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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen
From Ellen Datlow (“the venerable queen of horror anthologies” (New York Times) comes a new entry in the series that has brought you stories from Stephen King and Neil Gaiman comes thrilling stories, the best horror stories available.
For more than four decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror readers crave. Now, with the fourteenth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the pages of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Joyce Carol Oates, Laird Barron, Mira Grant, and many others.
With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness as articulated by today’s most challenging and exciting writers.
For more than four decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror readers crave. Now, with the fourteenth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the pages of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Joyce Carol Oates, Laird Barron, Mira Grant, and many others.
With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness as articulated by today’s most challenging and exciting writers.
432 pages, Paperback
First published November 22, 2022
About the author
Ellen Datlow
242 books1,737 followersEllen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
June 10, 2023
Some years the winter lasts way too long. Some days I pass on coffee and feel like tea. Sporadically the dish in your regular restaurant won’t just taste the same. And sometimes Ellen Datlow’s iconic The Best Horror of the Year somehow doesn't cut it for me. It happens.
Nevertheless, my four highlights amongst the 24 featured stories are as follows:
Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase
What an absolutely sick premise!
"Dancing Sober" rotates between two narratives – first, the interaction between a dance museum curator and an academic researcher on choreographic history and second, the description of the costumes an artist pair, the now dead Schiedlers, used in their performances.
The latter consist of the name of the costume, date performed, and the material it is made of. The Schiedlers were a kind of, ahem, interesting and original artists who strived for a certain effect during their dance performances enhanced by the costumes, which were made from unconventional materials ranging from rusty nails, glass, wire, concrete, house paint, razorblades, to velvet curtains, to meat hooks and worse. Their performances gradually gain in extremeness, finding their peak in an eleventh dance, of which the costume is unknown.
The first time I finished this story I immediately returned to the beginning to re-read it and let the breathtaking dread work. I am left speechless, in the best way possible.
Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 by Jonathan Raab
Descriptions of found video tapes on sale for thousands of dollars which feature utterly strange and disturbing scenes. This short story was good, but waaay too short and definitely leaves you wanting more. I even wished that these short descriptions would appear between each story as a kind of recurring cameo.
Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli
A man on a hike with another man, a moment of confrontation of all stolen “properties” creeping up closer and closer throughout the snowy hike. I loved the ending which was so in-your-face shocking and unexpected.
Poor Butcher-Bird by Gemma Files
What starts as an apparent initiation ceremony into a gory cult, a kind of competition between two girls to enter a group which will shelter them from the world outside turns into some kind of magnificent dark fantasy with baller world building and an almost touching story between a warrior familiar and her creature.
I’m really happy to have read this, this is Gemma Files at her best; the main character just enough salty to be relatable and interesting, impressive gory fight scenes, super twists, and as mentioned above, wonderful world building within a limited number of pages. In my humble opinion, this was the best story of this anthology.
Nevertheless, my four highlights amongst the 24 featured stories are as follows:
Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase
What an absolutely sick premise!
"Dancing Sober" rotates between two narratives – first, the interaction between a dance museum curator and an academic researcher on choreographic history and second, the description of the costumes an artist pair, the now dead Schiedlers, used in their performances.
The latter consist of the name of the costume, date performed, and the material it is made of. The Schiedlers were a kind of, ahem, interesting and original artists who strived for a certain effect during their dance performances enhanced by the costumes, which were made from unconventional materials ranging from rusty nails, glass, wire, concrete, house paint, razorblades, to velvet curtains, to meat hooks and worse. Their performances gradually gain in extremeness, finding their peak in an eleventh dance, of which the costume is unknown.
The first time I finished this story I immediately returned to the beginning to re-read it and let the breathtaking dread work. I am left speechless, in the best way possible.
Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 by Jonathan Raab
Descriptions of found video tapes on sale for thousands of dollars which feature utterly strange and disturbing scenes. This short story was good, but waaay too short and definitely leaves you wanting more. I even wished that these short descriptions would appear between each story as a kind of recurring cameo.
Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli
A man on a hike with another man, a moment of confrontation of all stolen “properties” creeping up closer and closer throughout the snowy hike. I loved the ending which was so in-your-face shocking and unexpected.
Poor Butcher-Bird by Gemma Files
What starts as an apparent initiation ceremony into a gory cult, a kind of competition between two girls to enter a group which will shelter them from the world outside turns into some kind of magnificent dark fantasy with baller world building and an almost touching story between a warrior familiar and her creature.
I’m really happy to have read this, this is Gemma Files at her best; the main character just enough salty to be relatable and interesting, impressive gory fight scenes, super twists, and as mentioned above, wonderful world building within a limited number of pages. In my humble opinion, this was the best story of this anthology.
January 10, 2023
As a self-described “rising” author in the indie horror scene, reading Ellen Datlow’s BEST OF… volumes at the end of each year has become an important ritual for me. More than anything else, reading these yearly anthologies keeps me abreast of what the horror community is up to: what its moods are, where its obsessions lie, where we’re burying our collective bones and bodies this year.
And while I’ve found Datlow’s specific tastes as to what the best horror of the year comprises to be occasionally inscrutable, her editor’s eye at the very least always serves up a broad variety of horror in all its forms—essential for my aims.
This year, for the first time, I wondered (briefly) if my time might be better invested elsewhere.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury—I’m not a horror snob. I don’t have some strict definition in my head of what “horror” means. I’m not turned aside by either the transgressive or the torpid: I’ll read quiet horror, body horror, erotic horror, creature-feature horror… although my tastes of late fly solidly towards what some reviewers are calling the “New Weird” these days. That’s what I write, and that’s what I generally seek out. But I’m not picky either.
But: I do believe that the goal of a scary story is to scare. Just as I think a comedy should make you laugh, a thriller should thrill, and a smutty story should… well, you get the picture. And so I’m also of the belief that a volume promising THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR (this, of course, being 2021 in this case) should contain at least 50% stories that at least try to be scary—in fact, to be horror at all. Any fewer than that benchmark is false advertising.
This is not to say I didn’t enjoy Volume 14. I did. But time and time again, I was let down by the scare factor—a measuring stick I imagine many a horror fan wagers a spook-story’s worth by.
Whether this is a reflection of changes being felt in the horror scene-at-large or merely Datlow’s own shifting tastes remains to be seen. For now… let’s talk about the individual stories!
1. “Redwater” by Simon Bestwick
Not a bad idea to start this anthology with a creature feature, and “Redwater” is a climate-disaster post-apocalyptic one at that, as well as a bit of a crime story as well. Bestwick acquits himself well here with excellent dialogue and world-building, although his monsters seem derivative—or at least not exceptionally interesting in their designs and abilities.
2. “Caker’s Man” by Matthew Holness
A great childhood-set horror that pits our young heroes against an inscrutable confectionary evil. I think many small children see adults as unstoppable eldritch forces sometimes, and the Caker’s Man plays into this nameless fear well. Killer last line too.
3. “Black Leg” by Glen Hirschberg
Here’s where the wheels start to wobble slightly. I confess I couldn’t really follow this one. Either the prose itself was too muddy or the narrator’s motivations were too obscured—or some combination of the two. I didn’t DNF it, but it did leave me cold. I don’t think I could really describe the premise even, gun-to-my-head.
4. “The Offering” by Michael Marshall Smith
A classic folk horror concept: ignorant travelers in a foreign land upset a local mythological figure who (gasp!) isn’t so mythological after all. Shenanigans ensue. Ignorant travelers pay a Terrible and Karmic Price. What elevates this beyond its premise is the well-rendered family drama that generally takes the front seat, but I don’t think the author wove the two tracks of the story together as well as perhaps he could have.
5. “Fox Girl” by Lee Murray
The second time (that I’ve read) that Datlow has included a poem in one of these volumes, and I still don’t grasp the point. I’ve read horror poetry—in fact, I’ve read horror poetry that’s decently frightening. This is neither, and I’m not sure what it’s doing here. It’s a fine poem… it just sticks out like a chocolate bar stuck in a pot roast.
6. “Shuck” by G.V. Anderson
A spitfire protagonist willing to spit in the face of Death himself makes “Shuck” stand out. I love the characterization of Death as a hound here—very determined, and loyal in a way as well. All good doggy qualities. And the twist at the end is a ripper too.
7. “The Hunt at Rotherdam” by AC Wise
This was a frustrating piece. Excellent worldbuilding and an inventive premise are squandered by a bland, too-saintly protagonist never allowed to really suffer by the narrative, and a plot that just… stops right before the conflict really gets going. This reviewer wonders if the author ran into a wordcount limit, or simply lost interest after a while.
8. “Dancing Sober in the Dust” by Steve Toase
The first true classic in the volume. An excellent example of epistolary fiction sees a researcher reconstituting the costume set once used in a grisly dance recital. My favorite aspect of this story is that the researcher’s motives are never fully voiced—he’s just in this for the macabre joy of it all. Perhaps he’s a fellow horror fan?
9. “The God Bag” by Christopher Golden
Not in style but in substance does this tale resemble Richard Matheson at the height of his powers. Perhaps not a true horror story but something that wouldn’t be ill at ease on an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Great prose and a great twist.
10. “The Strathantine Imps” by Steve Duffy
DNF. An unfortunate first introduction to Duffy’s fiction, as colleagues have spoken highly of his work in the past. Wasn’t going anywhere, so I stopped and let it meander without me.
11. “The Quizmasters” by Gerard McKeown
Real menace here. Short and sweet—not much else to say.
12. “All Those Lost Days” by Brian Everson
From the OMNIPARK anthology. Great prose but feels hamstrung by being beholden to the theme of the antho and the specific monsters from HG Wells’ TIME MACHINE. But despite this, the unseen horror of what happens to the protagonist’s brother is really fun stuff, and the lingering effects of his experience are well-rendered. The POV does a lot of heavy lifting here.
13. “Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022” by Jonathan Raab
Another misfire, but almost too short to skip. An interesting idea rendered near-pointless in its execution. No joy here, let’s move on.
14. “Three Sisters Bog” by Eoin Murphy
More folk horror (was it big in 2021?) but this one takes on a more fairy tale-ish bent. Great tension here, but the climax leaves something to be desired. This is a recurring theme in this volume: stories that refuse to reach just a little farther towards a more satisfactory end.
15. “The Steering Wheel Club” by Kaaron Warren
A work of cruelty. Visceral and clamorous. Not my favorite kind of horror, but no argument can be made against its effect. Will rip the groan from your chest.
16. “The King of Stones” by Simon Strantzas
At this point I think folk horror has photographs of the editor in a compromising position, for how frequently it’s represented here. This latest is the least of all, as it pollutes its excellent atmosphere with pointless and unnecessary torture scenes. The King of Stones himself is a great monster to end with, but it can’t save the story from feeling meaningless.
