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The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1 (The Best Horror of the Year #1)

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 140 ratings · 22 reviews

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend... who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they a...more

Paperback, 350 pages

Published October 1st 2009 by Night Shade Books (first published 2009)

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Apr 19, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 3 of 5 stars

Indie outfit Night Shade Books swooped to the rescue after bigger publisher St. Martin's scuttled Ellen Datlow's long-running annual anthology of the best horror fiction. Although it's good to have the venerable editor still at work culling the good stuff, the inaugural volume of this series reboot is wobbly on its newborn feet. It's not that the stories are particularly objectionable. But for the most part, they're not exceptional either. What makes them the "best" horror of 2008? They're not s...more Indie outfit Night Shade Books swooped to the rescue after bigger publisher St. Martin's scuttled Ellen Datlow's long-running annual anthology of the best horror fiction. Although it's good to have the venerable editor still at work culling the good stuff, the inaugural volume of this series reboot is wobbly on its newborn feet. It's not that the stories are particularly objectionable. But for the most part, they're not exceptional either. What makes them the "best" horror of 2008? They're not scary or unsettling. They're not thought-provoking. They don't push boundaries. They don't even go for the easy grossout. I suppose "Adequate Horror of the Year" wouldn't sell very well, but it would be a more accurate title.

Datlow starts the book with her traditional summary of the previous year. Kudos to her for doing it with far less whining and far fewer typos than her fellow editor Gardner Dozois in his science fiction "best of" annuals.

The Table of Contents features a list of mostly unfamiliar names. The most prominent participant is probably Joe Lansdale who turns in a two-page scrap, a piffle, likely one of his "popcorn dreams" (Lansdale transcribes the nightmares he always has after eating popcorn). Even among that goofy company, "It Washed Up" is lightweight, and I suspect it was included more for marquee value than merit.

Among the rest of the crew: Richard Bowes writes his standard dreary story of how gay and haunted he is. Steve Duffy's "The Clay Party" adds a few twists to that wheezy cliche of the predator stalking the helpless woman only to find out in the shocking twist ending that she's really a vampire/werewolf/insert theme-anthology monster here. And guess what? It's still a wheezy cliche.

William Browning Spencer's "Penguins of the Apocalypse," about an alcoholic wrestling with literal demons, is one of the two stories that could legitimately lay claim to the title "best of the year." I wish Browning was as prolific as his fellow Texas raconteur Lansdale. His stories are frequently funny but carry a poisonous sting in the tail. He writes sentences like Tom Waits writes lyrics: "This wasn't a Saturday-night kind of bar. This was more the sort of bar you went to because you had gone to it the day before."

E. Michael Lewis, Trent Hergenrader and Adam Golaski turn in the kind of solid B-horror that Leisure should be publishing more of instead of printing glorified fan fiction.

Glen Hirshberg is one of the overrated new voices in the genre. He's written some good stories (and some better than good), but he has a stylistic quirk that absolutely bugs the hell out of me, and I'm surprised no editor has called him on this: the weeping. His characters bust out weeping at the slightest provocation. They weep and they weep and they weep and they weep. "Weep" must be Hirshberg's favorite word in the dictionary. "But Will, it seems, just wants to weep some more." Well, of course he does: He's a character in a Glen Hirshberg story. I swear, the pages were soggy.

Ever since I stumbled across Laird Barron's "Hallucigenia" a few years back, I've been on the lookout for more work by this amazingly assured newcomer. That novella accomplished two incredibly difficult feats: It did something new with well-used Lovecraftian tropes, and it gave me a serious case of the willies. Barron's entry here "The Lagerstatte," about grief and ghosts, isn't as effective as "Hallucigenia," but it showcases the author's potential to become one of the most important new talents in horror and suspense since the Dell Abyss days introduced Kathe Koja and Brian Hodge.

Daniel LeMoal shows promise, Margo Lanagan gives good gore, and Graham Edwards' "Girl in Pieces" is memorable for all the WRONG reasons.

