Goes in the same category than The Shining. Great character development and the story itself moves me, which kind of surprised me since that doesn't happen to me with King that often.

Folk horror is an interesting offshoot of horror, one that I can't call my favorite just yet but which has left me intrigued and wondering if there's something there. When I had just re-watched The Wicker Man, I stumbled into this collection of contemporary folk horror stories, so I had to get it of course (just a little over 4 dollars on Amazon and even less in euros; not much to lose).

The standout was Lindsay King-Miller's The Fruit, featuring dangerous whispering fruit trees, but other than that the collection left me underwhelmed. I liked the overall rustic mood, but I like to evaluate anthologies in terms of whether I want to read more from the authors, and none of these made the cut. Great for the fall season for sure, but not something that gets me really excited.

This is less on the horror side and the stories mostly deal with people who were in some way or the other connected in the past, "Atlantis". The time when the hippies started moving, soldiers fight in the jungles and finally everyone recovers (or do they?). The smaller novels seem at first glance to be separate but I liked how they showed us a glimpse of the lives of the people mentioned in the first one and how they have developed as human beings.

I'm not a big crime novel fan beyond my favorites from the 19th century till the 1950s (Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, American noir etc.), but I do occasionally dive into the newer stuff if I come across something that has a fresh and interesting premise.

Falling Angel definitely has that, times ten. The story first came into my radar when I watched the movie Angel Heart (1987) a couple of years ago (re-watched it today, still as good as ever), and although I have to admit that the intense, almost surreal, noir atmosphere with occasional sounds of a beating heart adds a lot of value, the story being filled with voodoo, black magic, murder, and realistic 50s New York ambiance ensures that the novel doesn't pale in comparison.

Of course, the events finally spiral into the famous mind-boggling ending that both comes as a complete surprise (unlike Louis Cyphre's role; if you didn't already guess why, try repeating his name out loud multiple times in succession) and makes total sense while pushing genre limits.

This is what Noidan käsikirja (Witch's Handbook) is to a certain generation of Finns. The nostalgia of reading creepy stories at night alone in your room or at a sleepover, and the even more horrifying illustrations that just keep coming. You're fascinated, but you can't look away. Stephen Gammell's art, in fact, is the star here. It's the perfect amount of nightmare fuel, but also surprisingly mature and surreal considering the book is targeted at a younger audience.

Since I was at a disadvantage of not having the collective memories that Americans have (I think they're very strongly at play in books like these), I wasn't completely blown away. I didn't mind much, though. I appreciate the folklore/urban legend approach, and some of the stories actually reminded me of an urban legend paperback series I used to read with a couple of others when I was in elementary school. I think some kids even transformed one of the stories into a play and performed it at a school function.

I don't think I will be reading any of the other collections Schwartz wrote, but it's great to have books that are part of people's life experiences. As is evident from some of the reviews here, memories like that have the ability to shape people and ignite a spark in them that will carry through their entire lives. Not only that, but maybe readers, young or old, who want to sample horror but don't yet want to get into the intense stuff can try this as the first step.

The movie on the other hand kind of misses the point. Although it has some some genuinely creepy moments (especially that toe thing, yikes), it would have worked better as an anthology. I guess it works for its target audience, but I would have liked to see something that honored the source even more.

14.03.2020
Updated the list with the short stories Night Surf, Jerusalem's Lot, and One for the Road. They're technically not part of the universe on their own, but they're related to The Stand and Salem's Lot (apparently prologues/epilogues of sorts), so it makes sense to read them together.

09.10.2018
Okay, I've been leafing through this and I honestly find it hard to believe that there will be a better reference book for the Dark Tower series. This is a hefty tome that includes all the important terms and characters you need to remember when travelling in Roland's world, but also has the smallest of trivia that isn't probably very crucial information but which nevertheless makes the experience more whole and vivid. Furth has done an incredible job of keeping everything in good order, and as pointed out by King in his foreword, Concordance was never meant to be published but can still be useful to ordinary readers as well, not just the author (can you imagine being asked to be Stephen King's research assistant?).

And it is. The indexes are easy to use, there are several maps to make the journey more fun when you can actually follow the route (I have a good imagination and can usually picture the events in my mind pretty well, but I always appreciate maps, too), the definitions for dialect expressions are definitely going to be useful, introductions for the different volumes are great if you don't want to reread anything and just want to refresh your memory etc. Just make sure to get the newest fully revised and updated version and you're good to go.

I'm already reviewing this, because this isn't the sort of book you can just read normally all the way through, but I'll be updating my review if I stumble into any issues during my reading project or have some thoughts I want to share about the functionality of the book.

03.09.2018
Finally. I'm determined to finish the entire Dark Tower series (well, actually, I decided to just go ahead and start from the beginning, because I don't remember much anymore). Not just that, but I'm also going to read the most important novels that are connected to the universe and should ideally be read together with the series. In preparation, I'm first going to browse The Concordance a little to get an idea how it's constructed and then keep it handy while going through the project.

I'm... scared. But also excited, so it's all good.

There are multiple versions of the correct reading order and many good arguments for and against the positions of certain books, but since I wasn't fully satisfied with any of them, I did some tweaking and made my own list. I'm going to add it beneath every review connected with the universe, so that you have a better idea about my progress and you can easily access the related reviews. Feel free to use this if it's helpful to you as well.

"Night Surf" from Night Shift (1978)
The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition (1990)
The Eyes of the Dragon (1987)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (2003 Revised Edition)
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
"Little Sisters of Eluria" from Everything's Eventual (2002)
"Jerusalem's Lot" from Night Shift (1978)
Salem's Lot (1975)
"One for the Road" from Night Shift (1978)
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012)
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)
Insomnia (1994)
Black House (2001) (sequel to The Talisman)
"Low Men in Yellow Coats" from Hearts in Atlantis (1999)
"Everything's Eventual" from Everything's Eventual (2002)
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)

I will probably re-read this at some point in its entirety, but first the three short stories that are relevant to my Dark Tower Project (I will be commenting on them individually when I get around to them):

Night Surf
A fantastically atmospheric depiction of a desolate and lonely world after a massive pandemic. The shadows of hordes of people are palpable, and the revelation at the end leaves a heavy cloud above the survivors. To me, the feeling of incompleteness and lack of answers are beside the point and only add to the effect. The story is like a snapshot of a point in time. When these people are gone, the waves of the night surf just keep coming.