Remarkable creepy stories! This is what I wish Lovecraft was like. Aickman has an incredible way with words, and an impeccable knack for the near-impossible in horror writing: knowing what to show the reader and what to leave to our imagination.

Feeling the Halloween spirit before October even hits with Aickman’s Dark Entries, a 1964 collection of strange tales, all of which fuckin’ slap. These stories really hit the horror sweet spot for me — foreboding houses, mysterious phenomena, complex eroticism. In each one, flawed protagonists trap themselves in cages of their own making, with evocative endings that decline to provide any answers. I first read this collection a couple of years ago and it’s well worth the re-read. For me, the best horror is almost never about surprise or shock, but atmosphere and dread. It feels great to slip back into each of these micro-hells.

Such delicious prose for splendidly weird tales. I wanted to read every story, every page out loud. More notes coming up.