[Name Redacted] > Recent Status Updates

Knowing that Straub died shortly after I bought this reissue...and learning from the intro that this was intended as an over-the-top, intentionally-ridiculous swan-song to horror...really does change the way i read it.

Huh, I wondered why i could never find a copy of this one till last year (in Walmart of all places). Turns out it was intended as Straub's "farewell" to horror, and as a result he stuffed it with as many staples of the genre as possible, creating something deliberately excessive & ridiculous. And while the normies loved it, horror fans -- and fans of Straub -- LOATHED it. So I guess we'll see how I feel in the end!

Man... Miura knows how to tread some very fine lines. He mixes the gorgeous & the grotesque expertly. And while he seems incapable of drawing an unattractive woman, he also knows how to use that beauty in a way that veers away from exploitative to critical of the readers' own prurience. He's not giving you any giddy little thrills -- he's condemning you for feeling anything but horror.

Pretty sure I've known where it's going since the beginning, but I don't mind it this time.