What do you think?
Rate this book
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Vol. 5
Fantastically frightening tales await you in the fifth volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror!
This outstanding annual exploration of the year’s best dark fiction journeys into the shadows delivers nineteen tales of the haunted, weirdly surreal, evil incarnate, frightening futures, and much more. The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 5 includes metaphysical masterpieces from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique. Much like the paranormal, some things need to be experienced to be believed, so delve into these pages and take a delightfully disturbing stroll into the fears that stir us all.
This outstanding annual exploration of the year’s best dark fiction journeys into the shadows delivers nineteen tales of the haunted, weirdly surreal, evil incarnate, frightening futures, and much more. The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 5 includes metaphysical masterpieces from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique. Much like the paranormal, some things need to be experienced to be believed, so delve into these pages and take a delightfully disturbing stroll into the fears that stir us all.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2024
About the author
Paula Guran
101 books209 followersPaula Guran is senior editor for Prime Books. She edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. She is also senior editor of Prime's soon-to-launch digital imprint Masque Books. Guran edits the annual Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series as well as a growing number of other anthologies. In an earlier life she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 3, 2024
My review is published at Grimdark Magazine.
One of the highlights of October’s spooky season is the release of Paula Guran’s annual short story anthology, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. With over fifty short story anthologies and a slew of awards to her credit, Paula Guran is an undisputed queen of her craft. Although it is titled, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5), the current volume is actually Guran’s fifteenth entry in the series, since the numbering was reset after switching publishers to Pyr Books five years ago.
Every short story by A.C. Wise is a treat. As the first entry in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5), Wise’s psychological horror “The Dark House” is no exception. “The Dark House” concerns a photographer’s obsession with the eponymous house, which he uses exclusively as a darkroom for developing photographs. But the images that develop reveal more than expected.
Another standout story is “All the Things I Know About Ghosts, By Ofelia, Age 10” by Isabel Cañas. There is something about a young child’s perspective that makes a horror story even more terrifying, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Isabel Cañas delivers in spades with her juxtaposition of innocence and fear in a flooded town.
Alaya Dawn Johnson’s contribution to The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5) is “The Witch Is Not the Monster,” a futuristic ecological horror concerning generations of witches living along the Potomac River. This story grabbed me from the opening line and held me in its spell till the very end.
“The Demon Lord of Broken Concrete” by Alex Irvine is another standout story in this year’s collection. Irvine blends the everyday with the bizarre in this tale about a school-aged boy in the 1980s, overlaying religious occultism with schoolyard and family drama.
“Midnight in Moscow” by Tobi Ogundiran is a special treat, brilliantly blending Russian folklore into a tale told by a Nigerian narrator residing in Moscow. Tobi Ogundiran’s writing is simply magical, making this story one of my favorites in the collection.
Other noteworthy stories in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5) include “Interstate Mohinis,” M.L. Krishnan’s tale of a woman killed on an Indian highway; “Return to Bear Creek Lodge,” the mournful wintry horror by Tananarive Due; and the offbeat family tale, “The Tissot Family Circus,” by Angela Slatter.
Rounding out the anthology are “The Crease” by Simon Avery, “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride” by Christopher Caldwell, “Resurrection Highway” by A. R. Capetta, “Those Hitchhiking Kids” by Darcie Little Badger, “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak” by Sam J. Miller, “Kudzu Boy Dreaming” by S.J. Powell, “A Geography of Innocence” by M. Rickert, “Till the Greenteeth Draw Us Down” by Josh Rountree, “Jack O’Dander” by Priya Sharma, “Significant Disruption” by R.L Summerling, and “The Ghasts” by Lavie Tidhar.
Altogether, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5) is another highly recommended anthology for horror fans in search of a new favorite short story. Paula Guran’s anthology is a great way to discover new authors and revisit established favorites.
One of the highlights of October’s spooky season is the release of Paula Guran’s annual short story anthology, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. With over fifty short story anthologies and a slew of awards to her credit, Paula Guran is an undisputed queen of her craft. Although it is titled, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5), the current volume is actually Guran’s fifteenth entry in the series, since the numbering was reset after switching publishers to Pyr Books five years ago.
Every short story by A.C. Wise is a treat. As the first entry in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5), Wise’s psychological horror “The Dark House” is no exception. “The Dark House” concerns a photographer’s obsession with the eponymous house, which he uses exclusively as a darkroom for developing photographs. But the images that develop reveal more than expected.
Another standout story is “All the Things I Know About Ghosts, By Ofelia, Age 10” by Isabel Cañas. There is something about a young child’s perspective that makes a horror story even more terrifying, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Isabel Cañas delivers in spades with her juxtaposition of innocence and fear in a flooded town.
