Magic Terror: 7 Tales

    (Random House, 2025)
™ and © Random House

(From the publisher)

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 WorldWelcome 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.
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