17. “Stolen Property” by Sarah Lamparelli
More folk! But for once, it manages to be genuinely frightening. The faceless Wayne-thing (or is it Ethan-thing?) and the great Bear it worships are half folk-monstrosity, half star-flung horror. If the woods were outer space, they would spit out terrors such as these.
18. “Shards” by Ian Rogers
The only mark against “Shards” is its unremarkable title; everything else is instantly engaging and builds to a shattering climax. I love original premises like this, especially when they end in such fashion that you wonder how such an evil could possibly be vanquished. Shades of OCULUS here in all the best ways.
19. “Chit Chit” by Steve Toase
Toase has two stories in this volume. Fine, as they’re both excellent—but was there truly such a dearth of quality horror in 2021 that two slots needed to go to the same author? At any rate, “Chit Chit” is the lesser of Toase’s two offerings, but does contain one truly startling jump-scare moment, as well as an image of bone-shaping that will haunt my dreams forever.
20. “Poor Butcher-Bird” by Gemma Files
A rare miss for me and Files, who normally I regard as a master of her craft and always a welcome sight in these anthologies. Here, she attempts (and mostly succeeds) at elevating the vampire tale with her unique jagged prose, but the revelry in the last passages loses too much steam for me. Personally I think the author’s powers are wasted on a mere revenge tale.
21. “Trap” by Carly Holmes
Like “The Offering” in that it matches family drama with folk-y horror, but unlike “Offering” the marriage here is without seam. Great example of off-screen horror as well. Chill-inducing.
22. “I’ll Be Gone By Then” by Eric LaRocca
I don’t get the hype around this author. I know THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE was a huge surprise hit, but even that failed to whelm me. And here, very little attempt is made at anything a reasonable reader would call horror. It’s more sad than anything—and not necessarily a bad story. Just completely beside the point.
23. “Jack-in-the-Box” by Robin Furth
Amazing storytelling and scenery descriptions, but the buildup seemed to be hinting at a much more interesting story than what we ultimately got. The end relies too heavily on a well-worn pun, and left me cold-fish at the close. A shame, says I.
24. “Tiptoe” by Laird Barron
My introduction to Barron’s work, and the clear winner of best and scariest story in this volume. Almost worth the price of admission by itself. Barron’s mastery of the New Weird is evident here, and his description of an “unslung jaw” at the end is a great stinger on a story that maintains persistent tension and menace throughout. Deeply frightening and deeply sticky. I will be seeking out more of this author’s work.
HITS:
“Tiptoe”
“Shards”
“Dancing Sober in the Dust”
NEAR MISSES:
“Fox Girl”
“Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022”
“The Strathantine Imps”
Final verdict: 3.5 stars
And while I’ve found Datlow’s specific tastes as to what the best horror of the year comprises to be occasionally inscrutable, her editor’s eye at the very least always serves up a broad variety of horror in all its forms—essential for my aims.
This year, for the first time, I wondered (briefly) if my time might be better invested elsewhere.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury—I’m not a horror snob. I don’t have some strict definition in my head of what “horror” means. I’m not turned aside by either the transgressive or the torpid: I’ll read quiet horror, body horror, erotic horror, creature-feature horror… although my tastes of late fly solidly towards what some reviewers are calling the “New Weird” these days. That’s what I write, and that’s what I generally seek out. But I’m not picky either.
But: I do believe that the goal of a scary story is to scare. Just as I think a comedy should make you laugh, a thriller should thrill, and a smutty story should… well, you get the picture. And so I’m also of the belief that a volume promising THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR (this, of course, being 2021 in this case) should contain at least 50% stories that at least try to be scary—in fact, to be horror at all. Any fewer than that benchmark is false advertising.
This is not to say I didn’t enjoy Volume 14. I did. But time and time again, I was let down by the scare factor—a measuring stick I imagine many a horror fan wagers a spook-story’s worth by.
Whether this is a reflection of changes being felt in the horror scene-at-large or merely Datlow’s own shifting tastes remains to be seen. For now… let’s talk about the individual stories!
1. “Redwater” by Simon Bestwick
Not a bad idea to start this anthology with a creature feature, and “Redwater” is a climate-disaster post-apocalyptic one at that, as well as a bit of a crime story as well. Bestwick acquits himself well here with excellent dialogue and world-building, although his monsters seem derivative—or at least not exceptionally interesting in their designs and abilities.
2. “Caker’s Man” by Matthew Holness
A great childhood-set horror that pits our young heroes against an inscrutable confectionary evil. I think many small children see adults as unstoppable eldritch forces sometimes, and the Caker’s Man plays into this nameless fear well. Killer last line too.
3. “Black Leg” by Glen Hirschberg
Here’s where the wheels start to wobble slightly. I confess I couldn’t really follow this one. Either the prose itself was too muddy or the narrator’s motivations were too obscured—or some combination of the two. I didn’t DNF it, but it did leave me cold. I don’t think I could really describe the premise even, gun-to-my-head.
4. “The Offering” by Michael Marshall Smith
A classic folk horror concept: ignorant travelers in a foreign land upset a local mythological figure who (gasp!) isn’t so mythological after all. Shenanigans ensue. Ignorant travelers pay a Terrible and Karmic Price. What elevates this beyond its premise is the well-rendered family drama that generally takes the front seat, but I don’t think the author wove the two tracks of the story together as well as perhaps he could have.
5. “Fox Girl” by Lee Murray
The second time (that I’ve read) that Datlow has included a poem in one of these volumes, and I still don’t grasp the point. I’ve read horror poetry—in fact, I’ve read horror poetry that’s decently frightening. This is neither, and I’m not sure what it’s doing here. It’s a fine poem… it just sticks out like a chocolate bar stuck in a pot roast.
6. “Shuck” by G.V. Anderson
A spitfire protagonist willing to spit in the face of Death himself makes “Shuck” stand out. I love the characterization of Death as a hound here—very determined, and loyal in a way as well. All good doggy qualities. And the twist at the end is a ripper too.
7. “The Hunt at Rotherdam” by AC Wise
This was a frustrating piece. Excellent worldbuilding and an inventive premise are squandered by a bland, too-saintly protagonist never allowed to really suffer by the narrative, and a plot that just… stops right before the conflict really gets going. This reviewer wonders if the author ran into a wordcount limit, or simply lost interest after a while.
8. “Dancing Sober in the Dust” by Steve Toase
The first true classic in the volume. An excellent example of epistolary fiction sees a researcher reconstituting the costume set once used in a grisly dance recital. My favorite aspect of this story is that the researcher’s motives are never fully voiced—he’s just in this for the macabre joy of it all. Perhaps he’s a fellow horror fan?
9. “The God Bag” by Christopher Golden
Not in style but in substance does this tale resemble Richard Matheson at the height of his powers. Perhaps not a true horror story but something that wouldn’t be ill at ease on an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Great prose and a great twist.
10. “The Strathantine Imps” by Steve Duffy
DNF. An unfortunate first introduction to Duffy’s fiction, as colleagues have spoken highly of his work in the past. Wasn’t going anywhere, so I stopped and let it meander without me.
11. “The Quizmasters” by Gerard McKeown
Real menace here. Short and sweet—not much else to say.
12. “All Those Lost Days” by Brian Everson
From the OMNIPARK anthology. Great prose but feels hamstrung by being beholden to the theme of the antho and the specific monsters from HG Wells’ TIME MACHINE. But despite this, the unseen horror of what happens to the protagonist’s brother is really fun stuff, and the lingering effects of his experience are well-rendered. The POV does a lot of heavy lifting here.
13. “Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022” by Jonathan Raab
Another misfire, but almost too short to skip. An interesting idea rendered near-pointless in its execution. No joy here, let’s move on.
14. “Three Sisters Bog” by Eoin Murphy
More folk horror (was it big in 2021?) but this one takes on a more fairy tale-ish bent. Great tension here, but the climax leaves something to be desired. This is a recurring theme in this volume: stories that refuse to reach just a little farther towards a more satisfactory end.
15. “The Steering Wheel Club” by Kaaron Warren
A work of cruelty. Visceral and clamorous. Not my favorite kind of horror, but no argument can be made against its effect. Will rip the groan from your chest.
16. “The King of Stones” by Simon Strantzas
At this point I think folk horror has photographs of the editor in a compromising position, for how frequently it’s represented here. This latest is the least of all, as it pollutes its excellent atmosphere with pointless and unnecessary torture scenes. The King of Stones himself is a great monster to end with, but it can’t save the story from feeling meaningless.
17. “Stolen Property” by Sarah Lamparelli
More folk! But for once, it manages to be genuinely frightening. The faceless Wayne-thing (or is it Ethan-thing?) and the great Bear it worships are half folk-monstrosity, half star-flung horror. If the woods were outer space, they would spit out terrors such as these.
18. “Shards” by Ian Rogers
The only mark against “Shards” is its unremarkable title; everything else is instantly engaging and builds to a shattering climax. I love original premises like this, especially when they end in such fashion that you wonder how such an evil could possibly be vanquished. Shades of OCULUS here in all the best ways.
19. “Chit Chit” by Steve Toase
Toase has two stories in this volume. Fine, as they’re both excellent—but was there truly such a dearth of quality horror in 2021 that two slots needed to go to the same author? At any rate, “Chit Chit” is the lesser of Toase’s two offerings, but does contain one truly startling jump-scare moment, as well as an image of bone-shaping that will haunt my dreams forever.
20. “Poor Butcher-Bird” by Gemma Files
A rare miss for me and Files, who normally I regard as a master of her craft and always a welcome sight in these anthologies. Here, she attempts (and mostly succeeds) at elevating the vampire tale with her unique jagged prose, but the revelry in the last passages loses too much steam for me. Personally I think the author’s powers are wasted on a mere revenge tale.
21. “Trap” by Carly Holmes
Like “The Offering” in that it matches family drama with folk-y horror, but unlike “Offering” the marriage here is without seam. Great example of off-screen horror as well. Chill-inducing.
22. “I’ll Be Gone By Then” by Eric LaRocca
I don’t get the hype around this author. I know THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE was a huge surprise hit, but even that failed to whelm me. And here, very little attempt is made at anything a reasonable reader would call horror. It’s more sad than anything—and not necessarily a bad story. Just completely beside the point.
23. “Jack-in-the-Box” by Robin Furth
Amazing storytelling and scenery descriptions, but the buildup seemed to be hinting at a much more interesting story than what we ultimately got. The end relies too heavily on a well-worn pun, and left me cold-fish at the close. A shame, says I.
