Thirteen "Horror" stories by the prolific Shockmeister. I'm sure it paid some bills, but was not to survive a library cleanup. ( )

This is a really good collection of stories, although some are repeated in other collections of Matheson's. I really enjoy his style - there's something about it that just grabs me, and even the mundane things interest me.

I didn't love all of the stories in this collection, but out of the lot there was only one I didn't bother to finish. I just wasn't feeling it. But when it works, it works, and this mostly did, so I can't complain. Even the story written in *shudder* verse, The Jazz Machine, while making my brain bleed due to the format, was a great story that made me really think. This section stood out to me:

'Why are the greatest jazz interpreters
Those who live beneath the constant gravity of prejudice?
I think because the scaldings of external bias
Focus all their vehemence and suffering
To a hot, explosive core
And, from this nucleus of restriction
Comes all manner of fissions, violent and slow
Breaking loose in brief expression
Of the tortures underneath
Crying for deliverance in the unbreakable code of jazz.'

I can just FEEL that, you know?

Anyway, great collection, and as usual, I highly recommend everyone to read Matheson at least once.

Horror October 2011: #3 ( )