Iām an Anglo-Irish writer of stories that have a fantastical or paranormal worldviewāoften containing darkness, but also touched with satirical humour. Iāve always liked stories that seem rooted in everyday reality but then introduce inexplicable elements which unhinge the recognisable world in a surprising or unsettling fashion. For me, that description fits a range of books, including Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I remember being the first book I read through obsessively), Dracula, or Gormenghast; and writers such as Shirley Jackson, Philip K. Dick, J. G. Ballard, H.P. Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and Thomas Ligotti.
I wrote
A Lunatic's Laugh: New weird Gothic mystery, always keeps you guessing
Reading H. P. Lovecraftās best stories, I always start to feel as if Iām digging away at the accepted reality of modern man, peeling it back to reveal another, older, truer reality hidden underneath. Itās an eerie process. In that final reality, I find the Old Gods are still waiting. Over the course of the past 10,000 years, perhaps they only blinked an eye. But now, each page I turn brings them closer. That abysmal reality of the Old Gods is only hinted at in the stories ā Cthulhu is a presence rather than a character ā but I donāt doubt for a moment how dangerous it is, because Lovecraft makes us believe, deep down, that their return is inevitable.
WIKIPEDIA says: 'H.P. Lovecraft's reputation has grown tremendously over the decades, and he is now commonly regarded as one of the most important horror writers of the 20th century, exerting an influence that is widespread, though often indirect.'
H.P. Lovecraft's tales of the tentacled Elder God Cthulhu and his pantheon of alien deities were initially written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s. These astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when they were first published.
This handsome leatherbound tome collects together the very best ofā¦
It might sound strange, but one of the things I like most about Shirley Jacksonās writing is just how brutal she is with her characters! When I first met Eleanor Vance, the lead character in The Haunting of Hill House, whoās seeking her ācup of starsā, I was absorbed in the slightly strained and unsettling interior monologue that lets us into her view of the world. From the start, I got the feeling of something about to snapā¦ But personally, Iām usually rooting for the characters in the books I read, so I still hoped Eleanor might find those stars of hers. Then she agrees to visit Hill House. And maybe the houseās haunted reality does give her a glimpse of those stars, somehow ā but in brutal fashion?
Part of a new six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by Academy Award-winning director of The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro
Filmmaker and longtime horror literature fan Guillermo del Toro serves as the curator for the Penguin Horror series, a new collection of classic tales and poems by masters of the genre. Included here are some of del Toro's favorites, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ray Russell's short story "Sardonicus," considered by Stephen King to be "perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written," to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and storiesā¦
This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earthās water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynnaās story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Torontoā¦
I canāt think of another book that bends and blends competing realities as well as Slaughterhouse-5. Vonnegut shows us the mundanity of a 9 to 5 optometrist, the horrors of war (in this case, the fire-bombing of Dresden), time-traveling sci-fi, and mental breakdown ā each of these realities plays off the others until I canāt be sure where one ends and the next begins. Itās a high-wire act, in that respect, one that could easily fall flat. I think Vonnegut makes it work, not only because of his skill but also because, after trying for ages to write a book about his experiences in WW2, he found a story and structure that lets him capture all the madness and horror (and bleak, deadpan, absurdist humour) of everything he saw.
A special fiftieth anniversary edition of Kurt Vonnegutās masterpiece, āa desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth centuryā (Time), featuring a new introduction by Kevin Powers, author of the National Book Award finalist The Yellow Birds
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the worldās great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he hadā¦
Reality always seems to be something of a moving target in Philip K. Dickās books. No other writer gives me the same kind of thrilling vertigo as I get when I enter into his worlds because no other writer treats the idea of reality so skeptically. Everything in Dickās fictional world is open to doubt, corruption, or complete overthrow ā thereās really no safe place for his characters, or us, to stand. I think Ubik is the book where he takes this to the extreme, pushing those feelings of anxiety and dislocation until itās very close to being a horror story. In Ubik, I find myself facing technological ghosts and vampires. Of course, this being Dick, Iām never completely sure which characters fall into which category ā and neither are they.
A classic science fiction tale of artifical worlds by one of the great American writers of the 20th century
Glen Runciter is dead.
Or is he?
Someone died in the explosion orchestrated by his business rivals, but even as his funeral is scheduled, his mourning employees are receiving bewildering messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping and regressing in ways which suggest that their own time is running out.
If it hasn't already.
Readers minds have been blown by Ubik:
'Sheer craziness, a book defying any straightforward synopsis . . . a unique time travel adventureā¦
In May 1941, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, hums with talk of spring flowers, fishing derbies, and the growing war in Europe. And for the residents of a quiet neighborhood boarding house, the winds of change are blowing.
Self-proclaimed spinster, Bessie Blackwell, is the reluctant owner of a new pair of glasses. Theā¦
Iām often attracted to characters who seem to be haunted ā whether by places, people, or their own past. Stanislaw Lem ups the ante a good deal by having his cast of characters apparently haunted by the entire ocean of the planet theyāve landed on. But that isnāt why I find Solaris so moving and intriguing. Just as weāre starting to orientate ourselves to how the planet can bend reality for the astronauts who are based there, Lem throws an entirely unexpected question into the mix ā what if the āmonstersā donāt realise theyāre āmonstersā, what if theyāre as bewildered by the situation as the āvictimsā? That blindsided me (which is another thing I like stories to do) and, for me, it adds a special layer of poignancy to the book.
When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in doing so remains a mystery . . .
Solaris raises a question that has been at the heart of human experience and literature for centuries: can we truly understand the universe around us without first understanding whatā¦
Lilli Ashler was an actor who found fame in a play called A Lunaticās Laugh. Then she disappeared from public view. When Lilli dies, her granddaughter, Dominique, inherits her Gothic mansion. Opposite the mansion stands a notorious asylum where the writer of A Lunaticās Laugh spent time as an inmate before he dashed his head against the wall, his blood and brains seeping into the stone. The writerās death led to rumors he was a practitioner of black magic and that the asylum is possessed. Now Dominique fears the asylum is somehow laying claim to her, as she begins to suspect the nightmarish bargain Lilli Ashler made for her stardom.
A Lunaticās Laugh blends classic haunted house tales with a unique and macabre family saga.
Two women separated by time learn what happens when they embrace their inner magic in this inspiring environmental fiction novel.
Although Sara's college degree provided her an out, she always knew sheād return home to the small logging community that is like family to her. But when she learns theā¦
In the first century, Romeās celebrated love poet Ovid finds himself in exile, courtesy of an irate Emperor, in the far-flung town of Tomis. Appalled at being banished to a barbarous region at the very edge of the Empire, Ovid soon discovers that he has a far more urgent -ā¦