Product Description
Read By Dawn is the first in an annual international series of contemporary horror writing from new and established authors. The series is curated by Adèle Hartley, the influential Festival Director of ‘Dead by Dawn’, Scotland's International Horror Film Festival. Internationally acclaimed horror author Ramsey Campbell hosts Volume One with an introductory and closing piece, and provides a hugely atmospheric story, "A Place of Revelation".Read By Dawn Volume One was launched in the UK at the 13th annual Dead by Dawn horror film festival in Edinburgh in April 2006. The volume contains fifteen stunning new stories from British and American horror writers, representing the best in contemporary horror writing.‘Dead by Dawn’ is a member of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation and closely aligned with the annual Los Angeles and Montreal horror film festivals.The Read By Dawn annual collections will be marketed via horror film networks all over the world, and are set to become the new standards in contemporary horror fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Delightfully Wicked
Let's just forget for a moment that I have a story in this anthology (Read by Dawn volume 1) and say it just happened to be an Amazon.com order mistakenly delivered to my house. I'm not going to go over story (because there are 27 of them), as I do with magazines. Instead I'm going to highlight a few stories that stood out to me. In the order they appear in the book these are:

# Last Day on the Job by Jeff Jacobson- I loved the imagery of the world of skyscrapers which so many take for granted raining down upon the bug-like people below. The ending sort of fizzled, but the middle was creepy and amusing, a combination I love.


# The Seventh Green a Lost Lake by Scott Brendel- Golf horror. I love it!


# Lessons by Katherine A. Patterson- One of the creepiest stories in anthology. It's troubling on many levels, with a just desserts style ending and centers entirely on family dynamics, not violence per se.


# Popee by Justin Madison- My co-favorite in the anthology. I love dark humor and I can't even look at the title anymore without picturing a old man zombie gnawing on his grand son, being shoved back and leaving his dentures behind. When I go back through this will be the first one I read.


# The Bloom of Decay by Patricia McCormack- This one wins the creativity award in my opinion. It takes a strong veer from the rest of the stories. The horror in this one comes not from something that happens, or something the character has earned, but from who the character really is. I'm not sure it's flattering to the author, but I'd consider it flattering if someone said it of me, but this story inspired a little story of my own. This one most definitely made me think.

# Final Girl by Joe L. Murr- This one is my other co-favorite. (Hah! And you thought it was going to be my own.) This one caught me by surprise. It's so wrong but so right. It all makes sense with those last few lines, but the situation isn't the only horrible aspect of this tale.


# Frankie by Matt Wedge- This one wins the "I'd need therapy" award. In fact, just browsing the story again as I thumbed through the book to do this review made me put the book down fast, lest I reread a disturbing scene. I'll tell you one thing, these horror writers know human behavior too well. No wonder why normal people are scared of us. We use them against themselves.


# The Woman Who Coughs Up Flies by David Turnbull- This kind of story gives me hope, as a writer. The plot I guessed close to the beginning, but the sheer beauty of the writing sold me this one. It give me hope when I see those "the plot was too predictable" rejects.


# Special Offer by John Llewellyn Probert- I will never channel surf by HSN or QVC again and not think of this story. I really like that it gives a physical pain to people who spend recklessly, either due to a psychological problem or to plain old greed. I know many of these people who show off their neat new playthings while my family makes sure all bills are paid first and fully. I wonder if they would still act the same if they had the consequences presented in this story.


# Body Hunt by Chet Gottfried- Had the above mentioned "Popee" not been in this collection this tale would have won my humor vote. Amusing and dark but a natural dark, not forced. It almost reads like a dark sitcom.


# What Betty Saw by Joel Jacobs- A nice story at the end about the end. I would not have placed this story anywhere else in the collection as it does a fantastic job of bringing the anthology to a very final (burning) end.


