fit perfectly. So although the synopsis did sound interesting as a whole, I probably wouldn't pick it up unless I had the audiobook or needed it for a challenge or something.

[Devann]

yeah with casting the runes i was like ...should i try to read it again? and then i just decided that i didn't actually care lol but i was amazed how much i remembered nothing from it

[Cathy M.]

Hahaha yea totally get it. It was really hyped up though (having been adapted into film, radio & stage), so I feel like I just missed the points of it. I'm interested in seeing if there was anything more modern that was adapted from it.

[Cathy M.]

#6 How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles
Rating: 2.5 stars

To start, so what the heck are gnoles? Are they like gnomes, or fairies? And then based on the title, his "art" is to throw unsuspecting innocents at their home so he could learn how to best them? Was that the point? If so, can't say he's a "good" character but he is a burglar and thief so...

I agree that it was easier to read (the narration) and felt like it could've been elaborated to a really great short story. It was too short and I wanted more from it. It just felt like we just barely touched the surface of it and went by way too quickly.

[Devann]

lol that is one that i liked well enough at the time but now can't remember a damn thing about but yeah no idea what a gnole is. maybe he could have filled us in if it was longer -_-;

i know that it's not really feasible here because this is such a long book with so many stories written over a long period of time but i do really love an anthology where everything is a fairly uniform length. i always get a bit tetchy when i read one story that is 10k and then the next one is only 2k or something. idk why but for some reason it really throws me off. really i think about 4-8k is the perfect length for a short story for me.

[Cathy M.]

Or maybe he used gnole and either expected the reader to know what it was or to use our imagination? Maybe it was something that they knew of back in the day but got lost in time? But based on them hiding in the trees, I'll just think of them as evil fairies :)

Yea, it's easier to judge when they are more similar in length. But I don't mind the switch from shorter to longer, as long as they make sense & feel complete!

[Cathy M.]

Ok finally caught up in the January stories!!

#7 “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912, Gustav Meyrink
Rating: 3 Stars

Okay so... (view spoiler)[There was a Prince, married to the Princess, who apparently was having an affair with the Count. They are at this masked ball where the Prince "wrote" the entertainment for the evening in which the Count was placed in this huge bottle and his princess was tied up in (?) the chair to watch as her lover suffocated to death. Well then! I'm sure there was a ton of symbolism or whatnot in it that I didn't catch, but the plot surely kept my attention. How ironic that the play was called "A Comedy". This was probably one of the more memorable and enjoyable ones! (hide spoiler)]

[Cathy M.]

#8 “The Dissection,” 1913, Georg Heym
Rating: 2 Stars

I did not get the point of this one... I get that it was written in prose, but I just kept waiting for something to happen.

[Cathy M.]

#9 “The Spider,” 1915, Hanns Heinz Ewers
Rating: 4 Stars

The best one so far! Looks like our rating for it is the same :)

And reading your comment, I totally agree. The writing here was so much better! It kept your attention, built suspense, and you wanted to find out what would happen next.

But (view spoiler)[the whole spider bit? Was it a spider that got into his head (I mean literally) *shudders* and made him hallucinate/act on it all? Or was it a spider's bite? He tried to fight it, and even succeeded a lot longer than the previous victims, but I knew it was inevitable that he succumb to her tricks. It's like even though I knew it was coming, it was still a little shocking. Love that he got her in the end too! (hide spoiler)]

[Devann]

finally did another one of these

★★★☆☆ “The Hungry Stones,” 1916, Rabindranath Tagore

i thought this one had a lot of really good imagery but it seemed like maybe there should have been more to it. i guess it did reference arabian nights a few times so maybe it was supposed to feel like a part of something larger, but i don't think the intro said there was a longer book or anything. still, it's nice to get a perspective that isn't european in this anthology.

[Devann]

did another one today

★★★☆☆ “The Vegetable Man,” 1917, Luigi Ugolini

this one was a bit short but i just like the idea of it and i thought it was very readable. kind of reminded me of an early version of swamp thing lol

[Devann]

and another one

★★★★☆ “The People of the Pit,” 1918, A. Merritt

actually really enjoyed this one so i'll give it my 2nd 4 star rating of the book. i think i mostly like the slightly longer ones because there is a bit more meat to them and it really has time to get an atmosphere going. this one i definitely think had a good mix of weird and creepy and also reminded me of a couple episodes of the magnus archives so i'm wondering if the writer maybe read this at some point since he reads a lot of old horror stuff.

[Cathy M.]

A little late but getting caught up!

10. “The Hungry Stones,” - 2 Stars

I agree that the imagery was well done BUT I started this one multiple times in the last 2 weeks and just couldn't get past the initial start of the man's story. But it was probably just me not being motivated to read it. It's great that it referenced Arabian Nights but I am not at all familiar with that story so it was lost on me. I do think it was the beginning of something interesting but then the man starts the story about the young princess and the story ends??????????????? Are you kidding me? Where's the rest? And how did this man escape?????????? It definitely felt incomplete without any questions answered or any resolution to it. Odd that it just ended like that. I thought maybe this was just an excerpt but couldn't find any reference that it was.

[Cathy M.]

11. “The Vegetable Man,” - 4 Stars


Predictable and reminded me of a movie I've seen or book I've read with someone similar happening. But it was short, was COMPLETE, and I enjoyed it.