Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Buddy Reads: Current & Upcoming
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A Weighty Tome: 2020 Challenge: The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
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i think i've read a few more since i posted but didn't do a review bc i wasnt sure if you guys were still going lol i'll try to post something tonight.
Awww sorry! I'll keep reading with you, just going slower than I thought I would because I keep getting caught up in other challenges. But I'm at my limit now and managing to balance them ok :)
ok looks like i just read one more so★★★★☆ “The Hell Screen,” 1918, Ryunosuke Akutagawa
this one i really liked although i wasn't wild about how (view spoiler). the language seemed a bit stilted at first which i assume is due to the translation but i got into it more as it went along.
Oh yay, not too far behind then! I started that one last night (though didn't get very far), and should finish it today.
★★☆☆☆ “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919, Francis Stevensoh i really wanted to like this one. i was like finally a female author! then i just zoned out through the entire thing. like that other one earlier where i very much did just read it but couldn't tell you a thing about it [except he got something wrapped in a weird membrane from south america i guess]. i think a lot of these stories the rating probably depends just as much on my state of mind as whether they are 'good' or not, or maybe which stories came before or after them.
i think i'm gonna skip the penal colony for now and focus on shorter ones lol maybe that will help my concentration ...
★★☆☆☆ “The White Wyrak,” 1921, Stefan Grabinski
ok clearly that was not a good idea either lol this one was more readable but i just didn't find it that interesting. seemed like a pretty standard monster story, although i guess it could have been better back when it was first published
just gonna power through and do one more so i'll just have the longer ones for fri/sat
★★★☆☆ “The Night Wire,” 1926, H.F. Arnold
liked this one more than the other two! i agree with the introduction that it's impressive it still feels weird and spooky even though they are also using technology that is way outdated and most of us have not really seen/used. i could see this one being an episode of the twilight zone.
ok last two for this month★★★★☆ “In the Penal Colony,” 1919, Franz Kafka
ok this one was just ...real messed up! i guess i shouldn't be surprised because it's kafka but still. i did like it though and i guess if i found it really disturbing then it's doing its job as horror
★★☆☆☆ “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929, H.P. Lovecraft
ok i'll be real i only read half of this lol. for all i love horror i just do not care about lovecraft or find it compelling at all. maybe it's because everyone still tries to do it today and for the most part i think they do it badly and then i'm just super annoyed with the whole concept and can't even read the original stuff idk. but this one was so long and i just didn't feel like finishing it -_-;
so that catches me up to the end of february! hopefully i can be more on top of it next month ...
Finally catching up! Am reading the Lovecraft one now but it's been slow-going.“The Hell Screen,” 1918, Ryunosuke Akutagawa - 3.5 stars
I don't know why this took me 2 weeks to read. The imagery was great, and the story as a whole was quite entertaining. How the arrogant painter's obsession over his art and daughter really became his downfall. I didn't like what happened to the daughter either but wondered if the lord commissioned that particular scene hoping for that outcome?
14. “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919, Francis Stevens - 2 Stars
I didn't really understand it. Like the guy was tripping the whole time, so hallucinated it all? I'm just like you Devann in that my rating is more on my state of mind at the time.
15. “In the Penal Colony,” 1919, Franz Kafka - 3 Stars
Basically a story about a torture device. It sounded a little like a huge tattoo machine. Totally agree that it was disturbing, and the story was for the most part good. The Officer clearly drank the kool-aid, which was just baffling at how much he believed in that form of
16. “The White Wyrak,” 1921, Stefan Grabinski - 2.5 Stars
Ok story but it was a little anticlimactic (it happened so quick!) and over way too soon. Like what was the mythology behind the creature? And almost like What was the Point?
17. “The Night Wire,” 1926, H.F. Arnold - 2.5 Stars
This was definitely creepier and reminded me of The Mist or one of those books/movies. But I sort of wish that it wasn't just a "story" we were reading but rather the MCs were "part" of the story, if that makes sense. Like rather than reading these news wires, wish it was on the ground. Would've ramped up that creepiness factor. But I guess that's been done before as well. And that wouldn't tie in to the revelation at the end about John.
re: the hell screen yeah i got the feeling the lord definitely did it on purpose to like 'teach the guy a lesson' which is i was so UGH about it. like let's hurt a woman to teach a man a lesson. groundbreaking! but since it's so old i will give it a BIT of leeway i guess.re: the penal colony not sure exactly what was going on at the end with that one but i just liked it as a whole so i'm sometimes willing to let a weird end go. maybe there is a sequel to it or he was planning on but never did it? i don't know if leaving things 'open' in case there is demand for more is a more modern concept or not
i haven't read any of the ones for this month yet but i think we are both 'caught up' at this point at least lol i think it tend to leave these for the later part of the month and then go 'oh crap gotta do that!'
