My Favorite Horror Story [Paperback]

The worst thing here is having to read some of the authors' introductions. Not a few wax ABSOLUTELY lyrical about how great the story is that follows. The most laughable is F. Paul Wilson's introduction to The Distributor by Richard Matheson. At the end, Wilson talks again about the story: "Yeah, I know. Pretty damn unsettling." Was it? Was it? Wilson suggests that the story would still work today, if you substitute certain things with contemporary topics like incest/pedophilia -- I beg to differ. Nope, I am not immune to things like incest and/or pedophilia; certainly they are horrible things to happen to anyone. But, my point really is, it wouldn't work because this story, the way it's written is not terrifying at all. "This is one of the most effective uses of minimalist technique you'll ever see" Wilson adds. That's just plain exaggeration. I just found the whole effort by Matheson strained.

With regards to the book itself, there are a few interesting stories, but the rest of them are just not very good. Maybe due to the nature of these being short stories, the reader is often left unsatisfied. As I was with say "Opening the Door" and "The Rats in the Walls".

I don't think I'm some kind of horror genre hater, it's just that, I'd say such stories don't work for me anymore. I mean, I used to rent every tape of Creepshow available from the store, and watched the Twilight Zone more than I did homework. But that was when I was in my early teens. Now, it is rare that I don't find a horror story predictable/laughable/ridiculous.

The stories I've always liked here include "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Human Chair".

This is a GREAT anthology. The best writers in Horror select their favorite horror stories. The best thing about that is they tell you why. It helps understand what to look for in a horror story, what makes one great, and why so much in horror is just dross. We see just how important Robert Bloch has been and, sadly, much of his work is out-of-print. Richard Matheson is here too, of course, and the story selected is one I wasn't familiar with. The classics are here too: The Tell-Tale Heart, Young Goodman Brown, and two from Lovecraft. The most interesting selection is The Human Chair by Edogawa Rampo, selected by Harlan Ellison.

"My Favorite Horror Story" is exactly what it says it is. A handful of today's better known horror authors, including the omnipresent Stephen King, and the slightly less inevitable Poppy Z. Brite ( I loved her introduction to Ramsey Campbell's "The Pattern." Very funny.) The main drawback to this book is that some of the stories have been very heavily anthologized, such as the two Lovecraft tales and Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." And can anyone actually read "Young Goodman Brown" and not suffer horrible high-school flashbacks? That said, let us move on to the high points of the anthology. My three favorites would be the aforementioned "The Pattern," which is among Campbell's best work and is absolutely terrifying. I believe that Mr. Campbell has always done his best work in short fiction (with exceptions such as "The Parasite") and this story serves to reinforce my opinion. Look up his excellent short story collections "Waking Nightmares," and "Ghosts and Grisly Things" if you have an interest in his style. "The Father-Thing" by Philip K. Dick may seem to be out of place in a horror anthology at first, but after you read it, you may never look at your dad in the same way! Chilling. All of the late Mr. Dick's books come VERY highly recommended from me. "The Inner Room" by Robert Aickman may not seem to be as relentlessly horrifying as some of the other stories, but it has a way of nagging at your mind that leads to some very disturbing thoughts. Seek out "Cold Hand in Mine" which is lamentably out of print, for more work by this unsung hero of atmospheric, ghostly horror tales. All in all, this is quite a good collection. Every fan of horror will find something they like here.