By June Pulliam

Long time readers of Necropsy who are familiar with my writing will have noted that I am often highly critical of anthologies for two reasons. If they are organized around a particularly narrow theme, the stories produced for them are unnaturally constrained and suffering in quality. Or, if they are anthologies of the more generic type, the editor invariably asks big name authors to contribute and they, in turn, do not come forth with their best work, apparently saving it for their own collections or somewhere else where it will be more prominently displayed. This is not the case with The Museum of Horrors. Presented by the Horror Writer's Association, this mass market anthology contains some high quality and truly satisfying work by The Big Names of Horror. Contributors include such horror luminaries as Charles Grant, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell and the late Richard Laymon.

This anthology also contains a startling range in the type of stories selected. Charles Grant and Peter Atkins spin "weird tales" in "Whose Ghosts These Are" and "King of Outer Space." For those not familiar with the term "weird tale," it denotes a story with that strange twist at the end that gives it a sort of Twilight Zone feel, where one is suddenly aware that s/he has departed company with reality as we know it. Joyce Carol Oates's contribution, "The Museum of Dr. Moses," is also a very strong piece, one of her best and typical of her work in general in the way she inserts the uncanny into everyday circumstances (in this case, domestic violence) that are already horrific, allowing the reader to vicariously experience victimhood.

Lesser known authors such as Susan Fry and Robert Devereaux (Santa Steps Out) also have memorable pieces in this collection. Fry's story "The Impressionists in Winter" follows two 19th century impressionists really painting what they see, no matter what world it comes from. And Robert Devereaux's "Apologia" is typical of his work in that it shows what he does best: it demonstrates his encyclopedic knowledge of mythology while shattering everything that the mainstream public holds sacred. Devereaux writes of the black Christ, Christ's evil half brother, known through myth as Judas, and betrayed by his sibling into betraying him and making him immortal.

The selections in this anthology are as solid as those found in Ellen Datlow and Terri Winding's annual The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror collections, but Etchisons's anthology has one big advantage. Its trade paperback size makes it easier to read in the bathtub.
 

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