ok finally did one for this month★★☆☆☆ “The Book,” 1930, Margaret Irwin
this one was ok i guess and the thing with the book was kind of interesting but i just couldn't focus on it and ended up not really caring what happened so 2 stars womp womp
Devann wrote: "ok finally did one for this month★★☆☆☆ “The Book,” 1930, Margaret Irwin
this one was ok i guess and the thing with the book was kind of interesting but i just couldn't focus on it and ended up n..."
Thank you Devann for your persistance! I've let this one slip for too long but your updates are a constant reminder that when I need a short break from whatever I've gotten into The Weird is still waiting for me!
haha i am determined to finish this book by the end of the year! it will happen!
did another one★★★☆☆ “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930, Jean Ray
i'm starting to think my metric for 3 stars in this anthology is like 'has a plot that makes sense and i remember after reading' lol but this was pretty good. i'm not usually much for like ocean horror stuff but i thought it was interesting and it had a good flow to it. also interesting that this guy has two stories in a row in this anthology. i think i'll wait to read the next one though because it's also pretty long.
and did the other one by the same guy★★☆☆☆ “The Shadowy Street,” 1931, Jean Ray
honestly these were probably both more of a 2.5 for me so i rounded one up and one down. this one wasn't necessarily bad i guess but again it was just one of them that went right in one ear and out the other unfortunately. i do like the idea of a building that only one person can see though, definitely could do a lot with that small detail alone.
ok did three more, i think i might start posting a few at a time here bc the ones i don't like i don't really have much to say about★★☆☆☆ “Genius Loci,” 1933, Clark Ashton Smith
★★☆☆☆ “The Tarn,” 1936, Hugh Walpole
genius loci was another one where i just did not remember what happened at all immediately after reading. the tarn was a bit better in that at least i absorbed the plot but i didn't find it particularly riveting.
★★★★☆ “The Town of Cats,” 1935, Hagiwara Sakutar
this one i liked, it was a good length and easy to follow and i liked the idea that you could literally end up in a different place or kind of mirror dimension just from approaching a place from a different angle etc. very cool.
ok, sliding in with my last 3 of the month just in time:★★☆☆☆ “Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937, Bruno Schulz
um ...i read this one like 3 days ago and i don't remember it? oops
★★☆☆☆ “Far Below,” 1939, Robert Barbour Johnson
this one was kind of interesting i guess but anything so heavily lovecraft inspired honestly just bored me to tears. ~oooh there are weird monsters in the tunnels~ ok thanks for the info!
★★★☆☆ “Smoke Ghost,” 1941, Fritz Leiber
i liked this one a bit more, definitely had an interesting concept and i thought the part where he was talking about how modern ghosts would not look the same as ones from the past was a very interesting point of view.
i think right now we are firmly in the lovecraft era of writing where it's all like ~ooooh inhuman monsters~ ~body horror~ ~people going slowly mad~ and i kind of ...hate all of those. i mean the way a lot of writers in the past - and even today still - deal with writing 'insanity' is just really ableist and i find it hard to overlook in most cases. and as for weird monsters, i am a monster lover so i'm just like 'ok but is the monster hot?'. lovecraft would hate me [and i am totally fine with that]
how are you guys doing? next month seems to be about half as much reading as previous so maybe you can catch up some depending on how your IRL lives are going?
I was doing so well in catching up until this month :( Yes, I will catch up soon!!
Finally picked it up again...I know I’m super behind but... Can I just say In the Penal Colony I mean, wow! Messed up. I can feel my face muscles still tense lol. Don’t quite understand the turn it took at the end. I mean, the tea house was brought up by the Officer early in as a haven for sympathizers of the Old Commandant. And they would have been gathered there on the day of an execution specifically. Must be that they recognized the accused and took it upon themselves to exact justice in his name. Make sense?In the Penal Colony - 4 stars
Yeah it's been awhile since I read that one but that is definitely a possible explanation. Despite the kind of confusing ending though I would definitely say that In The Penal Colony is one of the few that has stuck with me even after I have gone on and read other things. LIke some of these I don't remember what they are minutes after I stop reading, but that one will stick for awhile!
