A review by jdcorley
Gateways to Abomination: Collected Short Fiction by Matthew M. Bartlett

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.
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