24. “Tiptoe” by Laird Barron
My introduction to Barron’s work, and the clear winner of best and scariest story in this volume. Almost worth the price of admission by itself. Barron’s mastery of the New Weird is evident here, and his description of an “unslung jaw” at the end is a great stinger on a story that maintains persistent tension and menace throughout. Deeply frightening and deeply sticky. I will be seeking out more of this author’s work.
HITS:
“Tiptoe”
“Shards”
“Dancing Sober in the Dust”
NEAR MISSES:
“Fox Girl”
“Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022”
“The Strathantine Imps”
Final verdict: 3.5 stars
September 29, 2023
مجموعه داستانهای ژانر ترسناک/وحشت که بعضی از داستانها واقعا تاثیرگذار بودند. مجموعهای از داستانهای الهام گرفته شده از نویسندگان بزرگ ژانر ترس و وحشت منجمله لاوکرفت که ساخت و پرداخت واقعا فوقالعادهای داشتند هرچند، بعضی داستانها بهیچ عنوان جذاب و گیرا نبودند.
May 14, 2023
Starting off strong with Redwater (Simon Bestwick), a gloriously violent monster story set in what seems like a post global-warming New Orleans, followed by the deliciously creepy Caker's Man (Matthew Holness) which will hopefully give a decent nightmare or two.
However Black Leg (Glen Hirshberg) did not impress me with it's non-commital vagueness that failed to horrify or even creep me out in the slightest, and in particular I disliked the conversational, rambling stye with the short, disjointed sentences. The following story The Offering (Michael Marshall Smith) had a nice setup, and almost delivered the goods, but then it fell flat with a boring follow-through. Eat that porridge, kids.
Some great stories coming up near the end. Chit Chit (Steve Toase) with a sort-of-heist gone wrong with false motives and betrayal. Nicely done. Then what is probably my favorite in the book Poor Butcher-Bird (Gemma Files) which is a gruesome splatterfest variation on a Renfield-adjacent servent of a vampire, but of a type taken from (I think) Japanese lore instead of European. Powerful and nasty, bloody and gory.
Tiptoe (Laird Barron) ends the anthology on a creepy, weird note which is nothing less than I would expect from that author. As usual Datlow's editorial selections are top-notch end even the stories that aren't as much to my taste are still good.
However Black Leg (Glen Hirshberg) did not impress me with it's non-commital vagueness that failed to horrify or even creep me out in the slightest, and in particular I disliked the conversational, rambling stye with the short, disjointed sentences. The following story The Offering (Michael Marshall Smith) had a nice setup, and almost delivered the goods, but then it fell flat with a boring follow-through. Eat that porridge, kids.
Some great stories coming up near the end. Chit Chit (Steve Toase) with a sort-of-heist gone wrong with false motives and betrayal. Nicely done. Then what is probably my favorite in the book Poor Butcher-Bird (Gemma Files) which is a gruesome splatterfest variation on a Renfield-adjacent servent of a vampire, but of a type taken from (I think) Japanese lore instead of European. Powerful and nasty, bloody and gory.
Tiptoe (Laird Barron) ends the anthology on a creepy, weird note which is nothing less than I would expect from that author. As usual Datlow's editorial selections are top-notch end even the stories that aren't as much to my taste are still good.
January 16, 2023
It has been quite a while that I had tried to read these annual collections. The quitting had resulted from too many lengthy works that used to dominate those anthologies and dragged them to mediocrity. Luckily, this particular collection had a large number of short and crisp stories that succeeded in providing the 'pleasing terror', which we look for.
My favourites were~
1. Simon Bestwick's 'Redwater' (the best monster story I have read in recent times);
2. Michael Marshall Smith's 'The Offering';
3. A.C Wise's 'The Hunt at Rotherdam';
4. Chrisopher Golden's 'The God Bag';
5. Steve Duffy's 'The Strathantine Imps';
6. Brian Evenson's 'All Those Lost Days';
7. Eoin Murphy's 'Three Sisters Bog';
8. Sarah Lamparelli's 'Stolen Property';
9. Ian Rogers's 'Shards';
10. Steve Toase's 'Chit Chit';
11. Robin Furth's 'Jack-in-the-Box' (the best story of this collection, in my opinion);
12. Laird Barron's 'Tiptoe'.
Overall, a very good anthology that covers the entire gamut of horror— folk, psychological, supernatural, human, and others.
Recommended.
My favourites were~
1. Simon Bestwick's 'Redwater' (the best monster story I have read in recent times);
2. Michael Marshall Smith's 'The Offering';
3. A.C Wise's 'The Hunt at Rotherdam';
4. Chrisopher Golden's 'The God Bag';
5. Steve Duffy's 'The Strathantine Imps';
6. Brian Evenson's 'All Those Lost Days';
7. Eoin Murphy's 'Three Sisters Bog';
8. Sarah Lamparelli's 'Stolen Property';
9. Ian Rogers's 'Shards';
10. Steve Toase's 'Chit Chit';
11. Robin Furth's 'Jack-in-the-Box' (the best story of this collection, in my opinion);
12. Laird Barron's 'Tiptoe'.
Overall, a very good anthology that covers the entire gamut of horror— folk, psychological, supernatural, human, and others.
Recommended.
March 13, 2023
Some other reviewers have found this to be a weaker entry in the series, but that wasn’t my experience. True, there’s one story that I didn’t finish (Poor Butcher-Bird, which was a shame because Gemma Files is usually a highlight), but I found the collection strong overall. I was invested and interested in almost every story. I particularly found the last four or five stories to be consistently strong. Usually, my desire for variety wins out by the end of these anthologies, and a story has to be truly excellent to have the same mileage as a good story does at the beginning, but I didn’t tire out as easily this time round. Whenever I finished a story, I wanted to keep reading. In terms of themes, this anthology has a decent amount of folk horror stories, and tends to favor creeping terror over outright frights.
Favorite Story: The Strathantine Imps by Steve Duffy - a wealthy, but negligent, father “raises” his kids in an isolated countryside mansion. Constantly reaching for a new reality with the help of hallucinogenics, he keeps a variety of interesting colleagues around, one of which endangers his son. In the midst of everything, unwelcome visitors from the forest start to visit. Classic folk horror. Straddles the line between human and supernatural terrors well. Says enough without giving away too much. Gave me a similar vibe to The Orphanage (the Spanish movie by JA Bayona), mostly due to tone and it’s sense of mystery, rather than content.
Runner-Up: Three Sisters Bog by Eoin Murphy - A son convinces his father to begrudgingly travel into the bog to look for his lost dog. They stumble across the Three Bog Sisters, immortal(ish?) witches that lay claim to the bog. Not gonna lie, there were probably three or so stories that could fill this spot. This just happened to be the one that caught my eye in the moment. Falls within the folk horror genre (which I’m thinking might be a preference of mine). Not extensive, but love the world-building here. Gave me strong hag vibes from D&D.
Other highlights:
Caker’s Man by Matthew Holness - An unsettling neighbor with a proclivity for baking takes an unnatural interest in the children of a single mom. Told from a child’s perspective to great effect. There’s enough strange happenings to give the hint of the supernatural, but it could all just be a child’s imagination as well. Stranger danger to the max.
Shuck by G.V. Anderson - A girl struggles with survivor’s guilt after a friend passes away in an accident the narrator was also involved in. Now the narrator is stuck fending off Death, who has manifested as a dog and is hunting for his due - her. Great, great twist that puts the story in a new light. Probably wouldn’t be a highlight without it.
The Hunt at Rotherdam by A.C. Wise - A group of young men descend upon a gothic country estate to engage in the annual hunt - an event where the men dive into the labyrinthine woods in order to find a feral woman with the ultimate goal of domestication into wifehood. Our main character, though struggles with this practice, both due to its barbaric nature and the desires of his own heart. This story is here because of its overall concept. The prose and characterization are strong enough, but not uniquely so.
The God Bag by Christopher Golden - A man cares for his mother as she battles with poor health and dementia. As he reflects upon the complicated relationship he has with his mother, he stumbles across (and seeks to unravel the mystery of) her god bag, a surprisingly effective depository for her prayers, but not without cost. An effective family drama with supernatural overtones. The twist at the end harkens to an older generation of short stories.
The Quizmasters by Gerard McKeown - A boy riding home on his bike is stopped by a group of strangers in a car who ask him a series of trivia questions. As the game continues, the situation becomes more unsettling. A simple, straightforward, and realistic story. Which makes it all the scarier.
Shards by Ian Rogers - A group of friends get together in a cabin in the woods to blow off some steam and catch up. A traumatic incident ensues and one ends up dead. The story then follows the shards of the survivors’ lives as they struggle to escape the specter of the event, which keeps calling them back. The disjointed narrative plays into the larger theme of the story. It took me a second to get used to the authorial voice, but once I did, it became one of the best stories in the book.
Trap by Carly Holmes - A single mother of two girls sets up a camera in the backyard to find out what sort of animal has been messing with the yard. Her attempt to solve the mystery coincides with her attempt to understand her eldest’s troubles. Some may not like the lack of a clear-cut resolution, but I think it worked well here. I also felt the mother’s character was fully realized as she struggles to connect with and support her daughters.
I’ll Be Gone By Then by Eric LaRocca - A daughter takes charge of her Italian mother who is in the late stages of dementia. She subsequently attempts to find a way to kill her mother. A very human story - nothing supernatural here. The ending is predictable but also fitting.
Jack-in-the-Box by Robin Furth - A journalist is sent to research a fluff piece on Lord Blackthorn, a late doctor who revolutionized skeletal (and other?) reconstructive surgery. As she digs into the doctor’s life, she discovers a darker side to his practice, and realizes that the entire family holds some secrets of their own. A strong gothic tale with some truly gruesome descriptions. You’ll need to forgive the title though, which essentially boils down to a pun. It probably sounded great during brainstorming, but detracts from the overall feel of a very creepy story.
Tiptoe by Laird Barron - A son reflects on his family vacations with his aging mother. Looking back, he realizes there was more going on with his father than met the eye. This is probably the hardest one to summarize well. Don’t let that stop you, though. It’s a fascinating story that gets under your skin without ever being too gruesome. Definitely in the running as one of the best stories in the anthology.
Favorite Story: The Strathantine Imps by Steve Duffy - a wealthy, but negligent, father “raises” his kids in an isolated countryside mansion. Constantly reaching for a new reality with the help of hallucinogenics, he keeps a variety of interesting colleagues around, one of which endangers his son. In the midst of everything, unwelcome visitors from the forest start to visit. Classic folk horror. Straddles the line between human and supernatural terrors well. Says enough without giving away too much. Gave me a similar vibe to The Orphanage (the Spanish movie by JA Bayona), mostly due to tone and it’s sense of mystery, rather than content.