Alissa wrote: "Finally picked it up again...I know I’m super behind but... Can I just say In the Penal Colony I mean, wow! Messed up. I can feel my face muscles still tense lol. Don’t quite understand the turn it..."Huh, thats an interesting take on the end. I waa just confused by it!
I apparently went a big mad and did all of this month's reading in one day. In my defense it was only like 38k and I haven't been reading much that isn't comics lately so once I started I figured I should just get through it if I can!★★★☆☆ “White Rabbits,” 1941, Leonora Carrington
Short but pretty interesting. Although I am just like alkdjfda who thinks ‘oh this random neighbor I’ve never seen asked me for some rotten meat I’d better go buy some just specifically to let it rot’? It reminded me of a Magnus Archives episode where a dude’s upstairs neighbors just nails meat to every surface of his apartment though. I’m starting to wonder if the author of that has read this actually, it would definitely be his kind of thing
★★★☆☆ “Mimic,” 1942, Donald Wollheim
Another pretty interesting story, nothing too outstanding but had some good body horror and a cool premise
★★★☆☆ “The Crowd,” 1943, Ray Bradbury
I think this one is actually in The October Country bc about halfway through I realized I had already read it. This short story is pretty good and definitely has a Twilight Zone feel to it but overall I’m not really a fan of Bradbury’s short stories, some of his longer stuff is pretty good though.
★★☆☆☆ “The Long Sheet,” 1944, William Sansom
I feel like I should have liked this one bc it was similar to the penal colony one from earlier but this one I feel is more like some kind of weird metaphor for like ...idek, production or capitalism or something? And I’m not exactly sure what side the metaphor is on so I’m not sure if I should agree with it or not?
★☆☆☆☆ “The Aleph,” 1945, Jorge Luis Borges
Ok I didn’t actually finish this one so I think I’ve gotta give it one star. Basically I felt like we were making progress in this anthology re: comprehensible language and then this just came and slapped me in the face and I have no idea what was even supposed to be happening. #oops
★★☆☆☆ “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949, Olympe Bhêly-Quénum
This one was okay but it was one of those where I found my attention wandering through most of it [and then he had a ghost orgy or something and I was like whaaat? Lol]
★★★☆☆ “The Summer People,” 1950, Shirley Jackson
I’m always kind of in two minds about Shirley Jackson’s stuff and I feel like usually either the pacing is off or there’s no payoff at the end. This one was probably more the later but it was still a pretty interesting story.
★★☆☆☆ “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951, Margaret St. Clair
THE GNOLES ARE BACK! I still wasn’t wild about this story but at least I actually had a fairly clear picture of what a gnole was this time
★★☆☆☆ “The Hungry House,” 1951, Robert Bloch
This is another one where the concept is fine but I don’t feel like I’m 100% sure what it’s saying. Like to me obviously the male character is being hypocritical in how he talks about the women in the story but I’m not sure if the author realizes that or if he really is like ‘oh wow women are just sooo vain’. Even if it’s supposed to be more tongue in cheek I’m never really sure how I feel about male authors writing about female body image. There’s a quote that is like ‘you painted a woman because you thought she was beautiful, then you put a mirror in her hand and called it vanity’ which I think about a lot when I read things like this. Also it’s been so long since I’ve seen Psycho [and never read the book] so I can’t really like idk get a sense for what this guy is ‘like’ I guess?
Wow! I plan on reading more of them this weekend so should be able to catch up :)
Just a story behind now! Though I do need to go back & read Dunwich Horror since it was longer so skipped for now.“The Book,” 1930, Margaret Irwin - 2 stars
I pretty much felt the same as you. Wasn't feeling this one. Not sure why.
“The Mainz Psalter,” 1930, Jean Ray - 3 stars
I liked the whole at sea and people just disappearing from the ship thing, but then they sort of lost me when they said something about being on a different plane of existence. Like why did it have to go there at all? Didn't realize that it was the same author as the next story.
“The Shadowy Street,” 1931, Jean Ray - 3 stars
Enjoyed the 2 parts of the story but almost think each part of the story (manuscripts) were good enough to stand alone though they were related.
“Genius Loci,” 1933, Clark Ashton Smith - 3 stars
Decent story. I think it painted a good ambiance, though it didn't sound all that "new". Felt like I've either read or seen something that sounded similar. The last line makes me think the MC will have the same fate.
“The Town of Cats,” 1935, Hagiwara Sakutar - 2 Stars
I didn't feel this one as much as you. Probably because it started off stating that the MC was a morphine & cocaine junkie so it just all read like a weird trip to me.
