Book Review: Dark Arts

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dark Arts     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
John Pelan
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Horror   [Short Stories]
Cemetery Dance, May 2006, $35.00

These twenty-two all new short stories contributed by members of the Horror Writers Association lives up to the title as these well written tales showcase the DARK ARTS. The compilation contains new stories that somewhat capture the genre’s range, but most are some form of psychological terror that can be summed up from a quote in Lorelei Shannon’s Kodechrome: “When you photograph a road accident in black and white. … The image is stark. Real. Details are crisp and true. A corpse has no color …”. This recaps the basic theme of this superb anthology as the writers provide stark grim exhilarating tales that grip readers as the arts are treated quite a bit differently in this thrilling collection. The audience will fully appreciate these dark entries as long as the lights remain on though that will probably not keep out the creeping shadows oozing from this strong collection playing havoc with the reader’s mind.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner