Book Review: "The Best of Richard Matheson" ed. by Victor LaValle

Richard Matheson is probably best known for writing the novel I Am Legend and some of those horrifyingly paranoid Twilight Zone episodes. I am not going to lie when I say that I thought that Matheson was more of a Sci-Fi writer and so, apart from his most famous works, I have pretty much stayed away from him. However, I picked up this book after not having read much good horror in some time. Penguin has a lot to offer lately and that makes me feel better even though I'm drowning in work. Some of these stories are much better than others but I do have to say that the ones that are good are actually amazing.

One of the best stories in the anthology is perhaps also one of the most well-known. Nightmare at 20'000 Feet is probably one of those that even if you have not read it, you kind of know what happens. A man who is on a plane is sure that he can see a creature on the wing and tries to report it, becoming visibly worried. However, nobody believes him and he starts going mad with the fact that nobody trusts his perception of anything. He feels isolated in this rising tension of paranoia that he not only feels like everyone is watching him judgementally, but he is also so sure that he doesn't want to take his eyes off the wing. Sound familiar? Well, yes we have all seen a similar episode of The Simpsons where Bart can see a creature on the side of the school bus. But I was actually talking about the famed Twilight Zone episode. It is probably the one I remember most from the show and Matheson's writing always made them a whole lot more scary.

Another story called Duel is one that I didn't know before but is actually quite a frightening prospect. We have a normal day where a driver is driving his car - he is alone on the highway and it is all rather desolate around him. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, we have a faceless truck driver who decides to hunt our main character. This hunt turns the drive into a deadly chase where there is seemingly no explanation for what is going on but the reader knows that it is dangerous. I'm not going to lie, but this one was really quite frightening because absolutely nobody wants that to happen in real life. Being the target of a random attack is hard enough but being chased for no reason is even worse.

We then have the story Button, Button. In this story, a couple, Norma and Arthur, are offered a strange proposition by a mysterious man who gives them a box with a button. He tells them that if they press the button, someone they don’t know will die, but they will receive $50,000. The moral dilemma of whether to press the button drives the tension in the story, exploring themes of greed, consequence, and human morality. The chilling twist at the end leaves readers contemplating the price of their actions​. This one has been replicated as a moral experiment so many times and I don't think a lot of people realise it comes from this singular story. Matheson is great at giving us things to think about in an ethical sense, looking at what might be acceptable. When it comes to the whole anthology, this is probably the one that you want to focus the most on because it offers great and twisted thinking.

The final one I want to talk about is called Prey. In this intense and claustrophobic story, a woman named Amelia receives a Zuni doll as a gift. The doll is said to contain the spirit of a violent hunter. After an accidental release of the spirit, the doll comes to life and terrorises Amelia inside her apartment. The horror escalates as she tries to fend off the relentless and vicious attacks from the tiny but deadly creature. Honestly, I was surprised at how many of these I recognise from other popular culture shows, but I was even more surprised at how many great storylines there are in Matheson's short works.

All in all, I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. There is something really comforting about reading your favourite genre just to find out the book is really great too. I have to let that feeling wash over me now.