“The Tarn,” 1936, Hugh Walpole - 4 Stars
Easier to read (& more entertaining). You just knew Fenwick was going to off Foster! All that jealousy and hatred brewing for so long. This kept my interest a lot more than some of the others but didn't feel especially "weird". Until the very end.
“Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937, Bruno Schulz - 1 Star (since it wasn't that memorable)
Don't really remember much about this one except the MC's father was in a sanatorium, and there was talk that he was dead in one place but not here, and something about time being manipulated. Guess it went in one ear, out the other. Looks like we had the same reaction :P
“Far Below,” 1939, Robert Barbour Johnson - 2 Stars
Eh. Interesting concept of the monsters in the tunnels though again, wasn't really original (though it probably was the time it was published so maybe I should give it more credit). This was too short and definitely needed more to happen in the story to make it more entertaining.
“Smoke Ghost,” 1941, Fritz Leiber - 2 Stars
Eh. Don't remember all that much about it.
“White Rabbits,” 1941, Leonora Carrington - 3 Stars
Eww feeding rabbits spoiled meat. Poor rabbits. But hahaha yes! I thought the same thing. Like it was super random! Our MC must've needed friends.
“Mimic,” 1942, Donald Wollheim - 3 Stars
Don't remember anything about the movie but this story kept my attention. Maybe because I was looking for something to jog my memory. Descriptive and interesting. Love that it hated women because women notice things. Unlike men. Ain't that the truth.
“The Crowd,” 1943, Ray Bradbury - 3 Stars
My older brother loved horror so I was forced to watch the Ray Bradbury theater growing up. Yea, I was in elementary school so didn't understand most of it but ah, it brings on memories. Agree with the Twilight Zone feeling (again, another show I was forced to watch when I was little). Didn't get why the "crowd" wanted to kill certain people (except for our MC at the end) but enjoyed this story nonetheless.
“The Long Sheet,” 1944, William Sansom - 4 Stars
Loved this one! Not sure about any metaphors... This felt more dystopia than "weird" to me, and wish it was elaborated on more. Like the captives, the warders, this world they lived in. What the point was because come on, there was no way the warders were going to let the captives actually complete their "missions". This hooked me from the very beginning to the end. And talk about memorable! Even a day later I'm thinking about it.
“The Aleph,” 1945, Jorge Luis Borges - 0 Stars (ok 1 if I have to give anything)
I'm so glad I was not the only one with this!!!! It just seemed to run on. Like the author was trying to be overly descriptive and it didn't flow right (or maybe it was the translation?). I did not get any sense on what it was about. Even the whole Aleph thing. Like it happened a lot further into the story so by then, it was like an afterthought. Like I have to add something weird to it! By that point it was too late. It already lost my attention.
“A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949, Olympe Bhêly-Quénum - 3 Stars
Ok, yes I agree the orgy thing was a little weird. But I liked that the story was different/unique and from a different point of view that what we are used to.
“The Summer People,” 1950, Shirley Jackson - 3 Stars
I was enjoying it but then it ended. Like what? Where's the rest?????? I wanted to know what happened next!!!!!! So disappointed. Definitely no payoff grrrr.
“The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951, Margaret St. Clair - 3 Stars
Hahaha yes the gnoles again! It was going so well until he got greedy :) Enjoyed this story more than the previous one, and glad we finally learned what these gnoles were. Of course it ended as expected but was fun while it lasted!
i must have missed the part in town of cats where it said the narrator was on drugs but you're right that does give the story a completely different context. still pretty interesting to think about though. and i agree that i will definitely remember the long sheet story far more than most of the others in this anthology but im still just like ...what exactly are you trying to say, if anything lol
i like how we're basically just dividing up these stories into lke 'comprehensible vs incomprehensible' as well -_-;
hahaha yes, but given that we're reading a number of them at a time (or in my case rushing thru to catch up!), that's what sort of sticks out :) Plus the first ones were the older ones.
yeah as we get into the 50s it's definitely like more recognizable as what i think of as a 'modern' story and also seeing some more authors that i recognize
I think because it is more modern, I'm starting to get into them more. I ended up reading more last weekend to get a jump on this month's reading so let's see if I remember them :)"The Hungry House,” 1951, Robert Bloch - 3 Stars
Decent haunted house story. There was something about the story that I didn't get but can't remember what it was now. I didn't really get the same feeling as you did re: the author's description of the women in the story. But then again, I don't usually. Plus it was written in the 50s when men were more blatantly misogynistic so could just be the times.
