Book(s) Review: Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe

Here are a collection of true statements that should ultimately contradict each other, but do not:

· There are only 10 living authors who have books published through Penguin Classics (via Wikipedia)

· Thomas Ligotti’s horror collections Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe were collected into a Penguin Classic

· Thomas Ligotti wrote the short stories that comprise those books in the 1980s

· Beginning in the second half of the 1980s I was a sci-fi/fantasy/horror nerd

· I have never heard of Thomas Ligotti or these two books

In one sense I feel like I was finding something from an alternate dimension, as happens rather frequently in Ligotti’s stories. Most likely the reason was because his stories were not very cinematic on the whole, so were never adapted into movies or “Tales From the Darkside” (although some, especially the one about the carnival of clowns, definitely could be).

While the short pieces may not be cinematic, or even stories (with action and a beginning/middle/end), they are very successful in setting extremely creepy moods. In the introduction to the book, the person writing mentioned how Ligotti was able to transcend every gothic horror writer’s fascination with HP Lovecraft and use it as fuel instead of a means of adaptation. The ironic thing about this is that while reading through the stories, I had thought that the only writer I had ever read besides Ligotti to have successfully written pieces floating in such a miasma of dread was indeed Lovecraft.

Again, not much usually happens in most of Ligotti’s stories; and, according to the introduction, Ligotti purposely abstains from the reading equivalent of jump-scares. However, what you find in most of these stories is an underlying sense of terror, with small details and unanswered questions pointing the way towards nihilism.

It was said in the introduction that Songs of a Dead Dreamer was the more popular of the two works. This does seem likely to me based on the composition of the works. This book starts with stories that take place in “contemporary” times (although they were, again, written in the 80s, they don’t lose much) – these stories are the most “normal”, although they do contain little details that set them apart (like, why did the criminal in the opening story talk and write as if different people were inhabiting his body every 5 seconds?). The stories get weirder and weirder (with a standout being the “Alice in Wonderland”-adjacent terror), until a piece appears that seems to be an essay on how to write a horror story (but eventually turns into something else). After that piece, it feels like being pushed off a boat into a sea of strange, with stories swimming in weirdness and terror, with many of them being unclear if they take place today or in the 15th century. Very, very strong work here.

Grimscribe feels more like a book of actual stories (although many are cut short to make room for the background horror), so while it never reaches the heights of weird as the former book, it has some of the most memorable stories. As mentioned earlier, the opening story about a festival (or two) revolving around clowns could definitely be made into a creepy movie. And stories involving condemned theaters, strange university classes, an unusual scarecrow, and an offputting nanny stay with you.

One thing I found especially interesting while reading these pieces involved dreams. Dreams are subjects authors are usually told not to write about, much less center a piece on – if it is a scary dream, it would make for an even scarier reality. Ligotti, however, breaks this “rule” constantly, with many of the stories including dreams. Instead of letting the steam out of the stories, Ligotti’s descriptions of the dreams only heighten the tension.

This is a great Halloween find – all ten hot dogs!