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There Comes a Midnight Hour by [Gary A. Braunbeck]

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Gary A. Braunbeck

There Comes a Midnight Hour Kindle Edition

by Gary A. Braunbeck (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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One of the most respected voices of contemporary dark fiction, Gary Braunbeck, returns with all the gravity of an imploding star to chronicle the inescapable grimness of our human condition with There Comes a Midnight Hour. The full moon portending mysterious occurrences and nocturnal creatures as it illuminates your surroundings has had a shroud pulled over it by the author’s deft hand. In this midnight hour, there is no light to guide you, no matter how dim, as each story pulls you inexorably deeper into a desolate world paved with terror and smothered by an atmosphere of doom. Those fragile things ground into dust underfoot by your progress here are not twigs or dead leaves but your illusions of safety. While others map beaten paths on the literary landscape Braunbeck explores a veritable Marianas Trench where the sun never rises and toxic currents drag you through the bones of primitive things half-remembered—order, complacency, hope—making for a searing journey you’ll never forget.

This collection brings together some of the author’s most hard-hitting stories published over his celebrated quarter-century career, those with such a resounding emotional core you are left contemplating them long afterward. There Comes a Midnight Hour illustrates not only how profound an impact genre fiction can have on a reader, but also why Braunbeck’s work has influenced the next generation of horror authors. Discerning lovers of all things dark who have become jaded and are counting down the seconds for a volume of stories to distinguish their shelves…look no further. Your time has run out.

Print length

220 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 8, 2021
File size

4774 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08YFCZDL8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Raw Dog Screaming Press (March 8, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 8, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4774 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 220 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,486,476 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3,224 in Horror Short Stories
- #23,327 in Single Authors Short Stories
- #35,754 in Short Stories (Books)

Customer Reviews:
13 ratings

About the author

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Gary A. Braunbeck

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Gary A. Braunbeck is a prolific author who writes mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mainstream literature. He is the author of 24 books -- evenly divided between novels and short-story collections; his fiction has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, German, Czech, and Polish. Nearly 200 of his short stories have appeared in various publications.

He was born in Newark, Ohio; the city that serves as the model for the fictitious Cedar Hill in many of his novels and stories. The Cedar Hill stories are collected in Graveyard People, Home Before Dark, and the forthcoming The Carnival Within, all published by Earthling Books.

His fiction has received several awards, including 7 Bram Stoker Awards: the first for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction in 2003 for "Duty"; the second -- also for Superior Achievement in Short Story -- in 2005 for "We Now Pause for Station Identification"; his collection Destinations Unknown won the Stoker for Superior Achievement in Fiction Collection in 2006; and 2007 saw Gary winning 2 Stoker Awards; the first for co-editing the anthology 5 Strokes to Midnight, and the second for his novella "Afterward, There Will Be a Hallway." (5 Stokes to Midnight was also nominated for The World Fantasy Award that same year.) In 2011 his non-fiction book, To Each Their Darkness, received the Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction; and at the recent 2013 Stokers, his novella "The Great Pity" took home the Long Fiction Stoker. His novella "Kiss of the Mudman" received the International Horror Guild Award for Long Fiction in 2005.

As an editor, Gary completed the latest installment of the Masques anthology series created by Jerry Williamson, Masques V, after Jerry became too ill to continue.

He also served a term as president of the Horror Writers Association. He is married to Lucy Snyder, a science fiction/fantasy writer, and they reside together in Columbus, Ohio.

Gary is an adjunct professor at Seton Hill University, Pennsylvania, where he teaches in an innovative MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction.

His nonfiction book To Each Their Darkness has been used as a text by several college writing classes. Gary has taught writing seminars and workshops around the country (including a week-long stint as the Writer in Residence at the 2011 Odyssey Writers Workshop) on topics such as short story writing, characterization, and dialogue.

His work is often praised for its depth of emotion and characterization, as well as for its refusal to adhere to any genre tropes; some joke that the term "cross-genre fiction" may have been invented to describe his work -- a rumor he does everything in his power to propagate.

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Earl P. Dean

Tales whose narrators want to illustrate what matters to them.