"The Complete Gentleman,” 1952, Amos Tutuola - 2.5 stars
I liked the story but the ending was just a little too tidy. Like he stole the girl back, just happened to see/hear the "gentleman" on how to release her with the leaf, and that was it?
“‘It’s a Good Life,’” 1953, Jerome Bixby - 4.5 stars
Could totally see this being filmed for a Twilight Zone episode. It was really well done. Not completely explained but I think the mystery of their situation was what made it so good. More of that psychological aspect, and made me feel like I was part of this scary community.
“Mister Taylor,” 1952, Augusto Monterroso - 2 stars
A bit predictable in the end. But I kept getting confused by what was going on. Talking about governments and politics...
“Axolotl,” 1956, Julio Cortázar - 2 stars
Good imagery but I didn't particularly think of this as "weird". I kept waiting for something to happen. It was like And? Like he didn't really become an Axolotl, it was just stemmed from his obsession with these creatures and his imagination.
ok i finally read another one! ★★☆☆☆ “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952, Amos Tutuola
i agree that this one was a little too neat / tidy at the end and like ...it did make way more sense than the excerpt we had as the first story but I was still like is there more context to this that I should be getting at the beginning or is this maybe like a story that one character tells the other in the larger main novel? It definitely had a kind of folktale feel to it so I could see that. Overall I just wasn't feeling it although I did laugh at the end when he was just like 'and that's how I got a wife' like aldkjfdsa thanks I hate it but also I am laughing so [shrug] A lot of the wording was also very clunky but I think that could probably be due to translation issues.
I'll try to read a few more soon but my brain is just totally nerfed lately and I have not been reading much at all.
and another one★★★☆☆ “‘It’s a Good Life,’” 1953, Jerome Bixby
this one was pretty good but honestly i skimmed a lot of it because i don't like reading about people torturing animals. i agree that it definitely read like a twilight zone episode and although i had a lot of questions while reading it they did get revealed at the end. probably would have given it four stars if i could just enjoyed it instead of worrying about the animal death.
went ahead and did two bc they're so short and now i'm caught up with you!★★☆☆☆ “Mister Taylor,” 1952, Augusto Monterroso
i agree that this one was weirdly confusing for how short and seemingly straightforward it was. idk it's like my mind just kept wandering while i was trying to read it. definitely an interesting concept though
★★☆☆☆ “Axolotl,” 1956, Julio Cortázar
again i agree that this wasn't really weird and it was also another one of those that just seemed to go in one ear and out the other.
did another short one today★★☆☆☆ “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956, William Sansom
this one i feel could have been better if it was longer or if there was more 'weird' stuff earlier on i feel. like it was so so short and i was just like 'what is so weird about this' and then the last few sentences were like (view spoiler) and i was like ??? ok???
i am very excited for the next one though! the howling man is my favorite twilight zone episode so i'm hoping the story it was based on will also be great.
★★★★☆ “The Howling Man,” 1959, Charles Beaumontdefinitely liked this one although really it just makes me want to re-watch the twilight zone episode because i remember it being just slightly different in that adaptation. interested to hear your thoughts on it if you aren't familiar with it because obviously i knew the twist that was coming so it might read a bit differently for the first time.
nothing to do with the story but one time i said this was my favorite twilight zone episode and some random dude sent me a message that was like 'its okay but if you watch more of them you will see that there are better ones' and im just like alkdjfda i've seen them all bitch but thanks for mansplaining the twilight zone to me i guess?
★★☆☆☆ “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963, Mervyn Peakethis was just another one of those that i couldn't concentrate on for whatever reason. kind of upsetting since i'm planning on reading gormenghast because i loved the show so much, but i think they are very different styles of story so just because i didn't like this doesn't necessarily mean i won't like that
★★★☆☆ “The Salamander,” 1967, Mercè Rodoreda
skipped the long one to go to this one instead, i'll probably do the other one on sat or sun to finish out the month. this one is probably more of a 2.5 but i did like the symbolism of the witch burning and the salamanders and though it was interesting enough to bump up to 3.
one day late but finally caught up!★★★☆☆ “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967, Michel Bernanos
this one was actually pretty good and i probably would have given it 4 stars if it had been like half the length it was because i just kept losing focus a lot. i guess it isn't that long in the grand scheme of things but it was probably almost as long as the other 8 stories in this section put together so i think it was maybe a bit long for an anthology like this. still it was pretty enjoyable.
