The Nightmare Chronicles

There's always been a special place in my heart for single-author horror collections. Perhaps this began with Stephen King's NIGHT SHIFT, one of the first books of "modern" horror stories I ever bought.However, the single-author horror collection is a somewhat illusive beast. Perhaps publishers are more comfortable publishing novels.That's why it's exciting when a new collection comes along. Especially one this good.It's been nearly a year since I first read this book, and still I am left with haunting images from some fo my favorite stories: Of the avenging angels from "The Ripening Sweetness of Late Afternoon." Of a woman robed in wasps in "The Chosen." Of the sheer depths of the jealousy of the Monkey God of "White Chapel," or of horror glimpsed through the portal window of a kitchen door in "Underworld."But the absolute prize of the collection is "The Rendering Man," a brilliant story of one woman's awakening to the horrors both in the world around her and within herself. The final few paragraphs are as horrific and beautiful (for good terror tales are often both) as anything I can remember reading in recent horror fiction.The best single-author horror collection to come along since Thomas Ligotti's GRIMSCRIBE, this one deserves a wide readership, as do all of Clegg's works.

I ran across Doug Clegg's novel haphazardly on the internet and decided to check it out.Not being one to normally go for "Horror" novels, I was surprised to find that The Nightmare Chronicles was a unique and well crafted book of short stories. Not so much what I would consider "horror", but more Mystery, more Thiller, and more Fantasy than your usual fare. Each story reflected its own distinct flavour of "hell". The characters are predominantly a cross section of humanity (and thats not to say they're all June and Ward Cleaver wannabe's, some of them are unnervingly evil). Each is then thrust into circumstances that are unsettling and disturbing. It took me awhile to figure out that Clegg's style isnt the normal Pop-horror schtick that you find with mainstreams novelists. His style is to take something normal and begin to skew and twist it until you find yourself wondering if you will ever look at that particular thing the same way again. A rose is definitely not a rose with Clegg.Take the time to settle down and read this Book! The only down side to any of this is that now that I have such high expectations of clegg, I don't want to be dissapointed by the next book of his that I read!

I am new to Douglas Clegg's fiction, but I can guarantee that The Nightmare Chronicles will be just the first in a long line of books I'll read by this guy.What struck me about this collection of short stories was that it is like entering a room with someone who is going to tell you stories in the dark. The set up of the kidnapping story that wraps around the dozen or so short stories in this book is intriguing but doesn't overpower the main event.The main event are some of the most delicious short stories of terror I've read since I read early Stephen King, Robert Bloch, or Richard Matheson. Clegg is not as much of a structuralist as those other writers. One can almost feel him going with the imagery in some cases over the plot. I would go so far as to suggest that what this writer finds in the horror of his fiction is beauty and some kind of kinship."White Chapel" is a standout, as is "I Am Infinite; I Contain Multitudes." They're like bookends to the other stories, some brief "The Little Mermaid," some a bit overly complicated like "Chosen."One or two of the stories seemed ragged to me, but still inspired. The reason I'm writing this review is because I bought the book here and something in it definitely spoke to me. There is something very personal in this collection.I recommend it to readers who want horror fiction that goes beyond the page.

The Nightmare Chronicles by Douglas Clegg is the peak literary achievement of a novelist and short story writer who has truly developed his talent, disregarding the standard formulae of either paint-by-numbers fiction-writing or gross-out extremist writers. This collection is the point in which pulp meets literature head-on.In this collection of short fiction, Clegg has managed to conjure up some of the most disturbing tales in which the supernatural touches everyday life, where paranoia meets truth, and where dreams and nightmares cross over into day-light.For anyone looking for standard fare, The Nightmare Chronicles is not the book. If you want something scary that appeals to light and mindless reading, try Goosebumps or a Young Adult book, find an Anne Rice vampire novel or pick up the latest commercial mishmash. This is not a book for horror lovers alone, but for readers who really enjoy a superb experience with fiction.But, if you are a serious reader of the best that genre fiction has to offer, try this collection of short stories. Someone here mentioned this has no plot. Well, of course it does not have a plot; it's a collection of short fiction. This should be obvious to anyone who has actually gotten beyond the first page of this book. The characters are ordinary but thrust into the mouth of terror, disturbance, and shadow. The imagery within these tales is startling.Of the tales, the best are "White Chapel," "I Am Infinite; I Contain Multitudes," "Underworld," and one of the most interesting short horror stories I've ever read, "The Rendering Man."I have read two of Clegg's novels, both of which were good, but I have no doubt that it is in the short story, as exemplified in The Nightmare Chronicles, that he excels.