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Title: A Season in Carcosa
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #4
Editor: Joseph Pulver
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 268
Words: 100K
| Synopsis: |
Table of Contents
This Yellow Madness (introduction) by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
My Voice is Dead by Joel Lane
Beyond The Banks of the River Seine by Simon Strantzas
Movie Night at Phil’s by Don Webb
MS Found in a Chicago Hotel Room by Daniel Mills
it sees me when I’m not looking by Gary McMahon
Finale, Act Two by Ann K. Schwader
Yellow Bird Strings by Cate Gardner
The Theatre & Its Double by Edward Morris
The Hymn of the Hyades by Richard Gavin
Slick Black Bones and Soft Black Stars by Gemma Files
Not Enough Hope by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr
Whose Hearts are Pure Gold by Kristin Prevallet
April Dawn by Richard A. Lupoff
King Wolf by Anna Tambour
The White-Face At Dawn by Michael Kelly
Wishing Well by Cody Goodfellow
Sweetums by John Langan
The King Is Yellow by Pearce Hansen
D T by Laird Barron
Salvation In Yellow by Robin Spriggs
The Beat Hotel by Allyson Bird
| My Thoughts: |
My goodness, these anthologies are going up and down for me like a teetertotter! When they are good, they are REALLY GOOD and when it’s bad, it’s so bad I can’t finish them. Thankfully, this was on the upper part of the seesaw.
I went into this a bit worried since Pulver was the editor and I absolutely hated the previous book which was edited and written by him. Thankfully, he only contributed a small part of this. I did realize that I don’t like his writing, period though. There were 1 or 2 poems, which did nothing for me. But Pulver’s story was the only real let down. Not surprising but it’s what kept this from a full 5star.
But most of the other stories were flipping fantastic if you dig cosmic horror. From slides into madness and horror to the unveiling of horrific powers, these ran the gamut from shiver your backbone to a chill of deliciousness running down your spine to the completely inexplicably weird.
I really can’t say that any of these were “better” than the others, but the 2 I do remember are Yellow Bird Strings and Wishing Well. YBS was about a former puppeteer who by the end of the story has become the puppet himself. It was hard to tell if he was going mad or if it was all real. Exactly the right tone for a King in Yellow Story. WW on the other hand, had real IT (by Stephen King) vibes with 2 storylines about kids and them now as adults. A twisted tv show created by a cult of the KIY was the focus and the ending where the main character who appears to be a loser the whole time is revealed to be the son of the King in Yellow, or something like that. It was deliciously spine tingling.
Another absolute winner of a read and I’m pretty happy. These books are definitely not for everyone, in fact I’d say that the majority of readers wouldn’t go for The King in Yellow, but they fit me like a glove, so I’m going to revel in them while I can.
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