I'd also like to note that there were no bad, poor, or even fair stories between these white covers. Every story had it merits, some merely connected better with me than others. My complete reading only serves to make me more proud of being including among these fantastic writers' tales. I am definitely putting volume two on my to buy list, as I will not be within it pages.

Good luck to Bloody Books and all the authors who have been included within their publications. May you receive the recognition you deserve.

Read By Dawn
I was particularly impressed with Scott Brendel's contribution, The Seventh Green AT Lost Lakes.I thought it was a well written, suspenseful, and interesting.

Read By Dawn a Must!!!
READ BY DAWN: Volume 1
This has been a great year for anthologies.First we got Lee and Wilbanks' knock out collection, "Damned Nation", and then Skipp's long awaited zombie anthology, "Mondo Zombie", and now from Bloody Books we have READ BY DAWN.Put together by Adele Hartley, Director of "Dead By Dawn", Scotland's International Horror Film Festival, the anthology showcases writers from around the world, including Finland, America, Scotland, Canada, and Australia.If there is an international language for horror, this anthology is it.Among the 30 stories within, I consider only a few to fall into the mediocre category, most go straight to my favorite short stories of the year list.If this collection doesn't sweep the International Horror Guild and the Stokers awards next year, and get some respectable page space in Ellen Datlow's "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror", there is no justice.
Some of my particular favorites- I mean the ones that downright made me gasp aloud or shiver while reading them- were "Bloodwalker" by Michelle Lee, an alternative universe tale of practical evil, "The Face in the Glass" by Brian G. Ross, and Rayne Hall's "The Bridge Chamber" (take that, The Descent).I'd also like to call attention to Samuel Minier's "Stuck" as a particularly well-written piece, subtle and heart wrenching, even to the bloody end.And I liked the way Lavie Tidhar takes the Alice In Wonderland theme across the world and plops it into war torn Germany in "Eine Kleine Nachmusik (1943)".But I think if I had to choose a favorite it would be "The Kylesku Trow" by Stefan Pearson; the tale's last riddle will haunt me for many years to come.
Bloody Books knows how to package.The austere red, white, black and gray cover draws you in, and the font is easy reading despite the size of the slim volume.I have only one complaint with the book's construction: There are no author names listed with the tales themselves, neither in the Table of Contents or the traditional top of the page of each story.If one needs to find the author, one must either go back to the first page of the story, or scan the tiny print of the copyright page.But this is such a small thing compared to the fine stories this volume gives us.My hope is that subsequent volumes will fix this issue.But in the professional hands of the editor, I think the next volume will be even more engrossing and bring to light some of the new names in horror.And the U.K.'s most respected living horror author, Ramsey Campbell, must think they've got what it takes to become something quite special, as he adds a touching story of his own to the collection and provides a wrap around piece as well."The Place of Revelations" seems to be his nod to the new voices in the genre and is, as usual, brilliantly written work from a master of the craft.
In the absence of so many beloved ongoing anthology series, this is one to keep your eyes on in the future to give you the well-written, exciting horror fix you need.

--Nickolas Cook

The Bloody Best Book
Read by Dawn was a fascinating read.Michele Lee rocks socks.Various dark and chilling stories to keep you up and looking at shadows all night long.

Amazing
Read by Dawn is a delightful anthology of horror stories, from moody and atmospheric to wicked, cruel, amusing and oh-my-god-they-went-there. It's a book to have and keep and read over and over. I highly recommend it for horror fans everywhere. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of terrifying short fiction features stories about forests full of wooden demons and houses haunted by the future. By the author of The Count of Eleven. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

No one chills more with less than Campbell does.
When it comes to chilling examinations of the decaying mind, no one does it better than Ramsey Campbell.Whether the decay is literal (i.e. his mad killer stories) or symbolic (the supernatural stuff), no other writer can summon of the level of dread, isolation, and despair that Campbell can.Waking Nightmares gathers together stories from Campbell's early years (i.e. Jack In The Box) as well as his more recent work.Although some of the stories are a tad predictable (especially if you have read a great deal of Campbell's work), each is powerful in its own quiet way.I can't think of a better way to give yourself the heebie-jeebies than by reading anything by Ramsey Campbell.Highest recommendation.

intruiging, scary, exhillarating, wonderfully moody
Campbell again shows himself to be a master of mood and atmosphere with a collection of tales of a wide variety of setting and tone.Studied and effective, understated horror.In fact, he accomplishes better than horror(revulsion at something that has happened) and instead achieves terror(fear of something that *may* happen), which is Stephen King's statedhighest goal.Thouroughly recommended.

