Stories Within Stories Keep 'The Twisted Ones' Turning
T. Kingfisher's new novel, inspired by a classic horror tale, follows a woman who has to clean out her late grandmother's cluttered house — a seemingly simple task that quickly becomes sinister.
"Then I made faces like the faces on the rocks, and I twisted myself about like the twisted ones, and I lay down flat on the ground like the dead ones." So goes one of the most chilling lines from "" by Arthur Machen, a 1904 short story that H. P. Lovecraft considered one of the greatest horror tales ever written. It's no coincidence — the new book by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author T. Kingfisher, who also writes under her real name, Ursula Vernon — appears in that quote. Although a contemporary horror novel, ties itself to Machen's legendary story in ways that are both ominous and ingenious.
