![]() The final tale in this collection, The Shadow, The Darkness, is one of the most profoundly articulate discussions of the futility of human existence that I have encountered. For me, it was far more effective coming across these ideas in fictional narratives than in a treatise of philosophy. I was able to brush them off as somebody else’s bad attitude. I read and enjoyed that one a few years ago, but my one complaint was that although the arguments therein are convincing, they didn’t hugely influence the way I was feeling when I read them. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has read his The Conspiracy against the Human Race, one of the most pessimistic books in existence. Ligotti is a philosopher as well as a fiction writer, and it is his takes on reality that make these stories truly horrifying. This collection is truly weird weird-fiction, but while the scenarios it describes all contain an element of the fantastic, their reality is never far enough from our own to void the message they deliver. ![]() While they always contain some kind of unpleasant element, they also have to be similar enough to our day to day lives to actually disturb us, and it’s this fact that gives this Teatro Grottesco a truly nightmarish quality. It is the second book that I have ever read that actually gave me nightmares. This isn’t bump in the night stuff it’s black, oily, suffocating horror. ![]() This collection of short stories makes most of the horror fiction I’ve read seem like a children’s cartoon. Virgin Books – 2008 (First published 2006) ![]()
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