It’s always interesting to find a work by an author one loves that doesn’t succeed. The title story, amongst other things, has overtones of misogyny that I hope are character flaws not authorial perspective. Mostly I’ve read Ligotti‘s short stories where the characters are usually cyphers and something like that wouldn’t be particularly discernible. Anyway. Not a good story. The middle story is ok and the last is so-so. So it goes.