Horror Book Reviews

Taking a metaphor from the title story, Mayo is constantly concerned with what lies behind our seemingly humdrum and even frivolous lives: B horror, not even frivolous lives: B Horror, not even even high horror-is that what we're all about? Yes and no, for Mayo makes two other moves in this collection. The first uses a fine, stoic, sense of humor to permeate such stories as "Who Made You" and "Mortal Sins." The second elevates B Horror to grand tragedy when Mayo moves his final stories to Lithuania where World War II yet pervades the possibilities facing humans. Then Mayo brings it all back home in the final story, an odd sexual tryst between a presumably normal male and a quadriplegic female. In that story, reminiscent of Terence's claim that "nothing human is alien to me," Mayo points out that nothing there is really nothing alien to any human, after all. Mayo's metaphors and images are enhanced by a deceivingly simple prose that uses flatness to convey both humor and shock. As with the best of all riting, this work offers us the solace to continue.