His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti''s first nonfiction book may be even scarier. At once a guidebook to pessimistic thought and a relentless critique of humanity''s employment of self-deception to cope with the pervasive suffering of their existence, The Conspiracy against the Human Race may just convince readers that there is more than a measure of truth in the despairing yet unexpectedly liberating negativity that is widely considered a hallmark of Ligotti''s work.