Horror Aficionados discussion

I’d like to know what is the scariest book/story by Thomas Ligotti. I hear only good things about him but don’t know what I should read to get the best first impression.
Thanks

Luc -

Penguin Classics have collected his story collections Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe in one volume at amazon.

Enjoy!

you can start with his earlier works like Noctuary and stuff..or you can jump right into "Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe" or "My work is not done yet"

Thanks for the help. I'll take a look at "Songs"

I think that's a good choice, Luc. There is a considerable difference in approach between "Songs..." and "My Work Is Not Yet Done"; that latter is not for the squeamish, containing more overt violence than I found in "Grimscribe" or the stories I've read in "Songs..."

RM

I cannot recall the name but Ligotti has a story with a title like Notes On Writing Weird Fiction that is kind of written in an essay style. The story is in at least two horror anthologies I own and it is pretty terrifying. But pretty much everything in Noctuary, Grimscribe and Songs... is terrifying or at least weird enough to blow your mind. I wouldn’t start with The Conspiracy Against the Human Race or My Work... but I highly recommend them if you are familiar with Ligotti. People compare him a lot to Lovecraft but I find that his writing is more like the short fiction of Peter Straub. A lot of Straub like Ghost Story is more convention but still great horror, while his short stories and early novels are definitely part of the weird tradition and much more experimental.
The Feast of the Harlequins is a close contender for favorite Ligotti story. It’s influenced heavily by Machen especially The Great God Pan.