Solid collection of horror short stories. As with most collections some stand out.

This is one of the best collections of dark/horror short stories I've read in a long time. There were so many times I exclaimed, "I wish I'd written that!" It's great value for money with 46 stories included and most of them very good. As with all short story collections, there are always some that readers won't enjoy but that depends on your tastes and it's great to have such a varied selection. With so many stories on offer, I found I didn't mind skipping the odd one or two if I wasn't enjoyin...

I thought this title was really fun. I really wanted to go with 3 and a half stars since there were a few drab stories in the book. A decent percentage of the book was worth the time. There were stories worthy of adapting to film for either TV or theaters. I do recommend this book to the horror reader that likes a taste of the ghoulish style.

I absolutely loved this book. Of all the short stories in contained, only 2 failed to wrap me up in there story lines. I believe ive found some new authors in this book im looking forward to reading more from as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the creepy, scary or horrible things that may lie in the darkness.

Horror anthology. Theme: single-volume reprint of Masques (1984) and Masques II (1987). Highlights: few and far between. Maybe “Deathbed” by Richard Christian Matheson (not really a horror story, but one of the few pieces in the book with any genuine emotional content). Lowlights: just about anything from the 1984 set. If I had to pick just one, “The First Day of Spring” by David Knoles stood out as not only poorly written but also spectacularly unoriginal. Overall: geez what a set of stinkers.

I think out of all the stories in this book, I can count on one hand the number of stories that sucked. The ones that did were truly horrible, but the rest were definitely creepy, horrifying, grotesque, and just enough to make me pause before turning the light off at night.

This was one of the better collections of short stories that I have read

Too many great stories to mention all of them, or even a good portion. If you enjoy horror by all the masters of the genre: Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Christian Matheson, Douglas E. Winter, Joe R, Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson . . . All the greats of the last forty plus years, then you will enjoy this collection. Just a ton of stories. Horrific fun all around. I will mention three stories, however: "Soft" by F. Paul Wilson sticks with me, though I read it early on. I picked up the book se...

Superb collection of short horror stories from some of the genre's greatest writers, including 'Popsy' from Stephen King. Majority of stories stem from the mid-1980's. More than 90% of these tales will chill and thrill you, hardly any filler in this spooky anthology. Perfect night-time reading just before going to bed. Loved it!

Above average collection of stories that were apparently from a semi-regular publication called appropriately Dark Masques; probably something like Charles Grant's Shadows anthologies. The usual range of stuff including the ubiquitous King and Campbell stories (do these guys ever get up from the typewriter?). This book must be fairly popular because it has been reprinted multiple times since 1995 when it first appeared. This reprint is a mmpb from 2012. I had a lot of "around the campfire" fun w...

When you think of a short story anthology, you can conjure up a mixed bag of stories that run the gamut from great to terrible (depending on the genre) - This collection is more like "okay" to downright wretched. The good stories are from the authors you expect like Robert Bloch, Stephen King, and F. Paul Wilson but the ones that are from some of the smaller press folks seem to have no real place in this one. It could have easily been edited down to the point of much less than the near 600 pages...

1/2 good writing, 1/4 excellent writing, 1/4 total crap.

I've just finished the first half of this collection (originally published as two separate volumes), and its time to admit that it's really not very good. There are a few good stories here, mind you. I particularly liked F. Paul Wilson's "Soft", Robert Bloch's "Everybody Needs a Little Love", and William F. Nolan's "Trust Not a Man", but even these lean towards pulp and shock value. The other stories were a mixed bag of decent-but-not-memorable, dull, outright poorly written, or just completely

The novel Dark Masques, edited by J.N. Williamson, is a novel composed of multiple short stories by multiple writers, including Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, James Herbert, Robert R. McCammon etc. One of the many short stories in this novel is Popsy, written by Stephen King, The short story follows a human-trafficker, Sheridan, roaming around a mall looking for a target. The young boy that he meets speaks of ‘Popsy.” Popsy is the young child’s grandfather.My favorite part int this short story i...

Really enjoyed this anthology. One of the best horror anthologies I have read in some time. Specifically enjoyed "nightcrawlers," "wiping the slate clean" "ice sculptures" "hidey holes" and the last story "the boy who came back from the dead." The anthology had a nice blend of gore, absurdism, and some sci fi horror. Would definitely recommend.

Collection of stories -- some I enjoyed and others I really didn't like -- mixed bag...

I'm glad I didnt listen to the few people who said this was" crap", " horrible" etc ....I thought almost every story was interesting and if theres any that didn't then I'm sure some others will.

It's hard to review a short story collection - obviously not all of them will be gems and some will just be pretty bad. This is certainly the case for Dark Masques - possibly a much better title than Dark Masks would have been. So - the last one in the collection was good - The Boy that Came Back from the Dead - everyone likes a good zombie tale. And the apocalyptic virus from Soft was another likable chiller. Obviously the Stephen King addition was a good one. However, there were some confusing...

An entertaining collection of short horror stories.

Was okay. Poetry was bad, but brief. My favorites were The Spelling Bee, The Heart Of Helen Day, and Love, Hate & The Beautiful Junkyard.