So the first story, Petey, focuses on some annoying yuppies with some sinister elements that I struggled to connect together and then a very anticlimactic ending. But the biggest issue was that the sinister creature the ending hinges on is described as like one of those giant ground sloths. This instantly punctures any creepiness. The vast majority of the population finds sloths adorable. There is nothing scary about a giant sloth. Even if it's coming to eat you. I'd probably let it. Frustrating story.

The second story is both much more effectively creepy but also unfortunately very very explicitly racist! I kept reading in the hope it was just a character thing but nope! It's set in 70s NYC, with the constant background of the "crime wave". And it's presented in an incredibly racist way. And without spoiling the horror part of the end, there's a "horde" of Black people and other minority groups at the end and they're not only bad and dangerous criminals, looting etc, but written to directly parallel dangerous and bad inhuman creatures. It's racist as hell. Lovecraft would be proud.

Then the next story is called "black man with a horn". And it opens with a Lovecraft quote. Do I trust a story in this context to not just be incredibly racist again? Probably not. Maybe I'll call it there

Four beautiful literate longer horror stories, each one a modern classic. If all horror writers were like this the genre would become accepted as true literature. ( )

I enjoyed all 4 novellas; I certainly did not allow the lack of political correctness to interfere with my enjoyment of the story.....I understand how Klein was using it as a literary device.

Now why is it that Stephen King is still churning out his novels that I no longer care to read and Klein suffers from writers block? Ass-backwardness and Murphy's Law, I suppose. The injustice of it all.....

"Children of the Kingdom" is a classic now, but still just as unsettling to read as it was back in the 1970's. "Petey" is a lovely story where the reader never comes face-to-face with the monster, there are only glimpses from the edge of vision and it's not pretty. "Black Man With A Horn" is an homage to HPL and a fun little tale of cosmic horror. At mid-life, "Nadelman's God" has taken over as my fave of the four novellas. Probably because at my age I can sit back and say, "I can think of all kinds of uses for a 'servant' like that; too bad Nadelman was so squeamish about it!" ( )

First, I would like to say thank you to my friend Ryan Cagle for so kindly sending me a copy of this book. Thanks, Ryan!

Second, this collection of 4 novellas was a find example of literary horror fiction. The stories were well written, dripping with creepy atmosphere, and thought provoking. There were some Lovecraftian references that I enjoyed, as well as a few shudder provoking scenes; most especially with the first novella, Children of the Kingdom. Well done!

Highly recommend for fans of literary horror fiction!

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This collection of four novellas is one of the better, most consistent collection of horror fiction I have ever read. Though it owes a debt to Lovecraft, it has an originality that sets it apart from most of its genre. ( )