Introducing this collection of macabre fiction, Gavin (Charnel Wine
) writes of his fascination with nightmares that make us feel as though “we are being dreamed.
” The dozen stories he has gathered effectively convey that feeling through their disorienting shifts of perspective, outré imagery and twisted internal logic. “In the Shadow of the Nodding God” tells of a working-class drudge who’s horrified to discover that the imaginary world he creates with collages has begun erupting into his everyday reality. “The Pale Lover” describes an esoteric bookstore whose pornographic wares hold the secret of a seductive succubus. “The Bellman’s Way” unfolds as a traditional tale of supernatural menace in which a family newly moved to a rural neighborhood discovers the terrible price of refusing tribute to one of its bogies. Gavin writes in an old-fashioned style that suits the gothic horrors he conjures. Readers of antiquarian ghost tales and classic horror fiction will find this book a fine extension of those traditions. (Dec.)
