Four Weird Tales: Helloween — Algernon Blackwood

The first tale, The Insanity of Mr. Jones, isn't particularly weird, by which I take to mean supernatural or unearthly. The protagonist seems to be suffering paranoid schizophrenia, with tragic consequence. The insanity part of the title, a clue. It's very good though; a perfect opener for a book of short stories. Human psychoses seems to theme more greatly than weirdness throughout the book. In the second story, The Man Who Found Out, he's quite the obsessive type, ending up in profound despair and depression. This too is well written though the end came sudden and left me wanting. It is as if weirdness is having a door slammed before its appearance in the story. Oh well, that is point, I guess. Protagonist number three, in The Glamour of Snow, appears to suffer from hallucinations and delusions. Okay, it might have been a ghost, this being a "weird" tale, but I think he simply imagines what isn't there. Again, quite good. The fourth and final tale, called Sand, however, does deal with the supernatural. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a bit of a train wreck. The writing seems to flail about looking for a literary device. I'm guessing the device it wanted should have created tension and thrills. Instead, it hooks into tedium. It takes far to long to tell, probably four times as long as the second longest story in the book. It's repetitious, it's overworked, it's pretty weak, it's a journey of diminishing interest. I disliked this story, it made me forget the previous three and take a dim overview of the book as a whole. I almost gave up on it three times. It was a mistake thrice repeated. Anyone taking on this read should decide after chapter three whether they're enjoying it so far. If not, skip to the last chapter. Trust me, you won't be missing out on any excitement.