Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors

I was looking for a new horror book and was getting tired of the newer Stephen King books with forced politics and woke subplots. This was the first Adam Nevill book I read and I was not disappointed. (I have read all but one of his books now.) This is one of my favorite short story books next to Stephen King's - Night Shift. Each story was great and unpredictable. I do not want to give any details away as far as what the stories are about. It's best to experience it raw and firsthand like the subjects in each story. I also loved the story notes at the end of the book where Adam shares his insight on each story. I loved the writing style and the descriptions and it reminded me of my favorite poet Ted Hughes. Adam writes eloquently, which is often mistaken as too wordy. To each their own, there's easier thriller books out there like Dean Koontz, if quick and simple is your style. But for the dark, weird, and real folk horror, then this is the book. I hope this book opens your horror path to the door of Adam Nevill like it did for me.

The quality of this paperback is very good. I love the satin texture of the front, back, and spine. The stories are whimsical and thrilling. Not super scary, but they’re a fun time.

I am an avid reader of Short Horror Fiction, as well as Horror in general. This is my first foray with Mr. Nevill and I have to say that I was a bit underwhelmed. Not that the tales in here aren't well written, because they are. They just weren't at the level of "horror" that I would prefer. All though many of the stories are weird, and creepy. None of them for me, really ever stepped out of the dark enough to really "creep" me out. Which is a bit of a shame, as the cover and title, as well as the description, really were a major selling point for me when I bought this collection. Even though I'm not overly impressed with the content, I still enjoyed reading the stories, and they are solid stories. In short I don't regret buying the book, and unless you are a niche horror connoisseur I think that this is a book that is worth giving a look at.

Adam Nevill's Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors is a superb collection of literary horror. My favorite of these stories included images, scenes, and monsters that burrowed into head and refused to leave. I've re-read "Pig Thing" a few times already. Adam Nevill's The Ritual and Last Days kept popping up as recommendations from various sources. And when a recent favorite author, T.E. Grau mentioned his love of Nevill's writing during an episode of This is Horror, I went shopping on my kindle. That led me to picking up a free copy of Before You Sleep (a teaser eBook that includes 3 short stories from this collection: "Where Angels Come In," "The Ancestors," and "Florrie"). I read the first story, "Where Angels Come In" and immediately bought a physical copy of Some Will Not Sleep. And I'm glad I did. Listening to the three part interview Nevill recently did with This is Horror, I learned this is the first book he's publishing under his own Ritual Limited company. He released a limited edition hardback first and then a paperback and eBook version. The paperback is beautiful. Designed with care and a clear aesthetic that I wish more horror publishers would take with their products. You can tell how much work and thought went into making this. Clearly a labor of love and I'm thankful I stumbled upon that first story. I'm a full on fan boy now and can't wait to read more of Nevill's work and support his efforts with my money. My favorite stories were: "Pig Thing" "Where Angels Come In" "To Forget and Be Forgotten" "Florrie" Though I really enjoyed: "Yellow Teeth" "The Ancestors" "What God Hath Wrought?" The volume's wrapped up with a "story notes" section. I love it when authors take the time to do this. For a writer and reader like me it really adds to my overall enjoyment. This is great literary horror and well worth checking out. If the free stories from Before You Sleep don't impress you than I'd skip the whole collection as it's not going to be your thing. If you are a fan, you can go over to the authors website and sign up for the newsletter and he will send you a free eBook, Cries from the Crypt of selected essays, rare short stories and lost chapters from previous novels.

Beautifully written prose crawling with shadow and darkling superstition, old memories covered in lacy cobwebs that ought not to be your own, slinking phantasms ghosting about the night, and the very visage of the Devil's moribund children lie here, bound in written word. Not much in the way of blood, nor much in the way of today's popular violence hold sway here, but of fears darker, lonelier, likelier, and more cunning? Of them, you shall find plenty.