Runner-Up: Three Sisters Bog by Eoin Murphy - A son convinces his father to begrudgingly travel into the bog to look for his lost dog. They stumble across the Three Bog Sisters, immortal(ish?) witches that lay claim to the bog. Not gonna lie, there were probably three or so stories that could fill this spot. This just happened to be the one that caught my eye in the moment. Falls within the folk horror genre (which I’m thinking might be a preference of mine). Not extensive, but love the world-building here. Gave me strong hag vibes from D&D.
Other highlights:
Caker’s Man by Matthew Holness - An unsettling neighbor with a proclivity for baking takes an unnatural interest in the children of a single mom. Told from a child’s perspective to great effect. There’s enough strange happenings to give the hint of the supernatural, but it could all just be a child’s imagination as well. Stranger danger to the max.
Shuck by G.V. Anderson - A girl struggles with survivor’s guilt after a friend passes away in an accident the narrator was also involved in. Now the narrator is stuck fending off Death, who has manifested as a dog and is hunting for his due - her. Great, great twist that puts the story in a new light. Probably wouldn’t be a highlight without it.
The Hunt at Rotherdam by A.C. Wise - A group of young men descend upon a gothic country estate to engage in the annual hunt - an event where the men dive into the labyrinthine woods in order to find a feral woman with the ultimate goal of domestication into wifehood. Our main character, though struggles with this practice, both due to its barbaric nature and the desires of his own heart. This story is here because of its overall concept. The prose and characterization are strong enough, but not uniquely so.
The God Bag by Christopher Golden - A man cares for his mother as she battles with poor health and dementia. As he reflects upon the complicated relationship he has with his mother, he stumbles across (and seeks to unravel the mystery of) her god bag, a surprisingly effective depository for her prayers, but not without cost. An effective family drama with supernatural overtones. The twist at the end harkens to an older generation of short stories.
The Quizmasters by Gerard McKeown - A boy riding home on his bike is stopped by a group of strangers in a car who ask him a series of trivia questions. As the game continues, the situation becomes more unsettling. A simple, straightforward, and realistic story. Which makes it all the scarier.
Shards by Ian Rogers - A group of friends get together in a cabin in the woods to blow off some steam and catch up. A traumatic incident ensues and one ends up dead. The story then follows the shards of the survivors’ lives as they struggle to escape the specter of the event, which keeps calling them back. The disjointed narrative plays into the larger theme of the story. It took me a second to get used to the authorial voice, but once I did, it became one of the best stories in the book.
Trap by Carly Holmes - A single mother of two girls sets up a camera in the backyard to find out what sort of animal has been messing with the yard. Her attempt to solve the mystery coincides with her attempt to understand her eldest’s troubles. Some may not like the lack of a clear-cut resolution, but I think it worked well here. I also felt the mother’s character was fully realized as she struggles to connect with and support her daughters.
I’ll Be Gone By Then by Eric LaRocca - A daughter takes charge of her Italian mother who is in the late stages of dementia. She subsequently attempts to find a way to kill her mother. A very human story - nothing supernatural here. The ending is predictable but also fitting.
Jack-in-the-Box by Robin Furth - A journalist is sent to research a fluff piece on Lord Blackthorn, a late doctor who revolutionized skeletal (and other?) reconstructive surgery. As she digs into the doctor’s life, she discovers a darker side to his practice, and realizes that the entire family holds some secrets of their own. A strong gothic tale with some truly gruesome descriptions. You’ll need to forgive the title though, which essentially boils down to a pun. It probably sounded great during brainstorming, but detracts from the overall feel of a very creepy story.
Tiptoe by Laird Barron - A son reflects on his family vacations with his aging mother. Looking back, he realizes there was more going on with his father than met the eye. This is probably the hardest one to summarize well. Don’t let that stop you, though. It’s a fascinating story that gets under your skin without ever being too gruesome. Definitely in the running as one of the best stories in the anthology.
January 15, 2023
I've been a fan of Ellen Datlow's editing abilities and literary judgment for a long time. I read all of the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror volumes she edited with Terri Windlow, and continued to pick up any collection with which she was involved. I've been reading her annual Best Horror of the Year volumes since they started coming out.
This one was definitely one of the darker, stronger horror collections I've read during the past few years, and it actually left me uneasy a few times when I read it before bed. Turning out the light became a wee bit problematic a couple of times. A few of the stories in this collection were just too dark and graphic for my taste, but for me there were several stand-out stories:
Black Leg, by Glen Hirshberg
The Offering, by Michael Marshall Smith
The Hunt at Rotherdam, by A.C. Wise
The God Bag, by Christopher Golden
The Strathantine Imps, by Steve Duffy
The Quizmasters, by Gerad McKeown
All Those Lost Days, by Brian Evenson
Poor Butcher-Bird, by Gemma Files
Tiptoe, by Laird Barron
All of the above stories were gripping, disturbing, thought-provoking, and memorable. A couple were also in other Year's Best collections, but I read them again, they were so good.
This one was definitely one of the darker, stronger horror collections I've read during the past few years, and it actually left me uneasy a few times when I read it before bed. Turning out the light became a wee bit problematic a couple of times. A few of the stories in this collection were just too dark and graphic for my taste, but for me there were several stand-out stories:
Black Leg, by Glen Hirshberg
The Offering, by Michael Marshall Smith
The Hunt at Rotherdam, by A.C. Wise
The God Bag, by Christopher Golden
The Strathantine Imps, by Steve Duffy
The Quizmasters, by Gerad McKeown
All Those Lost Days, by Brian Evenson
Poor Butcher-Bird, by Gemma Files
Tiptoe, by Laird Barron
All of the above stories were gripping, disturbing, thought-provoking, and memorable. A couple were also in other Year's Best collections, but I read them again, they were so good.
July 6, 2023
3.44 rounded up to 4. Individual stories rated below.
More duds or average stories than usual, but overall still very strong. Of course, this is Datlow, and her lesser efforts still outshine most anthologies in the genre.
To me, the lesser stories generally failed in one or more of these three regards:
Too much worldbuilding: Too much is said about the specifics of the universe in which the story takes place. This defuses tension and makes the story generally un-frightening. It is to avoid this phenomenon most horror authors set the action in a realist setting; masters manage to maintain a nice balance, but even then mostly in novel form.
Too little worldbuilding/description: On the opposite end, the reader still needs to understand some aspects of the world the story is set in. If it is supposed to be set in a realistic setting, the reader should be able to imagine the environment of the story. When that is impossible, the story becomes confusing.
Sloppy tension building: There needs to be evolution ! Horror must be set up ! Lack of tension building defuses tension and makes supposedly intense or frightening events a bore to read. Tension building does not need to be linear - the story can start extremely intensely, then decrease, then bring some tension back - a rollercoaster structure to tension building is, in fact, sometimes most efficient. But when there is too much pile-up, the story either gets funny or soporific.
Still, a lot of magnificent work in this one. Most of these authors are experts at what they do and even the newcomers have nice tricks up their sleeves. Datlow anthologies remain my favorite way of discovering new authors, or just seeing what my favorites are up to.
Favorite stories and authors to seek out : Caker's Man (Matthew Holness), The Hunt at Rotherdam (A.C. Wise), Dancing Sober in the Dust (Steve Toase), Anne Gare's Rare and Import Videos... (Jonathan Raab), Shards (Ian Rogers), Poor Butcher-Bird (Gemma Files), Tiptoe (Laird Barron).
Stories
Redwater : 2/5. Very weak start, little to no tension, sloppy worldbuilding.
Caker's Man : 5/5. Extremely unnerving and original.
Black Leg : 3.5/5. Interesting but forgettable.
The Offering : 3/5. Good ending, but not much horror.
Fox Girl : 4/5. A good poem about immigration. Structurally very nice. Presence here puzzling however.
Shuck : 3.5/5. The ending felt a bit forced, but all in all, a very good examination of grief and toxic relationships.
The Hunt at Rotherdam : 4.5/5. Excellent worldbuilding.
Dancing Sober in the Dust : 4.5/5. Highly original both in subject and writing.
The God Bag : 3.5/5. Once the concept is introduced the entire plotline can be guessed. Still, an honest story.
The Strathantine Imps : 3/5. Echoes of Blackwood, James and Machen make for a predictable yet atmospheric story. The author is not included in the biographies, which is very strange to me and almost seems like a horror story's premise in itself.
The Quizmasters : 4/5. Raw and absurd. Ireland's trauma permeates and elevates the story.
All those Lost Days : 2.5/5. Unsure how to rate this one. Probably fits better in the original anthology - here, a bit out of place.
Anne Gare's Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 : 5/5. Proof that pure description can disgust and distress.
Three Sisters Bog : 3.5/5. Good folk horror. There is gore, blood and bone, and it does not feel forced because it is all coated in an atmosphere of decay and madness. Nothing is explained, and nothing needs explaining.
The Steering Wheel Club : 3.5/5. Like a mix of Twilight Zone and Creepshow with a hint of something much darker. Cathartic, but should have taken more time to establish itself.
The King of Stones : 2/5. Interesting beginning ruined by meaningless and rushed storyline.
Stolen Property. 4/5. Excellent incipit : "Ethan was lying, thought he might not have called it that." Could have turned out better, but overall very solid and even creepy at times.
Shards. 5/5. The Evil Dead reimagined, and what a reimagining ! No comment. One of the best stories in the collection.
Chit Chit. 3.5/5. Folk horror and crime caper. Good, healthy fun.
Poor Butcher-Bird. 4.5/5. A perfect narrator and a use of gore as liberal as it is calculated, if such a thing is possible.
Trap. 4.5/5. Reminds one of the recent Huesera, itself probably the best horror movie of last year. Maternity and horror go hand in hand, it seems.
I'll Be Gone by Then. 3/5. Liked the narrator. Ending unlikely and undermines narrative integrity.
Jack-in-the-Box. 3.5/5. Not bad ! Writing could use more work at times, but overall strong story of rotten aristocracy with disturbing scenes.
Tiptoe. 5/5. Already read this in When Things get Dark. Beautiful and terrifying in equal parts. Read at night, when everything is silent, it makes one hesitate a moment before turning off the light.
More duds or average stories than usual, but overall still very strong. Of course, this is Datlow, and her lesser efforts still outshine most anthologies in the genre.
To me, the lesser stories generally failed in one or more of these three regards:
Too much worldbuilding: Too much is said about the specifics of the universe in which the story takes place. This defuses tension and makes the story generally un-frightening. It is to avoid this phenomenon most horror authors set the action in a realist setting; masters manage to maintain a nice balance, but even then mostly in novel form.
