Magic Terror, Peter Straub
Magic Terror, Peter Straub
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Magic Terror
7 Tales

Author: Peter Straub

Narrator: Ron McLarty

Unabridged: 14 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/05/2000


Synopsis

A collection of seven exquisite tales about living, dying, and the horror that lies in between, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story

“Elegant, terrifying, provocative.”—The Washington Post Book World

Welcome to a new kind of terror as Peter Straub leads us into the outer reaches of the psyche. Here the master of the macabre is at his absolute best in seven chilling stories that explore the darkest depths of the human mind.

“Bunny Is Good Bread” takes us into the mind of a small boy trapped in grotesque circumstances to portray the creation of a serial killer in a manner that compels pity, sorrow, comprehension, and grief—as well as judgement.

“Hunger, an Introduction,” narrated by the ghost of a pompous, self-pitying murderer, evokes a profoundly beautiful vision of earthly life, one appreciated far more by the dead than the living.

The award-winning novella “Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff,” a masterpiece of black comedy, draws upon Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” to create a revenge tale in which torture is a moral art and the revenger undergoes a transforming, albeit painful, education.

The terrain of these extraordinary stories is marked by brutality, heartbreak, despair, wonder, and an unexpected humor that allows empathy to blossom within the most unlikely contexts.

About The Author

Peter Straub is the author of seventeen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City with his wife, Susan, director of the Read to Me program.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Corey

One of the best horror collections I’ve read, easily up there with Night Shift and Blue World. Unlike those books however, most of the stories are a bit longer here—only 7. Of the 7, 4 of them were top notch Straub and are easily 5 star stories. The rest were good as well, and there wasn’t a dud her......more

Goodreads review by Scott

Peter Straub, in his book of short stories "Magic Terror", pushes the envelope of the horror genre beyond what is normally "safe" territory and into realms that very few writers, horror or otherwise, seldom traverse. His stories deal with human perversity, tragedy, and atrocity. Not exactly "fun" re......more

Peter Straub is one of the best authors of all time, and this anthology is evidence enough to prove it. He writes circles around Stephen King, natch', but then again, one isn't reading King because of that man's fine style (with the exception of Misery), one reads King in order to wallow in a folksy......more

Goodreads review by Maciek

A curious collection of not-so-short fiction by one of my favorite authors, Magic Terror offers 7 tales where each is unique and not two are alike. Indeed ,there is quite a diversity of "Magic Terror"."Bunny is Good Bread" is a disturbing, but fiendishly compelling story of a psychopatic killer being......more

Goodreads review by Horace

the ghost village gives me sweet nightmares, his idea and concept in vamps and occult are brilliant to me mr clubb and mr cuff is such pure evil, the dark filthy stinking corners of human's mind were very bared like normal, what an ignition! he just sparks my will to write again on writing, straub is......more


Quotes

"When Peter Straub turns on all his jets, no one in the scream factory can equal him."
-Stephen King

"No one can speak the unspeakable as gruesomely as Peter Straub. The most magical thing about Magic Terror is its sheer bloodcurdling range: a variety of genre-defying tales, no two of the seven remotely resembling each other except in the brilliance of the invention and the writing, and in Straub's power to spook you out of your wits."
-Donald Harington, author of When Angels Rest

"I have been a fan of the novelist Peter Straub ever since Ghost Story. That he can be just as compelling and scary in brief bites is a welcome revelation. Seven wonderful tales."
-Donald Westlake, author of The Hook and The Ax