I picked this up after seeing it on Facebook repeatedly; took me a bit to get into these stories, but I'm glad I did. These are visceral, at times disgusting tales, especially the first few: there's a lot of emphasis on physical senses, particularly smell, which does a great deal to inform you all is not right in this world. "Mother's Milk" is particularly troubling (if a shade predictable just from the title); "The Age of Entitlement" features one of the most unlikeable characters I've encountered in a while; and "What God Hath Wrought?" is a solid, satisfying historical tale of horrors and revenge. My only caveat is that perhaps the stories should have been differently ordered, as the repeated use of first-person narration makes a few of them bleed into each other a bit--that aside, I think an exploration of Mr Nevill's other writings is in order.

I finally got around to reading Adam Nevill and only wish that I had done so sooner, this man is amazing. I had originally bought a limited copy of Some Will Not Sleep as a bundle with a T-shirt and bookmark from Adam's online store, Ritual Limited, but also ended up buying the e-book so that I didn't have to smudge my gorgeous copy. That book cover was all the convincing I needed to know that I needed it in my collection. I have a love/hate relationship with most short story collections, as it sometimes feels like authors like to squeeze in their garbage stories just to get them published, sandwiched between reprints and the few good stories that hooked you into buying it in the first place. There was not a single story in Some Will Not Sleep that I didn't love or that I think was less than stellar. The stories are creepy in a way that most authors can't pull off. With a blend of folklore mixed with the utterly irrational and bizarre, it's unsettling in a way that makes you want to crawl under the covers of your bed like a child, from the things lurking outside that shouldn't exist. I'm pretty sure that more than 'some' will not be sleeping after reading this. I had previously read Adam's free 3-story collection called Before You Sleep which has one story that isn't in this collection and it's also very good. The plan at this point is to pretty much just read everything this man writes from here on out, he's -that- good. I did not receive a free copy. I bought both the limited edition version and the e-book and they were both worth it. :)

This was a fantastic collection of short stories. So far I have only read one other book from Adam Nevill but this will clearly need to be rectified. Highlights for the book for me are probably Where Angels Come In, a creepy opening to a cool story that works up to a chilling ending scene. The Original Occupant was a well crafted, frightening story in a narrative device that reminded me a little of Stephen King's novella, The Breathing Method. Doll Hands was creepy and awesome. The stories are great and varied, with so much depth that I think another reading would only serve to increase my enjoyment of them. Highly recommended.

Adam Nevill is one of the writers responsible for my love of reading horror fiction. I remember some years ago getting an email from Amazon with book recommendations. Among the recommendations was the novel ‘The Ritual’ by Adam Nevill. I loved the cover and so had a read of the synopsis. I was sold! Nevill’s book took me on a frightening journey into the Scandinavian wilderness as a small group of friends seek to reconnect with each other. This harrowing tale is full of macabre images and has some truly frightening scenes. After finishing this I was forever going to be a Nevill fan. ‘Some will not Sleep’ is a collection of eleven literary horror stories that span Nevill’s career and serves as a proverbial feast of elegantly crafted horror fiction from one of the very best in the business. What strikes me most about this collection is that even the earlier stories show a writer in total command of his prose. Nevill’s work is always a pleasure to read and I love how his stories crescendo steadily towards unimaginable horrors. The writing is sublime, often thoughtful and atmospheric. Nevill’s characters are fully realized, always, and even in shorter works it is easy to become attached to them. There is great variety on show with this collection, the stories contained within ‘Some will not Sleep’ are varied in both scope and tone, featuring intriguing plots, a lingering sense of dread and the constant feeling that something isn’t quite right. It isn’t often that I read a short story collection and enjoy every entry, but with this book I did. Personal favorites were ‘ The Original Occupant’ and the fantastic opening tale ‘Where Angels Come In’, though I was totally engrossed reading every one. At the books end there is an essay from Adam that tells the story of how this book was created and a little bit about the horrors that lurk within its pages. On top of all this it’s clear that Adam Nevill is a writer who takes great pride in his work. This shows through both the editing, layout and the wonderful cover image. ‘Some will not Sleep’ is released on Halloween and I can see no better book to ring in this wonderful time of the year. Excellent stuff.