Too little worldbuilding/description: On the opposite end, the reader still needs to understand some aspects of the world the story is set in. If it is supposed to be set in a realistic setting, the reader should be able to imagine the environment of the story. When that is impossible, the story becomes confusing.
Sloppy tension building: There needs to be evolution ! Horror must be set up ! Lack of tension building defuses tension and makes supposedly intense or frightening events a bore to read. Tension building does not need to be linear - the story can start extremely intensely, then decrease, then bring some tension back - a rollercoaster structure to tension building is, in fact, sometimes most efficient. But when there is too much pile-up, the story either gets funny or soporific.
Still, a lot of magnificent work in this one. Most of these authors are experts at what they do and even the newcomers have nice tricks up their sleeves. Datlow anthologies remain my favorite way of discovering new authors, or just seeing what my favorites are up to.
Favorite stories and authors to seek out : Caker's Man (Matthew Holness), The Hunt at Rotherdam (A.C. Wise), Dancing Sober in the Dust (Steve Toase), Anne Gare's Rare and Import Videos... (Jonathan Raab), Shards (Ian Rogers), Poor Butcher-Bird (Gemma Files), Tiptoe (Laird Barron).
Stories
Redwater : 2/5. Very weak start, little to no tension, sloppy worldbuilding.
Caker's Man : 5/5. Extremely unnerving and original.
Black Leg : 3.5/5. Interesting but forgettable.
The Offering : 3/5. Good ending, but not much horror.
Fox Girl : 4/5. A good poem about immigration. Structurally very nice. Presence here puzzling however.
Shuck : 3.5/5. The ending felt a bit forced, but all in all, a very good examination of grief and toxic relationships.
The Hunt at Rotherdam : 4.5/5. Excellent worldbuilding.
Dancing Sober in the Dust : 4.5/5. Highly original both in subject and writing.
The God Bag : 3.5/5. Once the concept is introduced the entire plotline can be guessed. Still, an honest story.
The Strathantine Imps : 3/5. Echoes of Blackwood, James and Machen make for a predictable yet atmospheric story. The author is not included in the biographies, which is very strange to me and almost seems like a horror story's premise in itself.
The Quizmasters : 4/5. Raw and absurd. Ireland's trauma permeates and elevates the story.
All those Lost Days : 2.5/5. Unsure how to rate this one. Probably fits better in the original anthology - here, a bit out of place.
Anne Gare's Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 : 5/5. Proof that pure description can disgust and distress.
Three Sisters Bog : 3.5/5. Good folk horror. There is gore, blood and bone, and it does not feel forced because it is all coated in an atmosphere of decay and madness. Nothing is explained, and nothing needs explaining.
The Steering Wheel Club : 3.5/5. Like a mix of Twilight Zone and Creepshow with a hint of something much darker. Cathartic, but should have taken more time to establish itself.
The King of Stones : 2/5. Interesting beginning ruined by meaningless and rushed storyline.
Stolen Property. 4/5. Excellent incipit : "Ethan was lying, thought he might not have called it that." Could have turned out better, but overall very solid and even creepy at times.
Shards. 5/5. The Evil Dead reimagined, and what a reimagining ! No comment. One of the best stories in the collection.
Chit Chit. 3.5/5. Folk horror and crime caper. Good, healthy fun.
Poor Butcher-Bird. 4.5/5. A perfect narrator and a use of gore as liberal as it is calculated, if such a thing is possible.
Trap. 4.5/5. Reminds one of the recent Huesera, itself probably the best horror movie of last year. Maternity and horror go hand in hand, it seems.
I'll Be Gone by Then. 3/5. Liked the narrator. Ending unlikely and undermines narrative integrity.
Jack-in-the-Box. 3.5/5. Not bad ! Writing could use more work at times, but overall strong story of rotten aristocracy with disturbing scenes.
Tiptoe. 5/5. Already read this in When Things get Dark. Beautiful and terrifying in equal parts. Read at night, when everything is silent, it makes one hesitate a moment before turning off the light.
February 27, 2023
Very strong selection! Great stories from some names I already am a fan of (Barron, Evenson, Larocca, Strantzas) and some I hadn't heard of before. Highlight was Caker's Man by Matthew Holness, who I didn't realize was also Garth Marenghi until after I googled the name later. Other favorites were by Sarah Lamparelli, Glen Hirshberg, Carly Holmes, and Eoin Murphy, I'll definitely look into other stuff by them.
My kid (13) also read the Laird and Holness stories, was a fan!
My kid (13) also read the Laird and Holness stories, was a fan!
April 9, 2023
Read for review in Parsec magazine - I'll post here once it's been published.
March 18, 2023
Another year, another “best of” anthology, another struggle to find something new to say. Except I sensed something different after finishing the first few stories in “Best Horror of the Year, Volume 14”. Gone were the pandemic stories mixed with those of loneliness and desolation. Those stories I now associate with the COVID isolation years, and it’s a reminder that horror is a malleable mirror of our selves and our times.
So what was remarkable about those first few stories? Well… they had something like an old-fashioned feel to them. There’s a monster; there’s an oddity; there’s something unexplainable that bends your understanding of your world. Face it, confront it, embrace it, and there’s your story, and it’s horror. You can probably tell from my tone that I didn’t think much of these stories, and you’d be right. Oh, they were all written skillfully, with good atmosphere, sharp words, and creepy imagery. They just didn’t seem to have much to say other than MONSTER and SCARY and, well, I’ve read enough of those stories for them to ultimately be somewhat forgettable.
But I kept reading, and at some point - I think it was after finishing the excellent story “The God Bag” - I fell into the tales. And when I finally came up for air, I realized that many of the stories did have a theme of a sort after all. These stories involve an elder or parent and a youth or child, and explore the corruption or betrayal of the latter by the former. It’s a chilling idea, and one that I think is eerily reflective of the current times. Hopefully in the real world we’ll be able to move past the need for this fear. Or perhaps -and this is disquieting - next year’s anthology will go deeper into the same.
So what was remarkable about those first few stories? Well… they had something like an old-fashioned feel to them. There’s a monster; there’s an oddity; there’s something unexplainable that bends your understanding of your world. Face it, confront it, embrace it, and there’s your story, and it’s horror. You can probably tell from my tone that I didn’t think much of these stories, and you’d be right. Oh, they were all written skillfully, with good atmosphere, sharp words, and creepy imagery. They just didn’t seem to have much to say other than MONSTER and SCARY and, well, I’ve read enough of those stories for them to ultimately be somewhat forgettable.
But I kept reading, and at some point - I think it was after finishing the excellent story “The God Bag” - I fell into the tales. And when I finally came up for air, I realized that many of the stories did have a theme of a sort after all. These stories involve an elder or parent and a youth or child, and explore the corruption or betrayal of the latter by the former. It’s a chilling idea, and one that I think is eerily reflective of the current times. Hopefully in the real world we’ll be able to move past the need for this fear. Or perhaps -and this is disquieting - next year’s anthology will go deeper into the same.
December 26, 2022
I gave each story five pages. If a short story doesn’t give me much in the first five pages, I feel it’s a waste of my time. The stories that held my attention to the end were: Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase, Redwater by Simon Bestwick (I love a good swamp monster story, but it could have been better.), The King of Stones by Simon Strantzas, and Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli (great tension, but not really horror).
June 30, 2023
My personal favorite stories from this collection:
-Redwater by Simon Bestwick
-The Offering by Michael Marshall Smith
-Shuck by G.V. Anderson
-The Hunt at Rotherdam by AC Wise
-Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase
-The God Bag by Christopher Golden
-The Quizmasters by Gerard McKeown
-All Those Lost Days by Brian Everson
-Three Sisters Bog by Eoin Murphy
-Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli
-Shards by Ian Rogers
-Redwater by Simon Bestwick
-The Offering by Michael Marshall Smith
-Shuck by G.V. Anderson
-The Hunt at Rotherdam by AC Wise
-Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase
-The God Bag by Christopher Golden
-The Quizmasters by Gerard McKeown
-All Those Lost Days by Brian Everson
-Three Sisters Bog by Eoin Murphy
-Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli
-Shards by Ian Rogers
September 29, 2023
I’ve been a fan of annual Best Ofs since I started buying books in WH Smith’s in the early 1990s and came across Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell, which was my only source of reading short horror stories back in the pre-internet days. Of course there was an abundance of other horror anthologies around at the time in second hand shops – the Pan Books of Horror were everywhere, as were the teen horror collections edited by Peter Haining, the Dark Terrors series edited by Stephen Jones, the Ghost Books edited by Rosemary Timperley, and Robert Aickman’s Fontana Books of Great Ghost Stories.
But it was the annual Best Ofs that really excited me, because these were living proof that great horror stories were still being written, and these books collected together the editor’s favourites from the previous year. I bought and read them religiously. Once the internet became a thing I realised that there were several American versions, one of which was the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (until 2002 when co-editorship switched to Gavin Grant and Kelly Link). This ended in 2005, at which point it changed to Best Horror of the Year edited solely by Ellen Datlow.
These are an annual highlight, gathering together the creme de la creme of dark fiction published in the previous 12 months. Each entry is a delight, and this one, Volume Fourteen, is no different.
This anthology features 23 stories/novelettes and one poem, pulled from various sources, each of them dark, all of them superb. As with all collections or anthologies, some work better than others. I’ll mention a couple of my favourites, but it’s only fair to say that the quality is of such a high standard, there are no real bad tales here, it’s just a matter of individual taste. In The Offering by Michael Marshall Smith an American couple go on vacation with their teenage son to Copenhagen, only to find that the AirBnB they are staying in has a very demanding guardian. Steve Toase’s Dancing Sober in the Dust details a series of grotesque costumes created by a husband and wife team who became notorious for a grisly crime a century before. The detached nature of the descriptions left a chilling fascination in the pit of my stomach. The Strathantine Imps by Steve Duffy might not be the most original story that this fantastic author has ever written, but it’s a beautifully told tale up to his usual high standard. When Amanda and Euan’s mother dies, they are left in the sole custody of their father, in his isolated family estate on the coast of Ayeshire, Scotland. Dark forces are at work, and Amanda’s worst fears come true when a weird visitor to the house brings with him an omen of death.
Eoin Murphy’s Three Sister’s Bog is a dark unsettling fairytale set in the remote depths of Ireland. This is one of the best short stories I’ve read all year, creepy and sinister – almost nightmarish in tone. When the family dog gets lost in the nearby bog, Michael sets out from his farm with his young son, Charlie, in an effort to recover the lost pet. What they encounter is something I haven’t been able to get out of my mind for days. Eric LaRocca’s I’ll Be Gone By Then is a compelling conte cruel, heartbreaking and nasty, but threaded with a stark element of honesty in its telling. Both these stories are the first I’ve read by these writers, but I guarantee that I’ll be seeking out more of their work.
