Before You Sleep: Three Horrors

This was a short read of three horror short stories and my introduction to Adam Nevill's writing. The main connection running throughout the three stories deals with creepy haunted houses. The first story “Where Angels Come In” doesn't have much to do with angels, but has Lovecraftian undertones in that the main protagonist has been touched and horribly damaged by his encounter with something not of this world that is centered on a cursed house in his town. He relates his horrific tale to another damaged survivor of an encounter with the house, an old crone. The second story “The Ancestors” is for those creeped out by tales of haunted dolls and toys. It is told from the perspective of a little girl whose down-on-their-luck parents have moved into a house, ignorant of what evil lies within. The spirit within the house plays upon the innocence of the child who at night is drawn into the world of evil by a creepy, otherworldly playmate who seems to be the leader of an animated toy assembly. This is no happy “Toy Story” tale. The third story “Florrie” is a tale of possession in which a young man's dreams of renovating the old fixer upper he has just purchased will simply not be allowed to come to fruition by the spirit of the former owner who likes things just the way they are. These stories were quite chilling with definite beginnings, middles and ends, but also leave the reader with open-ended questions that make such writing so weirdly satisfying for those who enjoy horror.