I needed something to round the week out and Creature of the Night (1993) seemed suitable. The utterly uninspiring digital art on the cover really signals the sort of thrilling monsters we’re going to find inside. (Seriously, what even is this cover?)

This is, indeed, a monster book. It is filled with such shocking creatures as Living Scarecrows, Undead Teenagers, Undead World War Two Soldiers and so on. The most uninspired ideas presented in the least inspiring way. Take Necroids. OK, decent enough name. Let’s see, they’re…undead people brought back to life by electrical impulses. So, Frankenstein Monsters. OK. Over and over, you’ll see the section head — the name of the monster — then read the first sentence, which tells you exactly what you already thought the thing was from the name. Mirror Ghost, OK, is “an insubstantial spirit that lives in a mirror.” No way. I never would have guessed (I might have edited “lives” to be “inhabits,” since, you know, they’re dead). Let’s try another: Lonesouls. Here, I’ll give you a second to guess.

“Lonesouls are the lonely spirits of the recently deceased.”

Sigh.