R. Chetwynd-Hayes (1919–2001)

"Monsters Rule OK!
Sorry, but anyone who's a fan of the fantastic 1980 movie based on this book would get that. This is a collection of short stories, published in 1975, tied together by the story within the story. Pay no attention to the Muppet-like book cover.
A man, Donald, finds a starving man on the streets of London. He takes him home and makes him a meal but the starving man is actually a vampire who hasn't fed in weeks. As an apology for attacking Donald, the vampire takes him to an show more underground club where all the members are monsters-vampires, ghouls, vamgoos, werevamps, and mocks. Donald listens as various monsters tell about their experiences, most all ending badly, with humans, and invite Donald to share a meal in the club restaurant.
Now, I don't normally read horror, but Chetwynd-Hayes creates such sinister stories that, even when writing about a town of ghouls who bury a young man alive so that they can dig him up and eat him, don't have the "gross-out" factor. It's just good, imaginative writing and luckily he was an extremely prolific author. show less

This is a tough one to review. The framing device and the stories themselves are quite clever, but it doesn't feel like it totally comes together; the individual parts are greater than the whole.

you know what? this isn't half bad. i didn't have much hope considering the cover but - really there's only a couple of duffers here. and even then they're not the sort of duffers that make you want to hurl the book across the room in anger - chetwynd hayes himself goes a bit overboard on the bodice ripping, and a mate of his does a bit of twee nonsense about gold mines, but otherwise... pretty good. even the lesser stories have a couple of striking images and ideas. and at the book's very show more best - i particularly liked the john christopher story and the glyn jones' pieces - it's excellent. let's put it this way, machen's "the shining pyramid" - which is easily the best thing in it - does not feel entirely out of place with the rest of the book. i enjoyed this a lot. AND it made me want to move to wales even more... show less

A tight and entertaining collection of four stories centered around haunted, 800-year-old Clavering Grange, itself built on an even older and equally malevolent site. It reminds me of those Amicus studio horror movies from the 1970s where three or four stories were told within a broad framework (the waiting room for hell in Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, and a new shrink’s test of his abilities in Asylum.) Well worth a read for horror fans, especially those that want shivers show more over splatter. show less