A review by gerhard
Martyrs and Monsters by Robert Dunbar, Greg F. Gifune
5.0
It took me forever to finish this collection of short stories by Robert Dunbar. The opener, ‘Getting Wet’, was so disquieting I stopped reading after that. Then when had I recovered sufficiently from its eerie creepiness, I returned again to the bloody, haunted pages of Martyrs & Monsters. And again, and again.
For example, I cried at the end of ‘The Moon (Upside Down)’, and don’t really know why. It was such a beautiful, sad, inexplicable story.
Some stories were laugh-out loud funny, while quite a few disgusted me. Some were pretty grim and depressing. And then there were those shimmering with love and sensuousness.
Dunbar is a writer of great nuance, who knows exactly when to let the reader’s imagination do the work. To call this a ‘horror’ collection does not reflect the depth or quality of the writing here – this is psychological fiction at its finest and most insightful.
And if you are a horror fan like I am, you will be amazed at what he does with some of the genre’s fondest tropes: ghosts, zombies, werewolves, vampires. They become alive, frightening, powerful … and desirable.
This is a superb collection that takes you well out of your comfort zone into an eerie realm of wonder and terror, which Dunbar knows very well are two sides of the same coin.
For example, I cried at the end of ‘The Moon (Upside Down)’, and don’t really know why. It was such a beautiful, sad, inexplicable story.
Some stories were laugh-out loud funny, while quite a few disgusted me. Some were pretty grim and depressing. And then there were those shimmering with love and sensuousness.
Dunbar is a writer of great nuance, who knows exactly when to let the reader’s imagination do the work. To call this a ‘horror’ collection does not reflect the depth or quality of the writing here – this is psychological fiction at its finest and most insightful.
And if you are a horror fan like I am, you will be amazed at what he does with some of the genre’s fondest tropes: ghosts, zombies, werewolves, vampires. They become alive, frightening, powerful … and desirable.
This is a superb collection that takes you well out of your comfort zone into an eerie realm of wonder and terror, which Dunbar knows very well are two sides of the same coin.