Not very convincing

Reblogged from Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus:
The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales - Thomas Ligotti

I love this author, and I love the concept of this book: he takes famous horror, famous people, like Frankenstein, Usher, the Wolfman, and turns the screw just that little more to try and make them more horrific.  

 

However, this didn't work for me.   The stories were one and two pages, and the promised pathos never came.   A couple stories - the last, with H.P. Lovecraft and the Turn in the Screw in particular - actually did work and quite well.   Between that and the fact that many of the sentences themselves are quite moody and gorgeous, I gave this two stars.  I only wish that the whole stories had come together in a manner which had paid off on the promise that was revealed in the forward.