The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale

I was not aware of Joe R. Lansdale until my spouse turned me onto the show Hap & Leonard, which was just our kind of off-tilt comedy. I knew that show was based off novels, but that’s as far as it went.

With The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale, I saw my chance to fill what I thought was a gap in my experience and get to know the horror side of “the guy who wrote Hap & Leonard”.

I was hooked with the first story, “The Folding Man”. Someone who writes about a group of kids mooning nuns who turn out to be monsters using language  like “in that spot, silver moonlight was falling down into it” is my kind of writer - you know expectations are going to be subverted, leaving room for something surprising.

If you know me or have read many of my previous reviews, you know I don’t do pet injury or death so warning - I had to skip some paragraphs - and almost an entire story - because Lansdale goes to dark places (and way darker than that for people who aren’t as affected by dog/cat violence as I am).

The stories range from urban legends to weird west to Southern gothic, but all are dark and with that sardonic Joe Lansdale wit.

I wish I could say I liked all the stories as much as I did the first. They were well written and, unsurprisingly, some of the phrases definitely gave me a chuckle like “they had to get rid of them [the hogs that killed and ate Grandma] because they didn’t want to eat nothing that had eaten somebody they knew.” ‘Cuz…awkward.

Lansdale’s introductions to his stories were highlights for me. I could read a whole book of those.

Storywise…though well written, this particular brand of darkness is just mostly not for me.  It could be for you, though, and thanks to the quality of Lansdale’s writing, I’d encourage almost anybody to check it out.  Maybe read the introductions to the stories…in some ways, I had a feeling going into them there were going to be things that bothered me, and some of the were certainly intended. So, mission accomplished?

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the review copy for my honest feedback.