When, earlier this year, I found out that Adam Nevill was going to publish a collection of short stories, I was absolutely thrilled. I had just come off the works of Ligotti and Blackwood, and was craving for more. You see, I've long held the belief that the skill of an author - especially in the horror genre - can best be judged by how effectively he/she manages to deliver a tale to send shivers down your spine in just the space of a few pages. Very few manage to do so for me, personally, and even fewer with originality and an inventiveness that goes beyond the comfortable and the established. This is where Adam comes in. The first of his novels I got my hands on was 'The Ritual', and I was immediately entranced. Here was an author who surprised me at every turn, whose feel for the 'outre', the strange and weird made me - literally - shudder with pleasure. Needless to say I have since devoured everything he has written. Keeping in mind what I've just said you might understand why I felt almost nervous when I first picked up 'Some Will Not Sleep' (for the sake of fairness: I received an advance digital copy; but my order for the hardcover beauty still stands). I'd vowed to myself to put it aside until I'd finished the novel I was reading at that time, but I just couldn't. Once I was home from work, I picked up my iPad, locked the door and tore through the first stories (still re-reading the ones I'd already come across in 'Before You Sleep'). Throughout all of these stories, Adam's talent manages to shine (darkly, of course, as cheerful sparkles would be more than out of place in this area of literature). His style of writing is as evocative as it has ever been, painting dark and gruesome scenes in your mind but giving you just the right amount of information, never too much, never too little. He does what he can do better than any contemporary author I'm following, and that is to suggest. He won't feed you a definitive explanation - which is not to say that all of these stories are open-ended - he'll rather build a world and throw us, the reader, smack in the middle of it, without any divine understanding or guidance. We experience the stories much like a human experiences life - one is only wiser after it is all done, and even then we never have all the answers. Which is also possibly what creates the atmosphere of dread so inherently present in all of Adam Neville's writing: if we don't know what is happening, and why, how can we know it won't happen to us? As H.P. Lovecraft once reportedly said: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." I could gush here endlessly, about how I love Adam's writing, and even about how great a person he is, but I'd rather have the stories speak for themselves. They have a lot to tell - and show - you.

Some stories were better than the others but I find that's always the case with short stories. I liked it!

