Forrest’s Reviews > The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories > Status Update

There's something in the subtle way that Machen lays his tales out that allows for a "twist" ending that isn't a cheap-shot, like I find in many short stories (after having read so many). "Ritual" is no exception. It's microfiction, or close to it, so it relies on a twist at the end, but by the time you get there, you're like a frog that's been slowly brought to boil in horror. Your realization comes too late! Five *

"Change" is a fairy story, but not the nice kind of faeries. There is a sinister element of the tale that has, somehow, infiltrated society to a far deeper level than the reader or the narrator can even know. This hidden vein of darkness is what makes the tale so effective - you know something great and evil has spread far and wide, yet it springs up in unexpected places through seemingly innocent people. Five stars.

"The Tree of Life" is the most Dickensanian of the stories in this volume, by far. Of course, Machen gives it his own bizarre twist, which takes it to the next level. It's a story that hides itself in layers until the very end, when the reader is left with the decision to laugh or to cry out in surprise and sadness "Oh no"! Either reaction is equally valid. This emotional knife's-edge is a great place for a reader.5*

"N" is remarkable. A lost valley within London, a fae domain? The visions of madmen? Mere coincidences of hallucination? Machen doesn't tell. And by not telling, he tells! The beauty of the writing sets the baseline for this story, but the careful revelation of pieces of the puzzle allow for the missing shapes to be a sort of mirror of the reader's mind. What exactly was there, and what exactly happened? You know. 5*

"The Monstrance," also a war story, is much more effective than the last. The central conceit of the captured diary of a German soldier who had died of fright is really quite clever, and the horror is palpable. An excellent story, somewhat in the mold of M,R. James. Five harrowing (and yet deserved) stars!

I would consider "The Bowmen" to be a minor story, but still a good, well-written tale of supernatural aid (or blight, depending on whose side you are on). 4 stars.

I loved "The White People," but to tell you what it was "about"? Um. No. It's essentially plotless, a labyrinthine meandering through the eyes of a young girl discovering . . . well, she can't tell you all that she's discovered. Machen does a wonderful job of using inference and redaction to tease the reader with an intentionally occulted (I use the word exactly) vision of what lies beyond, accessible, but hidden. 5*

I won't be reviewing the prose-poetry pieces The Turanians, The Idealist, Witchcraft, The Ceremony, Psychology, or Midsummer, since these are included in the collection Ornaments in Jade, which I have on order and will review by itself, rather than doing half the stories here and half there.

Move over, Arthur Conan Doyle! You've got to share the stage with Machen. "The Red Hand" (which I keep wanting to call "The Red Right Hand" - thank you, Nick Cave) is, yes, "Sherlockian," but with a pagan magical twist of the supernatural that Sherlock would have balked at . . . and been dead wrong! I really enjoyed this neolithic, fae mystery. Fantastic breaking of genre boundaries! Five stars!

"The Three Imposters" is mind-blowingly awesome. Wheels within wheels, all shot through with decadence and hauntings and rotting bodies and tentacles. Oh, my, this is SO much better than just about anything Lovecraft wrote. I can see why Lovecraft admired Machen so much. Definitely seems like the type of novella that would hold up to several readings, and I intend on reading it several times! Five stars!