A five star book that only gets four stars, but more about that later.

Braunbeck tries to do [a:Harlan Ellison|7415|Harlan Ellison|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1377708311p2/7415.jpg] and almost gets there, but not quite. I totally disagree with his film criticism so that section of the book was somewhat tedious for me, but I respect his opinion, he's a better writer than I'll ever be. His take on horror fiction pretty much aligns with mine, although I would disagree with some of his literary criticism. He sneaks a couple of short stories in which is nice.

It is also a grim insight to Braunbeck's psyche, and he lays it out there raw for you. You will squirm at the all too true pedophile gang rape "reminiscence." He still bares not only the emotional scars but the physical ones as well, in excruciating detail. And there's a lot more than this. If you want a glimpse of a mind that is on the edge and captures that in fiction, here you are. I think it was [a:Thomas Ligotti|128466|Thomas Ligotti|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1371462738p2/128466.jpg] who said you had to be insane to write good horror fiction. Gary has spent some time in the Bin, literally.

Here's why it drops a star. This is a print on demand book (first edition?) that has a hard cover slapped on it. No problem so far. However, it is the worst example of reliance on digital methods of proofreading and typesetting, without a human proofreader, I have ever seen, and I've seen some pretty bad e-books. Let me list the type of errors I mean: misspelled words, missing words, reversed words in sentences ("us to" instead of "to us"), words with numbers instead of letters in them, paragraphs that begin and end in the middle of sentences, missing punctuation, stray punctuation marks, incorrect words (them for there). I would estimate that there are at least two errors per page: 520 errors. It reads like an uncorrected handwritten manuscript. It's a disgrace to the modern printed book.

I could forgive some self-published remedial hack, come to think of it no I couldn't, but Braunbeck is a respected multi-published literary horror writer. That he could let his name be associated with this is simply incredible, and that Betancourt & Company would let a book like this be sold with their name on it is a disgrace, seriously.

I turn randomly, no lie, to page 64 and we have at least four errors:

1. (physically, morally,- psychologically.
2. ...and it is a testament to Harris's ability as an actor that he manages to convey all this not in stops and starts but an a hard, prismlike (sic) beam,...
3. ...inescapable tragedy that manages to be not only affecting but highly paragraph break; new line; indent symbolic without heavy-handedness.

Four errors on one page! If you can't see them, well I feel sorry for you.

If I submitted this in college it wouldn't get three stars, it would get a Fail.
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