Loved Studies in Shadow. Loved 2/3 of Discourse on Blackness: Tsalal, Mad Night of Atonement, The Strange Design of Master Rignolo. Liked the other one just okay, certainly still well above the average "weird" story. I didn't care at all for Notebook of the Night, not that the pieces were bad, sort of prose poems, but I'm just not a big flash fiction fan and that's what it kind of seemed like to me. I found I just couldn't concentrate on these. I read them all through twice, some a third time because I didn't think I was doing them justice. They didn't stick with me like the rest of the book and they were a big part of the contents.

Prose was exquisite as always.

I gave it four stars but I'm really more like 3.5. Benefit of the doubt. I just don't think I like Ligotti as much as say, Laird Barron. Probably just a personal preference and not really a reflection on his importance to the genre. ( )

One more disappointment. In my quest to find writers reminiscent of T. E. D. Klein I have so far met with nothing but disappointment. I should just get over it and realize that I am never, ever going to find another book as good as either "The Ceremonies" or "Dark Gods" and just be grateful that Klein wrote them at all.

Why do I obsess so about Klein? Because he could be subtle and tell a story at the same time. So far, all the writers I have checked out who have been compared to him are way too subtle and tell about 25% of the story and leave the reader to fill in the rest. Can anyone out there just make me happy and write a book like T. E. D. Klein would write? Several dozen of them, please and thank you. ( )

While Noctuary features some strikingly powerful stories, it's not an entirely successful collection and would seem to be a small let down from Ligotti's previous collection, Grimscribe. This may be because Noctuary, like Ligotti's debut Songs of a Dead Dreamer, is a transitional work. With Songs, it's clear that Ligotti was working to combine his literary influences with his own original voice and ideas to create something strikingly original yet very much within the tradition of weird fiction. This project would find it's full articulation in Grimscribe. Seen from the perspective of Songs and Grimscribe, Noctuary would seem to represent a step backwards or a sort of exhaustion. Ligotti has, of course, always trafficked in exhaustion whether Alice's weary adulthood as she faces her last adventures or the narrator's dismissal of horror stories in Nethescurial; yet realms of exhaustion often prove to be rather fertile for the generation of new horrors.

Among it's horrors are the death god of "The Prodigy of Dreams," the supernatural vengeance of "Conversations in a Dead Language," and the Lovecraftian dreams of "Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel," all quite strong stories that feel somehow slight in this collection, as if Ligotti is spinning his wheels. One story, "The Tsalal," while arguably along the same lines as much of the stories in Grimscribe, stands out because it is so powerfully crafted, perfectly structured and with the sort of shockingly inevitable ending that marks Ligotti's best work.

Other tales, such as "The Medusa," in which an eccentric scholar seeks out the fabled monster whom he believes to be lurking in the every day world, or "Mad Night of Atonement," in which a Nyarlathotep-like showman reveals the true will of God, feel markedly transitional, attempting to go a step beyond the previous confines of weird fiction, yet never quite making the leap. These stories, despite moments of brilliance, are somewhat disappointing, lacking the powerful build and surprise of Ligotti's previous works. Ligotti has, I believe, started to chafe against the bonds of his own chosen idiom, though this can be seen only from the perspective of his later work. With such collections as Teatro Grottesco, Ligotti would dispense with much of the Lovecraftian baroqueness of his earlier style, leaving behind the dark gods and forbidden texts, as well as stylistic flourishes, for a more banal and bleaker world. If stories such as "Medusa" and "Mad Night" disappoint, it is probably because Ligotti has already begun the process of trying to break free of his earlier style.

The final section of the novel is the Notebook of Night, a collection of brief vignette, rich in language and imagery but often nearly plotless. These also reveal Ligotti experimenting with how best to express his own dark concepts. This is my favorite section of the collection, since even those that don't quite work as tales still are full of wonderfully sinister atmosphere. ( )

Thomas Ligotti is a truly unusual author. He has a fascination with “weird fiction,” with the unknowable, the macabre. This is paired with a knack for eloquent word-poetry, intelligence and complexity, and a sense of the chillingly unusual. When I finish reading several Ligotti stories, I find that the world looks different. The colors aren’t quite right any more, or the angles, or maybe people seem a little darker, a little stranger. The world has changed.

That is how effective Ligotti can be.

Ligotti is a master of madness. He makes use of the short story format to show us things and then leave again, without ever having to truly explain them to us. He doesn’t wrap things up in a neat little package; he doesn’t tie a ribbon around them. Oftentimes you’ll be left wondering just what on earth really happened.

I have several books of Ligotti stories, and “Noctuary” is my favorite. I have often wondered why, and the answer I eventually came to is this: most of the stories in here are shorter than those in other books. The longest one is less than 40 pages, and many are only two or three pages long. As much as I love Ligotti’s writing, he’s at his best when he writes in short chunks. Otherwise I find his writing occasionally drags a little.

Ligotti’s work is not for everyone. If you don’t like the weird or the macabre, you won’t enjoy his work. If you prefer your stories to be normal, with a beginning, middle and end, all wrapped up in a neat little ribbon, then this is definitely not for you. If you prefer your world to be its same, comfortable self when you close your books - don’t read a word of Ligotti. Ligotti’s style is definitely not for everyone.

But for those of us who enjoy it, it is a dread and harrowing pleasure - one that I would not in a million years give up.

Full review at ErrantDreams ( )