Compulsory Games | 
pick“It was the moment one yells, and, with luck, wakes up, during a long nightmare; the moment that, of its nature, can never be quite examined, quite elucidated, or quite extinguished.“-The Strangers
This quote, from one of my favorite pieces in this collection, could very well describe the overall effect of reading Aickman. As Michael Dirda writes in the Washington Post, “As for Aickman: Nobody ever quite understands his stories, but nobody👇
vivastory ever forgets them either.“ Aickman's prose style at times called to mind Henry James' rangy, convoluted syntax. Aickman called his works “strange stories.“ He is a forerunner to Jeff VanderMeer & John Darnielle. He is Shirley Jackson's slightly surreal sibling. There are no jump scares in Aickman's work, rather there is a creeping sense of dread & a slow shiver up the spine. Good stuff. 2y
RaeLovesToRead I have Cold Hand in Mine on my TBR 2y
vivastory @RaeLovesToRead This was the first Aickman that I have read & I suspect that these may not have been some of his best since they reprint his lesser known works. I still was quite impressed & will be reading more collections. 2y
See All 13 Comments
Megabooks Fantastic review! 2y
vivastory @Megabooks Thanks! I'm picking up Nightbitch & Seek You tomorrow at the library. Looking forward to both of them. 2y
Megabooks @vivastory I‘ve been listening to The Martian Chronicles today. It was interesting that he was inspired by Winesberg, Ohio. That‘s a book that I‘ve always meant to read because I‘ve enjoyed several books inspired by it. It‘s also interesting seeing which things he could reimagine and which are firmly rooted in post-war America. The most obvious thing to me is the sexism. He couldn‘t imagine women that didn‘t fit the post-war housewife ⬇️ 2y
Megabooks ⬆️ Stereotype, which is really unfortunate because he was such a visionary in so many areas. This isn‘t to say I discount his excellent writing and imagination. It is so different reading this at 42 rather than 14 (my first read). Still processing, obviously. 2y
Megabooks I hope you like Seek You and Nightbitch. If they make you think half as much as TMC has made me think, I will be pleased. Seek You especially made me think about loneliness differently. 2y
vivastory @Megabooks I've been meaning to read Winesburg, Ohio for awhile. It's been sitting on my shelves for years now. I was enormously pleased that there's a scene in TMC set in Independence. I was tempted to take my copy of the book afterwards for a photo at the Oregon Trail marker. The structure of the book is really interesting. After I finished I was looking online & found a term I had never encountered to describe it-fixup novel. 2y
vivastory @Megabooks I loved Radtke's Imagine Wanting Only This, so I feel pretty confident that I will have a good experience with Seek You & Nightbitch sounds right up my street from everything that I have heard about it. 2y
Megabooks I think one of the things that made us such a good match (other than enjoying similar genres) is that I read mainly new releases last year and many of yours are backlist with a few classics as well. It has made me examine my preference for new books because there are many I miss out on. 2y
Reggie *shivers* lol, sounds good man. 2y
batsy Great review! I've been really interested to discover Aickman. 2y