So that's a total of two outstanding stories rising to the top of a sea of so-so. I won't make any silly declarations about horror being dead as a genre coz these things go in cycles (I hope), but 2008 apparently was not the year for it to shamble out of the crypt where it's been snoozing. And what's the deal with the naked zombie on the book cover, waving his tweeter at you? Nobody likes to see that. (less)

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May 12, 2011 Brendanmoody rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's important to start with what this volume is not. It's not a collection of a particular type of horror story; Datlow's taste, while tending toward the subtle over the blatant, is wide-ranging, and includes stories traditional and modern (to the extent that these labels are useful), long and short, serious and comic. Some are closer to dark fantasy than "horror" as some readers define it. This book is also not necessarily cued to your specific tastes. the editor has not magically reached into...more It's important to start with what this volume is not. It's not a collection of a particular type of horror story; Datlow's taste, while tending toward the subtle over the blatant, is wide-ranging, and includes stories traditional and modern (to the extent that these labels are useful), long and short, serious and comic. Some are closer to dark fantasy than "horror" as some readers define it. This book is also not necessarily cued to your specific tastes. the editor has not magically reached into your head and selected nineteen stories and two poems that you are guaranteed to love. Cover copy notwithstanding, Ellen Datlow does not know what scares you personally. To say that a book is "not for everyone" is often a form of back-handed criticism, but here it's just a fact.

With that out of the way, I can say what this book is: a collection of fine stories displaying the scope of the modern horror story. I can't say that I unreservedly admired all of the stories here, but I respected each one's craft. A new anthology edited by Datlow is a guaranteed purchase for me, and the reason I keep coming back is that I never find a story whose appeal utterly baffles me. Sometimes I don't find them as successful as they might be, but I never think "What the heck was ~that~ doing in this book?"

I'll highlight a few stories I particularly admired. Margaret Ronald's "When the Gentlemen Go By" is a brief, chilling story about a small town and the price it pays for its happiness. Again, traditional-sounding stuff, but the story's structure allows it to build to maximum effect, and there are a number of chilling moments along the way. It's also an interesting contrast with "The Hodag," a very different but equally effective small-town horror story elsewhere in the volume. "The Rising River," by Daniel Kaysen, is a sharply-styled, twisty little story about a girl who can talk to ghosts, or can she? Graham Edwards' "Girl in Pieces" is a mystery/science fiction/fantasy/horror hybrid. It's also a comedy. It sounds too busy to work, but in fact the noir-derived prose style makes it all fit together nicely.

In addition to the stories and poems, the volume also includes Datlow's summation of the year in horror publishing, an eminently useful list of novels, collections, anthologies, magazines, and other outlets for horror prose. With a genre that's so dependent on small presses, this essay is a much-needed annual resource for finding works you may have missed.

This is the kind of book you might want to look over before buying if you're not familiar with the editor's taste. Horror is (and should be) a broad church, so it's worth looking at some of the stories, and the editor's recommendations of other books in the summation, to get a sense of whether it's right for you. If it is, you're in for some excellent tales.(less)

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Mar 05, 2013 Nancy Oakes rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

To be perfectly blunt, if this was a selection of the best horror of the year 2008, either I must have missed something or horror writing was at an ebb that year. Out of 21 stories, there were three that were relatively creepy, and out of those, I'd already read one. To be sure, I know that anthologies are pretty iffy, but in the world of hit or miss, this book takes the prize for most misses. I hate being so negative, but jeez -- there's just no other way to say it.

The tale I liked the best was...more To be perfectly blunt, if this was a selection of the best horror of the year 2008, either I must have missed something or horror writing was at an ebb that year. Out of 21 stories, there were three that were relatively creepy, and out of those, I'd already read one. To be sure, I know that anthologies are pretty iffy, but in the world of hit or miss, this book takes the prize for most misses. I hate being so negative, but jeez -- there's just no other way to say it.

The tale I liked the best was "The Lagerstätte," by Laird Barron, which I read a couple of months back in his most exquisite horror collection Occultation. Moving on to number two is "The Hodag" by Trent Hergenrader, a creepy little story set in the woods of northern Wisconsin. The third entry is "Loup-garou," by R.B. Russell, about a man whose world changes after viewing a film called Loup-garou. It's not so much a story of hair-raising terror, but it was unsettling enough at the end that I had to read it twice.