This book once again proves that Campbell is the master
Ramsey Campbell is the scariest writer of fiction there is.This collection of short stories once again proves that well known fact. A student from the H.P. Lovecraft school of horror, campbell takes the reader on a phsycological journey through the most sacred and untouched realms of our minds, the realm of fear.Ifyou read one book of horror short stories this should be it, because once you've had a taste of campbell you're hooked. ... Read more

Product Description
Elvis Presley was surrounded by controversy during his lifetime, and he remains controversial because so little is known about what actually motivated him. The many facets of his career and personality are addressed in a collection of essays by thirty-five leading music writers. There are also illlustrations and a lengthy section in which well-known personalities describe their dealings with Elvis. The book looks at Elvis's relationship with his parents, with Priscilla, and with Colonel Parker. Billy Blackwood deals with Elvis's love of gospel music, and Tim Whitnall visits Memphis while Charles White meets Elvis's acquaintances at Sun Studios. Peter Doggett, editor of "Record Collector" analyses Elvis's style and there are also articles on his love of the blues, the Memphis sessions and his chart succeses. Other contributors are Mort Shuman, Keith Strachan, Ramsay Campbell, Howard Cockburn, Tony Barrow and Alan Bleasdale. Essays are also featured on the Elvis industry that has arisen since his death as well as Elvis in literature, art and on postage stamps. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

This kind of Obsession doesn't come in a bottle
I'm not really sure that the title Obsession really fits the story in these pages because the main characters are not truly obsessed with the act that originally set things in motion.I also think some descriptions of this book overplay the impetus of the action.It is not exactly right to say that the four main characters made an evil pact with some sinister force in their youth.It was much more innocent than that.Peter, who wishes his overbearing grandmother would go away and stop destroying his family, receives a letter from out of the blue one day with the cryptic message "Whatever you most need I do," promising that the price of the service will be something he does not value at all.Unwilling to reply on his own, he shares the message with three of his friends and convinces them to make their wishes along with him.Robin wants one of her mother's coworkers to stop harassing her, Steve wants his undeniably vicious teacher to leave him alone, and Jimmy wants his father to stop gambling the family's money away.The youths seemingly get their wishes and struggle to forget about the wishes they had made.The story then shifts ahead twenty-five years, where the four former friends begin seeing their individual worlds fall apart, and it is Peter who theorizes that they are finally paying for the wishes they regretted making in their youth.Jimmy's wife is seriously hurt, Robin's mother makes her life unbearable by making all kinds of accusations about her while her medical practice drops off due to accusations of peddling drugs, Steve's business takes a nose dive, and Peter finds himself haunted by the brother of a girl he tries to help in his capacity as a social worker.Each person is eventually compelled to do something out of his/her character and inherently wrong, thinking that it will satisfy the debt they owe for the past.

This is actually a pretty enjoyable novel, even though it is not altogether original in its theme.It took a while for me to get a handle on the characters because the introductory pages about their youths quickly changed to accounts of their adult lives, introducing new secondary characters such as spouses and children.One thing Campbell excels at is creating exasperating, needy characters who sap the energy out of those trying to care for them.Robin's mother is almost unbearable in her dementia and interference in her daughter's life, and for this reason I felt a stronger connection with Robin than with the three male characters at the heart of the story.Jimmy's children, on the other hand, seemed somewhat unreal and never came across as more than shadows of themselves.