Shards by Ian Rogers at first seems like a riff on the old ‘cabin in the woods’ trope, but Rogers’ writing elevates this tale beyond the normal into the realms of excellence. Simon Bestwick’s Redwater follows a small group as they journey by boat into a swampy flood-land in search of an elusively vague MacGuffin. This one is pulpy fun, brilliantly paced and features some great action scenes.
All Those Lost Days by Brian Evenson is another highlight. When two brothers visit a theme park and take a trip on the Time Machine ride, they have no idea what the experience will do to one of them, and the impact it will have on the rest of their lives. In Carly Holmes’s Trap a mother and her two daughters set up a motion-detector camera in an effort to catch a glimpse of wildlife in the surrounding countryside. What footage is recorded is unsettling and disturbing. Another writer who is new to me, but one whose work I will look out for from now on.
Ellen Datlow has an amazing knack of getting the right balance for her selections for Best Horror of the Year. Horror is a broad church, and every year she manages to showcase stories covering the furthest reaches of the genre. Monster tales sit side by side next to literary disquiet, dark crime stories mingle with subtly grim fantasy. None of it matters. All that counts is the quality of the writing. This year’s is no exception. Long may this series continue. Highly recommended.
But it was the annual Best Ofs that really excited me, because these were living proof that great horror stories were still being written, and these books collected together the editor’s favourites from the previous year. I bought and read them religiously. Once the internet became a thing I realised that there were several American versions, one of which was the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (until 2002 when co-editorship switched to Gavin Grant and Kelly Link). This ended in 2005, at which point it changed to Best Horror of the Year edited solely by Ellen Datlow.
These are an annual highlight, gathering together the creme de la creme of dark fiction published in the previous 12 months. Each entry is a delight, and this one, Volume Fourteen, is no different.
This anthology features 23 stories/novelettes and one poem, pulled from various sources, each of them dark, all of them superb. As with all collections or anthologies, some work better than others. I’ll mention a couple of my favourites, but it’s only fair to say that the quality is of such a high standard, there are no real bad tales here, it’s just a matter of individual taste. In The Offering by Michael Marshall Smith an American couple go on vacation with their teenage son to Copenhagen, only to find that the AirBnB they are staying in has a very demanding guardian. Steve Toase’s Dancing Sober in the Dust details a series of grotesque costumes created by a husband and wife team who became notorious for a grisly crime a century before. The detached nature of the descriptions left a chilling fascination in the pit of my stomach. The Strathantine Imps by Steve Duffy might not be the most original story that this fantastic author has ever written, but it’s a beautifully told tale up to his usual high standard. When Amanda and Euan’s mother dies, they are left in the sole custody of their father, in his isolated family estate on the coast of Ayeshire, Scotland. Dark forces are at work, and Amanda’s worst fears come true when a weird visitor to the house brings with him an omen of death.
Eoin Murphy’s Three Sister’s Bog is a dark unsettling fairytale set in the remote depths of Ireland. This is one of the best short stories I’ve read all year, creepy and sinister – almost nightmarish in tone. When the family dog gets lost in the nearby bog, Michael sets out from his farm with his young son, Charlie, in an effort to recover the lost pet. What they encounter is something I haven’t been able to get out of my mind for days. Eric LaRocca’s I’ll Be Gone By Then is a compelling conte cruel, heartbreaking and nasty, but threaded with a stark element of honesty in its telling. Both these stories are the first I’ve read by these writers, but I guarantee that I’ll be seeking out more of their work.
Shards by Ian Rogers at first seems like a riff on the old ‘cabin in the woods’ trope, but Rogers’ writing elevates this tale beyond the normal into the realms of excellence. Simon Bestwick’s Redwater follows a small group as they journey by boat into a swampy flood-land in search of an elusively vague MacGuffin. This one is pulpy fun, brilliantly paced and features some great action scenes.
All Those Lost Days by Brian Evenson is another highlight. When two brothers visit a theme park and take a trip on the Time Machine ride, they have no idea what the experience will do to one of them, and the impact it will have on the rest of their lives. In Carly Holmes’s Trap a mother and her two daughters set up a motion-detector camera in an effort to catch a glimpse of wildlife in the surrounding countryside. What footage is recorded is unsettling and disturbing. Another writer who is new to me, but one whose work I will look out for from now on.
Ellen Datlow has an amazing knack of getting the right balance for her selections for Best Horror of the Year. Horror is a broad church, and every year she manages to showcase stories covering the furthest reaches of the genre. Monster tales sit side by side next to literary disquiet, dark crime stories mingle with subtly grim fantasy. None of it matters. All that counts is the quality of the writing. This year’s is no exception. Long may this series continue. Highly recommended.
July 7, 2023
Take that 3 as a positive 3. I very much enjoyed my time with this book! It's just as is usually the case with anthologies I found my opinions varied a lot between stories and there weren't any huge standouts either. But there's definitely quite a few high quality stories here.
Thinking of faves:
- Caker's Man: Great creepy story about the very real creepiness of certain adults as experienced by kids, yet done without depicting any truly awful acts. The horror of being overfamiliar, leering, suggesting gross things. The possibly supernatural element springs from that, and it's vague and uncertain but works well due to being grounded in relatable horror.
- Dancing Sober in the Dust: The creepy narrator recovers the costumes of a grim dancing duo, with the sections of the story interspersed with museum catalogue style descriptions of the costumes. The ending almost feels a touch cliche but the whole thing really works, with the extra theme of the past as living memory vs the past as stuck in archives.
- The God Bag: this is how you pull off a "twist" ending when the reveal seems inevitable. Heavy on the theme of dementia and aging and what you lose and It's really chilling and effective, again grounded in very relatable horror around parenthood and loss of self.
- The Quizmasters: A shorter one based on a kind of goofy concept that's pulled off effectively and doesn't outstay its welcome. The horror of random chance and "why would someone do that"
- The Steering Wheel Club: Powerfully hones in on the emotions and drives of abusive men. The ending really boils it down to something incredibly effective - getting what you want forever
- Shards: Friends go to a cabin and it destroys their lives. A cursed object type story, but written really well.
- Chit Chit: There's a really effectively creepy scene but I admit my appreciation of this one is mostly due to featuring a folk horror favourite tradition
- Tiptoe: A Laird Barron story that taps into what seems to be his usual discomfort with parenting and the horrors that emerge from heterosexual relationships. Nearly nothing horrific actually happens in view, so it's mostly just a constant unease, realising there are people who are not like you that you pass every day and they're dangerous. With an excellent closing image.
A few of the others were pretty decent but didn't make an impact on me, most of the rest weren't *bad* bad but felt like they didn't work totally or just weren't right for my tastes.
The Offering: I think this wasn't bad exactly - although the conclusion could have been chopped off - but I just couldn't help feeling these were the absolute worst AirBnB hosts of all time. It actually bugged me a lot how irresponsible they were! This would be fine but the conclusion talks about the aftermath and doesn't address it. Weirdly weakens the story for me.
Poor Butcher-Bird: This had some good stuff (and the most effective and consistent use of gore and descriptions of horror imagery) but I just really really hate idk just a daft pet peeve
The King of Stones: Just a bit of a mess.
Thinking of faves:
- Caker's Man: Great creepy story about the very real creepiness of certain adults as experienced by kids, yet done without depicting any truly awful acts. The horror of being overfamiliar, leering, suggesting gross things. The possibly supernatural element springs from that, and it's vague and uncertain but works well due to being grounded in relatable horror.
- Dancing Sober in the Dust: The creepy narrator recovers the costumes of a grim dancing duo, with the sections of the story interspersed with museum catalogue style descriptions of the costumes. The ending almost feels a touch cliche but the whole thing really works, with the extra theme of the past as living memory vs the past as stuck in archives.
- The God Bag: this is how you pull off a "twist" ending when the reveal seems inevitable. Heavy on the theme of dementia and aging and what you lose and It's really chilling and effective, again grounded in very relatable horror around parenthood and loss of self.
- The Quizmasters: A shorter one based on a kind of goofy concept that's pulled off effectively and doesn't outstay its welcome. The horror of random chance and "why would someone do that"
- The Steering Wheel Club: Powerfully hones in on the emotions and drives of abusive men. The ending really boils it down to something incredibly effective - getting what you want forever
- Shards: Friends go to a cabin and it destroys their lives. A cursed object type story, but written really well.
- Chit Chit: There's a really effectively creepy scene but I admit my appreciation of this one is mostly due to featuring a folk horror favourite tradition
- Tiptoe: A Laird Barron story that taps into what seems to be his usual discomfort with parenting and the horrors that emerge from heterosexual relationships. Nearly nothing horrific actually happens in view, so it's mostly just a constant unease, realising there are people who are not like you that you pass every day and they're dangerous. With an excellent closing image.
A few of the others were pretty decent but didn't make an impact on me, most of the rest weren't *bad* bad but felt like they didn't work totally or just weren't right for my tastes.
The Offering: I think this wasn't bad exactly - although the conclusion could have been chopped off - but I just couldn't help feeling these were the absolute worst AirBnB hosts of all time. It actually bugged me a lot how irresponsible they were! This would be fine but the conclusion talks about the aftermath and doesn't address it. Weirdly weakens the story for me.
Poor Butcher-Bird: This had some good stuff (and the most effective and consistent use of gore and descriptions of horror imagery) but I just really really hate idk just a daft pet peeve
The King of Stones: Just a bit of a mess.
December 18, 2023
I used to read the Stephen Jones 'Best Horror' anthologies whenever I could get my hands on one via the library and always enjoyed them because of Jones's excellent literary taste. He recognised good writing that used horror/suspense/weird/fantasy to do more than simply scare you but had something more to say or convey. That I didn't realise that Ellen Datlow (whose various Cthulhu based anthologies I have been universally underwhelmed by) had taken over the 'Best Horror' franchise for at least fourteen years should tell you that I am not a great reader of horror fiction; which is why I liked the Jones anthologies, they gave me an insight into how the best practitioners were using the genre to write interesting and often brilliantly insightful commentaries on, and please excuse an incredibly pompous phrase, the human condition.
This is all leading up to me admitting that I was supremely unimpressed with this anthology. It is not quite bad enough to be shelved as disappointing and in truth there are some superb stories which I would hate, a critical review from preventing being widely read.
