2024 the best horror books review

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(as of Dec 08, 2024 05:53:15 UTC - Details)

For over three 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 eighth 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
Kim Stanley Robinson
Stephen King
Linda Nagata
Laird Barron
Margo Lanagan
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.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07H51RKGH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Night Shade Books (June 7, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 7, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 978 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 362 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1597808539
Reviewer: Kevin C.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Creepy and good collection
Review: great collection, 4.5 rating.I pre-ordered and received a couple of days early i was stoked and immediately began readingmy favorite ones were Universal horror- takes place on halloween with a group of friends giving out candy . Fabulous beasts, Snow' gets right to it such a thrill, and the first story of an outbreak were all great id like to see this made into a movie or a novelThe writing was great, made some stories more interesting than they really were.

Reviewer: Bryan
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Volume 8 in one of the best horror anthology series
Review: Why 4 stars instead of 5? Repetition.I injest horror at a level that most people consider unhealthy. I run the full gamut from traditional myth and folktales to traditional authors and nosleep/creepypasta writers/readers.This series has some phenomenal authors throughout, unfortunately It's excruciatingly repetitive with those authors. Almost every volume in this series contains roughly 90% of the same authors that made up the bulk of the previous volume with little new blood injected. While those authors are (for the most part) good, when Ellen Datlow does deviate from her tried and true it can become a painful, if not impossible to chew through read.Datlow is also incredibly wordy. Her introductions tend to average 30 pages and are excruciatingly dull as well. She then book ends each volume with another 10+ pages of "about the authors" and "honorable mentions". The author information I understand, the honorable mentions and 30+ page pointless introductions I don't. It's all wasted space that could easily be devoted to another 1-2 stories.That said, this is one of the best ongoing horror anthology series available. It's reasonably priced, well bound, for the most part well proofread and edited and contains a wide array of horror sub-genres that keeps things from getting boring.

Reviewer: J. Aaron Bellamy
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A good collection that didn't feel like the 'best'
Review: This volume of Datlow's series struck me as taking fewer risks. There is only one story that I just didn't like - My Boy Builds Coffins - and a handful that I thought were okay. But at the same time, there were no stories that I thought were amazing. In previous editions, there has always been at least one story that left me feeling like, "well, that was probably the best one of the year, thanks Ellen." There are four stories here that stood out from the pack for me: Snow by Dale Bailey, The Rooms are High by Reggie Oliver, In a Cavern, In a Canyon by Laird Barron, and probably the best of the book: Black Dog by Neil Gaiman. (It almost certainly is incorrect to have two colons in a single sentence, but there you have it.)I've read a lot of Laird Barron lately, and In a Cavern hit me probably when I should have been taking a break from him. He is a fantastic writer and if memory serves, has had a story in every volume of this series, but there is a uniquely defining style and arguably type of story he uses that can wear thin if read back to back. Similarly with Neil Gaiman. This story is in the American God's world and is quite good, but I'd rather have visited someplace else. Still, Black Dog is easily the best story in this volume and shouldn't be missed.The rest of the stories are all good, they just aren't spectacular. If I take my ratings of each individual story, it comes out higher than other volumes have in the past, but it just doesn't feel like a 'best of' collection. I feel like horror as a genre has so much flexibility, it can be steeped in genre trappings like werewolves, vampires, or drenched in blood, or it can be subtle and psychological. Finding the absolute best each year may require putting in some stories that are really challenging, and not to everyone's tastes. Some of my favorite Laird Barron tales I've had to read a few times before I can figure out what is going on, but I know that I feel unsettled each time. Nothing in this collection really pushed the genre forward for me. But I'll definitely continue with the series, it's always worth reading.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Read all Eight
Review: I have already consumed Volumes 6, 7, and 8. I am currently reading Volume 4. As soon as I can afford Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 5, I will read all of this collection. Ms. Datlow has collected an excellent range of horror stories and writers within these pages. And, make sure to read the yearly Summations to find even more fantastic horror from the last 8 years! Nuff' said. DKW

Reviewer: Janet
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent Collection
Review: In spite of my Alice Munro obsession I rarely read short stories. But I have always been a fan of horror and many horror stories are better told in a shorter format. More importantly, I am starting to read newer authors and anthologies such as this are a great way to read a lot of different authors to get a taste for the type of horror they write. Of the 20 stories, I read all but two -- I simply do not read anything that includes the mistreatment (intentional or otherwise) of animals. This is strictly personal and I'm sure the two stories I avoided are perfectly good and I will not be reluctant to read other stories by these authors in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed the 18 stories I did read. Every story was creepy from beginning to end, many were odd and unsettling, some presented horror in new and innovative ways ... every single one provided delightful and unnerving scares.

Reviewer: Sean Hazlett
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Highly Recommended
Review: If there's one thing about Datlow anthologies, they always have great stories. This volume was no different.Standouts in this volume are Laird Barron's "In a Cavern, In a Canyon" and Stephen Bacon's "Lord of the Sand."Highly recommended for anyone interested in the horror genre.

Reviewer: Roger Cornpone
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fun read
Review: *Some hit or miss stories, but most fun to read. I like the format and you'll always discover new authors. That's never a bad thing*.2nd time posting this bc I got an email stating this review didn't conform to community standards.

Reviewer: Maureen O'Leary Wanket
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Superior reading experience
Review: Terrifying stories sometime beautifully, always compelingly written. These collections are consistently superior reading experiences and I highly recommend.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Salvo unos pocos, todos los cuentos que conforman esta colección son excelentes. Algunos no son tan terroríficos pero están bien escritos, otros son aterradores aunque no sean exactamente de terror. Recomendable.