The horror content here is pretty low, really.Peter is haunted by images such as that of his dead grandmother, whose whispers to him in the dark can be a tad unnerving, but the other characters dealt with thoroughly real-world problems.Personally, I would have welcomed just a little more information about the nature of the original letter behind everything that happened; Campbell's final revelation about its source was a little confusing, but this may be a good thing because otherwise it might have impressed me as somewhat trite in nature.Overall, I found Obsession a rather enjoyable read.Campbell is an unquestionably skilled writer with a unique voice.Just don't pick this up expecting to be terrified or treated to some kind of Faustian tale of sin and punishment.Campbell's fictional horror is taken from real life for the most part, and that is one of the reasons why he is often deservedly hailed as a master craftsman of psychological horror.

Intrigue
I read this book reluctantly; not because I had heard of it, but because I hadn't.My mother purchased it for me in a Loblaws store for an incredibly reduced price, and I was wary of the quality.
Three years later, I finally picked it up, and found a decent book before me.The narrative is well written, and the story has an okay pace.The best part about this book is that nothing in it is gratuitious - a welcome change in any book.Sex and death are mentioned in passing, and don't take up far too many paragraphs - very well done.
My biggest issue with this book is logic - I always look for logic, and there are a few things that rub me the wrong way.I won't mention them, due to spoilers, but I am still asking questions about events that occurred in the middle of the novel days after I finished reading it.

All in all, it's a decent book, that I wound neither recommend reading nor recommend not reading.

Never Dissapoints
Four teenagers mail a chain letter, a deadly chain letter which grants their darkest wishes and deepest desires. Now 20 years later they must pay for the deeds and the true terror begins. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nostalgic tie-in
The Frankenstein monster wants a wife. A tie-in with the classic monster movie, with pics. Nostalgic fun, but the movie is still the real treat. ... Read more

Product Description
THE STARRY WISDOM - contemporary visions of cosmic transformation, mutation and madness - many inspired directly by the life and writings of H.P. Lovecraft, others reflecting his strangely presentient themes in their own bizarre sub-texts. Here the primal beings of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stalk a post-modern landscape of social collapse, ethnic cleansing, genetic engineering and nuclear devastation - nightmare prophecies from his pulp pages which have now come chillingly true. In THE STARRY WISDOM, the undercurrents of sexual and ecological displacement which powered Lovecraft's work have finally been laid bare, providing this maligned genius with a long-overdue retrospective and revealing him to be a true prophet of the 20th century.THE STARRY WISDOM, first published in 1994, was the originator of the present-day Lovecraft cult; it has been in print ever since and is now presented in a new edition from Creation Oneiros. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Pretentious and mediocre.
I bought this book for two reasons, first I'm a big Lovecraft fan, second I'm a huge Alan Moore fan.
And Moore's three contributions are almost the only reason I'm keeping this book.
Most of the stories in this book are at best mediocre, especially Grant Morrison's piece is terribly weak.
There is some decent stuff, "prisoner of the coral deep", by J.G. Ballard and "Black static" by'David Conway. "The night seamaid went down" by Brian Lumley is allright, and the "Call of Cthulhu"-Comic is really. really good. The last positive mention should go to "the sound of a door opening" by Don Webb, it's writing is okay and it has a really interesting premise. Apart from this, most of the rest is terrible and conceited. Fragmentary, pseudo-intellectual garbage and utterly useless and non-comprehensible poetry. Like I wrote in the title it's all very pretentious, trying to be something special and clearly failing.
The worst part of it all are the four essays. To clear this up, I really hate it when people think Lovecraft's fantasies are reality, they diminish the author's work and to be honest they obviously don't have a strong grip on reality itself.
Now all four of this "essays" treat Lovecraft's writing as if everything in it was actual reality.
The first one is no real essay, but some bloke writing about his trials to channel Lovecraft's dark gods. I won't comment on this.
The second essay is basically about how Lovecraft in his visions and dreams made contact with the spirit of a new age (kudos to the "age of Aquarius" and Aleister Crowley). The problem is his logic is faulty and the sources he quotes are not really sources but very questionable pseudo-mystic books.
In the third essay the author rambles on and on about how Lovecraft, in his (the author's)opinion, sometimes describes fractal mathematics and geometry in his works. Look, to be honest I don't think the describtions are particularly fitting to fractals at all, but even if they were, the question would be: "So what?!?" The author fails miserably to show what good it is for. And that is only the first part, the other two are even worse, some useless rambling about the nature of Nyarlathotep and the dreams he has been send about the Cthulhu cycle, because of his rituals.
The last bit is about the Loch Ness Monster actually being a shoggoth and some more nonsense.
I quote:"As a rational materialist, Lovecraft rejected the possibility of any paranormal elements in such activity.
He was, as we know, mistaken."
Do we? do we really? Or are you just an idiot? Seriously I am so sick of the whole esoteric literature. They do this all the time, there logic is faulty from the beginning, there sources are obscure at best and oftentimes are ridiculed in the scientific community. You can't take a book by a known fraud, full of inconsistencies and often blatant lies and use this work or one passage of it as a serious source for your hypothesis. It's just ridiculous.