The stories I liked Gerard McKeown's 'The Quizzmasters' (maybe being Irish and having grown up at the time story and been at University, for a time, in the area it was set gave it an added frisson and resonance for me); Eoin Murphy's 'Three Sister Bog' and Steve Toase's 'Dancing Sober in the Dust' are really exceptionally fine and exemplify what horror is for me. Rather than name the authors or stories I thought incredibly weak with their hackneyed and stale vampires and children of the corn pastiches I would mention that Datlow could have included, instead of the derivative and weak dross I have mentioned, could have included stories from Maria Enriquez's brilliant collection 'The Danger's of Smoking in Bed'. Compared to her writing a huge chunk of this anthology read like reprints from the 1970's 'Pan Books of Horror' - old fashioned and dated without even the camp charm of old Hammer Horror films.
So for me this is a disappointing anthology containing some brilliant work. That makes it worth reading but not buying.
This is all leading up to me admitting that I was supremely unimpressed with this anthology. It is not quite bad enough to be shelved as disappointing and in truth there are some superb stories which I would hate, a critical review from preventing being widely read.
The stories I liked Gerard McKeown's 'The Quizzmasters' (maybe being Irish and having grown up at the time story and been at University, for a time, in the area it was set gave it an added frisson and resonance for me); Eoin Murphy's 'Three Sister Bog' and Steve Toase's 'Dancing Sober in the Dust' are really exceptionally fine and exemplify what horror is for me. Rather than name the authors or stories I thought incredibly weak with their hackneyed and stale vampires and children of the corn pastiches I would mention that Datlow could have included, instead of the derivative and weak dross I have mentioned, could have included stories from Maria Enriquez's brilliant collection 'The Danger's of Smoking in Bed'. Compared to her writing a huge chunk of this anthology read like reprints from the 1970's 'Pan Books of Horror' - old fashioned and dated without even the camp charm of old Hammer Horror films.
So for me this is a disappointing anthology containing some brilliant work. That makes it worth reading but not buying.
July 17, 2023
Datlow is THE go to anthologist for horror these days, and this is her fourteenth annual collection. There wasn't a dud in the collection, but I'll just mention my favourites here.
To my absolute delight, this collection kicks off with 'Redwater' from Simon Bestwick. He's an anthology brother of mine from the Hic Dragones collections of dark fiction, and his work just gets better and better. This story left me wanting more. Christopher Golden's 'The God Bag' absolutely cries out to be filmed, it is so very visual. I loved it. Gemma Files is always reliable, and her 'Poor Butcher-bird' doesn't disappoint with a story that would fit well in a very dark version of the Buffy universe. Eric LaRocca's 'I'll be gone by then' somehow manages to be more Michael Marshall Smith than MMS's own contribution, it's a story that will linger in my dreams for a while. The last story in the book, Laird Barron's 'Tiptoe' isn't new to me, I mentioned it in my review of Datlow's previous anthology 'When Things Get Dark.' It's even better on a second reading.
To my absolute delight, this collection kicks off with 'Redwater' from Simon Bestwick. He's an anthology brother of mine from the Hic Dragones collections of dark fiction, and his work just gets better and better. This story left me wanting more. Christopher Golden's 'The God Bag' absolutely cries out to be filmed, it is so very visual. I loved it. Gemma Files is always reliable, and her 'Poor Butcher-bird' doesn't disappoint with a story that would fit well in a very dark version of the Buffy universe. Eric LaRocca's 'I'll be gone by then' somehow manages to be more Michael Marshall Smith than MMS's own contribution, it's a story that will linger in my dreams for a while. The last story in the book, Laird Barron's 'Tiptoe' isn't new to me, I mentioned it in my review of Datlow's previous anthology 'When Things Get Dark.' It's even better on a second reading.
March 1, 2024
Redwater - 3.5 stars -I'm a sucker for swamp monsters. This is a fun little jaunt. Tried and true formula, nothing you haven't seen before, but that's because it works. Might have benefitted from expanding on the two MCs.
Caker's Man - 3.5 stars - Giant faces? Very bizarre, mildly unsettling.
Black Leg - 1 star - The style and structure of this story just did not jive with me. Starts as a court case (which might have been a cool setting for a horror story), but then moves on into a dead mall... Found it less creepy than confusing. The last two paragraphs try to add some depth, but it came off as trite, not to mention too little, too late.
The Offering - 3 stars - Reminded me (vaguely) of Don't Look Now. I enjoyed the family dynamic and Smith's observations on parenthood. Less so, the horror aspect, which feels forced and out of nowhere. Nothing much scary happens (which is perfectly okay!) until the obligatory 'twist' ending. Should have stayed a slice-of-life.
Fox Girl - ? stars - A poem. Didn't feel one way or the other about it, I guess.
Shuck - 3 stars - Twist ruined this for me. I hadn't heard of Black Shuck, so there's that at least. Still...
The Hunt at Rotterdam - 3.5 stars -Men braving the wild and windy moors to get themselves som wives. I thought this was quite clever and short. Not scary, but a nice one-off. Made me intrigued to know more.
Dancing Sober in the Dark - 3.5 stars - Reminded me of Scold's Bridle (last collection), albeit better. Involves a man obsessed with spiky costumes. Stands out by virtue of being... different.
The God Bag - 3 stars - Guy finds his mother had a god bag with magical, wish-fulfilling properties, but of course they come at a price. This was decent, but it does the typical horror thing where the guy takes WAY too long to come to terms with what is happening when it's pretty damn clear the second he sees the red slips exactly how this story's going to go. Precious time we COULD have spent getting to know his daughter and husband. The ending tries to pack a punch, but the story's too contained for that. Too much tell, not enough show.
The Strathantine Imps - 2.5 stars - Well-written, but overfamiliar. I did NOT understand the framing device. Ostensibly, this is being told by a dude who heard this story from a girl, and yet he is transcribing it word for word? Why not just have her write it, if she goes around telling it to strangers anyways?
The Quizmasters - 3 stars - Decent. Short. Crazy guys ask a kid on a bike some innocent questions. What happens if he gets one wrong? Not so innocent. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!
All Those Lost Days - 3 stars - What if a time machine amusement park ride actually machined you through time? Firstly, who does Evenson think he is having a novel called 'Last Days' and then a short story called, 'All Those Lost Days'? Bug off with that shit. Secondly, this is quite possibly the least 'Evenson' story I've ever read. I feel like it has very few of his hallmarks- it's more like a well-written nosleep joint than it is anything else he's written. Goofy fun.
Anna Gare - ? stars - Odd choice for the collection?
Three Sisters Bog - 2 stars - Dog runs off into bog. Kid wants to retrieve dog from bog. Witches live in bog and claim ownerships of all that enters bog, including kids and dogs. I'm all for ambiguity in horror, but this needed something more. It leaves off just as it's getting good, unfortuantely.
The Steering Wheel Club - 2 stars - Abusive dude haunted and ultimately SPOILERED by a steering wheel that itself once belonged to a dead, abusive dude.
The King of Stones - 2.5 stars - One of the darker shorts, surprisingly, but also pretty rote. The argument between the leads is way too goofy. We're supposed to believe they've been together TWENTY years, not two...
Stolen Property - 2.5 stars - Engh. Hikers. Twins. I feel like the most interesting angle (to do with twins) is not explored in depth. Monster is whatever. MC was not on edge enough to 'feel' the danger creeping in.
Shards - 2 stars - Disjointed and gimmicky. Some evil dead shit happens at a cabin and then we hop between the surviving quartet as they each succumb to some evil, ill-defined influence. One is always cold, one needs to keep spinning... Felt arbitrary.
Chit Chit - 2.5 stars - Horse skulls. A trap. 'Twas okay.
Poor Butcher-Bird - 2.5 stars - I'm not a huge Files fan, I'll admit. She has some very cool ideas, but I find many of her shorts overwritten or edgy for the sake of edge. With the exception of Emperor's Old Bones (which is a 5 star story, legitimately fantastic, uses all of her tendencies to great effect), I don't know if anything I've read by her has stuck with me. And on that count, Buthcher Bird is no exception...
Side note: I hate when horror shorts gradually reveal a cool monster and then are all like, 'she was a tengu' or somesuch. Just feels lazy. Either say they're that from the get go, or make your own.
Trap - 3 stars - Great setup, disappointing payoff. I like when shorts give you a taste of actual character, in this case a single mom contrasting her two teenage daughters, one rebellious, the other not quite there yet. I liked the dynamics, but the horror didn't go anywhere.
I'll Be Gone By Then - LaRocca is okay, but none of his stuff has blown me away yet.
Jack In the Box - 3.5 stars - Decent. Not the most satisfying ending, but with enough to keep it rolling.
Tiptoe- 4.5 stars, maybe 5 - Best story in the collection, and one of my favorites by Barron. Very creepy. A concept doesn't have to be particularly out there to be done well. I'm not sure the Dad's job and the animatronic baby stuff were necessary, but having the narrator be a wildlife photographer was a stroke of genius.
Caker's Man - 3.5 stars - Giant faces? Very bizarre, mildly unsettling.
Black Leg - 1 star - The style and structure of this story just did not jive with me. Starts as a court case (which might have been a cool setting for a horror story), but then moves on into a dead mall... Found it less creepy than confusing. The last two paragraphs try to add some depth, but it came off as trite, not to mention too little, too late.
The Offering - 3 stars - Reminded me (vaguely) of Don't Look Now. I enjoyed the family dynamic and Smith's observations on parenthood. Less so, the horror aspect, which feels forced and out of nowhere. Nothing much scary happens (which is perfectly okay!) until the obligatory 'twist' ending. Should have stayed a slice-of-life.
Fox Girl - ? stars - A poem. Didn't feel one way or the other about it, I guess.
Shuck - 3 stars - Twist ruined this for me. I hadn't heard of Black Shuck, so there's that at least. Still...
The Hunt at Rotterdam - 3.5 stars -Men braving the wild and windy moors to get themselves som wives. I thought this was quite clever and short. Not scary, but a nice one-off. Made me intrigued to know more.
Dancing Sober in the Dark - 3.5 stars - Reminded me of Scold's Bridle (last collection), albeit better. Involves a man obsessed with spiky costumes. Stands out by virtue of being... different.
The God Bag - 3 stars - Guy finds his mother had a god bag with magical, wish-fulfilling properties, but of course they come at a price. This was decent, but it does the typical horror thing where the guy takes WAY too long to come to terms with what is happening when it's pretty damn clear the second he sees the red slips exactly how this story's going to go. Precious time we COULD have spent getting to know his daughter and husband. The ending tries to pack a punch, but the story's too contained for that. Too much tell, not enough show.
The Strathantine Imps - 2.5 stars - Well-written, but overfamiliar. I did NOT understand the framing device. Ostensibly, this is being told by a dude who heard this story from a girl, and yet he is transcribing it word for word? Why not just have her write it, if she goes around telling it to strangers anyways?
The Quizmasters - 3 stars - Decent. Short. Crazy guys ask a kid on a bike some innocent questions. What happens if he gets one wrong? Not so innocent. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!
