2024 the best of two years review

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Celebrities take refuge in a white-walled mansion as plague and fever sweep into Cannes; a killer finds that the living dead have no appetite for him; a television presenter stumbles upon the chilling connection between a forgotten animal act and the Whitechapel Murders; a nude man unexpectedly appears in the backgrounds of film after film; mysterious lights menace the crew of a small plane; a little girl awakens to discover her nightlight--and more--missing; two sisters hunt vampire dogs in the wild hills of Fiji; lovers get more than they bargained for in a decadent discotheque; a college professor holds a classroom mesmerized as he vivisects Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"...

What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the seventeen stories included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.

Legendary editor Ellen Datlow (Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe), winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Night Shade; 1st edition (March 1, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1597801739
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1597801737
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
Reviewer: Bryan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The first in the series that's actually worth reading
Review: My reviews of this series have been harsh and rightly so. Most of this series is lacking in one way or another. Either the editing is poor of the stories are simply not horror. This volume is different, the editing is good, the stories are well seated in the genre (i.e they're actually horror and not dark fantasy) and most are very good. I can see whe the series was so well lauded at this point, unfortunately it also highlights how far the series fell as it continued. If you're going to read this series I would strongly suggest sticking with the early volumes and only delve into the more recent editions at a later date

Reviewer: J. Aaron Bellamy
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great series, obviously some stories work better than others
Review: Having read several of Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year volumes now, I think they are very good. It’s difficult to rank individual volumes because any collection of stories is going to contain pieces that work for some and not others. Like every collection I’ve ever read, this collection has stories that just didn’t work for me. It’s hard to ignore them and give the book five stars. At the same time, giving the collection three stars doesn’t seem fair. (Not to mention nobody reads three star reviews). This volume is weirder than others. Most of the stories here do not fall into the standard horror story genre. They aren’t stories to read outside at night by the light of a fire (well, except maybe ‘The Nimble Men’ or ‘The Crevasse’). They are more unsettling and thought provoking, like ‘Technicolor’ which is a study of Poe’s Masque of the Red Death, or Lotophagi, which is told from the viewpoint of someone that can barely get the words down sensibly on paper (intentional? Not sure.) Gemma Files’ and Stephen J. Barringer’s ‘each thing I show you is a piece of my death’ is an ingenious tale that not only terrifies, but stands as a commentary on the genre as well as a furtherance of a living dialogue on the genre – my favorite of the collection. Quite frankly, even the duds here, for me ‘Strappado’ and ‘The End of Everything’ are worth reading. All around, this entire series, so far, is a must have for anyone reading horror or the weird.

