Houses Without Doors

By Peter Straub

This is a book of short stories. They include the very short stories She Saw a Young Man, In the Realm of Dreams, Going Home, The Poetry Reading, Bar Talk, The Veteran and Then One Day She Saw Him Again – some of which I almost found too short. There are also a few of more substantial length, Blue Rose, The Juniper Tree, A Short Guide to the City, The Buffalo Hunter, Something about a Death Something About a Fire and Mrs. God.

Out of these short stories my favourites were The Buffalo Hunter, Mrs. God and The Blue Rose, of which the latter I found quite disturbing. All great stories with a special twist, but at the same time also very provocative. The reader is taken beneath the silent surfaces of the everyday world where a realm of mystery lies. It is the type of mystery that can only be reached through imagination, trauma or violence. Welcome to an eerie world of deranged minds and childhood terror, destructive obsession and deadly innocence!

Surprisingly good, although a novel almost too dark and sinister for my liking.