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2021

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The stories in this book often share one thing: a narrator who has a closer than usual knowledge of the people and places where occurrences are happening. In other words, the narrators know the landscape of the stories as if they live in that place, and know those people, and care about those people as if they know them personally, or at least understand their hope, their pain, and their dreams. The narrators can be non-diagetic in nature and still pull this off due to the emotional state, the empathy, with which they are able to explain to us what is happening. The term voice comes to mind in relation to these narratives-- powerful, clear, opinionated, empathetic voice. The narratives can also be told in the first person, and still the expansive yet emotional tenor remains, and yet the situational focus is not impaired. I've enjoed all of the stories I've read immensely, from We Now Pause for Station Identification... to Bother Hollis Gives his Final Sermon from a Rickety Makeshift Pulpit in the Remains of a Smokehouse that now Serves as His Church. Besides voice, the situations in these stories will have never been conceived elsewhere, I'd expect. Read Gary's book. Now, please. It's wonderful, thoughtful, caring, writing with empathy for those in pain, and for people in particular.

2 people found this helpful

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Crisso

A Fine Collection of Dark yet Thrilling Tales

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021

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I've been a fan of Gary A. Braunbeck's work since I read a few of his novels, such as Keepers and Mr Hands, both set in his fictional Cedar Hill world. This was my first foray into his shorter works, and I have to say, these dark yet well crafted tales didn't disappoint. They might just keep you up at night, because you won't want to put this one down.

One person found this helpful

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Heather M

Macabre without being graphic

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

If, like me, you are new to the works of Gary A. Braunbeck, this collection is a fine place to start. Gary finds compelling ways to draw the reader in to each story and hold attention right up to that line dividing the delighfully macabre from the gratuitously graphic. Each story is full of heart while also questioning more existential pursuits. I look forward to reading more!

One person found this helpful

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Buck guys

A talented storyteller

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021

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Gary is an talented storyteller.

One person found this helpful

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W. A. Kuehl

Collected short stories of a top notch horror author

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2022

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A diverse collection of stories, not cookie cutter variations of something already done.

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Amazon Customer

On the edge of my seat

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

I love the way Gary writes! I was living in the book as I read it. I could feel their emotions as if they were my own. I can't wait to read the next book!

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Amanda M Lyons

A Collection that Will Stay with You

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021

There Comes a Midnight Hour is genuinely the perfect title for this collection because it does tear away a certain mask that so many authors have relied on for years and probably will for a long time yet. It doesn't do this to be shocking or to indicate that what lies under that mask is something unwholesome and deadly (as many horror stories and novels often do) as much as it does it in order to be very blunt about the nature of the dark and the sadness that often occupies its depths, sometimes even managing to do it with humor and cutting wit. The midnight hour is, after all, when all our less than delightful demons come to manifest and eat us alive, only to let us live and do it again the next night and the next.

Gary Braunbeck's books always make you feel something. You might think that isn't such a big deal or that it's something that any writer could manage given the right tools and effort, but I genuinely want you to understand that this isn't that polite and comfortable sort of engagement. No, this is the stuff that goes much deeper, shows you the trauma, and doesn't look away even while it offers you a hand to hold in some sense of sympathy and commiseration as the events unfold. These are the stories you think back to from time to time and feel a little of the feeling you shared when you read it that first time, the characters you wonder about or empathize with when it's often hard to stay and sit with what they're feeling, and the atmosphere that lingers with you a while after. Gary A. Braunbeck won't splatter you in gore, though he also won't spare you the meat of the matter, and he won't be the one to let you linger over established expectations either, this stuff is the kind of thing that haunts you in a far more genuine way.

I don't want to spoil the genuine treat of reading these stories for yourself, so I won't go into each of them here. I will say that some of my favorites include We Now Pause for Station Identification (which has long been one of my favorite stories), Paper Cuts, Tales the Ashes Tell, Smiling Faces Sometimes, and Glorietta.

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T.T. Zuma

This Lands In My Top Ten Favorite Single Author Horror Collections

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2021

There Comes A Midnight Hour might be the most accessible literary single author collection of horror stories I have ever read. The author's prose is cerebral, it never fails to enlighten as it entertains and horrifies the reader. The stories will have you wide eyed with awe, and they'll leave you emotionally drained. The two best stories bookend the collection: We Now Pause For Station Identification, and Down In The Darkest Dixie Where The Dead Don't Dance, and these alone make the purchase worthwhile. There are thirteen other stories, each unique and well worth reading, but I would call out Paper Cuts as my highlight of the collection. If you're looking for horror tales worthy of stacking up alongside Charles Grant, Richard Matheson, and Jack Ketchum, you have to read There Comes A Midnight Hour.

One person found this helpful

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