Reviewer: jonathan briggs
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Best Horror of the Year Volume Two
Review: The back cover tells us "legendary" editor Ellen Datlow ... Hold up, stop right there for a minute. "Legendary"? Isn't that a little ostentatious? "Venerated," sure; "well-respected," definitely; "award-winning," undeniable; but "legendary"? That's a descriptor best used in barroom tall tales and children's bedtime stories. "Boys, did I ever tell you the Legend of Ellen Datlow? On my soul, every word is true." A legendary editor would take the time to ensure all the typos got swept out of her book. Anyway, back to the cover copy: It promises that editor Ellen Datlow (legendary or not) "knows what scares us." If that's so, I wonder why she's holding back in this book. But that's OK, I'm a hard guy to bug out. The book's not scary, but is it any good?Suzy McKee Charnas kicks off this volume with "Lowland Sea," a modern take on Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." A vapid movie star (is there any other kind?) and his entourage take refuge in a private compound in Cannes, partying non-stop while a plague outside the walls holds dominion over all. It's an interesting spin on Poe's tale, but that's as far as it goes. Charnas sets up her high concept, then ends the story.The best of 2009's best horror is "each thing i show you is a piece of my death," a powerhouse collaboration between Gemma Files and Stephen Barringer. The story is told in high-tech epistolary fashion, in a collage of blog entries, police reports, e-mails and interview transcripts that mirrors rapidly evolving communication media. That format doesn't leave a lot of room for character development, but it enhances the documentary feel of the piece, intensifying the chilly feeling that this story of a literally viral video and its morbidly voyeuristic death cult of personality could be real.Also stylistically daring is Micaela Morrissette's "Wendigo," but to no good purpose. I'm all for the New Weird. I think it's one of the most exciting (non)movements in the fantasy/horror genres, but I see too many random collections of surreal imagery and descriptions of slime, cephalopods and decadence wandering around in search of a story to serve. "Wendigo" was written as a companion piece to a pig flesh art project. Yea, I kinda figured."The Nimble Men" starts off great, offering a quick hit of creepy as a commuter flight crew is stuck on a rural runway amid snow, spooky woods, weird lights and a reticent air-traffic control tower. But that's not important enough for Glen Hirshberg. He has to make some grand statement about grief, and soon, as in most Hirshberg stories, everybody busts out weeping. Glen Hirshberg is the emo rocker of the horror genre.Norman Prentiss' "In the Porches of My Ears" doesn't even seem to be a horror story until a nasty little stinger hits you at the end. Nicely done. I didn't see it coming. I'm keeping my eye on Prentiss.Kaaron Warren's "The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall" has something to do with vampire pets, and yes, it's every bit as stupid as it sounds.There are a couple more Poe pastiches in honor of the 200th year since the poet's birth, but nothing anyone will remember for near that long.The book cover hyperbole continues, asserting that "every year the bar is raised." Well, not really. This is very much like Volume One. The stories are mostly competent (aside from the aforementioned typos), but rarely anything more. There's very little here to reassure a disheartened horror fan that the genre is alive and healthy or even poised for a revival in the near future. In Datlow's recap of horror publications in 2009, most of the novels she singles out as exceptional sound more like crime or fantasy fiction. I finished the book and looked back over the Table of Contents and honestly could not remember a thing about a few of the selections. Datlow is going to have to be a lot more discerning and exacting in her fiction choices if she wants to earn that "legendary" adjective. Maybe she'll get her chance in Volume Three.

Reviewer: M. Thornburg
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Scary, scary, truly scary stuff.
Review: I've read several volumes of this series -- not in order of publication. This one is the best so far, in my opinion, and I haven't even come close to finishing it. I'm writing this having read only three of the seventeen stories, and even if I don't read any more (but I will! I will!) it's been well worth at least twice the price. "The End of Everything" is a zombie story, entirely original and horrifying; "each thing i show you..." is complex, riveting, and utterly terrifying; "The Lowland Sea," science-fiction set in the near future, is completely believable and really, really frightening. These are smart, gripping, atmospheric stories. The quality of writing is top-notch. Good horror hits you in the pit of the stomach, stays in your mind for a long time, and gives you nightmares. If you can't take that, don't read this book.I'll stop raving now... gotta go back and start reading again!

Reviewer: gwen gal
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good scares for late night reading
Review: This collection of stories are great for the connoisseur of horror. Favorites in this collection include the stories by Prentiss and Duffy. And if you are afraid of the water, definitely don't read "Dead Loss".

Reviewer: DianneT
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great horror, well written
Review: This series is amazing. I'd about given up on horror (outside of Stephen King's of course) because so much of it is badly written. This entire series outstanding - plotting, character development, use of supernatural, literary value - all just surprised me. I started with book 6 but have since gotten book 2 which I'm currently reading. I'll be getting others in this series as they really are well done.

Reviewer: Mark
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Solid
Review: Hopefully this makes sense to you. The writing is betting than the horror is. Most of these stories fit into the "scary after deep thought" mold and never leave it. Think O Henry with a more macabre vibe. It s worth your time however, just to remember what good writing is like even if the scares lack oomph.

Reviewer: Cliente de Amazon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Lo mejor