 This is quite a short collection of spooky/horror tales. A significant chunk of which did not feel like horror to me, at least not when I first read them. However, the more I’ve puzzled, trying to collect my thoughts about this collection, the more it has haunted me and the more I have been able to see the horror. For me the horror was very much seen rather than felt within. There is a realism and relatability to most of the tales and it is the realism where the horror comes from. Even the stories with the heavy fantastic and supernatural elements. What horror there was in the tales was real and understandable, be it the horror of the consequences of your life biting your arse, the horror of customers, or fearing that you have made the wrong choice in your relationship once it’s too late. Most of the stories were simple and seemed to lack depth and meaning. But I think that this was deliberate and theorise that it is because there is no deep meaning in life, we just think there is and make what meanings we can. That is what I felt her characters were doing in the stories and I wonder if it is a lack of character depth or if Taylor is just being sparing with the information provided allowing the mind to wander and conjure up its own meaning. The stories have that kind of ambiguous feel. The stories that stood out to me were ‘The Parrot’, a tale of vengeance, brutality and the consequences of victimizing others. ‘Candy’ stands out very vividly in my memory. Would you kill for your favourite candy? ‘You Promised Me Forever’ could the love you have for your loved one last for ever? Do you really want to put it to the test? ‘Tis Better to Want’ more exotic fantasy and obsession than horror but out of the collection, it is the one that will stay with me the longest. To summarize, all the stories are well written and have merit and have a unique unexpected quality. The horror is subtle and in cases too subtle. Almost every story has erotic elements. The more you think about the stories, the more alive they seem to feel and you realise that when you thought the characters were shallow you just weren’t seeing them properly. I would recommend this anthology to someone looking for softer horror or erotic horror that haunts and to someone who wants to look out of the window and wonder if they’ll see a gold pair of eyes staring back at them. Someone to Share My Nightmares: Stories A band of bloodthirsty sea creatures terrorize a scientist and a journalist trapped in a Carolina cove. The seduction of a plumber making a house call becomes a nightmarish haunting for both parties. A woman transformed for her lover has second thoughts about just how good "together forever" can be. And the one man a woman wants for Christmas is the holiday demon sent to punish the wicked. Someone to Share My Nightmares is a tapestry of horrors interwoven with sensuality. Can our deepest fears be vanquished when they’re shared with someone else? Or is the danger doubled when two people come together? TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE THE FILM THAT MADE ME: JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING BY KEN BROSKY THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR BOOK REVIEWSComments are closed.
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