Description
"Joseph Payne Brennan is one of the most effective writers in the horror genre, and he is certainly one of the writers I have patterned my own career upon," declared Stephen King. "In fact," he added, "The Shapes of Midnight could serve as an exercise-book for the young writer who aspires to pen and publish his or her own weird tales."
A poet as well as a writer of horror fiction, Brennan worked at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library as an acquisitions assistant for over 40 years. He wrote hundreds of stories for Weird Tales and other pulp magazines. This new edition of his increasingly rare compilation, The Shapes of Midnight, presents 10 of his best stories.
Selections include "Diary of a Werewolf," a first-person account of bloody sprees; "The Corpse of Charlie Rull," recounting the rampage of a radioactive zombie; "The Pavilion," which unfolds at an abandoned seaside haunt with something ghastly beneath its pilings; "House of Memory," a wistful look at the past's imaginative grip; "The Willow Platform," featuring the machinations of a self-styled warlock; and other chillingly memorable tales.
A poet as well as a writer of horror fiction, Brennan worked at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library as an acquisitions assistant for over 40 years. He wrote hundreds of stories for Weird Tales and other pulp magazines. This new edition of his increasingly rare compilation, The Shapes of Midnight, presents 10 of his best stories.
Selections include "Diary of a Werewolf," a first-person account of bloody sprees; "The Corpse of Charlie Rull," recounting the rampage of a radioactive zombie; "The Pavilion," which unfolds at an abandoned seaside haunt with something ghastly beneath its pilings; "House of Memory," a wistful look at the past's imaginative grip; "The Willow Platform," featuring the machinations of a self-styled warlock; and other chillingly memorable tales.
This was a short but fun anthology featuring stories of madness, sorrowful memories, and murder.
My favorites were Diary of a Werewolf in which a recovering drug addict begins to feel a strong compulsion to run wild in the woods, and Pavilion in which a murderer returns to the scene of his crime. The rest were just ok reads for me, though others may enjoy them more than I did. If you are into short horror stories give this one a read.
I received a complimentary copy for review.
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About the author
Joseph Payne Brennan was an American writer of fantasy and horror fiction, and also a poet. Brennan's first professional sale came in December 1940 with the publication of the poem, "When Snow Is Hung", which appeared in the Christian Science Monitor Home Forum, and he continued writing poetry up until the time of his death.
He is the father of Noel-Anne Brennan who has published several fantasy novels.
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