Night Terrors & Other Tales by Lisa Morton
Lisa Morton is an important and beloved figure in the horror community, besides being the president of the Horror Writer’s Association for many years she is one of the world’s most knowledgeable Halloween experts. A pretty cool thing to be an expert in if you ask me. Those two things already make her cool, but ad to that she has written a book about the films ace Hong Kong director Tusi Hark and is an accomplished novelist. Her novel The Castle of Los Angeles is a criminally underrated haunted theater tale. She has a couple of Bram Stoker awards, Well six but who is counting? She has written produced screenplays and works at one of the coolest used book stores in Los Angeles.
All that stuff is cool. Very cool, but for me of Lisa’s many strengths, her short stories are some of the best around. She dedicated this collection to Dennis Etchison, who she has long championed as one of her most important teachers, while her stories have their own voices the influence is undeniable. Lisa Morton’s short stories can have a pulp flavor at times but in the right ways. More importantly, there is storytelling ease all done with strong literary flair.
I have a couple of Lisa Morton collections up on the shelf, a couple of these stories are ones I read in their various printings in anthologies and magazines. I would put Lisa in the canon of short story writers of this generation that I consider masters of the form. Alongside Brian Evenson, Cody Goodfellow, and Laird Barron, must-reads who stories I skip to read first when they are in anthologies. These authors can spin a short finely tuned short story as tight as a guitar string. In past generations think of Shirley Jackson, CL Moore, Judith Merril, Bradbury, The Matheson (Richard and RC), and a personal favorite John Shirley. That good.
What makes a Lisa Morton story unique? Like her teacher Etchison, these stories have dark renounce, some have to curl around your heart like the tale ‘The Secret Engravings.’ There is also stories like ‘Sparks Fly Upward’ that have clarity and surface message that reminded me of Alice Sheldon (AKA James Tiptree Jr.). We will come back to this bold middle finger of a short story in a bit.
I have my favorites. With close to twenty stories Night Terrors has a variety of stories of various styles and subgenres of horror. Monsters, The Psych Ward, Mad Science, Bad Magic, The Unnameable. From classic monsters remixed to cosmic horror that kind of previews the various tones. Two of the three Mad Science stories were favorites of mine, As an SF reader I really enjoyed Morton dipping into the very Phil Dickian space with ‘Resurrection Policy’ a story about a rich asshole who didn’t read the fine print and ends up reborn in a less than desirable body. This is a dark comedy that is perfectly executed.
The next story after it ‘Feel the Noise’ is a pitch-black political story. As much as the story before amused me, this one is equally crushing. It uses technology to express the trauma and karma of war in a richly personal tale of horror. And that is the thing Lisa Morton is not afraid to have an opinion and that is where her stories remind me of John Shirley’s highly political but still fantastical takes.
That brings me back to the Zombie tale ‘Sparks Fly Upward.’ This zombie story that appeared in the John Skipp edited Mondo Zombie it clearly has a pro-choice message, but even saying undervalues the message. Just know this is a really creative way to use the form to express a point.
The collection is the powerful top to bottom, with no stinkers or skippers. While Brian Evenson and Thomas Liggoti for example have respect for the literary world, and writers like Laird Barron are starting to crack respect to such snooty circles writers like Lisa Morton are right there. I would put a few of the stories up there with any powerhouse you name. Either way in question is a Lisa Morton a must-read. Yes, indeed it is.
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