Red Wet Dirt [Paperback]

REVIEWED BY THE FUNKY WEREPIG


Even in a world of the horrifying, weird and fantastical, where our nightmares dominate our imagination, Nicholas Grabowsky has always stood out as one of horror's few true individuals. No one does things the way Grabowsky does and his collection RED WET DIRT is no exception.

Collections are nothing new. We've all read the ones for Poe and Lovecraft. We rush out when our favorite best sellers finally release their short stories in one handy book. To be honest, with the presses the way they are now, almost any writer with a dozen or so pieces can put out their own collections.

But how many of them have a full fledged screenplay mixed in with their short stories and novella selections? How about a poem saved from sixth grade or an ode to a squished pet hamster named Loo written back in high school? Name one collection that has a letter that was sent to Playboy about the dilemma of being born with two penises AND the actual response from the Playboy Advisor.

This book is almost 370 pages because Grabowsky doesn't leave a thing out. The good, the bad and the ugly of his entire career is here. It leaves you with the knowledge that from the very beginning he wasn't just a guy who enjoyed writing- he never had a choice. Nick Grabowsky is one of those rare people who were born to create horror. Period.

As for the stories themselves, they're creepy, haunting and in most cases very strange. His mind goes places most of ours wouldn't have created in 100 tries. `The Freeway Reaper' is a great example of that. I got lost in the twists and layers of changing subplots but by the end, it all tied together and I closed the book for the night overwhelmed. His tale of cursed love `The Yuletide Thing' is almost stream of consciousness storytelling drenched in pure emotion. Grabowsky speaks to us as if we're in the chair across from him. We've been where he has been and when his dark demons claim victory with endings we hoped wouldn't come, we understand.

Maybe that is Grabowsky's greatest attribute; He never hesitates to wear his heart on his sleeve even when he's scaring the hell out of us.

If you're already a fan, you'll love this collection. It represents absolutely everything from Grabowsky's diverse talents and then some. If you haven't read his work before, you're missing one of the most underrated horror writers of our time. There's a reason the biggest names in the biz praise him.

There's only one Nicholas Grabowsky. And RED WET DIRT does a perfect job defining him.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see the review  4.0 out of 5 stars