Here is a truly wonderful collection of short stories for fans of the "weird horror" genre. I haven't actually finished The Weird, a tome as big as a phone book. But the first 333 pages were so deliciously good, I have to believe the rest of the book will hold up -- in fact I just ordered a copy for myself.
The collection runs the gamut from ghost stories to Lovecraftian yarns to impressionistic pieces. Style and reading level vary greatly. There are a number of classics you may have read before, such as Shirley Jackson's "The Summer People" and Saki's "Sredni Vashtar." But many stories are from now-obscure authors, have been translated into English, and/or were written by non-Western authors. Thus, The Weird gives the reader a broad sampling of the literature. Brief biographies for each author supply some background information for the reader who wants to know more about the author of a particularly resonant tale.
The book will be especially interesting to Lovecraft fans who would like to learn more about his literary predecessors, as several stories are included by authors who influenced him. And naturally, his literary successors are there as well.
To sum up: if you enjoy short horror stories of the unsettling kind, you will enjoy this book. Big fans of the genre would do well to snap up their own copies before it goes out of print.
Side note: In The Weird I rediscovered "Smoke Ghost" by Fritz Leiber, which I had read long ago. And here is the story again, as wonderfully scary as ever: "... that sodden, distorted face of sacking and coal dust, that boneless paw which waved back and forth, unmistakably in his direction, as if reminding him of a future appointment ..."
The Weird: a compendium of strange and dark stories / edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. 2012. Call Number: PN 6071.H727 W45 2012
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