Some good chills and wry humor. Only the framing device and 2 of these stories made it into the movie of the same name. Fortunately, my favorite, "The Humgoo" reads as well as the movie story gave me chills.

review to come.

I'd seen the movie based on The Monster Club when I was younger, and read a few of Chetwynd-Hayes' stories. I'm pleased to note that the original stories are darker than the film (the Shadmock in particular), and sad I didn't seek them out earlier.

Some fine stories in this collection. The tone varies but the humor is appreciated. I have never read R. Chetwynd-Hayes before, and this book has refreshed my curiosity. I was afraid he was like Brian Lumley, but there is no danger of confusing them at all.

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway! :)Donald McCloud could not let the man starve in the street. He stops and offers to bring the stranger home for a sup. Turns out the stranger is a vampire, and Donald is the main course.To repay this kind 'donation' the stranger, now known as Eramus, offers to bring Donald down to 'the club'.Soon Donald finds himself surrounded by all sorts of monsters. Vampires, werewolves, ghouls, mocks, and shadmocks, all lounging, drinking, and eating at The Monster Club.

This based on the classic Horror movie with Vincent Price it's funny but good luck finding a copy as rare book.Based on the short stories in the movie.This author is famous for his wonderful short stories with comical twist

This book is corny, comic, dark, gothic, and often twisted. Not only do these stories feature some classic monsters, i.e. the vampire, the werewolf and the ghoul, they show us what can happen when they interbreed. Normal standards are inverted as the monsters become to some extent the good guys or even the tragic heroes, while humans, it is suggested, are the truly evil ones because of their ingenuity where self-destruction is concerned. While this may be true in many respects, the way Chetwynd-...

A heart-breaking, goofy, charming, and dark book you should absolutely not read from the beginning.I discovered R. Chetwynd-Hayes through the cornball but wonderfully fun Vincent Price adaptation of this book. I found the story "The Werewolf and the Vampire" in an anthology and absolutely loved the world-building, sorrow and tenderness in it.Then I read it in this anthology, and wondered what the author was thinking, but we'll get to that.The Monster Club is about Dennis (Chetwynd-Hayes hims

The Monster Club (1981) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081178/...

Another one of those situations where I noticed an interesting movie and decided to read the book first, because it looked good. What a pleasant surprise this was! In these stories that smell like a wet grave (also literally, because I got this from the darkest recesses of the library's storage room), monsters are monsters and the macabre shenanigans are often creepy and bloody. There's also some dry British humor, which honestly doesn't appeal to me very much, but sometimes (such as now) it wor...

While the film that had been developed on the basis of this book has acquired a ‘cult classic’ status, and hence is available for the enjoyment of connoisseurs of portmanteau films as well as all horror aficionados, the book had been out-of-print, rather unjustly. Thanks to the fine fellows at Valancourt Books, the book is available again, attired in a fetching cover, further refurbished with a new introduction from the one & only Stephen Jones. Therefore, as far as publishing is concerned, this...

This book presents a highly entertaining world of monsters and their manifold hybrids. It's not just that werevamps (offspring of werewolves and vampires) and weregoos (get of werewolves and ghouls) beget toothless shaddies whose lick can scrape the flesh of your arm. Humans can also sire crossbreeds, like the humgoo and the humvamp. Also, in the way that vampiric prey eventually become bloodsuckers upon dying and a werewolf's bite turns its victim into a lycanthrope on the next full moon, a hum...

Hilarious, well written, charming, take on monsters. I loved it, and gave it 5 stars and put it on the best reads pile. If you love monsters, like I do, and like a dose of dark humor with your horror, like I sometimes do, then I think you will enjoy this unique collection of short stories; all tied together with one larger story.

Much better than the filmAfter having seen the film starring the great Vincent Price and John Carradine (both greatly missed), I decided to read the book. I must say that it is so much better and so well written. But that is to be expected from such a master of classic horror who was way ahead of his time.

If you like the movie, great. If you like this book, great. In all honesty, the book is only so-so.

"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.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 feed in weeks. As an apology for attacking Donald, the vampire takes him to an underground club where all the members are monsters-...

Having been a fan of the movie for years I finally had to purchase this book and learn about the great R. Chetwynd Hayes, who I immediately found out is not the protagonist in the book version.The book is definitely darker than the movie, which is much more tongue-in-cheek in its framing device.I now wish the movie had kept with the monsterology of the book, which is quite trend-setting or breaking in my opinion. It details how monsters breed, feed, and exist.I wish RCH's more-deserving monsters...

I just saw this movie a month or so ago and thought that it was a lot of fun. I can imagine being a kid seeing it and just falling in love with it.The book is a bit more adult, but not a lot. It's an anthology with a wrap-around story obviously inspired by the old Amicus films of the 60s and 70s. One of the characters is even named after Milton Subotsky, head of Amicus. (It's very fitting that Subotsky was the one to adapt the book into the more famous film.)All of the stories are fun and dark i...

Wonderful Thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end. Such a vivid imagination and brought to life with equal amounts of humour and eeriness. Definitely going to check out more from this author.

This review was originally published on the This Is Horror website www.thisishorror.co.ukRonald Chetwynd-Hayes was regularly one of the top ten authors whose work was borrowed from British libraries throughout the seventies – so says Stephen Jones in his excellent introduction. In fact Jones does such a thorough job it leaves this reviewer with nothing new to say about the man or his work other than to waffle on for several hundred words then end with a recommendation to buy the book.Today you’d...