Nightmare Abbey 2 features a dozen terror tales by today's greatest horror writers:
Tons of photos and illustrations by World Fantasy Award-winner Allen Koszowski; and a look at Boris Karloff's Thriller by screenwriter and film historian Gary Gerani, and much more.
Chilling, thrilling, perhaps even terrifying tales calculated to give you sleepless nights!
It's no secret that I am addicted to short horror stories. Having loved the first volume of Nightmare Abbey I was thrilled to receive volume 2.
Like it's predecessor, volume 2 is loaded with spooky atmosphere, gorgeous illustrations, notes about each story and author, and a bit of education on the history of horror. I loved learning more about Boris Karloff's Thriller. The show was a bit before my time and although it did appear briefly in reruns during my childhood I didn't pay it a lot of attention at the time. When it came out on DVD I bought the series but never finished watching it because I thought they were all crime drama/mysteries. Now I have learned that there are some darker scarier episodes and plan to watch the rest. I also learned where Swamp Thing came from.
Of course, the stars of Nightmare Abbey are the stories, and I had multiple favorites which I will mention briefly here, the first of which was IT by Theodore Sturgeon. This was a new to me story even though it was first published in 1940. IT is a being in the woods. It is not dead, and it is not alive, and it bears you no ill will but it will probably kill you anyway so don't hang around if you see it.
These Things That Walk Behind Me by David Surface is an unsettling bit of supernatural weirdness in which a man has reasons to fear going to sleep. Aside from the spine chilling moments of this story it also portrays what happens when you are vulnerable to the person you love and find out they aren't worthy of confiding in.
That Which Overcomes by John Lewellyn Probert begins with looking through a book and ends in sheer terror.
Tableau For Two by Gregory L. Norris finds brothers clearing out their deceased mother's belongings and stirring up memories that will leave them forever changed.
La Nina Atardecer by Steve Duffy is a vanishing hitchhiker story and though it at times felt familiar it still kicked up my anxiety and I enjoyed it immensely.
All the stories were good but those were my favorites.
If you're looking for something strange and frightening this book is for you.
My thanks to Dead Letter Press.
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