Rating: 
Summary: Too weird for me
Review: I chose to read this book for a project in one of my classes. I normally like weird, bizarre books with unexpected things happening, but this one was horrible. My professor read parts of it and told me I did not have to finish the book or do a major presentation like everyone else was expected to do. I guess I am glad I chose it due to the fact I was exempt from the project. I admit, it had me wondering what was going to happen, but it was a sick, sick novel. I'll stick to Stephen King-type horror in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Through the looking glass, darkly
Review: I found out about Douglas Clegg from Amazon.com's "customers who bought books by Peter Straub also bought books from the following authors" list. Straub's Ghost Story is to this day one of my all time favorite books. Another one of my favorites is Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (I sure hope he reconsiders retirement). When I started to read some reviews of Clegg's works and saw that they were drawing comparison to McCammon as well as Straub, along with Dan Simmons and Stephen King (two of my other perennial favorites), I knew it was time to check this guy out. So I immediately placed an order for his new novel You Come When I Call You. But my anticipation got to me. Imagining how great it would be to be reading a new author on the par with these other greats, I decided I couldn't wait the three or four days for the book to arrive by UPS. So I went downtown to my local used bookstore and bought a copy of The Nightmare Chronicles.Right off the bat, the cover made me feel I was in McCammon country. A paperback original short story collection with a darkish blue graveyard in the foreground and a huge moon looming in the background. Just like McCammon's Blue World. Since that was the first book I read by McCammon, I thought this was probably a good place to start with Clegg. The first story, "Underworld," did remind me of McCammon. The next one, "White Chapel," was very Dan Simmons-esque. It takes place in India and features a woman reporter trying to track down a psychopath who has been transformed into a kind of cult religious figure. Very Jospeh Condrad, for that matter. By the time I was on page thirty or forty, I was already very impressed with Clegg's writing style. It's similar in ways to McCammon, but tends to have the more visceral bite of Clive Barker or Joe R. Lansdale's edgier stuff. Although his style is similar to these other authors, it is also very much his own. What I liked right away was the amount of small, perceptive, telling detail with which Clegg imbues his writing. Reading Clegg, you very quickly get the reassuring feeling that you're in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing. Clegg is great at pulling you into his stories by setting up a bizarre premise which leaves you hungering to find out exactly what is going on. More often than not, he never tells you exactly what's going on, but only nudges you in the general direction. The stories slowly get stranger and stranger as you make your way through this well-written book. A couple big themes soon emerge which tie the stories together rather impressively. First off, Clegg seems to be fascinated with the idea of religion and penance. Characters are often trying to atone for things they have done. The concept of brutality as an act of love is also present in several of the stories (as in "Of Mice and Men," where George kills Lenny out of his love for him). Flowers, vaginas and various types of openings are a symbol which shows up repeatedly. Clegg's stories often deal with the origins and endings of things, with the physicality of life and death and the doorways that communicate between the two worlds. I thought The Nightmare Chronicles was a very well-written, truly scary collection of stories, and I would easily give it five stars for the writing alone. However, I felt the stories tended heavily toward the darker side of the spectrum. So if you're not into delving the pyschology of the insane and the ruthless, as I tend not to be, these stories may not be your exact cup of tea. But no matter what, you're bound to appreciate Clegg's well-honed story-telling skills. That's what got me in the end. Also worth noting, this book just recently won the Bram Stoker Award for best horror collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Half way through and loving it
Review: I just stumbled over the book at the store a WHILE ago and never got a chance to read it, now I can't put it down, every free minute I get (which isn't much) I have to read at least one story. I am really enjoying the book so far and hope that the rest of the stries are as good as the ones I've done, so far my favorite is White Chapel, it painted a very vivid picture in my mind of exactly what White Chapel was like. This book so far is great!
Rating:
Summary: Give me more nightmares!
