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Some stories were OK, others were boring, and too many were focused on genital mutilation of one type or another, which gets boring very quickly. The best story by far was Tim Curran's "Maggots", followed by "Again" by Ramsey Campbell, both of which were outstanding.
For the first few stories, I thought this was going to turn out to be another collection of mediocre horror stories whose only purpose was to shock and disgust the reader. I nearly gave up on it after getting almost a third of the way through without being especially drawn in to anything. But then a story caught my attention and imagination, so I continued and was pleased to find there were several more really good reads included in the collection. C. Dennis Moore's THE CATERPILLAR was my favori...
I used to like horror, but lately it's been falling flat for me (in print, anyway; I still have a soft spot for the visceral thrum provided by horror movies). In general, I'm not sure why my interest is flagging, but with this particular anthology I know precisely what the problem is: most of the authors can't write particularly well. Most of the bad stories fall into two camps, the first simply being Bad Writing. In these cases, the author either filled the story with two-dimensional characters...
The editor of this collection should have her blue pencil forcibly ripped from her hand and jammed up her nostril -- just one of them, either will do. Certain of these authors were outrageously self-indulgent, and that is just the sort of thing that a good editor will rein in. Certain of the stories were poor quality ripoffs of stories written by mainstream authors, and while imitation is sometimes called a form of flattery, even the most flattering of flatteries becomes dull stuff if it lacks i...
The Opposite of VileThere was nothing memorable here. Nothing vile, nothing scary, nothing creepy. Reader beware, if you want stories of ghastly possessions, demons that rape the living, mutilated murder, serial killer specials, nothing. There is a couple, that throughout the course of WAY too many pages and WAY too many words, that licks each other and the female wears the man's dead carcass like a mechwarrior. There was another that had some cockademon that anally rapes a guy. Like I said thou...
Fantastic collection of horror stories with body horror or nightmarish creatures being a central part of each tale. Not a single dud in here. My favourites was "Maggots", "Catterpillar" "Going Green", "The Rat King", and "Fungoid".
Most good but some not so much. Like most anthologies. This was better than most those. Some of the stories were pretty weird and disgusting so that equals entertaining lol. Probably what you'd expect from a book like this.
I don’t know. Extreme horror just isn’t that extreme for me anymore except in what seems like the pervasive poverty of concept. I’m unsure if I’ve just read so much real extreme horror, meaning nastiness with a real plot and real characterization, and splatter, which makes no pretense about being simply an attempt to gross-out, that it takes a lot to move me. Perhaps I just lucked out in the beginning of my literary life and read good horror, good extreme horror and now little measures up. I mea...
Bad editing, generally bad writing and disappointing stories.
'Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror' is a collection of dark and sometimes disgusting tales. Quality of the stories vary. Some read like the work of writers still in the process of mastering their craft, rough around the edges but still entertaining. Others are much more polished, and well-established writers such as Ramsey Campbell are represented here too. There's nothing subtle about these stories. Masturbation, violence, and bodily fluids galore. If you like your horror with an edge,
This one was hit and miss. If references to bodily functions that don't further the story along appeal to you, this is your book. There are a few good stories in here, so it may very well be worth your time if you're tired of the same old horror stories.
This book left me very mixed. Initially after reading the first few stories, I was disgusted and dreading the rest of the book as juvenile and/or pure gross-out attempts. Then I got to "Maggots" and I found something that spoke to me, something that was enjoyable. It actually had characters that were interesting. It relied on more than cannibalism and deformed rotting bodies, which was ironic because "Maggots" made heavy use of cannibalism and deformed rotting bodies. But the story wasn't about
Although every story in this anthology was not award-winning, there were a few that stood out. Compared to other extreme horror that I've read, this anthology isn't so extreme; however, it definitely lives up to the title: vile.