Conclusion: The book is quite expensive for a Softcover and there are much better books there if you want to read other takes on HPL's work, for example the "Children of Cthulhu" anthology is available as a paperback for a few bucks and it has lots and lots of good HPL inspired stories.

*&^%$#@ CRAP
I bought the 1st edition of this book and it read
like a jamBOREe of adolescent naughty boys trying to
see who could excrete the most crap to fill their cretan
skulls. I did like the original cover of HPL by Peter Smith
so I cut off the panel and had it copied and enlarged and is now hanging on my wall. I put the book in recycle and realized later I really should have put it in the garbage.

A wonderful tribute
I am an avid reader of Lovecraft's works, but tend to stay away from many of the extensions to his mythos cycle. Many writers in the mythos tend to twist old stories and introduce concepts such as "good and evil" which are absent from Lovecraft's works. This book though tends to be more independent and with elements which pay tribute to Lovecraft without being direct take-offs. I found the majority of the works fun to read and would definitely recommend this book to any fan of the master of the short-horror.

Uneven
This book contains a variety of stories whose quality is wildly uneven. I bought this book several years ago, skimmed though it, and put it on the window sill in hopes that the sunlight might disinfect it.
I finally decided to give it a chance and found, much to my surprise. that that the stories ranged from excellent(Lumley, Cambell, Conway, and the Ctulhu graphic story )to absolute trash.Some of the storied and one illustrated story never exceeded, and sometimes did not reach, the level of quality of the"Poo, Ca ca, 'Your mommy and daddy had sex.' "art" found on the walls of elementary school boy's rooms.

I recommend that you buy the book cheap. Then read every story through because some of the stories start in the style of the least talented and build into truly uniquely worthwhile works (Conway for example).
Additionally, I recommend that after reading each, you annotateindividual stories on a scale ranging from excellent, through good, to trash, and finally putrid garbage. In this way, you will be spared the effort of again wading through several cesspools in order to locate the real gems when reading the book a second or third time.
I apologize if I offended any of the authors, but I fail to find sex involving excrement, necrophilia, octopuses, and slithering slime a wee bit off putting.

