The Nightmare People is a horror novel by Lawrence Watt-Evans.
One hot summer night Ed Smith was unable to sleep. Opening his blinds at 3:00 AM, he thought he saw a monster outside his window. Some nightmare. The next morning, everyone in his building had disappeared. They turned up later that day, or at least some people who looked like them did...
This novel provides examples of:
- Genre Savvy: "In the horror movies, people got themselves killed by walking blithely and disbelievingly into the monster's lair. ... he intended to be a bit more prepared, and a bit more careful, than the people in the movies."
- Healing Factor: The Nightmare People have clay-like flesh that flows back together after injury.
- Implacable Man: Shoot them, stab them, burn them: the Nightmare People don't care.
- Info Dump: a Nightmare Person explains their entire backstory.
- Lampshade Hanging: "This was like something out of a horror movie." "'It's like something out of a horror movie, y'know?'"
- No Honor Among Thieves: the Nightmare People have no interest in protecting each other.
- No-Sell: the Nightmare People do not bother fighting back. It is too much fun watching the humans react when their attacks do nothing.
