In Nightmares We're Alone - We Are All Alone... Together
Greg Sisco hooked me up with a signed, personalized copy of this book. I knew from the cover it'd be my cup of tea, but WOW. I was completely staggered by this work of fiction. This collection is set out in three acts. They are separate horror stories that are connected by their characters, much like life itself.
The first one is about a young girl who is certain that a doll her mother purchased is evil. I loved this one because Greg Sisco absolutely nailed the young-girl attitude in touching and laugh-out-loud ways. I am also terrified of dolls, so I felt I could connect with her on that level as well.
Favorite Quotes:
1) I know you hear me, Beth. You know I know. If I broke you, Mommy would hurt me. So I won't break you. Not yet. But you've been warned. Watch your back, Beth. I have my eye on you. I mouth the words silently, so you can see. "Fuck you, Beth."
2) They don't want to fix my problem. They just want to fix their problem and their problem is me. They think if they are mean to me, I'll shut up, but I'm not shutting up until they help me, and they've shown me over and over that they're not interested in that.
The second act is about a man who makes a living as a (fake) medium and strives to fill the void within himself with sex. He finds himself aroused, drawn to and repelled by a sycamore tree in his back yard, and plants begin to sprout from his finger and toe nails.
Favorite Quotes:
1) If you're going to judge me, at least clear your browser history.
2) Maybe that's why so many of us can't let the party end. All of us stuck on drugs and sarcasm and casual sex because emotional detachment is 'in'. Because it's the only way to cope with our isolation without growing. And God forbid we grow. God forbid time does its thing.
The third act pertains to a teacher who lost her parents and is dealing with their worldly possessions with her husband who suffers from MS. This one is a flurry of existential gut-punches that left me breathless and contemplative.
Favorite Quotes:
1) College taught me the quote. Life taught me that any time you have a thought, you can rest easy knowing somebody smarter and more successful than you already articulated it better than you ever will.
2) All of life's tortures are the products of our minds, and what a terrible sadness that is.
I was disturbed and vividly creeped out by the doll situation in the first act and the plant situation in the second, but by the end of this book it all came together in an unforgettable way that surpasses standard horror. It mimics real life. It brings questions of evil, death, and the afterlife to the forefront, and flattens them into That Thing We Don't Quite See. It made me feel like I was grasping life's meaning: that all things that seem dark and evil may be the same as the good things, but due to our limited perspective as humans we find it difficult to obtain and/or maintain that elevated view.
I wish I could give this book a rating higher than 5/5, I loved it that much. It is so cohesive, enthralling, terrifying, funny, and epiphany-inducing. Above all, it is supremely enjoyable and I recommend you read it at once.
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