Repressed America
I can't add to what James Stephen Garrett has said about the merits of this book. I shouldn't respond to the negative reactions and I won't go into detail. Suffice it to say that the reactions to this on the UK website are far more balanced and intelligent than those here on Amazon.com. My impression is that many of those who have responded negatively have missed the point of this volume entirely.
This book was an attempt to rescue Lovecraft from the ghetto of 'pulp' or 'genre' fiction and the Role-playing crowd who have, on the whole, trivialised his most important themes - cosmic horror and alienation, the collapse of civilisation, man's insignificance in the vast scheme of the universe.
Those who were turned off by the scatalogical content should realise that this was merely an attempt to reflect the general miserable thanatoptic state of our culture at present. If you want escapism, please read the Hobbit or Winnie the Pooh.
This was an important book and a thought-provoking one. This is not simple entertainment. ... Read more

Product Description
Returning from Africa with his wife and daughter, British photographer Alan Knight is unaware that the African talisman he has brought back with him contains an ancient and irrepressible evil that he is about to unleash on England. Reprint. LJ. PW. K. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Cursed claw turns parents into killers.
In a plot device borrowed from M.R. James Casting the Runes a writer of international thrillers is slipped a cursed totem. Slowly he is filled with the urge to kill his child, who has suddenly become a rage inducing problem in the household. Campbell, who originally published this book under a pseudonym, builds the unbearable suspense with painful slowness, letting the reader suffer through each delicious moment until the rushed finale, which ends like a low budget horror movie. Recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of twenty-five specially commissioned horror and suspense stories by Neil Gaiman, Charles L. Grant, Yvonne Navarro, Bill Pronzini, and others explores the realms of superstition, imagination, and unearthly terror. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

24 stories...
Touch Wood by t. Winter-Damon
Holding Hands by Charles L. Grant
Lodgings by Colin Greenland
Breath by Adam Corbin Fusco
Heart Flesh by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Ten O'Clock Horses by Paul Lewis
Funny Weather by Steve Lockley
For Love of Mother by Yvonne Navarro
Eight Limbs by John Brunner
Little Lessons in Gardening by Karl-Edward Wagner
His Own Petard by Spider Robinson
SPOIL by Stan Nicholls
Dead Man's Shoes by Charles le Lint
The Coffin Trimmer by Bill Pronzini
Steps by Stella Hargreaves
The Owner by Michael Marshall Smith
The Woods Be Dark by Bentley Little
Traffic by Simon Ings
The Mouse by Neil Gaiman
The Ghost and the Soldier by William Relling, Jr.
Oracle Bones by Garry Kilworth
Borderlands by Christopher Evans
The Wager by Thomas F. Monteleone
Mysteries of the World by Stanley Wiater
Splints by D.F. Lewis ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Michael Moorcock, Richard Matheson, Ramsey Campbell, Gene Wolfe, Susanna Clarke, John M. Ford, Christopher Priest, Robert Holdstock, Robert Aickman, John Crowley, Jeff Vandermeer, Zoran Živković, Michael Shea, Brian Mcnaughton, Laurel Winter. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 114. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939, in London) is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels. Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of 16, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine. During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ (as well as that of John Carter, Edgar Rice Burroughs' main character in The Gods of Mars), the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=19358 ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror is the ultimate collection of extreme horror from award winning masters and up-and-coming authors of macabre fiction. Authors include John Bruni, Garry Bushell, Ramsey Campbell, Randy Chandler, Tim Curran, Ralph Greco, Jr., C.J. Henderson, Z.F. Kilgore, Sean Logan, Graham Masterton, Angel Leigh McCoy, C. Dennis Moore, Stefan Pearson, Brian Rosenberger, and Jeffrey Thomas.

Witness the history of a sexually rapacious zombie . . . A starving soldier descends into insatiable ghoulism . . . A concentration camp SS guard gets a taste of his own medicine . . . Recycling takes on a whole new grisly meaning when a man obsessed with going green discovers a regenerative serum . . . A man buys his alcoholic mother a bottle of tequila-with the wrong kind of worm . . . An occult detective moves to a town in the Pine Barrens and discovers its sinister past-and his own . . . A tenant gets revenge on a self-centered landlord-with irritating results . . . A fisherman discovers his rival's secret of always getting the biggest catch . . . and much more!

