~post by Joe T.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” – H. P. Lovecraft
The Nightmare Factory is a horror-centric book club I started back in 2011 with my pal Steven Warren. Named after the collection of stories by Thomas Ligotti, we aim to give you some of the best names in horror, some who have gone a little unappreciated over the years and some who may just be gathering steam.
To celebrate October, the month of terror culminating in high, holy Halloween, here’s a list of the books we’ve read for 2013 plus the books we’ll be closing out the year with:
January
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
In my humble opinion not only is Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell the greatest example of sequential art of all time, it’s also one of the greatest novels of the last 50 years. Just as the television program THE WIRE used crime and the city of Baltimore to explore the decline of “The American Century,” Moore and Campbell use murder and Victorian London to explore the decline of Great Britain and the creation of all the monstrous evils of the 20th century. A terrifying and unsettling read, one suitably chosen to be read in the January of the 125th anniversary of Jack The Ripper! (Joe)
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February
The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen
The missing link between Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen is one of the great underappreciated writers of our time. Alongside William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley, he was a member of The Order of the Golden Dawn. He wrote many spine-tingling tales hinting that the remnants of an ancient race, mistakenly described as fairies or “little folk,” still haunt the British countryside. Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer In Darkness” is a tribute to Machen’s “Novel of the Black Seal.” (Joe)
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March
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
The interwoven stories that compose this patchwork novel are independently gripping and provocative, but when the grand tapestry is assembled into a menacing cloak of vampiric bio-shock horror, an icy layer of dread further envelops the whole blood-drenched affair. An unconventional novel for an unforgettable spin on the vampire mythos, these five ferocious slices of life detail the evolution of Dr. Edward Weyland – a ghoul unstuck in time – as he attempts to reconcile his undeniable predatory instincts with his chronic and indelible humanity. (Steven)
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April
The Croning by Laird Barron
I’ve been a fan of Laird Barron’s short stories for a few years now (check out his latest collection The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories). The Croning is his debut novel and it’s a doozy. Think Arthur Machen by way of Robert E. Howard instead of H.P. Lovecraft. VERY Karl Edward Wagner for those for whom that name still holds cachet. One of the best upcoming writers, his novella “Hand of Glory” has been nominated for a 2013 World Fantasy Award. (Joe)
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May
The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
With a premise as deceptively simple as the cover photo is misleadingly prurient, The Red Tree grows concentric rings of postmodern complexity as the plot blossoms into a deliriously self-referential carrion flower. Recovering from a brutally unhealthy relationship, a middle-aged writer seeks asylum in a dilapidated Rhode Island farmhouse with a dubious past. As a pet obsession with a suicidal manuscript projects malignant roots, the unclean other-ness of an ancient sylvan symbol casts an oppressive shadow. Very informed by Danielewski’s House of Leaves. (Steven)
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June
Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman
Vampiric wordsmith Kim Newman’s tongue-in-cheek alternate history series Anno Dracula (the Dracula Years) imagines a world in which Abraham Van Helsing and his fearless vampire killers failed in their attempted assassination of Vlad Dracula. The third installment, Dracula Cha Cha Cha, is a giallo synthesizer that pulses with the heart of Italy as everyone from James Bond to Clark Kent to Gomez and Morticia Addams swarms to Rome to be a part of Dracula’s wedding, a spectacle that culminates in a bloodbath at the Coliseum. Alan Moore has acknowledged the influence these books have had on his own League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. La dolce morte! (Joe)
July to December to be continued tomorrow……
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Come to BookPeople and join our crypt-keepers, Joe Turner and Steven Warren, every third Tuesday at 8 p.m. as we help you navigate the bloody byways and diabolic depths of your fears with our horrific book club, The Nightmare Factory. Next meeting: Tuesday, October 15 to discuss Tales of Jack the Ripper.
BookPeople 
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