The Best of Cemetery Dance II

by Richard Chizmar (Editor), Ed Gorman (Contributor), Terry Lamsley (Contributor)

About the
The Best of Cemetery Volume Two showcases the very finest short stories from issues 26 to 50 of Cemetery Dance magazine, picking up where the acclaimed and award-winning first "Best of" volume left off! Featuring a virtual "who's who" of today's greatest authors of dark fiction, The Best of Cemetery Volume Two will be one of the most important anthologies of the year. Just a handful of the contributors include Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Peter Straub, Bentley Little, Michael Marshall Smith, Ray Garton, Jack Ketchum, Douglas Clegg, Poppy Z. Brite, Joe R. Lansdale, Nancy A. Collins, Peter Crowther, Norman Partridge, Ed Gorman, William F. Nolan, F. Paul Wilson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Simon Clark, Richard Christian Matheson, David J. Schow, Stewart O'Nan, Glen Hirshberg, Ramsey Campbell, and dozens of others! Cemetery Dance magazine has been published for more than thirty years now, and is the winner of the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Critics Guild Award, as well as a nominee for both the British Fantasy Award and the American Horror Award. Don't miss what's sure to be one of the most talked about anthologies of the year!
Featuring Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Peter Straub, Bentley Little, Michael Marshall Smith, Ray Garton, Jack Ketchum, Douglas Clegg, Poppy Z. Brite, Joe R. Lansdale, Nancy A. Collins, Peter Crowther, Norman Partridge, Ed Gorman, William F. Nolan, F. Paul Wilson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Simon Clark, Richard Christian Matheson, David J. Schow, Stewart O'Nan, Glen Hirshberg, Ramsey Campbell, and dozens of others!

Genres: Horror, Collections, Anthologies

756 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2008

About the author

Richard Chizmar is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author.

He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy’s Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award.

Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little.

Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, Stephen King Revisited. His fourth short story collection, The Long Way Home, was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of the acclaimed Dark Screams horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra.

His latest book, The Girl on the Porch, was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and Widow’s Point, a chilling novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, Billy Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film.

Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.

Reviews

[Irene Well Worth A Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the two anthologies I brought with me on vacation, but being a whopping 756 pages it turned out to be the only one I had time to read.
This is a massive tome with so many authors that I feel confident in saying there is literally something for everyone in this book. Not every story was a huge hit with me but there were several I would rate 5 stars and a multitude of 4 star stories. There were only a couple I skimmed or skipped due to not holding my interest. The table of contents reads like a who's who of horror. There are many familiar names and only a few that I had not heard of, but now that I have I will be looking into what else they have written.
Just a few of the stand out 5 star stories would be Graham Masterton's Ballyhooly Boy about a haunted house that needs a particular owner, The Goddess of Cruelty by Thomas Tessier is a very dark love story with a nasty twist, The Riders by Bentley Little, which is about the last remaining socially acceptable prejudice, fat shaming, taken to a horrifying extreme.
If you love short horror stories as much as I do you really need a copy of this massive anthology.

4 out of 5 stars

[Squire]

This is going to be one of my projects for 2023 while hopefully completing other challenges. This monster is just sitting on the top of one of my bookshelves GLARING at me as I go about my life reading other works. I'm starting to get paranoid with it just...sitting there.

[Jenni Hurd]

Here is a very big book of wonderful scary and/or bizarre stories.

I don’t know how a person would review a book like this; so I will simply say this is a book where every horror or science fiction or fantasy reader will find something to love.

There is one particular story that makes me smile whenever I think of it.

Centuries ago my dear Ma said people in this specific group would become the next big group to be discriminated against. Bentley Little must have overheard her (I know, not likely) because he has written a perfect story incorporating ugly pieces of our past with a possible future. His story is “The Riders”. I loved the whole story. I truly did laugh out loud when he described just who the “riders” were.

My review is done. You all may run out to get this book now. Maybe you will want to ride instead! (Imagine evil laughter here)

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories. Expertly put together by Richard Chizmar. There was only one story I did not care for. The author used too many words I had to look up & I have a really good grasp of words, even ones that are arcane or obscure.

[David Swisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, not great, collection of stories previously published in Cemetery Dance magazine. I really enjoyed Second Opinion by Ray Garton, Dry Whiskey by David B. Silva, Fries With That by Douglas Clegg, Night Dive by F. Paul Wilson, The Riders by Bentley Little, and my favorite one was Forgiveness by J.A. Konrath.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

With any anthology as long as this one you’re always going to get a mixed bag. I appreciated some of the behind the scenes looks at the publishing startup and conversations with authors, but some of these stories are just real duds. On the other hand, some of these are fantastic, so you’ll just have to read to find out which are which.