arnzen's review
5.0
WOW! This thing is brimming with weirdness. Fun look at pulps you'd never see otherwise. I try to read one a night before going to sleep... muhahah.
thereaderred's review
3.0
This was quite the experience reading this. When it says mammoth it truly means it. Each part is divided into decades, Part 1: 40s & 50s, Part 2: 60s & 70s, Part 3: 80s & 90s Part 4: 21st Century.
There were some enjoyable stories here (my personal favourite being 'The Monster of Dread End') but it doesn't pick up until the second part. There's a nice adaptation of Poe's 'The Black Cat' in the first part but most of the other stories are pretty forgettable to be honest, most of them featured abandoned castles and the recent or long dead. The 70s & 80s mixed things up a big by having sci fi elements in some stories (there's a terrific one about a deadly alien fungus that attacks people), and towards the last section I came across some stories that interested me enough to check out more of the artists and writer's work, most notable is Steve Niles' occult detective Cal McDonald.
It's a mixed bag but I'm glad I read this book through to the end, it just goes to show that even from times gone up until now there is a strong audience for these macabre stories.
There were some enjoyable stories here (my personal favourite being 'The Monster of Dread End') but it doesn't pick up until the second part. There's a nice adaptation of Poe's 'The Black Cat' in the first part but most of the other stories are pretty forgettable to be honest, most of them featured abandoned castles and the recent or long dead. The 70s & 80s mixed things up a big by having sci fi elements in some stories (there's a terrific one about a deadly alien fungus that attacks people), and towards the last section I came across some stories that interested me enough to check out more of the artists and writer's work, most notable is Steve Niles' occult detective Cal McDonald.
It's a mixed bag but I'm glad I read this book through to the end, it just goes to show that even from times gone up until now there is a strong audience for these macabre stories.
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