Table of Contents: The Fisherman by Brian Rosenberger, Fungoid by Randy Chandler, Tenant s Rights by Sean Logan, Again by Ramsey Campbell, Maggots by Tim Curran, Going Green by Stefan Pearson, Coquettrice by Angel Leigh McCoy, The Fear in the Waiting by C.J. Henderson, The Worm by John Bruni, Sepsis by Graham Masterton, What You Wish For by Garry Bushell, The Devil Lives in Jersey by Z.F. Kilgore, Rat King by Jeffrey Thomas, The Caterpillar by C. Dennis Moore, Poor Brother Ed or The Man Who Visited by Ralph Greco, Jr.

Customer Reviews (10)

This book delivers!
"Vile Things" is well named.I read a lot of "horror" that really isn't all that "horrible" (unless you count misspellings, poor grammar or poor editing)."Vile Things" however, is just what it says it is, nice, gross bleeding horror.There a few clunkers in the collection and a few of the stories have appeared elsewhere, but overall this is a very good collection of grue, gore and bizarre concepts.If you like your horror to be horrible then buy this book.

More like 'extreme deviations in quality '...
This came up as a suggested item based on my purchase/browsing history with Amazon, and sounded right in line with my tastes, so I gave it a shot.

Now let me start out by saying, I was hoping for some pretty graphic, disturbing horror stories. The problem with this book though, is that most of the writing is so amateurish, that it doesn't really matter how shocking the writer tries to be - they just come off as not having the talent to pull it off. I'm looking at you, Sean Logan (Tenant's Rights) and Angel Leigh McCoy (Coquettrice)....

Don't get me wrong though - there are some GREAT stories among the crap. Ramsey Campbell's "Again", Tim Curran's "Maggots", and Graham Masterson's "Sepsis" really stand out. Also C. Dennis Moore's "The Caterpillar" and Jeffrey Thomas' "The Rat King".
The rest are just okay, not really good or bad.

There have been a lot of 'horror' anthologies lately - whenever I read them, I usually have the same thought (especially with this one)- how did they pick some of these stories? You have to wonder how poorly written something had to be to not be included...

If you have money to waste, I guess you could do worse, but it might take some research.

gross out
vile things is a good title. so far only one story i would call good horror. the rest is just an attempt to be disgusting.

Splatterpunk for the new Millennium
Vile Things is an anthology of extreme horror. I know what you're thinking, sure its extreme, but how extreme could it really be? Many anthologies have come before promising "extreme" horror but that promise usually goes unfulfilled. Vile Things delivers. Every story within is extreme in some fashion or another, many of which deal with body horror, a personal favorite of mine. One story in particular, Maggots by Tim Curran was so extreme it made me nauseous, and I read it after watched gorefest Bone Sickness. Yeesh. I will be tracking down his novels soon.Most of the authors here are on the rise or have been dealing depravity in the underground while most of us missed out, which is doubly awesome. I love discovering new authors. Its like a treasure hunt, and I found the mother load. Rat King byJeffery Thomas about a nazi death camp worker was particularly well written and nasty and The Devil Lives in Jersey by Z.F. Kilgore, a story about a big city cop in a small town haunted by a demon left me wanting much more from him.Fungoid by Randy Chandler was hilarious and disgusting and Coquettrice by Angel Leigh McCoy about a demon that steals men to breed with, was unique and graphic. In fact horror mainstays Ramsey Campbell and Graham Masterton's stories are the weakest of all which should tell you something. 15 stories in all, nicely published by Comet Press, a new publisher to keep your eyes on.

So, if you enjoy extreme horror, nausea, and pushing the literary envelope check out Vile Things, its the Splatterpunk of the new millennium.It's worth every penny.
[...].

Disgusting, in a really good way.
Lives up to the title. The stories are vivid with good visual impact and make you think, whether you want to or not.
Not a bad story in the bunch. Some will make you shiver, some will make you go "Eww-www." A good late night read if you don't need much sleep. After some of these stories are read you won't want to sleep. If you drink tequila I bet you stop after one story in this book. ... Read more