Review: I loved Nightmare Chronicles! I grabbed this book as soon as I saw it and devoured all 13 stories in one sitting. This is the best horror collection I have read since King's Night Shift. Clegg is now my favorite horror novelist. If you like King and Koontz and Simmons and McCammon and Barker, you will love Douglas Clegg.
Rating:
Summary: I expected better.
Review: I purchased Nightmare Chronicles based on recommendations in Amazon. After reading all the positive responses, I expected so much more and this book did not deliver. I give Mr. Clegg two stars because of his writing style. Every story has a nice build-up, only to be ruined by confusing and poor conclusions. It's ironic because Mr. Clegg demonstrates a vivid writing style and many of his characters are very interesting. Because of his descriptive ability, I'm willing to give Douglas Clegg a second chance with Halloween Man. Let's hope this writer is better with a full-length novel.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I ran across Doug Clegg's novel haphazardly on the internet and decided to check it out. Not being one to normally go for "Horror" novels, I was surprised to find that The Nightmare Chronicles was a unique and well crafted book of short stories. Not so much what I would consider "horror", but more Mystery, more Thiller, and more Fantasy than your usual fare. Each story reflected its own distinct flavour of "hell". The characters are predominantly a cross section of humanity (and thats not to say they're all June and Ward Cleaver wannabe's, some of them are unnervingly evil). Each is then thrust into circumstances that are unsettling and disturbing. It took me awhile to figure out that Clegg's style isnt the normal Pop-horror schtick that you find with mainstreams novelists. His style is to take something normal and begin to skew and twist it until you find yourself wondering if you will ever look at that particular thing the same way again. A rose is definitely not a rose with Clegg. Take the time to settle down and read this Book! The only down side to any of this is that now that I have such high expectations of clegg, I don't want to be dissapointed by the next book of his that I read!
Rating: 
Summary: Sheesh!
Review: I read quite a number of reviews about this book before I bought it and I thought I was in for a good read but I have to say that this is one of the worst book I've ever read. I've read some pretty graphic stuff in my day but nothing of this calibur. While the writing style is not bad and I do think that the writer has talent the content of this book was just too gross, too bizarre and just plain too weird to be believed. Some of the scenes described in the book were so naseautingly graphic that I just could not continue. Not all of the stories within the story are sickening, a few of them were profound in a macabre sort of way and makes you think but I just think Douglas Clegg went overboard. Think-the feverish, shifting kaledeiscope of your most bizarre dreams. Do they ever make any sense?
Rating:
Summary: So disappointed!
Review: I read this book based on some of the reviews posted here. What were these people thinking? I love nothing more than a book of horror filled short stories. I've read Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" at least three times each. I held out hope that I would enjoy this book as much as those - wrong! While there were a couple of good stories (my favorite was "I Am Infinite; I Contain Multitudes") most of them left me shaking my head. The stories seemed incomplete. Little was explained and I had no idea what was going on. It infuriated me and made the usual joy of reading an absolute chore! Thanks for nothing Mr. Clegg!
Rating:
Summary: Clegg Can Be Depended On To Put A Twist On The Bizarre
Review: I've seen this book of short stories compared to a Pandora's Box. Yes, it's that but it's also like that little chinese puzzle box in the Hellraiser movies by Clive Barker. Clegg, who has numerous novels, (Goat Dance, Children's Hour, Halloween Dance etc), under his literary belt, has crafted some superb short stories, thematically joined at the hip as it were, by the underlying story of a mysterious young "boy" kidnapped and held for ransom in the bowels of a New York tenament. He turns the tables on his captures, a homocidal mama and her two sons, and they soon become his victims. Not for the squeamish, these 13 stories are well above the usual horror and fantasy and will remain to haunt you, a long, long time!
Rating:
Summary: One of the top short story writers in the field
Review: If you've never tried horror short stories, THE NIGHTMARE CHRONICLES is the place to start. Clegg definitely made HALLOWEEN MAN scary as hell, but with NIGHTMARE CHRONICLES you get a different fright with every story -- and each and every one here packs a huge punch. The only way you could go wrong with Clegg would be to not read him at all.
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