Psychos

Psychos
Ed Kurtz and John Skipp
Netgalley review










Amazon Blurb -

This collection of thirty-eight terrifying tales of serial killers at large, written by the great masters of the genre, plumbs the horrifying depths of a deranged mind and the forces of evil that compel a human being to murder, gruesomely and methodically, over and over again.

From Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) to Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), stories of serial killers and psychos loom large and menacing in our collective psyche. Tales of their grisly conquests have kept us cowering under the covers, but still turning the pages.

Psychos is the first book to collect in a single volume the scariest and most well-crafted fictional works about these deranged killers. Some of the stories are classics, the best that the genre has to offer, by renowned writers such as Neil Gaiman, Amelia Beamer, Robert Bloch, and Thomas Harris. Other selections are from the latest and most promising crop of new authors.

John Skipp, who is also the editor of Zombies, Demons and Werewolves and Shapeshifters, provides fascinating insight, through two nonfiction essays, into our insatiable obsession with serial killers and how these madmen are portrayed in popular culture. Resources at the end of the book includes lists of the genre's best long-form fiction, movies, websites, and writers.

*****

I am not a big fan of short story compilations, but this past week in my participation in Thrill Week with Tea Time With Marce, I saw this book on another bloggers page, Bitsy Bling Books, and thought, ok I'm going to give this a shot.  Well, for those of you that are big fans of horror, this is going to be RIGHT up your alley!!!

I didn't like all of them equally, to be honest the first one made me go uh oh, but then it just got better and better!  Writings from Poe, Bradbury,and Bloch to authors from our time like Amelia Beamer and Nick Mamatas.  This was a blast, Marla's Eyes just was gross, and I had a fave, The Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury.  

I encourage those who love horror to pick this baby up, especially those who participate in Stainless Steel Droppings annual R.I.P event.  Curl up with this little monster and a cup of cocoa on a chilly night with just a flashlight to read by....I dare you.

4 cannolis