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Standouts:Cleaver, Meat, and Block by Maria HaskinsIt Doesn’t Feel Right by Michael Marshall SmithThe Devil Will Be At the Door by David SurfaceScream Queen by Nathan BallingrudContrition (1998) by JAW McCarthyTwo Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker
Lucky Volume Thirteen, to cover our first plague year.Though the coronavirus is largely absent from these pages. I don't know how much lead time authors require to incorporate current events in their fiction, but the epidemics here are of garden-variety rage cannibals and face-eating moppets. Several authors went on holiday. There are Arctic adventures gone wrong. There are climbing excursions gone wrong. There are days at the beach gone wrong. Other contributors understandably retreated to deca...
Particular highlights from this year's edition - - "Lords of the Matinee" by Stephen Graham Jones- "Cleaver, Meat, and Block" by Maria Haskins- "The Devil Will Be at the Door" by David Surface- "Scream Queen" by Nathan BallingrudAnd several more! Some puzzling omissions, but overall an excellent collection as usual from Datlow and Co.
26 short stories. If I add up what I rated each story, they average out to 3 stars each but I enjoyed the 5 stars more than I hated the 1 stars so I bumped this up to 4 stars overall. There were a lot of haunted house stories and stories set in the arctic so that appealed to me personally. Other people have given 5 stars to stories I thought were 1 star reads, so there's definitely something for everyone in this collection.
A real mixed bag - several really good ones and several stinkers. The first half of the book seems particularly weaker than the latter half, but of course a lot of this is in the eye of the beholder. Shout out to Ballingrud and Files for making yet again some excellent stories. There was a few others I liked too but the book is packed away now and I can't remember the names sadly.
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen was to be my final book of 2021, the perfect closure of my reading year… Or so I thought. What actually happened is that it didn’t even make it to the first book of 2022 because it starts so damn slow! My initial impression of the first few stories is such a poor one that I seriously wondered if this really can be the best horror of any year at all! I was wrong, though, a slow start does not necessarily mean a bad anthology. As we all know anthologies
3.5 stars
As always, Ellen Datlow has chosen a good batch of stories for this volume. I didn't skip any stories or stop reading halfway through any of them. There were not, however, any stories that really knocked my socks off in this volume as there have been in past volumes. There was also a marked lack of diversity in this collection. Datlow has always preferred Western stories, and that's never been more apparent than in Volume 13. There were no less than three stories about British families going on
Like all anthologies, some of these hit harder than others. These stories are all drastically different in tone and concepts - some coldly horrific, some monstrous, and even some sneaky dark humor. I read this book primarily to read the new Nathan Ballingrud and Stephen Graham Jones (neither of which disappointed) but came away with a ton of new authors to add to the reading list. Need to check out Maria Haskins, Elana Gomel, Christopher Harman, and J.A.W. McCarthy.
Review in October 2021 issue of Library Journal: https://www.libraryjournal.com/?revie...Excellent as usual and the overall best resource for understanding the year that was in the genre.Three Words That Describe This Book: Full range of scares, year in review, new voicesDraft Review: Each year, Datlow, the most critically acclaimed Horror editor in the world, considers the very best short horror fiction published in print and online, from all over the world. The only limitation is that it was p...
Overall: 4.5 out of 5. I have come to the realization that while none of these volumes is ever going to be properly brilliant all the way through, there will always be at least half the stories that really do it for me. Here are my thoughts on them all, in order of appearance."Exhalation #10" - Disappointed. Beginning with a premise of extraordinary promise - a kind of horror superhero story - "Exhalation #10 ends without an ending. It just kind of stops, and I hate it when stories don't finish
Favorites:Cleaver, Meat, and BlockMouselode MazeThe Devil Will Be at the Door Scream QueenTethered DogsIn the English RainTwo Truths and a Lie
This was a really good collection of stories. A really nice mix of tales. My favorites were by Stephen Graham Jones, Jack Lothian, Catriona Ward, Maria Haskins, Sam Hicks, Pete W. Sutton, JAW McCarthy, Thana Niveau, and Sarah Pinsker. I am teaching all of those stories in my Advanced Creative Writing Workshop. If I had to pick a favorite, it might be Sarah's, "Two Truths and a Lie," so unsettling. Great work as always, Ellen.
[4.5] Stronger than last year, I thought. I would happily re-read most stories. If a theme sticks out to me from this collection, it seems like it has a greater focus on the monstrosity of humans versus supernatural monstrosities. Here are the top two stories for me:1. Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker2. Scream Queen by Nathan BallingrudOther recommended stories include:Lords of the Matinee by Stephen Graham JonesCleaver, Meat, and Block by Maria HaskinsThe Eight Thousanders by Jason Sanford...
Unlucky #13! You probably know by now what you're signing up for with a Datlow anthology.“Exhalation #10” (A. C. Wise) A filmmaker and a cop track down the scene of a snuff film. Actually not one of my favorites in _The Ghost Sequences_, serial killers aren’t for me, and I thought it was vastly shown up by the thematically similar “Excerpts From A Film…”“A Hotel in Germany” (Catriona Ward) A movie star’s assistant suffers through her job. A tale of monstrous servitude absolutely buzzing with anx...
I can't say that I enjoyed reading all of the stories included, because some of them I had to hide in the freezer while I shook off the chills they left behind, but the caliber of storytelling in this anthology is unmatched! The range of stories and authors included (while very Western, as far as I could tell) provided a breadth of twists and turns that the reader definitely gets a very different type of horror in each new story.
Horror short stories have a fundamentally different feel than horror novels. The fuse is shorter, and there’s palpable tension and unease from the start - qualities that never let up. The combined effect is like biting straight into the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop while someone jams increasingly discordant chords on a nearby piano. It’s weird. I love it.Most of the stories in “The Best Horror of the Year (Volume 13)” don’t quite hit this sensation for me. Many of them follow the well-worn tread...
Another awesome collection!I look forward to each volume of the Best Horror of the Year and this volume certainly did not disappoint! Ms. Datlow has such a knack for compiling some truly amazing stories!
TABLE OF CONTENTSSummation 2020 -- Ellen DatlowExhalation #10 -- A C WiseA Hotel in Germany -- Catriona WardA Deed Without a Name -- Jack LothianLords of the Matinee -- Stephen Graham JonesCleaver, Meat, and Block -- Maria HaskinsThe Eight-Thousanders -- Jason SanfordScold’s Bridle: A Cruelty—Richard GavinCome Closer -- Gemma FilesIt Doesn’t Feel Right -- Michael Marshall SmithMine Seven -- Elana GomelSicko -- Stephen VolkMouselode Maze -- Christopher HarmanHeath Crawler -- Sam HicksThe Devil Wi...
Murakami's cover design for this anthology is one of my favourites so far, that's my first impression of the book. I've been looking forward to this for some time, Ellen Datlow compiles the best anthologies, and her yearly round up is always welcome. As with any multi author anthology, there is going to be some variation in how the stories appeal to individual taste, so I'll comment on the ones that made the biggest impact. AC Wise's 'Exhalation #10' hit me just right. The protagonist has an unc...