Newlyweds arrive in a remote town for their honeymoon but the town’s church bells are mysteriously ringing constantly and a disturbed old man tells them the dead are being raised that night. A man falls in love with an eccentric wealthy woman – but nothing about her house is quite as it seems. An engaged woman visits her fiancée’s family in the country and encounters a bizarre lady who lives in a churchyard. These are the “strange stories” (he preferred this description of the horror genre) of Robert Aickman, and this collection, Dark Entries, is pretty good!
Aickman’s writing style is the most commendable aspect of this book. Some of the most famous horror writers – Poe, James, Lovecraft, King – are excellent at coming up with striking, original stories and/or visuals but severely falter in the execution; not so with Robert Aickman whose writing is very skilful, up there with the likes of Shirley Jackson. I was effortlessly drawn into nearly every story within a few sentences and held in thrall almost the entire time – wonderful! It’s very accessible and doesn’t feel like it’s over half a century old (this collection was originally published in 1964).
Where Aickman falls short for me is the stories’ content which are less than impressive. It’s not that they’re dull, and even the lack of things happening didn’t bother me, but those things do make for some fairly unmemorable stories. I can just about remember the stories for now but I’ve just finished the book – whether I’ll recall anything about them for much longer is probably unlikely! And the endings themselves, for each story, are very disappointing – anticlimactic even – particularly given how well he develops and sets up everything preceding them. They’re just too vague, abrupt and impressionistic for my taste.
Ringing the Changes was my favourite story - it’s basically everything I wanted The Shadow Over Innsmouth to be but wasn’t because Lovecraft’s such a bad writer! It’s easy to see why this is Aickman’s best known work.
Bind Your Hair, Choice of Weapons and The School Friend all had fine moments (the dreamlike atmosphere of Choice of Weapons, the creeping horror of both Bind Your Hair and The School Friend), and The Waiting Room, the shortest story here, was also the most traditional horror story, about a haunted train station waiting room. It’s funny because I complain about how open-ended Aickman leaves each story but the one time he gives a clear meaning I’m still not satisfied - dude just can’t do endings!
The View was the only story I didn’t enjoy at all, and unfortunately it’s also this collection’s longest. An artist sees a different building every time he looks out of the window of his lover’s coastal home and… bleh?
I felt that most of the stories are flawed as there’s not enough to them and were oddly insubstantial. They’re well-written though and almost hypnotically compelling and, while only one story really blew my hair back (Ringing the Changes), the book as a whole has definitely made me want to read more of Robert Aickman’s fiction.
If you’re after subtle, well-crafted horror along the lines of Shirley Jackson, Robert Aickman is definitely worth a look, and Dark Entries seems to be a fine entry point.
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