The Frolic by Thomas Ligotti

Ummmm...yeah.

This disturbing cover art pretty much sums up what you're getting with a Thomas Ligotti story. He fully embraces the macabre and the grotesque to create a unique blend of supernatural horror. Essentially, it is the stuff of nightmares. The H.P. Lovecraft comparisons are valid but Ligotti's postmodernist 'weird fiction' feels different somehow, as if he is subverting various horror tropes and imbues them with a sense that something else is going on behind these appearances. In "The Frolic", a psychiatrist works at a small-town insane asylum. After returning home from work one evening, he tells his wife about a strange patient of his who is a child predator. That's all you really need to know about the plot if you are brave enough to take the plunge into Thomas Liggoti's twisted mind. The weird horror elements of this story are insidious. It gradually permeates this couple's normal existence where a new unreality takes precedence through the supernatural and these malevolent forces defy rational explanation. While this is not the type of genre that generally appeals to me, I am curious to see what else Ligotti has to offer. However, given the unsettling impact of this story, I might need some time to recover before diving into another one from this collection.