The Best Horror of the Year (The Best Horror of the Year #4)

This is Ellen Datlow\’s fourth time editing Best Horror of the Year for Night Shade Books. This edition is the best so far, combining potent, ambitious longer works by genre stars with a varied sampler of up and coming names. Eighteen stories (including several novellas) follow Datlow\’s lengthy introduction, a wide-ranging summary of the genre year touching on noteworthy novels, anthologies, collections, periodicals, awards and events. If the tasting menu of the year\’s finest short fiction weren\’t enough to make the volume an essential overview of all things noteworthy in the horror genre, this overview tips the balance. This makes an excellent introduction to talented new writers, as well as others more established who may yet be unfamiliar to a given reader. For example, I knew David Nickel and Brian Hodge by name, but hadn\’t read their works, which turned out to constitute pleasant revelations. In Nickle\’s \”Looker,\” a drunk man at a party finds a woman whose qualities go beyond the merely eye-pleasing. In \”Roots and All,\” Hodge\’s character revisits a town where important childhood events occurred, some of which still echo in the present. Both stories exemplify Datlow\’s preference for character-driven horror, more haunting mood and troubling memory than blood and shrieking monsters. There are several more standouts: \”Blackwood\’s Baby,\” like many Laird Barron stories, takes place in rural Washington state, and expands upon Barron\’s personal, regional mythos. This novella tracks a 1930s expedition of diverse hunters seeking a beast of legend more dangerous than any of them anticipate. It\’s as powerful as any previous work by Barron, who lately can be counted upon to contribute at least one rich and potent tale to each year\’s best. In Livia Llewellyn\’s \”Omphalos,\” a girl caught in terrible surroundings must fight complex factors keeping her in place. Llewellyn specializes in the dark, raw-edge and harrowing. Her writing pulses with blood and seethes with emotion. Her \”Engines of Desire\” is among the best weird/dark collections of recent years, certainly one of the top debuts. In John Langan\’s \”In Paris, in the Mouth of Kronos,\” two fallen former agents try to claw their way back to gainful employment. They\’re hired to grab a \”Mr. White,\” who may be a very different order of being from what they expect. Dark yet breezily entertaining, merging the grittiness of noir and spy thriller intrigue with a Lovecraftian hint of ancient forces lurking beneath the everyday world\’s seeming normalcy. Langan\’s a skilled writer, whose work Datlow often features. At times I\’ve thought his work needed more of an edge. This has it. \”The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine\” by Peter Straub is a tour-de-force of tender yet bitter codependent romance conveyed in a disorienting balance of straight realism and twisted surrealism. In a series of encounters separated by wide gaps of time, the title characters (the much older Ballard is a mysterious \”fixer\” type employed by Sandrine\’s father) journey down the Amazon River on boats with ever-changing names. The couple, caught up in unfathomable events, exhibit a muted curiosity about their circumstances. At times they make experimental gestures seeking to understand the odd nature of the boat or its invisible crew. What knowledge they gain always seems to be lost, forgotten or clouded by the next interlude. The effect is weirdly disorienting, yet familiar. Don\’t we all forget lessons we\’ve learned, ignore warning signs, and often repeat our mistakes? The growing surreality of Ballard and Sandrine\’s circumstances finally unfolds at least partially. Horrific and seemingly occult aspects are revealed, yet mystery remains. Straub may be the most cerebral of horror writers, and this is one of his best, boldest works.

Truth in advertising? You\’d better believe it! 2011 was a stellar year for horror fiction, and Ellen Datlow has, again, unerringly selected the very best of the very best. Stephen King–who has found his horror groove again–kicks the year open with a truly scary tale of an exorcist/healer who gives corporeal life to pain. Leah Bobet follows with a jarringly dark modern wendigo story, and Simon Bestwick takes a razor\’s view of a faltering marriage. Laird Barron tells an unnerving tale of deep-woods terror about a group of big-game hunters who learn the true horrors of the hunt; David Nickle explores the pitfalls of immediate sexual attraction, and Priya Sharma\’s TV psychic fights for survival before ravening viewers. Margo Lanagan\’s extraordinary dark fantasy, \”Mulberry Boys\”, considers the terrible price a group of village silk-makers pay for business success; Brian Hodge brings on the screams with a muscular tale of a very bad bargain; A.C. Wise follows the descent of a man who confuses film with reality; Livia Llwellyn\’s brilliant dark \”Omphalos\” charts a family\’s dreadful closeness; Simon Bestwick presents a thrilling dark mystery; Alison Littlewood tells of a raven that grants wishes–for a price; Chet Williamson solves a very compelling puzzle; Terry Lamsley\’s answer to what happened to a man named Murdock is quite chilling indeed. In what may be my favorite tale in this grand anthology, Glen Hirshberg describes a harrowing mother-daughter evaluation of events that drove the mother utterly insane. John Langan tells a deceptively straightforward story about a pair of mercenaries and their strange business assignment, and Anna Taborska describes a terrible choice made by a subjugated woman in desperate circumstances. Fittingly, the great Peter Straub ends this anthology with a finely wrought tale of a couple drawn together by lust, pain and pleasure. Although each story is singularly enthralling, I find Ms Datlow\’s summation of the year preceding the stories equally enjoyable. As well-written as any of the fiction, I think, the editor\’s opening summary of all forms of horror published during 2011 is concise, comprehensive, entertaining and utterly addictive reading for fans of the horror genre.

Like all collections some are very good and some just blah. I found I couldnt focus on a full novel for the first month of the Covid-19 pandemic and these short stories were just what I needed to keep my mind off the world as it is, ever so briefly.

Each story has it\’s own unique attributes that make this collection of stories very easy to read. Highly recommended for all who enjoy the tantalizing goose bumps.

Really great, original stories. As happens so often though, poor editing on some of the stories was extremely distracting. But overall, I was very happy with this book which is why I rated it five stars!

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