Really great stories and some good psychological horror

Starts off well but by the end the stories start to get very samey. Lots of recycled motifs, etc. Also the inclusion of Trigger Warnings is baffling. Like, you know what this anthology of weird horror stories needs? Your crazy uncle's unhinged Facebook rant! Cool. Cool coolcoolcool.

Really, this book is a litmus test for how one looks at the world. Is it a cold and unforgiving hellscape? Or is there a cosmic justice keeping a balance between good and evil? Are we on our own? Or is there a god looking over us?

This is a bleak collection of stories. Any horror fan—in any of its subgenres—should pick it up immediately. Evenson provides us with a master class in subtlety and how understating the horror often creates a much scarier premise. Good luck trying to unlock the mysteries in Song for the Unraveling of the World, because the secret is there are no mysteries to be found. The world is as it is and nothing more.

Wonderfully creepy, upsettingly paranoid, well-crafted short stories. Terrific.

Literary weirdness done right. These tales of subtle menace and paranoia are written in simple but engaging prose - highly recommended.

This book played well with madness, paranoia, and unsettling things just out of reach. Most of the endings were dandy, but one or two stories just didn't resonate with me. Still a wholly interesting read. Never felt like i was being hit on the head with a theme hammer, which I've found can occasionally happen with a book of short stories.

I get why some people really liked this book and I thought I would as well considering I love the horror genre as well as short story compilations. But this just didn't do it for me. The author was going for a more ambiguous vibe when it came to plot, background story as well as ending but instead of giving an ominous feel it mostly left me unsatisfied and took the creepiness out of it.
I have read other such horror books with ambiguity, and I do believe it lends to the atmosphere of the story but in this one, it just left me unsettled. And from some of the reviews, I've people seem to like that but I was mostly just filled with a sense of confusion which overwhelmed the fear or shock you would normally get.

The characters seem to always get into some mess just because; and many it seemed like there was no organic way to get them to the center of the story otherwise.
"...and instead of being relieved he was flustered, unbelieving, still waiting for something to go wrong."
Also, some characters set in the present time and earth seem to be able to support themselves as well as deal with the paranormal forces without jobs or financial aid (especially seen in 'Menno'). And the descriptions in the writing didn't help cause I felt like the author couldn't put across what he was imagining in his head.
" ...And for someone to smile without a face was more shocking still."

Done even get me started on the story 'Trigger Warnings'. This is chock full of insensitivities which doesn't get its point across even if the author had one. It's all fake deep, boomer level, old-man-yells-at-cloud which had me highlighting most of the prose to point out later but I gave up, in the end, cause its a complete mess. That specific story contributed towards bringing down a star rating.

this was my first foray into reading evenson but i really enjoyed the majority of these stories. regardless of the genre, he writes masterfully as the 'unraveling' of these characters. the way he slowly reveals details, little by little, really works to keep up the suspense and general 'what the fuckery' in these short stories, most (or all?) of which are 10 pages or less - quite impressive what he's able to do with so little words. i really am looking forward to checking out more of his fiction which lucky for me there is a lot of!

standouts:
- sisters: amorphous creatures observe human traditions on halloween
- room tone: filmmaker obsesses over recording the perfect sound of silence for his film
- wanderlust + the glistening world: go together hand in hand, disorienting tales of being followed