ligotti has suffered from chronic anxiety and anhedonia for much of his life; these have been prominent themes in his work. ligotti avoids the explicit violence common in some recent horror fiction, preferring to establish a disquieting, pessimistic atmosphere through the use of subtlety and repetition. ligotti has stated he prefers short stories to longer forms, both as a reader and as a writer, though he has written a novella, "my work is not yet done" (2002)