Move over, Stephen.I'm sorry Clive and H.P. It's not you, guys, it's me...Actually, it's not me either. It's Thomas Ligotti.Long story short, this collection blew me away. Horror short stories can't get better than this.

Ligotti has, like his prose, slowly but without failure snuck up on me and resigned me to the basic truth that I'm probably never going to discover another writer who can make me feel such universal dread, but yet love it all. He's firmly made himself the main attraction of my reading schedule, and it's a shame that I'll have to re-read him to do that rather than expect new books, which he doesn't seem too intent on writing. Regardless, reading a story of his again always suggests something that...

Thomas Ligotti is a very talented but really frustrating writer. His concepts are way more developed than most horror writers. Also his writing is dense and difficult in a genre where most are content to write in a eazy to read schticky way, so in these ways he's refreshing. But more often than being refreshed, I was frustrated by his lack of followthrough. Much like Lovecraft, whom he clearly admires, his stories have strong beginnings and interesting ideas but when rarely any interesting endin...

Not for everyone, I'd think and it took me a few goes to really get into the very odd, absent, prose but... When you do, this feels like real terror must feel... No screams, just wordless babbling and stunned silence... An atmosphere of profound evil permeates this book... this guy has SEEN things

This is the greatest horror book that I have ever read.

Ligotti is just a freakin' genius-level writer of creepiness and weirdtasticalism... i do not recommend brewing up a big ol' pot of coffee and immersing yourself in this tome, as you may come out the other side all twisted and crumpled (and that just from the coffee!), or, and more likely, you will not come out at all... or at least who/what you went in as won't be what slinks out of the post-Ligotti darkness... i read this front-to-back because i am OCD and i don't know how to just stop a story...

"Gas Station Carnivals" is probably the most frightening thing I've ever read.

It is a style of writing that I cannot clearly identify. It feels alienated both from both reality and the characters. The stories read like Lovecraft, only with a more 'matter-of-fact' tone.

I didn't have time to read all the stories in this (library copy), but Ligotti truly is a master of transferring dreamlike atmosphere onto the printed page. Stories that stuck out for me as far as creepiness include "The Frolic," "The Christmas Eves of Aunt Elise," and "Glamour." He's been called the modern-day Poe or Lovecraft, and I can definitely see why. I just wish his books were easier to find!

Superb. I haven't read very much horror since going through a phase of reading everything Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz and James Herbert wrote as a kid. I dipped into it, reading Edgar Allan Poe, House of Leaves and Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite, but I didn't really look into Horror to try and find the serious writing as I have with crime writing, science fiction and fantasy. Whilst you often hear the likes of Georges Simenon, WIlliam Gibson or China Mieville being praised as writers worthy of bei...

Ligotti always offers creepy literary perfection, and this collection is no exception! Great stuff!

As a general rule I try to only write reviews for indy authors because regular authors will always have lots and lots of people leaving comments. I had to make an exception in this case (not the first time I've done so). I'm all about atmosphere. I want description to gently prod me to the edge, then, imagination full, I topple headfirst into the nightmare or fantasy, or whatever suits the genre. In the fashion of Lovecraft, who was a master of punishing readers with their own imagination (in a

Great horror for those who prefer atmosphere and dread over character-driven plot. It took me a few years to acquire the taste, but now I'm hooked. Ligotti is one of the giants of American horror (the others being Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft). The Nightmare Factory collects most of Ligotti's previously published stories as well as some that were new to the book. In an interview Ligotti described his style as an attempt to read like awkwardly translated East-European literature.

Ligotti is much easier to take in smaller bites - me, I just choked on this. Appreciate that he is an important part of horror lit, I just don't have to like his work.

I honestly don't even know where to begin in writing a review of Nightmare Factory... and I'm absolutely certain I can't be objective. I accidentally discovered this book - and, by extension, Mr. Ligotti - during an early morning at work last week. Reading only the Washington Post's blurb at the bottom of the front cover ("The most startling and unexpected literary discovery since Clive Barker"), I set it aside and made up my mind to peruse it later. Little did I know then that I'd be ending my

Thomas Ligotti is an acquired taste- or maybe more of an inborn one. You either are capable of enjoying, or at least appreciating, what Ligotti puts down, or it's decidedly not for you. I'm not completely sure you can change your mind one way or another. But one thing it's easy to agree on with Ligotti is that he knows EXACTLY what he's doing.For decades, most of Ligotti's output was out of print, nearly impossible to acquire in its entirety. This compilation collected the vast majority of his s...

This collection compiles stories from Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, Noctuary & Teatro Grottesco into one big volume. Following my recent decision about large reviews, I'll present this in a three-tiered format (short to long) with the story by story analysis left for the last tier (and presumably only of interest to those who have read the book). Those who hang in for the long haul can see how often I abuse the shortcut word "titular!"I decided to re-read this, starti...

Man, when I read this book I would literally get goosebumps sometimes, mostly from the first story "The Frolic." A really really unique writer, mega-creative. And anyone who can pull off a Current 93 collaboration is super cool.

A collection of other Ligotti short story anthologies ('Grimscribe', 'Songs of a Dead Dreamer', etc), The Nightmare Factory is a fairly comprehensive journey into Ligotti's eloquent, nihilistic horror, which exists for me somewhere between Poe's manic, obsessive characterizations and Lovecraft's inexplicable, cosmic unknowns. The prose here is absolutely top notch, with single, terrifyingly beautiful passages that I would find myself reading repeatedly to myself before being able to move on. Bot...

When Ligotti is on form, he is something to behold - his prose style is dense but considered, his imagery genuinely creepy and often unique. It's not a collection I'd recommend reading all in one go, rather dip into it now and again. There are times that Ligotti's nihilism and misanthropy are so strong that they overshadow the tale, put across a certain petulance. But there's a reason that Ligotti is so well regarded and there are some absolute gems here. A unique and gifted writer.