Two books this month.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Orb Books, 1997. Originally published in 1954)
An interesting mix of horror and science fiction. It does a good job of presenting the inner thoughts of a man consumed by loneliness after having survived a plague that’s turned people into vampires. The edition I have includes some short stories, but I haven't read those yet. I have fond memories of watching the first two film adaptations of the book when I was in school, and I decided to re-watch the first one right away.
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
A low budget but well-done film adaptation of Matheson’s I Am Legend. Matheson also wrote the screenplay but was so dissatisfied with the film that he had his name taken off. Even with some awkward dubbing, I think Vincent Price and the script capture the story and tone of the book pretty well.
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland Books, 2022)
This one had been on my radar for a while. It won Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Awards and I’ve been following the author on social media. He’s positive and very encouraging to new authors. After seeing this in Half Price Books a few times I finally decided to grab it.
It took a few chapters, but I liked the prose and once it got going and I was drawn into this slow burn mix of bario noir and cosmic horror. Unfortunately, I kept getting pulled out of the book. While I love languages and I can appreciate the use of Spanish throughout, the number of untranslated conversations and passages eventually became frustrating and took away from my enjoyment of the story. Still. if you like dark, dark stories you'll like this, and I'm interested in reading more of this author's work.
December Plans
I've been reading ghost stories every December for the last for years and I'll be reading more this year. Currently I'm reading Blood Standard by Laird Barron and loving it.
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