by Laird Barron
I've tried really hard to develop an appreciation for Laird Barron. I started with The Light is the Darkness and found my expectations outweighed what I was presented with. I've also read The Croning and considered it an overly wordy and bloated novel propped up by a great central concept. So I hope...
Laird Barron has got some pretty serious writing chops. I can’t remember the last time I had to look up so many words in the dictionary while reading. Strangely enough it didn’t bug me like I thought it would and I actually dug checking out the definitions. The subject matter of these shorts are pre...
I have this habit where, whenever I approach an author for the first time, I usually tend to head straight for their anthologies before investing myself in their lengthier, more substantial works. I guess the theory is that, by ‘dipping my toes into the pool’ as it were, I get to decide if I’m going...
I read Barron because of the praises he got and comparison to Ligotti. Though there are good stories in this book (Hallucigenia is a superb one) it is rather a mixed bag. Most of the stories seem forced and the weirdness a bit fabricated. Anyone looking for a really amazing stories should stick with...
Note to self: reread.
This is one batch of creep-ass stories. I pretty much loved this book, every story was a page turner and every one scared the crap out of me. I hate comparisons to other authors, like Lovecraft or Ligotti since the writing is totally different but, imagine Lovecraft's vision of faceless uncaring c...
This book collects stories previously published in various magazines within the last ten years. Coming highly praised by those who have read it, I wanted to try some more modern horror, hoping for something above and beyond the generic horror thrillers so common these days. I was not disappointed.Ma...
not creepy
If you like H.P. Lovecraft and his modern successors like Caitlin Kiernan, then you'll probably like Barron. Though, to be sure, he only intermittently captures Lovecraft's creepiness or Kiernan's lyricism. In the end it all comes down to "did I enjoy reading these stories"? And, for the most part, ...
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