Figures of Fear
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Are you brave enough to discover what figures of fear haunt the imagination of the “master of modern horror” (Library Journal)?
From the beginning of history, men and women have been haunted by figures of fear—and now, in his latest short story collection, award-winning horror writer Graham Masterton reveals the figures that haunt his own imagination and keep him awake at night.
Figures of Fear presents eleven stories, introducing eleven new evils, guaranteed to unsettle and disturb.
Meet the little girl whose mother is keeping something important from her, with fearful results . . . Tremble at the artist who can see the future and prevent it, at a price . . . Beware of the dark, and the evil that lurks within it . . . Tremble, and hide, at the sound of the jingle-bells . . .
Do figures of fear really bring bad luck? Or are they nothing more than stories? Only you can figure out how fearful you are . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Masterton (Festival of Fear), a stalwart of horror fiction, writes with an easy assurance that makes even the weaker stories in this collection tolerable. The shorter tales are often predictable, with "gotcha" twists: "Ex-Voto" explains the wisdom of listening to spooky native artisans; in "What the Dark Does," fear of objects in the night proves well founded; and there's a whiff of victim-blaming in "The Battered Wife." Writerly craft meets with a raw and occasionally elegiac imagination in longer stories. In "Saint Br nach's Shrift," a man relives the nightmarish event that is the source of his happiness and is offered a solution both sacrificial and improbable. "Spirits of the Age" is a Henry James flavored ghost story, light on scares and heavy on atmosphere. In "The Night Hider" a woman is haunted by a burnt horror inhabiting a wardrobe that has more than a passing relationship to a children's classic, and "Underbed" is a work of fantastic and terrible invention, as a boy finds the worlds buried beneath his bedclothes. Despite a few near-misses, this collection is a must for Masterson fans.