I haven't read anymore since my last update but I'll try to get caught up in the next couple days!
trying to knock a few of these out before wheel starts lol★★☆☆☆ “The Ghoulbird,” 1967, Claude Seignolle
this was once again one of those that just went in one ear and out the other
★★☆☆☆ “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967, Gahan Wilson
i feel like i might have liked this more if i was more familiar with alice in wonderland or cared more about it? it was okay but i felt like maybe there were things i was missing never having read that.
★★★☆☆ “Don’t Look Now,” 1971, Daphne Du Maurier
this one took awhile to warm up but by the halfway point i thought it was pretty interesting and liked how it turned out.
Im still behind, sorry! And I was doing so well :( I had planned to get more done before wheel starts but its too late now dangit! I wish this was on audio. I was able to find a couple individually but the not the next set I need to read...
yeah that would be so helpful if it was on audio but also god i don't even want to know how long the audio book would be, like 50 hours or something lol anyway i got through all of them except one and i think im gonna do that one tomorrow before i officially start wheel stuff, might as well while i'm on a roll★★★☆☆ “The Hospice,” 1975, Robert Aickman
this one was definitely interesting and had a very creepy vibe. also i could easily picture it as like a movie or episode of a tv show. kind of petered out there at the end but still pretty enjoyable i felt.
★★☆☆☆ “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976, Dennis Etchison
don't even remember what this was and i read it like 6 hours ago!
X “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976, James Tiptree, Jr.
ok first one i am not actually rating because i got not very far into it at all and discovered that he actually is doing mean things to rats and i don't want to read about it right now!
★★★☆☆ “My Mother,” 1978, Jamaica Kincaid
this one was very short but definitely had some interesting themes and imagery
★★★★☆ “Sandkings,” 1979, George R.R. Martin
actually really liked this one! wasn't sure how i was going to feel because i am never sure my feelings on ASOIAF and haven't read anything else by him but this was actually really good. i would maybe consider it more scifi than horror but it did get more horrory at the end.
[edit: ok i tried to read the beak doctor a i just cannot handle the purposely flowery language being used so i skipped it. too long to mess w/ all that. all caught up lol]
amazingly did all of this month's reading in the past couple days, didn't really do individual reviews of the stories while i was reading them bc i was just trying to keep moving and not run out of steam. i do feel like the stories are getting a bit better overall as we move closer to modern day but i'm also just like goddamn i have been reading this book for seven months will it never end? not that it's entirely unenjoyable or anything but this is BY FAR the longest thing i have ever tried to read and i don't think i've ever taken longer than like ...3 weeks to finish a book EVER so it's kind of a weird experience for me. ANYWAY:★★☆☆☆ [DNF] “Egnaro,” 1981, M. John Harrison
★★☆☆☆ “The New Rays,” 1982, M. John Harrison
★★☆☆☆ “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982, Joanna Russ
★★☆☆☆ “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984, Premendra Mitra
again i feel like the two star ones for me are either like 'this makes literally no sense' or 'what was even the point for me' so i really have nothing to say about these
★★★☆☆ “The Autopsy,” 1980, Michael Shea
★★★☆☆ “The Brood,” 1980, Ramsey Campbell
★★★☆☆ “The Belonging Kind,” 1981, William Gibson/John Shirley
these were pretty good, they were weird but you could easily tell what was going on, which is apparently my metric for a decent story in this book lol. the autopsy was a bit long i thought but it really picked up at the end and was pretty interesting.
★★★★☆ “Window,” 1980, Bob Leman
★★★★☆ “Soft,” 1984, F. Paul Wilson
really liked these! window went in a very creepy direction and it was definitely one of the ones where i could just see certain scenes incredibly vividly like if it was a movie. soft was also really creepy and had a definite short film quality to it.
Hahaha yes I feel similar - like it feels like it will never end.But oh good, those last ones were 4 stars! I do agree that the more modern ones are better than the earlier ones so I need to get there...
