The Best Horror of the Year

Starred review from July 15, 2019
The 25 stories that Datlow has selected as the best short horror fiction of 2018 are impressive in their thematic breadth and tone. At one extreme there are chillers by Kristi DeMeester, Gemma Files, and Eloise C.C. Shepherd that find grist for nightmares in the intimacy of parent/child relationships. At the other extreme are Michael Marshall Smith’s “Shit Happens” and Joe Hill’s “You Are Released,” tales of apocalyptic horror on the seas and in the air. An array of exceptional stories fall in between them, including John Langan’s “Haak” and Siobhan Carroll’s “Haunt,” which build on fantastical elements in the work of Conrad and Coleridge, respectively; Thana Niveau’s “White Mare,” about the survival of macabre primitive customs into modern times; Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s creepy urban legend thriller, “You Know How the Story Goes”; Dale Bailey’s anthropophagus alternate history, “The Donner Party”; and Anne Billson’s shape-shifter shocker, “I Remember Nothing.” Datlow has drawn her selections from a wide variety of sources that even the most dedicated fans may have overlooked, and her comprehensive introductory overview of the year in horror will uncover still more venues for great scares. This is an indispensable volume for horror readers.

August 9, 2019

Hugo Award-winning series editor Datlow (The Best Horror of the Year, Vols. 1-11) brings together some of the greatest writers in the genre in this annual anthology. This year's collection of 22 short stories showcases big-name authors as well as fresh voices. Joe Hill's exemplary "You Are Released" is a story of World War III breaking out, as experienced through a group of plane passengers. Kristi DeMeester's "Milkteeth" and Thana Niveau's "White Mare" also stand out from the pack. VERDICT A must-have volume for horror aficionados and a solid starter for readers looking to discover new authors in the genre.--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2019
Even with the overall high quality of the latest of Datlow's anthology series, there are some remarkable highlights. Stories of sinister supernatural intrusions such as Gemma Files' Thin Cold Hands has a particularly visceral twist on the changeling child theme, and Siobhan Carroll's Haunt features a strange entity hiding in the wreck of a ship that pursues sailors who served, unquestioning, aboard slaver ships. Others imagine strange, grotesque apocalypses such as Michael Marshall Smith's Shit Happens, where a mysterious fog causes bowel distress and then an intense hunger for blood, or Adam Troy-Castro's Red Rain, a completely second-person narrative in which you are witness to a mysterious and constant rain of bodies from the sky. And there are stories that reimagine history such as John Langan's Haak, where a professor tells stories within stories concerning Joseph Conrad, a lost Spanish ship, and the great god Pan, or Dale Bailey's aptly titled The Donner Party about an alternate Victorian London where the eating of ensouled flesh is the mark of good breeding. Whatever the source of the horror, this excellent anthology demonstrates that Datlow's reputation as one of the best editors in the field is more than well-deserved.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 26, 2009
After 22 years of pulling the horror content for the now-discontinued Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series, Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound
) goes solo with this stellar start to a new “best of” annual. As in the past, her picks confirm that “horror” is a storytelling approach with endlessly inventive possibilities. In E. Michael Lewis's “Cargo,” a haunting Twilight Zone
–type tale, an airplane picks up something otherworldly as part of its latest transport. Euan Harvey's creepy “Harry and the Monkey” turns an urban legend into reality. R.B. Russell's “Loup-garou” is a highly original shape-shifter story with a subtle psychological twist, and Daniel LeMoal's “Beach Head” a bracing conte cruel
with a Lord of the Flies
cast. In addition to the richly varied stories, Datlow provides her usual comprehensive coverage of the year in horror in an introduction that's indispensable reading for horror aficionados.