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jdcorley's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The single-author horror short story anthology is more difficult to handle than it seems. If you make the stories completely independent it's hard to get across a horror scenario quickly enough to bring the reader into it. If they're not independent you feel like you'd spend your time better on a novel. Bartlett hangs his hat on a tone - both narrative and stylistic - and tries to tell you about what amounts of extrusions in that tone into more grounded situations (a kid going over to your weird friends' house, going to the dentist after waiting too long, etc.) It works, essentially, but by the time you're halfway through, you "get it". The mythology is suggestive and interesting, so you're drawn along in order to learn more about it, but in the end there really isn't a single story that is sharp enough to be truly memorable. I credit this collection for attempting a new approach to this type of anthology, and for the inventiveness of the horror mythology, but it doesn't quite add up. A "normal" anthology with a couple of hot stories might have more merit overall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
alexalily's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
cmcrockford's review against another edition
5.0
Micro and flash horror fiction unified by occult radio station WXXT in Leeds. The result is truly scary and makes me really jealous and pissed that I didn't write it. Bartlett's prose is surreal, serene, and panic-inducing.
rock_n_reads's review against another edition
5.0
When one of my favorites recommends another author, I listen. So, when I saw John Boden post about Matthew M. Bartlett’s work, I immediately ordered his short fiction collection, Gateways to Abomination. It took me awhile to get to this one, but it was worth the wait.
After I finished reading this book, I had to set it aside and allow myself to think on it for a few days before I could write this review. It’s hard to categorize this type of book into a subgenre of horror. Bartlett has a unique writing style that shines in this collection and there are no wasted words. The stories are all connected by a common link—transmissions from a sinister radio station called WXXT. But don’t go into this book expecting each story to read like a radio broadcast. That was my initial expectation upon reading the synopsis, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that’s not the case. These stories tie together through mention of WXXT at times, but they are also linked by some recurring locations and characters.
I set this one down a couple of times in between stories, but now that I’ve finished it, I highly recommend reading the stories in order, and in one sitting (if possible) for full effect. I’d actually like to go back and re-read this again in that fashion. I think I’d take even more from the writing in that way. I am not sure I can select “favorites” from this collection because the stories just work so well together, and I feel like one without the others would not be the same.
The horror in this collection is subtle at times, and strong and visceral in other moments. There’s an underlying and sinister hum of the occult that you can feel pulsing throughout the pages as you read. These stories gave me the creeps and left me disturbed, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for with this read. This book won’t be for everyone—I guess you could describe it as “weird” fiction. If it were a film it would be that hidden indie gem that’s often overlooked in a sea of Hollywood blockbusters. Gateways to Abomination is weird and wonderful, and the kind of content that would make for a great live reading. I’ll be picking up more of Bartlett’s work soon, and recommend this is if you’re looking for something to refresh your horror collection.
4.5/5 stars, rounded up for GoodReads
After I finished reading this book, I had to set it aside and allow myself to think on it for a few days before I could write this review. It’s hard to categorize this type of book into a subgenre of horror. Bartlett has a unique writing style that shines in this collection and there are no wasted words. The stories are all connected by a common link—transmissions from a sinister radio station called WXXT. But don’t go into this book expecting each story to read like a radio broadcast. That was my initial expectation upon reading the synopsis, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that’s not the case. These stories tie together through mention of WXXT at times, but they are also linked by some recurring locations and characters.
I set this one down a couple of times in between stories, but now that I’ve finished it, I highly recommend reading the stories in order, and in one sitting (if possible) for full effect. I’d actually like to go back and re-read this again in that fashion. I think I’d take even more from the writing in that way. I am not sure I can select “favorites” from this collection because the stories just work so well together, and I feel like one without the others would not be the same.
The horror in this collection is subtle at times, and strong and visceral in other moments. There’s an underlying and sinister hum of the occult that you can feel pulsing throughout the pages as you read. These stories gave me the creeps and left me disturbed, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for with this read. This book won’t be for everyone—I guess you could describe it as “weird” fiction. If it were a film it would be that hidden indie gem that’s often overlooked in a sea of Hollywood blockbusters. Gateways to Abomination is weird and wonderful, and the kind of content that would make for a great live reading. I’ll be picking up more of Bartlett’s work soon, and recommend this is if you’re looking for something to refresh your horror collection.