I figured I'll just catch up once Wheel is done. I don't have any other challenges so should just be able to concentrate on this book :P
yeah i was just like mmm i got my promised amount in for wheel so i'll just go ahead and do it for the month, also im afraid if i fall behind i will never catch up lol
Now that Wheel is done, I'll be starting on these stories again!
ok i am gonna have very bad comments on individual stories this month bc i read most of these like last fri/sat and then just totally forgot to come here and say anything lol, but i am caught up!★★☆☆☆ “Bloodchild,” 1984, Octavia Butler
★★★☆☆ “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984, Clive Barker
★★★★☆ “Tainaron: Mail From Another City,” 1985, Leena Krohn
★★☆☆☆ “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987, Garry Kilworth
DNF--- “Shades,” 1987, Lucius Shepard
★★★☆☆ “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988, Harlan Ellison
★★★☆☆ “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988, Ben Okri
★★☆☆☆ “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989, Elizabeth Hand
★★☆☆☆ “Family,” 1989, Joyce Carol Oates
from what i remember i didn't read shades bc it seemed like it was going to be very war focused and i don't really like war stories and my attention span was just very off that day. the harlan ellison one was pretty good but im so sick of listening to male authors tell me their deep insights into the minds of silly women so i got very turned off in a few areas of that. the clive barker and ben okri ones had a lot of really good imagery in them. don't really remember a lot about the ones that i gave 2 stars but i think it's probably just more of the bleh it's a story i guess kind of thing. actually really enjoyed tainaron even though i thought i wouldn't bc it was the longest by far but i think there was a lot of really good stuff in there even though it took awhile to get through.
went ahead and did this month's reading today since it was pretty short★★★★☆ “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990, Poppy Z. Brite
on the one hand all of brite's stuff is just incredibly tryhard edgy bullshit but also it makes me incredibly nostalgic for all the bad opinions i had when i was 15 so like [shrug] also tbf this short story isn't nearly as messed up as most of his novels that i've read
★★★☆☆ “The End of the Garden,” 1991, Michal Ajvaz
maybe more of a 2.5 but it was interesting and had a coherent plot which is pretty much my 3 star standard for this book at this point. im thinking that i am probably being far more lenient on stuff than i was in the beginning, although maybe it is just getting better as we get to the newer stuff
★★★☆☆ “The Dark,” 1991, Karen Joy Fowler
again this one was really interesting but also i did not really understand how the different parts of the story fit together
★★☆☆☆ “Angels in Love,” 1991, Kathe Koja
idek, all i remember from this one is 'there was a bunch of weird sex'. 2 stars is the pretty standard 'don't actually remember the plot even though i read it 6 hours ago rating' at this point.
★★★☆☆ “The Ice Man,” 1991, Haruki Murakami
interesting and comprehensible, 3 stars lol
★★☆☆☆ “Replacements,” 1992, Lisa Tuttle
um ...i forgot to write any notes for this one so i do not remember what it was about. #oops
★★☆☆☆ “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993, Marc Laidlaw
the notes i have on this one are '???' so clearly i didn't even understand it at the time
★★★☆☆ “The Country Doctor,” 1993, Steven Utley
thought this one was pretty interesting, another one of those that i could definitely see as an episode of the twilight zone
DNF--- “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994, Martin Simpson
this one started with an animal death and i just didn't want to deal with that so dnf after the first few paragraphs
went ahead and got these out of the way since there are apparently seven books coming out tomorrow that are on my tbr lol★★★☆☆ “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994, William Browning Spencer
Still can’t really bring myself to care about anything Lovecraftian that much but it was an interesting story and had good momentum I felt.
★★☆☆☆ “The Delicate,” 1994, Jeffrey Ford
Liked the concept but it lost me somewhere and I felt like it was difficult to follow.
★★★☆☆ “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994, Stephen King
More of a 2.5 really but I guess I’ll round up. It’s not bad by any means but also how many stories does Stephen King have where small town old timey meet the devil somewhere and then tell a story about it? I was just like ‘devil wears prada groundbreaking .gif’ the whole time.
★★☆☆☆ “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995, Angela Carter
Didn’t really care for this one. I’d read a short story collection by this author before and didn’t care for that either but thought this might be different because those were all fairytale retellings and this one isn’t but i guess this author just isn’t for me
★★★☆☆ “The Meat Garden,” 1996, Craig Padawer
This one did lose me at a few different points but it’s such an interesting idea. I’m not usually one for plant based body horror but this was definitely intriguing.
★★★☆☆ “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997, Stepan Chapman
Actually really liked this one and it’s nice to have a short funny one for a change, but still a bit too short for me to really round it up to four stars.
★★★★☆ “Yellow and Red,” 1998, Tanith Lee
Really enjoyed this one. I’ve got a few books by this author on my tbr actually so I’m excited for when I finally get to those now
★★★★☆ “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998, Kelly Link
This one was very creepy, good atmosphere and pacing.
