A book that could have also been titled: all the gore you can stand (and more). To long-time horror fans, Edward Lee needs no introduction: this writer is known to have authored some of the most unbelievable, hard-core novels available on the market right now, a couple of them remarkable indeed (I think here about The Black Train and Flesh Gothic).
If a horror fan you’re not, I *won’t* recommend any other – apart from the two I have just mentioned – of Edward Lee’s novels, including this Grimoire Diabolique, which is instead a collection of novelettes and short stories. The reason: not only they’re not for the faint of heart -they’re gross, disturbing, at time featuring depraved, blood-thirsty monsters and stomach-churning situations (depending on your stomach, of course).
This is the blurb and the table of content:
What do you get when you collect 92k words of the most vile, disgusting, gore-soaked, sick, twisted and demented fiction from the true master of hardcore horror, Edward Lee… The Grimoire Diaboligue. A massive eBook collection of the most brutal of Mr. Lee’s short stories and novellas. All available in one place for the first time digitally.
Mr. Torso
Miss Torso
The Dritiphilist
Grub Girl In The Prison Of Dead Women
The McCrath Model SS40-C Series S
Makak
The Baby
Mother
The Wrong Guy
Ever Nat
Hands
The Salt-Diviner
Now, I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve skipped a couple of them.
With this important caveat, I can say that Grimoire Diabolique is a story collection still worth reading for fans of good horror, especially for a couple of cases where Lee manages to attain the literary grotesque and sometimes a dark comedy flavour, which are by far the best outcomes (in one of them –The Salt-Diviner – I laughed out loud, and it remains my favourite one). These are the stories where what gets the stage is supernatural horror, which I believe Edward Lee has some natural talent in portraying.
This is the author’s website. Incidentally: Mr. Torso was a Bram Stoker Award nominee.
Too rich for my blood – I’m too prone to nightmares and I often dream about books I read, so I avoid Horror these days – that said, this looks a really interesting collection. Thank you for the review.
I understand, and you’re right – this one gave me the creeps too. But the last story was definitively worth my money, darkly funny and well written. I wish he published more of this kind of stuff.
Oh, I wish I wasn’t such a wuss – I like darker edged stories, but it isn’t worth the misery:(.