I'd also like to mention "Beach Head," by Daniel Le Moal. There is a line at which horror becomes no longer fun for me -- and this story crossed it. In the strictest sense of the word, I was indeed horrified, but this one went well beyond my comfort zone and actually kept me awake all night. Three smugglers wake up one day to find themselves buried up to their heads in sand on a beach somewhere. After thinking over their situation and how they must have ended up there, things proceed to go from very bad to the worst possible scenario ever. I give much credit to the writer: the images his writing conjured were extremely vivid, but downright depressing and I hope to god I never see another story like this one again. I won't deny that the story was very well written, but there are just some things I don't want to see in my head.

I've got Best Horror of the Year volumes 2 (2009) and 3 (2010) sitting here, so I hope the quality of writing picked up after 2008. There is a bonus in Volume 1 that I haven't yet mentioned: the editor has put together a 33-page "Summation" of the horror writing of the year, including "Notable Novels," "Anthologies," "Mixed-Genre Anthologies," etc., offering a wide selection of stories and books for future reading. This is probably my least favorite anthology of my horror-reading experience, but I suppose horror, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. (less)

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Dec 16, 2009 Dr. Detroit rated it 2 of 5 stars

The problem with most horror anthologies, including this one, is the loose, free and easy application of the term “horror” to what ultimately ends up in the table of contents.

In my strange world (it’s okay, they know me there), red meat, arteries bustin’ wide open, grey matter going up in flame, and writing that attacks the beast and gets in and gets out without carrying any excess baggage – in other words, something that actually repulses, horrifies, or even causes your gorge to rise - goes a l...more

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May 30, 2011 Lee Battersby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Strong without being iconic, this volume tends towards intellectual horror over the visceral, and its weakest moments are, arguably, weaker than would be expected for a Year's Best.

That said, there is really only one genuinely bad story amongst them-- an interminal Laird Barron effort that goes on forever with nothing much actually happening and then fizzles out into an empty, predictable ending-- and fine, fizzing efforts from Landsdale, Kaysen and Bestwick that provide balance, and more import...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Christopher Munroe rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wish there was a way to give this book 2 1/2 to signify my ambivalence with it. Neat ideas abound, and interesting things are done with horror tropes, but at no point was I really scared by this. And that's subjective, which I know, but I'm the one writing the review, so there it is. Interesting, but it didn't affect me, it reads like a series of fun intellectual exercises rather than horror stories.

Which under any other title wouldn't be a problem, I loves me some cute literary exercises! How...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Daryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Loved the fantasy and horror collections that Datlow used to edit along with Terri Winding. I miss those for the stories and for the long, year-in-review introductions the editors provided. This is a lighter version of those books, concentrating solely on the horror half. Not as well put together as the older series (I didn't like the author bios and info lumped together at the back instead of with each story, for example), but it's a fine collection nevertheless. Some stories better than others...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Anastasia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: to-check-out

My Rating ★★★ 1/2

Datlow draws upon the many sources of the horror to find the best collection of horrific, spine-tingling, and grotesque short stories of the year. The stories range from the obviously gore-filled to the more subtle tales of dark fantasy.

Cargo, E. Michael Lewis - ★★★
Davis, a cargo-hold tech, is sent out to retrieve a most precious cargo - human bodies. Hoping it stays a routine pick-up, he is surprised to find that it won't be a quiet ride home.

If Angels Fight, Richard Bowes -...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Andrew Neal rated it 2 of 5 stars

There's a thin line between portraying something mysteriously horrific and writing so vaguely that a reader doesn't know what the hell you're saying. Most of the authors in this anthology trip over that line so hard that this should be an America's Funniest Home Videos montage, not a Best Horror anthology.

Having said that, I quite liked:
The Hodag
Loup-Garou
It Washed Up
The Narrows

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Aug 03, 2009 Ross Lockhart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: night-shade-books

Read in manuscript. A solid collection of terrifying tales, collecting the best short stories and fiction published in 2008. High points include E. Michael Lewis's "Cargo," William Browning Spencer's "Penguins of the Apocalypse," Laird Barron's "The Lagerstatte," Adam Golaski's "The Man From the Peak," and Simon Bestwick's "The Narrows."

