Synopsis: Read on Amazon
Author: Neil Gaiman
Some people look at short story compilations with some disdain, as if those short tales are the author’s cop-out from a full length novel. Not me. I like the fast gratification you get with short stories. They can be a welcome break from those more immersive tales. Plus, I most enjoy the horror genre in small dosages. It could be you can only hold my anticipation for a short period of time to maximize the respose (like in horror movies), or I’m just a scardy cat that cannot handle the fear. Whatever it is, Neil Gaiman’s Trigger Warning is a collection of tales that may or may not spook you, but at the very least make you go “wow, that was interesting”
The book “explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves.” The title comes precisely addressing those vulnerabilities: the things that can either makes us have goosebumps to even full-fledge panic. There 24 short stories in this collection; my favorites were: The Thing About Cassandra, ‘The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains…’, The Sleeper and the Spindle, Nothing o’ Clock, The Man Who Forgot About Ray Bradbury, Click-Clack The Rattlebag, and Black Dog (the latter is related to one of Gaiman’s more successful novels, American Gods).
Not all the stories are great, as can be expected of such a collection. I few of them feel quite rushed, like the author was running out of space and had to quickly wrap it up. Not a huge fan of the poetry-like pieces, either. And yet, never once did I go “ugh, this was not worth it!”. It was generally speaking a fascinating read, quite entertaining, and I felt very sad when it was over.
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