4.5/5 stars, rounded up for GoodReads
testpattern's review against another edition
5.0
A delightfully sqaumous collection of beautifully crafted vignettes. Flickering lunettes of vivid, startlingly wrought imagery punctuated by moments of savage violence. The sense of mystery and hidden history underlying WXXT and the towns it reaches is tantalizingly created, and there is a sense of a richer, darker works that lies below the surface of the text. Highly recommended.
danni_faith's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
I admire this for the heft of imagination as well as the execution of said imagination with regard to form.
danhill's review against another edition
5.0
A shambling, rotting, cackling collection of vignettes that reads like a fun house mirror version of 'Welcome to Night Vale' (which the collection predates).
barb4ry1's review against another edition
4.0
I was on a stool at the counter of the Look Diner, moving my scrambled eggs around the plate in the coagulating pool of ketchup and staring at my gray coffee, when the man walked in carrying his brain in his cupped hands..
If you think it was strange, you’re wrong. It’s just a warm-up for Bartlett's boundless and twisted imagination.
Gateways to Abomination is his self-published debut collection of short stories. Or rather a novel-in-stories as all these vignettes are interconnected. They show the life in a small town in Massachusets called Leeds that happens to be under the spell of a Satanic cult.
At the ceiling, winged babies wheeled. Their wings were black gossamer and they gibbered with wet beaks of pink and purple. They had the eyes of goats. Their diapers bulged..
As you see life in Leeds isn’t exactly normal. We learn about the world from the unknown narrator and from broadcasts transmitted by local radio station named WXXT. Some characters like Ben Stockton and Jebediah Blackstye appear few times, some just once.
The story is told in a way that keeps reader asking himself if what he just read had actually happened or maybe was just a hallucination? I’m not sure what was the author’s goal, but if it was to freak me out, he has succeeded. These events/visions are disturbing. Hell, disturbing is an euphemism – it’s a total mindfuck.
I could tell you of a rain of bruised babies slamming sickeningly into the pavement of the roads and sidewalks of Leeds, bouncing in dizzying numbers from the roof tops and canopies and awnings..
I could tell you that I was now a part of an army of the dead, whose instructions were dispersed by coded messages on a radio station. I could tell you of our foul mission and of our multitudes of intended victims.
I could tell you these things, my invisible audience, only on the airwaves of WXXT.
WXXT.
If it bleeds, it's Leeds.
Bartlett is a fine writer. He plays with the language and even when he describes surreal atrocities, he does it with style and phrasing that are impressive.
I’m not sure what genre it is. It’s weird and formidable. Categorization isn’t important, though. What’s important is the fact it works in a strange and twisted way. While some images are obscene and simply sick, they’re also addictive and, well, for the lack of another word, beautiful in a creepy way.
I have to admit that while it wasn’t an easy book, I’m thoroughly impressed. It reads like ultra-violent and nightmare-inducing poetry. I’ll reread this book just for the sheer thrill of conjuring these images in my head once again.
If you’re looking for something weird and terrifying, look no more. Just grab a copy of Gateways to Abomination and experience weirdness organically and viscerally.
Just remember it’s not the book for the faint of heart – it’s violent and profane. You may find yourself unable to get rid of some off vivid and brutal images, like this one:
When Jeb was in his cups, which thankfully was not often, he’d grab his overalls in a fist and yank them asunder. Then from his unders, he’d pull out his I-can‘t-say-it, a confused grey mass of you-know-what, held together with a wet and reeking shoelace. THIS, he’d bellow, IS THE SOURCE OF ALL THE PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD. I USEDTA THINK IT WAS WOMAN BUT ITS THIS. He’d yank from his deep pocket a meat tenderizing mallet, heavy and dirty, and demand that we hammer his mess. I’d give a meaty whack or two, looking away in horror, to placate the lunatic. Earl, though, took to it. He’d wheeze his asthmatic wheeze and swing that hammer like a he-man at a carnival. Trying to ring the bell. BAMM, he’d yell. BAMM BAMM. .
If you’re ready, try it. Oh, and don’t expect to have some clear beginning and end. You won’t get those.
ryanxvx's review against another edition
3.0
Unfortunately kind of underwhelming. Just a bunch of really short stories loosely strung together into an overarching narrative. This honestly would've worked better as a straightforward novella, Bartlett is clearly a very talented writer so that isn't the issue.