Very few of these stories could even remotely be classified as horror. Straub, in his weird desire to "redeem" the genre, asked mostly authors of "literary fiction" to contribute to this book. The result, though it includes a few rare and satisfying gems, is mostly long sad accounts of peoples' familial lives, with perhaps a ghost or something tacked on at the end. Or in one case, a promisingly convoluted and experimental story that ends in the death of the writer's imagination (if I was being literal that might be interesting, but no, the story just ends in the most hackneyed manner possible. "Plot Twist" indeed: it goes from semi-readable to necrophiliac rape porn.)