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Nov 24, 2010 Brendan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Honestly, I rarely finish anthologies. I usually burn out about 2/3 of the way through, which seems to be the anthology equivalent of the post-weekend-update part of Saturday Night Live--the place where you stash the weaker material to fill the thing out.

This one, though, is top-notch beginning to end, and the last story is probably my 2nd favorite in the entire book. (the first story is my favorite.) Of course I didn't love every story, but the quality is consistently high all the way through...more

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Apr 15, 2010 Shellie (Layers of Thought) marked it as to-read

Shelves: element-dark-disfunctional, genre-poetry-short-stories-plays, spec-fic-fant-fairytales-fable-myth, spec-fic-horror, read-a-later-on-hold

Still currently reading this great collection. There are 21 stories. Here are a few words/or one blogged review about the stories I have completed:

"The Goosle" by Margot Lanagan - a very dark fairy tale "post telling". Here is a review of the short story at Layers of Thought.
Two others:
"The Clay Party" a sort of Donner party story with a paranormal twist
"Esmeralda" a post book dystopian

What I really like about this collection is that Datlow summarizes the year in horror mentioning many many oth...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Pearce rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mildly disappointing anthology from Ellen Datlow. There are some good stories and no really bad ones, but nothing really outstanding and a little too much ho-hum. I hope later volumes in this series are better.

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Sep 04, 2011 Mike McQuillian rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies, fiction, horror

Must have been a lean year in horror fiction.

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Mar 17, 2011 Rowan MacBean rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book took me a ridiculously long time to read. There was nothing wrong with it, it just didn't grab my attention. "Penguins of the Apocalypse" will probably stick with me, and not only because of the absurd title. I expect "Esmeralda" and "Very Low-Flying Aircraft" will, too. But other than that, none of the other eighteen stories really spoke to me, and there were even a couple that I flat-out disliked instead of just being indifferent.

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Apr 26, 2010 Heather R rated it 5 of 5 stars

Change of heart, this collection of short stories is fantastic... I do however blame the editor for the order--putting the less interesting stories in the beginning... approaching the end, but it is good.

Update-finished was excellent, couple great folktales... def worth the read.

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Feb 16, 2011 Samantha Johnson added it · review of another edition

The stories themselves are an interesting read but none of them were horrifying. I reccomend the book to those who are easily creeped out if they are looking for a good scare but for the seasoned horror reader this book is a good place to see what does and doesn't work.

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Oct 30, 2009 Orrin Grey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Full review here.

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Dec 16, 2011 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: actually-scary, horror

My favorite story was The Hodag, which was a perfect slice of Americana - isolated, violent, haunted, creepy Americana.

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Jan 07, 2011 Char Williams rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was very hit or miss. Some stories were amazingly chilling. Others made no sense and fell flat. It was just alright.

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Nov 03, 2010 Tabatha Alcina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some of the stories didn't really strike me as horror, but most of them were pretty creepy. Like.

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Mar 06, 2012 Jack Hastings rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, horror

Excellent collection of top-notch stories, covering the spectrum of contemporary horror.

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May 22, 2013 Karel Kinnett marked it as to-read

May 17, 2013 Tatjana marked it as to-read

May 13, 2013 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-in-2013

May 13, 2013 Alexia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-love-adore

May 22, 2013 CMcDaniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

May 05, 2013 Andrew rated it 1 of 5 stars

Apr 30, 2013 Jane Whitehall rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apr 26, 2013 Marissa marked it as to-read

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About Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow has been an award-winning editor of short science fiction, fantasy, and horror for over twentyfive years.

She is editor of the Best Horror of the Year and has edited or co-edited a large number of award-winning original anthologies. Her most recent are Supernatural Noir, Naked City, Blood and Other Cravings, The Beastly Bride, Teeth, Trolls Eye View, and After (the last three with Ter...more

More about Ellen Datlow...

Books by Ellen Datlow

The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm

Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (Riverside Series) (The Dresden Files, #10.9)

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