All Those Lost Days - 3 stars - What if a time machine amusement park ride actually machined you through time? Firstly, who does Evenson think he is having a novel called 'Last Days' and then a short story called, 'All Those Lost Days'? Bug off with that shit. Secondly, this is quite possibly the least 'Evenson' story I've ever read. I feel like it has very few of his hallmarks- it's more like a well-written nosleep joint than it is anything else he's written. Goofy fun.
Anna Gare - ? stars - Odd choice for the collection?
Three Sisters Bog - 2 stars - Dog runs off into bog. Kid wants to retrieve dog from bog. Witches live in bog and claim ownerships of all that enters bog, including kids and dogs. I'm all for ambiguity in horror, but this needed something more. It leaves off just as it's getting good, unfortuantely.
The Steering Wheel Club - 2 stars - Abusive dude haunted and ultimately SPOILERED by a steering wheel that itself once belonged to a dead, abusive dude.
The King of Stones - 2.5 stars - One of the darker shorts, surprisingly, but also pretty rote. The argument between the leads is way too goofy. We're supposed to believe they've been together TWENTY years, not two...
Stolen Property - 2.5 stars - Engh. Hikers. Twins. I feel like the most interesting angle (to do with twins) is not explored in depth. Monster is whatever. MC was not on edge enough to 'feel' the danger creeping in.
Shards - 2 stars - Disjointed and gimmicky. Some evil dead shit happens at a cabin and then we hop between the surviving quartet as they each succumb to some evil, ill-defined influence. One is always cold, one needs to keep spinning... Felt arbitrary.
Chit Chit - 2.5 stars - Horse skulls. A trap. 'Twas okay.
Poor Butcher-Bird - 2.5 stars - I'm not a huge Files fan, I'll admit. She has some very cool ideas, but I find many of her shorts overwritten or edgy for the sake of edge. With the exception of Emperor's Old Bones (which is a 5 star story, legitimately fantastic, uses all of her tendencies to great effect), I don't know if anything I've read by her has stuck with me. And on that count, Buthcher Bird is no exception...
Side note: I hate when horror shorts gradually reveal a cool monster and then are all like, 'she was a tengu' or somesuch. Just feels lazy. Either say they're that from the get go, or make your own.
Trap - 3 stars - Great setup, disappointing payoff. I like when shorts give you a taste of actual character, in this case a single mom contrasting her two teenage daughters, one rebellious, the other not quite there yet. I liked the dynamics, but the horror didn't go anywhere.
I'll Be Gone By Then - LaRocca is okay, but none of his stuff has blown me away yet.
Jack In the Box - 3.5 stars - Decent. Not the most satisfying ending, but with enough to keep it rolling.
Tiptoe- 4.5 stars, maybe 5 - Best story in the collection, and one of my favorites by Barron. Very creepy. A concept doesn't have to be particularly out there to be done well. I'm not sure the Dad's job and the animatronic baby stuff were necessary, but having the narrator be a wildlife photographer was a stroke of genius.
November 27, 2023
Another solid collection. I've noticed how over time the number of UK authors featured in the Year's Best Horror series has been steadily increasing, and that was particularly noticeable in this collection. I can only assume it's because more UK authors are turning out the good stuff. It parallels how I'm seeing more UK actors in American movies and TV series, managing to pull off credible accents and delivering strong performances, while the reverse (US actors doing great stuff in UK series) is almost never true.
My favorite stories were "The God Bag" by Christopher Golden, "The Strathantine Imps" by Steve Duffy and "Tiptoe" by Laird Barron (a perennial favorite), but there are lots of solid creepy and disturbing stories for any fan of horror fiction.
My favorite stories were "The God Bag" by Christopher Golden, "The Strathantine Imps" by Steve Duffy and "Tiptoe" by Laird Barron (a perennial favorite), but there are lots of solid creepy and disturbing stories for any fan of horror fiction.
February 22, 2023
the number of times i finished a story, shuddered, and said, 'gah. oof. whoah,' is almost equivalent to the number of stories in this collection. these are all deeply-affecting tidbits of terror. most hew to standard short story conventions, with few operating outside the box, although a couple ('dancing sober in the dust' and 'anne gare's rare and import video catalogue october 2022') make some excellent use of epistolary elements.
for the most part, regardless of convention, they tend to the horrifying, and readers may want to avoid reading these before bed.
for the most part, regardless of convention, they tend to the horrifying, and readers may want to avoid reading these before bed.
May 19, 2024
I got this book in a rewards program at work. I’ve wanted to dive into Ellen Datlow Best Horror because it seems these collections lead people to some of their favorite authors. Some of my favorites in this anthology being Stolen Property- Sarah Lamparelli Shards- Ian Rogers Chit Chit- Steven Toase I’ll Be Gone By Then- Eric LaRocca Jack in the Box- Robin Furth and Tiptoe- Laird Barron. Ending it with Barron is chefs kiss although my absolute favorite here was Dancing Sober in the Dust- Steven Toase.
August 29, 2023
Great book! Of the 24 stories, I loved 9 of them. The rest were entertaining, but I like to put stars beside my favourites in the table of contents so that I can lend it to friends and tell them “these ones, these are the best”. And there’s a lot of good ones in here. “The Hunt at Rotherdam” by A.C. Wise and “The God Bag” by Christopher Golden we’re particularly captivating.
This is my second time reading a volume of The Best Horror of the Year and now I am set on collecting them all!
This is my second time reading a volume of The Best Horror of the Year and now I am set on collecting them all!
September 21, 2023
Always a wonderful experience, such a range of stories. Here are my favorite tales, the ones I taught in my Advanced Creative Writing Workshop:
Black Leg by Glen Hirshberg
The God Bag by Christopher Golden
Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase
Chit Chit by Steve Toase
Shuck by GV Anderson
Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli
Three Sisters Bog by Eion Murphy
Trap by Carly Holmes
Tiptoe by Laird Barron
Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 by Jonathan Raab
Black Leg by Glen Hirshberg
The God Bag by Christopher Golden
Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase
Chit Chit by Steve Toase
Shuck by GV Anderson
Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli
Three Sisters Bog by Eion Murphy
Trap by Carly Holmes
Tiptoe by Laird Barron
Anne Gare’s Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 by Jonathan Raab
October 31, 2023
Some really good authors in this one, although they re-used Laird Barron’s classic “Tiptoe” from an earlier anthology, “When Things get Dark,” which I think is one of the best horror anthologies I’ve read. There are a few stories in this volume that use gore, which I find is a lazy way for an author to elicit fear and dread. One story in particular was really tiresome with the blood and guts. But overall this is worthwhile.
June 22, 2023
Another phenomenal collection. Personal favorites include:
Matthew Holness "Caker's Man"
Steve Toase "Dancing Sober in the Dust"
Christopher Golden "The God Bag"
Eoin Murphy "Three Sisters Bog"
Kaaron Warren "The Steering Wheel Club"
Ian Rogers "Shards"
Gemma Files "Poor Butcher Bird"
Laird Barron "Tiptoe"
Would seek out more short fiction from any of these authors.
Matthew Holness "Caker's Man"
Steve Toase "Dancing Sober in the Dust"
Christopher Golden "The God Bag"
Eoin Murphy "Three Sisters Bog"
Kaaron Warren "The Steering Wheel Club"
Ian Rogers "Shards"
Gemma Files "Poor Butcher Bird"
Laird Barron "Tiptoe"
Would seek out more short fiction from any of these authors.
July 14, 2023
Another spectacular collection of unsettling, fascinating, and beautifully written short stories.
My particular favorites were: Caker’s Man by Matthew Holness, The Hunt at Rotterdam by A.C. Wise, The King of Stones by Simon Stranzas, Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli, Shards by Ian Rogers, Poor Butcher-Bird by Gemma Files, Jack-in-the-Box by Robin Furth, and Tiptoe by Laird Barron.
My particular favorites were: Caker’s Man by Matthew Holness, The Hunt at Rotterdam by A.C. Wise, The King of Stones by Simon Stranzas, Stolen Property by Sarah Lamparelli, Shards by Ian Rogers, Poor Butcher-Bird by Gemma Files, Jack-in-the-Box by Robin Furth, and Tiptoe by Laird Barron.
August 30, 2023
Don't think any of the stories were bad. I had already read one in another compilation, but besides that all new to me and all pretty good if not great. All pretty short reads as well.
The repeat was "I'll be gone by then" by Eric LaRocca. Had just read his compilation, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There, which included that story.
The repeat was "I'll be gone by then" by Eric LaRocca. Had just read his compilation, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There, which included that story.
December 16, 2023
A solid horror collection. Picks of the bunch are G.V Anderson's "Shuck", Steve Toase's "Dancing Sober in the Dust", Eoin Murphy's "Three Sisters Bog", Ian Rogers' "Shards", Gemma Files' "Poor Butcher Bird", Laird Barron's "Tiptoe" and the jarringly unhorror but hard-hitting "I'll Be Gone By Then" by Eric LaRocca.
March 25, 2024
Redwater – 3
Caker's Man – 5
Black Leg – 3
The Offering – 4
Fox Girl – 3
Shuck – 4
The Hunt at Rotherdam – 4
Dancing Sober in the Dust – 4
The God Bag – 5
The Strathantine Imps – 4
The Quiz Masters – 5
All Those Lost Days – 5
Anne Gare's Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 – 4.5
Three Sisters Bog – 4
The Steering Wheel Club – 3
The King of Stones – 4
Stolen Property – 5
Shards – 5
Chit Chit – 3.5
Poor Butcher Bird – 3
Trap – 3.5
I'll Be Gone By Then – 3
Jack-in-the-Box – 4.5
Tiptoe – 4
Caker's Man – 5
Black Leg – 3
The Offering – 4
Fox Girl – 3
Shuck – 4
The Hunt at Rotherdam – 4
Dancing Sober in the Dust – 4
The God Bag – 5
The Strathantine Imps – 4
The Quiz Masters – 5
All Those Lost Days – 5
Anne Gare's Rare and Import Video Catalogue October 2022 – 4.5
Three Sisters Bog – 4
The Steering Wheel Club – 3
The King of Stones – 4
Stolen Property – 5
Shards – 5
Chit Chit – 3.5
Poor Butcher Bird – 3
Trap – 3.5
I'll Be Gone By Then – 3
Jack-in-the-Box – 4.5
Tiptoe – 4
January 29, 2023
I eagerly await Ellen Datlow’s collections. I discovered the series a while back and plan on working my way through the catalogue. She is a superlative curator of horror fiction with a knack for really capturing the zeitgeist of the time. All killer—no filler. Tiptoe—whoa!!
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