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I thought of my father as completely faceless. In my mind's eye he is a strange creature with the body of a man and the head of an opened newspaper; an odd mythological figure makes in the Sun Times and bellowing like an elephant.
If you're wondering how society shaped itself into what it is now, you have to go back to the post-WWII boom to understand how it all started. The western world, lead by America, had triumphed of the last great evil : the nazis. So, in the happily ever after that followed, it positioned Americas as ''the good guys'' and however they decided to live their lives was seen as ''right'', because it was how ''the good guys'' lived. So the post-WII boom was one of the most artificial, self-conscious era in 20th century United States and the cunning head of Kraken Press, Mr. George Cotronis himself, decided it would be the perfect setting for a horror anthology. The result spoke for itself: AMERICAN NIGHTMARE contains some powerful and visceral horror stories that will keep you awake at night.
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE doesn't fuck around. You won't find post-WWII stories with ''horror undertones'' in there. These are intense horror stories that use the 1950s backdrop to create strong, long lasting images that'll give them an unforgettable edge. The opener GRANDMA ELSPETH'S CULINARY ENCHIRIDON FOR DOMESTIC HARMONY, by Rachel Anding, reminded me in terms of atmosphere, of Soundgarden's video BLACK HOLE SUN. There are several layers to it: an idealized family unit, a tyrannic father figure operating behind closed doors and a mother using ancestral knowledge to escape an otherwise hopeless situation. I thought it offered an original and precise social commentary without stepping away from horror. It makes full use of the potent symbolism the genre has to offer.
Speaking of symbolism, I thought the best story in the collection was BOW CREEK, by Raymond Little. It's one of the best short stories I've read this year. I had no idea who Little was before reading this, but he's officially on my radar. BOW CREEK is so successful and anxiety-inducing because it doesn't offer the usual answers to the reader. It's a story about the dark side of a town, which swallows some of its inhabitants. I thought it illustrated in a very literal way the dark side of the American Dream. BOW CREEK showed what happened to the pure soul of children once they grow up to be young adults. There were a couple images in that story that wormed their way into my nightmares. It's a rare thing for me, with books, but BOW CREEK, by Raymond Little is worth the asking price of AMERICAN NIGHTMARE alone, folks.
Some other stories that stood out: W.P Johnson's THE KING, made a surprisingly playful use the mailman, a recurring figure of 1950s, Rockwellian America and gave it realistic twist that was fun and that constrasted nicely with the horror portion of the story. Max Booth III's ALL THE BEAUTIFUL MARYLINS closed AMERICAN NIGHTMARE beautifully. Booth stays true to his reputation of having one of the most original, tormented imaginaries in the game. Once I finished reading it, I've actually started it over feeling an unexplainable sense of dread creeping up my spine. Max Booth III does that to me often. I see an overwhelming, terrifying bigger picture to his stories and ALL THE BEAUTIFUL MARYLINS also succeeds at that.
Not every story in AMERICAN NIGHTMARE worked for me. I thought those who invoked 1950s cinema fell flat. I'm a very earnest reader and if a story like BOW CREEK scares the pants out of me right off the bat, it's difficult for me to get enthusiastic for a story about aliens that look like pears. I thought 1950s horror cinema is the easiest thing to make 1950s horror stories about and those stories who did in AMERICAN NIGHTMARE didn't work for me. Overall though, it's an original and terrifying collection about a fascinating, artificial and existential era in the Western World. The authors of AMERICAN NIGHTMARE understand what makes the 1950s so appealing for horror stories. Readers who like their books to do some damage and challenge them will be pleased by this collection.
