- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Serpent's Tail; New Ed edition (1 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1852427272
- ISBN-13: 978-1852427276
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 819,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Guardian
A reassuring wallow among wolves, ghost trains and the whole Judeo-Christian brat pack of predestination and sin'
Sunday Express
'A writer of extraordinary imagination'
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I make no secret of the fact that Christopher Fowler is my favourite author but "Personal Demons" is his best short story collection yet.
As usual the stories contained here are horrific in his usual style ("urban horror" - no monsters or what have you, just nasty people & nasty places) but there are hints throughout of Christopher Fowler seeking a new direction for his work to take, as witnessed with his latest novel, "Calabash", which is also well worth a read.
For those of you who read "Spanky", the first tale here completes the tale nicely ("Spanky's Back In Town") and although the rest are uniformly excellent "Phoenix" chilled me to the bone.
If you like horror and have never tried Fowler's work, buy this to see what you're missing, and then buy the rest because they're all as good as each other. Brilliant stuff.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In his introduction Fowler is somewhat scathing of Stephen King- claiming his style has all the finesse of an orthapedic shoe, but that some of his ideas make reasonable films. He seems to think (and indeed says) that he himself is doing something more daring, more 'challenging'. His horror fiction is not 'the normal sort'. OK, horror short fiction doesn't have to be werewolves, vampires etc, but sorry, I'd still like to have a plot. Reasonable dialogue. Some form of structure. Development. Perhaps the occasional juicy little surprise. Not much of that on show here. What's in this book is a series of stories with fairly basic ideas which are not developed. They range from the blindingly obvious (the hotel owner taking revenge on people he feels are responsible for his bad fortune: get this- he poisons them...challenging enough?), to the surreal (a lottery winner wins a horrible fate.) I can handle surreal, and some of my favourite short stories are very much open ended. But they are so for a reason... King may not be the most elegant of prose writers, but he knows how to tell a story, and he can keep you turning the page... there wasn't one story here that worked for me. If you are looking for truely challenging horror short fiction which is not concerned with the traditional elements of horror fiction i'd recommend trying the Borderlands series edited by Thomas F Montelone.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the author's introduction he has a bash at Stephen King- explaining his (King's) stories 'make good films' but the style is like an orthapedic boot. I'd argue King's stories actually make pretty lousy films on the whole, but they do have some good ideas and characters a reader can care about. This collection struck me as having neither. Sketchy ideas. Incomplete plots, and a general feeling of "So what?". Fowler talks about the stories being daring. Being different. Being Urban horror. Didn't see it myself. If you want short stories that are really original, really unsettling and follow Fowler's aim for 'no blood, no monster' I'd suggest looking at the Borderlands series. For me, this collection was a complete dud.
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