And Now the Nightmare Begins: The Horror Zine. Volume One. Ed. Jeani Rector. Pp. 256. Albany: BearManor, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59393-356-2. $16.95

As the title suggests, this is a collection of stories and poetry culled from The Horror Zine, an online journal specializing in the horrific. Depending on what you think of the genre of horror, this will either make you interested, or make you not want to read any further. If its the latter, just hang in there a moment. There’s a little something for everyone in this collection. The horror runs the gamut from slasher to psychological, and from the somewhat silly to the downright chilling. Among my personal favorites include a story describing how all of the dead from earth wind up on mars. This story is delightfully dreamlike, with some lovely imagery such as an enormous hill filled with graves, pyres, sarcophagi, even a distant pyramid, that the recently dead are climbing, trying to reach whatever might await them at the top; also, a nail-biter about an increasingly frantic visit to a creepy cathedral – I read this one on the bus, and nearly missed my stop. I also enjoyed a delightfully morbid story about an obsessive neighbor lady.

Good horror can find something – some small mundane thing – and then twist the way you think about it.  Or, it can take something that everyone is irrationally afraid of, and then give you a clear, grisly reason to be very afraid of it.

Editor Jeani Rector has done a good job of mixing new or under-known writers with some heavy-weights like Ramsay Campbell and Simon Clark. It’s a good collection, and I had a lot of fun reading it. And ultimately, to me, that’s the mark of a good book.

Even if you aren’t a fan of traditional horror, or don’t think you are but like a good yarn, I’d suggest giving the book a chance. You might be surprised.

Posted by Leif. View all posts by Leif
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 3:07 pm
Categories: Blog, News