If you found this review helpful, please consider tipping me on ko-fi, checking out my digital items available in my ko-fi shop, buying one of my publications, or using one of my referral/coupon codes.Remember that monster on the wing of the airplane? William Shatner saw it on The Twilight Zone, John Lithgow saw it in the movie-even Bart Simpson saw it.

Come into this collection prepared for a mixed bag. If you want to know how it manages to get worse, check out the spoiler paragraph below in brackets. The least offensive is that it’s oh so scary for teenage girls to wage war as witches in “Witch War.” The worst is “The Likeness of Julie.” Most of the story is from the perspective of a college undergrad male rapist. There are also definitely outdated gender ideas here. A character who I think is a bad guy uses the the n word and another racial slur, but it’s a little unclear to me if he was meant to be a bad guy. One story, “The Distributor” confused me so much that I’m still not sure what the overall point was. The story “Prey” is about a “Zuni” doll that’s inhabited by the spirit of a great warrior. The racist part is that they’re dangerous BECAUSE of being part Pacific Islander. One “The Children of Noah” involves the idea that a town’s inhabitants are all the descendants of a sea captain and his Pacific Islander bride.

Or “Crickets” whose idea is what if crickets’ chirps are really a form of Morse code?īut there are also two stories where, just, the entire structure idea is racist.

Like “Disappearing Act,” whose whole idea is it’s someone’s personal notebook left in a cafe. There were quite a few stories that I found moderately engaging and enjoyed their historic vibe. The latter reminded me of Buffy in that who you’ve fallen in love with changes, only in this case it was the woman changing instead of the man. The former is a very meta commentary on being a writer.

“Mad House” (made me make shocked and thrilled faces) and “First Anniversary” (I called it timeless in my notes). I individually rated each of the twenty stories then calculated the average to give the collection a rating. I picked this up because I remembered enjoying I Am Legend(although my review is only 3 stars, when I looked it up just now…) I also had familiarity with The Twilight Zone episode based on the first story in the collection. Personally selected by Richard Matheson, the bestselling author of I Am Legendand What Dreams May Come, these and many other stories, more than demonstrate why he is rightfully regarded as one of the finest and most influential horror writers of our generation. Here are more than twenty of Matheson’s most memorable tales of fear and paranoia. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is just one of many classic horror stories by Richard Matheson that have insinuated themselves into our collective imagination. Remember that monster on the wing of the airplane? William Shatner saw it on The Twilight Zone and Bart Simpson saw it too.

Nightmare at 20 000 feet book