Alaya Dawn Johnson’s contribution to The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5) is “The Witch Is Not the Monster,” a futuristic ecological horror concerning generations of witches living along the Potomac River. This story grabbed me from the opening line and held me in its spell till the very end.
“The Demon Lord of Broken Concrete” by Alex Irvine is another standout story in this year’s collection. Irvine blends the everyday with the bizarre in this tale about a school-aged boy in the 1980s, overlaying religious occultism with schoolyard and family drama.
“Midnight in Moscow” by Tobi Ogundiran is a special treat, brilliantly blending Russian folklore into a tale told by a Nigerian narrator residing in Moscow. Tobi Ogundiran’s writing is simply magical, making this story one of my favorites in the collection.
Other noteworthy stories in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5) include “Interstate Mohinis,” M.L. Krishnan’s tale of a woman killed on an Indian highway; “Return to Bear Creek Lodge,” the mournful wintry horror by Tananarive Due; and the offbeat family tale, “The Tissot Family Circus,” by Angela Slatter.
Rounding out the anthology are “The Crease” by Simon Avery, “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride” by Christopher Caldwell, “Resurrection Highway” by A. R. Capetta, “Those Hitchhiking Kids” by Darcie Little Badger, “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak” by Sam J. Miller, “Kudzu Boy Dreaming” by S.J. Powell, “A Geography of Innocence” by M. Rickert, “Till the Greenteeth Draw Us Down” by Josh Rountree, “Jack O’Dander” by Priya Sharma, “Significant Disruption” by R.L Summerling, and “The Ghasts” by Lavie Tidhar.
Altogether, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Volume 5) is another highly recommended anthology for horror fans in search of a new favorite short story. Paula Guran’s anthology is a great way to discover new authors and revisit established favorites.
October 21, 2024
I loved volume 4 of this anthology so I was beyond thrilled when volume 5 showed up at my door unexpectedly.
Horror is my happy place and I have loved anthologies for as long as I can remember. I'm like a kid in a candy store any time I open one. There's just so much to choose from. There are so many delightfully dark tales here.
If I had to pick a favorite it would be Return To Bear Creek Lodge by Tananarive Due where a family gathers as their mother is dying. It takes place in the 1970s and reminds me of how terribly afraid I was of my own grandmother. Is that an awful thing to admit? Oh well, it's done now and it takes a damned good horror story to dredge up my own past trauma.
I also loved The Dark House by A.C. Wise, partly because it takes place in my own state of Rhode Island. There's a mystery surrounding the life and death of a photographer whose many photos featured a particular house that is now abandoned but not necessarily empty. When curiosity leads people to its unlocked door some things are best left undiscovered.
A reminder of the cruelty of children, and the cruelty of being a child can be found in The Demon Lord Of Broken Concrete by Alex Irvine.
Not all of the stories in this anthology are scary but they are all wonderfully weird and creepy in their own way.
My thanks to Pyr Books.
Horror is my happy place and I have loved anthologies for as long as I can remember. I'm like a kid in a candy store any time I open one. There's just so much to choose from. There are so many delightfully dark tales here.
If I had to pick a favorite it would be Return To Bear Creek Lodge by Tananarive Due where a family gathers as their mother is dying. It takes place in the 1970s and reminds me of how terribly afraid I was of my own grandmother. Is that an awful thing to admit? Oh well, it's done now and it takes a damned good horror story to dredge up my own past trauma.
I also loved The Dark House by A.C. Wise, partly because it takes place in my own state of Rhode Island. There's a mystery surrounding the life and death of a photographer whose many photos featured a particular house that is now abandoned but not necessarily empty. When curiosity leads people to its unlocked door some things are best left undiscovered.
A reminder of the cruelty of children, and the cruelty of being a child can be found in The Demon Lord Of Broken Concrete by Alex Irvine.
Not all of the stories in this anthology are scary but they are all wonderfully weird and creepy in their own way.
My thanks to Pyr Books.
November 3, 2024
What do you call it when Tananarive Due is late returning her library books?
Tananarive Overdue.
Favorites were by Due, Isabel Cañas, Simon Avery, and AC Wise. I didn't particularly vibe with the Fantasy stories this time around.
Tananarive Overdue.
Favorites were by Due, Isabel Cañas, Simon Avery, and AC Wise. I didn't particularly vibe with the Fantasy stories this time around.
Currently Reading
August 17, 2025"All the Things I Know about Ghosts, by Ofelia, Age 10" by Isabel Canas - The narrator describes her experiences in a town that was flooded and submerged below water.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews