Magic Terror

7 Tales

By: Peter Straub

Narrated by: Ron McLarty

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.©2000 Peter Straub; (P)2000 Random House, Inc. Random House AudioBooks A Division of Random House, Inc.; Original Cover Photograph by Peter Rodger

Critic reviews

"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

I really tried hard to make it through this

I made it through four hours and couldn't take anymore. It was sooo boring. I just don't understand how anyone could think it to be interesting. I know Peter Straub is reputable, so I'm completely perplexed. If you're going to read books by Peter Straub, I recommend avoiding this one.

I call this pretty good

There are some pretty excellent stories here. Maybe they aren't everybody's cup of tea, but they are good. Porkpie Hat I call brilliant.

Don't buy this expecting 12 page O Henry ironic twisters. These aren't those kind of stories. These stories are longer and darker. They don't necessarily end neatly resolved. More than once I got to the end thinking, "what just happened here?" I savored each story for quite a while after finishing.

disturbing

Any additional comments?

Peter Straub has an interest in pedophelia which I do not share. His descriptions of human cruelty and outright psychopathy are gruesome, detailed and offputting. I'm not the sort who goes out of his way to find things to be offended by, but this guy pushes the limits of good taste. His prose is unique, and annoying after a few hours, you'll have to listen to a sample to understand what i mean. It's difficult to describe, street thugs who talk like university professors. Long speeches using long words do describe a trip to the medicine cabinet for aspirin. It's just wierd, I listened to the whole book, hoping it would get better because I liked what he did with Stephen King. but I found myself feeling kind of queasy sometimes, vivid descriptions of rape and torture and child abuse. Not really my bag. I could compare this to what you might get from a movie like Saw. If you've seen that, and you liked it, you'll probably like this.
In a nutshell, it was sick.

Magic? Terror?

On the whole I enjoyed this book and find myself coming back to a few of the stories again and again (while others I wish I could permanently delete). I find myself scratching my head over the title, while some of the tales definitely had visions of 'terror', there was little 'magic' and a great majority of stories were completely lacking both! My greatest problem was with Audible's lack of effort in separating the download by story. They resorted to throwing in a series of random breaks that succeeded in turning a 'meandering compilation' into a 'labyrinthine compilation'.

Great Stories, Bad Formatting

The stories in this book are terrific -- creepy and disturbing. However, the way they are put together without any break or announcement when one story ends another begins makes it very difficult to listen to. I made several attempts and finally looked up the stories on the internet to figure out how many stories there were and what they were about, and finally was able to separate them.

100 points for the author, -10 for Audible.