If you have any more than a passing interest in horror literature you will already be aware that Adam Nevill’s first collection of short stories ‘Some Will Not Sleep’ has been picking up universal acclaim from the world of horror, bloggers and early readers. After reading it I’m happy to say that this collection more than meets the hype, with eleven wonderfully crafted stories creeping into many different corners of the genre this author knows better than the back of his hand. These short works represent a cross section of creations from two decades in writing horror. Some being influenced by the curveballs life throws at us, others crap jobs, horrible flats, and spells living abroad. My review is based on both the kindle version and the trade paperback, but many readers have already purchased the limited edition hardback from Adam’s website. It has a run of 400 copies with over 50% already sold, and if you follow Adam on Facebook you’ll know the hardback has gone down wonderfully well with the fans, coupled with the limited edition t-shirt with the black-metal ‘Ritual’ design. This doubles up as his company logo, as he has released the hardback version on his own book label and has even been posting them personally from the sunny south coast! If you are feeling particularly stingy you can still pick up ‘Before You Sleep: Three Horrors’ for free on Kindle in both the UK and the USA. Since this horrible little treat appeared a couple of months back it has been riding high and has topped various Kindle charts and includes three of the eleven stories featured in ‘Before You Sleep’. However, I’d strongly recommend you part with your hard earned £3.99 and buy the full version if you’re on KIndle. The freebie stories are particularly strong ones and will give you a good flavour of what Adam Nevill is all about should you not have read him before. ‘Where Angels Come In’ is full of impending doom as a schoolboy dare into a haunted house goes too far, with the tension ratcheting up step by horrible step. ‘Florrie’ is a clever ghost story which reverses some of the traditional ghost story elements making a poor sucker feel unsettled when he ventures outside. Finally, ‘The Ancestor’ is Nevill’s sly nod to J-Horror and the insidious little things that come out at night to play with children. The author has obviously spent considerable time selecting his chosen eleven and as a result there is little padding or weak stories. As with everything, there were some stories that I liked more than others, but even those which weren’t amongst my favourites such as ‘What God Hath Wrought?’ a tale of revenge and very dodgy old religion in America of 1848 was intriguing, original and never dull. I couldn’t remember Nevill writing anything else set so far in the past and I’m all for writers exploring new areas, time periods and storylines beyond the comfort zone. The pacing was one of the overwhelming strengths in these stories. This has obviously been a constant feature in Nevill’s novels and he seems to have a great knack in scaling everything down to the size required for success in the short story format. I’m not normally a huge reader of short stories as I often find them underwhelming, but a down-sized Adam Nevill story does not cheat. Some of my personal favouries kept you hanging until the final paragraph ‘To Forget and Be Forgotten’ a perfect example on a loner landing a dream job working nights as a doorman to an exclusive block of flats where nobody ever seems to be around too much. Until his peaceful nightly harmony is disturbed and the old grannies are much more than they seem. This was as a beautifully crafted 24 pages as you’re likely to read. Some of the stories end with a certain ambiguity which also works well in the short story format, with the author not needing to join every dot in the final sentences. Sometimes your own imagination can be enough. I also has fun discovering ‘Adam Nevill the man’ which lurked in the shadows of many of the stories. We’re all had the flatmate from hell, maybe none as bad as the dude in ‘Yellow Teeth’ but close. The smell of this guy was described so vividly I was laughing as I read some of the passages to my wife and his ungodly waft was rising from the pages of the book! ‘Pig Thing’ (perhaps the creature on the cover of the book?) takes us back to the author’s childhood home in New Zealand where a creature stalks a family and their three children. These were both really great. As a long term fan spotting early incarnations of ideas which germinated into novels such as the Swedish set ‘The Original Occupant’ which had a waft of ‘The Ritual’ was an added bonus. Many of the stories worked well as they’re grounded in realistic rational fears, childhood anxieties, isolation and the supernatural on a level which is very easy to believe in and visualise. Equally important is the avoidance of the clichés which often plague the genre, which is a real strength of this author. I recently reviewed another book for The Ginger Nuts of Horror about possessed mirrors which needed virgin blood to clean the glass…. Pass the cliché bucket…. ‘Mother’s Milk’ is amongst the oldest story in the book and also one of my favourites. The informative end notes explain how much of a struggle it was to get many of these stories accepted anywhere. Ironic, considering how successful he is now and this was a deliciously horrible story which has a real yuck factor and the nastiest landlord who comes from beyond hell. Just don’t drink the milk… The unsettling ‘Dolls Hands’ was a nasty little hoot which also had a food theme that would also leave a bad taste in the mouth, it moves into the comfort zone of Joseph D’Lacey’s deliciously horrible ‘Meat’, if you’ve read it you’ll know what I mean. This collection of supernatural horror has the craftsmanship of an old master and it’s to savour. Sadly, I’ve seen no media coverage of the book outside of the horror world and this is really disappointing, as this work really deserves a wider audience. It is, however, predictable. A couple of weeks ago I read Susan Hill’s latest collection of ghost stories, which was later reviewed in the Saturday Guardian. This exceptionally bland cliché ridden little book did nothing to merit a major review in a national broadsheet as none of the measly four stories could compare to Adam Nevill on his day off. I’m also tired of the lazy mainstream media continuing to tap the likes of Hill as some sort of ‘guru’ on ghost stories and the ‘go to’ author whenever Halloween or Christmas ghost stories are up for discussion. Sure, she’s a big cheese in the world of literary fiction and has written some fine novels in the past but Adam Nevill is the uncrowned King of UK horror fiction. Any of these eleven stories would have poor old Susan Hill crying for her mummy and Nevill’s novels would have her running for the hills. Should any establishment authors, or those who flirt with the supernatural, want to seriously explore the horror genre with any depth then I also highly recommend Nevill’s other free ebook ‘Cries from the Crypt’. The far reaching range of the author’s knowledge of the horror genre is plain for all to see via his recommendations, interviews, film knowledge, writing tips and everything to do with the ‘why and what’ of horror featured in the ebook. At the time of writing it was still free to download from his website. Grad it now before it’s gone. Sad but true, but I’m guessing this Ginger Nuts review will circulate in the world of horror but fail to reach many new readers which is what this great book really deserves it. Never say never though, Adam has a few TV/film projects bubbling at the moment, so perhaps something big is just around the corner. Meantime we can all look forward to ‘Under a Watchful Eye’ which is published early 2017.

Great collection. Some short stories are amazing.