★★★☆☆ “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000, Caitlín R. Kiernan
Generally I really like Kiernan but once again it’s just hard for me to care about Cthulhu stuff. Usually her stories have lesbians in them so that makes up for any Cthulhu stuff like this but alas this seems to be a rare lesbian-less story lol
not sure if you're planning on trying to finish or just gave up but i'm gonna keep posting just bc i think i'm gonna link to this post in my review★★★☆☆ “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001, Michael Chabon
ok i don't actually remember what this one was about but i remember liking it while i was reading it #oops lol
★★☆☆☆ “Details,” 2002, China Miéville
i just don't think i'm into china mieville. i thought i didn't like kraken bc i am so sick of lovecraft stuff but i'm starting to think he just doesn't write in a way that makes sense to me.
★★☆☆☆ “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002, Michael Cisco
another one of those that i just couldn't pay attention to. seems like it should have been interesting but my focus just kept glancing off it
X☆☆☆☆ “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002, Neil Gaiman [DNF]
didn't actually read this one past the first few paragraphs because i'm 99% sure i've read it before and that something awful happens to that cat. @neil what do you have against cats in your short stories???
★★☆☆☆ “The Cage,” 2002, Jeff VanderMeer [DNF]
womp womp, not a good sign when you DNF the story by the guy who put the anthology together. if it was shorter i would have finished but at this point if i'm not feeling it and it's longer than 5k i'm just like bleh
★★★☆☆ “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003, Jeffrey Ford
thought this one was really interesting and had a good like dark mood to it, probably could have actually gone up to 4 stars if this had been one of the longer ones
★★★★☆ “The Town Manager,” 2003, Thomas Ligotti
really enjoyed this one and felt like it had a good ending, which a lot of these really seem to lack. definitely a good social commentary kind of thing.
★★★☆☆ “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003, Brian Evenson [DNF]
this one was actually REALLY good and i possibly would have given it four stars if i had been able to finish it but i think i stopped about a third of the way through bc it all just got to be too much for me. amputation is one of those things that really gets to me but i do think it was a good idea and well written.
★★★★☆ “The White Hands,” 2003, Mark Samuels
really liked this one, again it had a really good like dark gothic kind of mood that i enjoyed.
So sorry, I keep meaning to read more but then something always comes up! Last month and half all I did was listen to audiobooks since Audible Escape was going away. But I will start these stories again!!
its fine either way i just wasn't sure bc i thought you dropped off before the halfway point even so i wasn't sure if you'd even want to try to finish it. but i'm definitely interested in hearing your thoughts if you read more!i went ahead and read the rest of it yesterday/today bc i just wanted to get it done with at this point
★★☆☆☆ “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005, Margo Lanagan
★★☆☆☆ “The People on the Island,” 2005, T.M. Wright
★★☆☆☆ “The Forest,” 2007, Laird Barron
★★☆☆☆ “Dust Enforcer,” 2008, Reza Negarestani
★★☆☆☆ “Little Lambs,” 2009, Stephen Graham Jones
★★☆☆☆ “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010, K.J. Bishop
we're basically back to the 'what the hell even happened' / 'cannot remember a single detail immediately after reading it' thing with these stories so i don't really have much to say about them. interesting that the stories didn't overall get that much better for me towards the end like i thought they would though. i think the 80s / 90s was probaby the high point of this anthology for me and then it went down a bit again once we got to the 2000s
★★★☆☆ “Flat Diane,” 2004, Daniel Abraham
★★★☆☆ “The Hide,” 2007, Liz Williams
★★★☆☆ “The Familiars,” 2009, Micaela Morrissette
★★★☆☆ “The Portal,” 2010, J. Robert Lennon
these were all pretty enjoyable and had interesting premises that i thought were well executed. there was some eye rolling especially in flat diane and the portal with what i would consider a bit of ~edgy bullshit~ but still thought the stories were good overall.
★★★★☆ “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009, Steve Duffy
really liked this one, definitely my favorite out of this section, just thought it was a really interesting premise and didnt go how i was expecting it to
Well written short. Definitely weird and a bit creepy, and could see how this could've been an influence for the writers of Lost. It also reminded me a little of Journey to the Center of the Earth. But I don't get how this guy, even IF he was an explorer, thought it was a good idea to go MILES down these stairs without any plans, weapons, etc... After seeing those pillars at the top, I would've thought there were some weird cannibal types below so nope, no way. I'm Out! Especially seeing that blue haze while going down. But it begs the question, who built the stairs right? These light people couldn't have...