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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen
From Ellen Datlow—“the venerable queen of horror anthologies” per the New York Times—comes a new entry in the series that has brought you thrilling stories from Stephen King and Mira Grant, the best horror stories available.
For more than four 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 seventeenth 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 Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Tananarive Due, Carmen Maria Machado, Joe Hill, Laird Barron, Mira Grant, 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.
For more than four 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 seventeenth 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 Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Tananarive Due, Carmen Maria Machado, Joe Hill, Laird Barron, Mira Grant, 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.
384 pages, Paperback
Published December 16, 2025
About the author
Ellen Datlow
279 books1,914 followersEllen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 10, 2026
Ever since an editor told me that in anthologies and collections the best short stories are traditionally placed in the beginning (to get the reader hooked), I have been wondering about the placement/arrangement of short stories and whether or not what he told me is even true. Is it like an album where there's a sort of continuity between the pieces? Or was he right and you get hooked with the first story and the rest of your read is only a chase for that same high you found in the beginning? How do they even decide which the “best” story is?
In my own reading experience, I have seen it all – anthologies that start strong but fizzle out, anthologies that have a strong middle streak, collections that end with a banger, or those that suck all together.
And this year's Best Horror of The Year begins for me with a lucky strike of a series of extraordinarily good stories, only to fade away at the middle mark, but to end with a true gem, one of the best short stories I've read this year; Robert Shearman's I Love the Very Flesh Off You.
My highlights;
The Cleaner by Victoria Dalpe: The story starts with a seemingly regular crime scene clean-up, but changes its direction towards the build-up of a whole new universe in which supernatural predators search for human prey and make unlikely allies. It's interesting, because some stories are good at describing single incidences, and others discuss a complete dystopia that could easily fit into a 500 page toe crusher in only a few paragraphs. This one is like the latter.
Summer Bonus by Lee Murray: It is scary and uncanny to be at the other end of the world as a teenager, or generally as a young person. Lee Murray explores that feeling in this story of two English girls living on a New Zealand farm for work and vacation and the accommodation conditions keep getting weirder.
Like Furies by Epiphany Ferrell: Like Hitchcock's The Birds, but with pterosaurs.
Body Worlds by Tom Johnstone: If you never heard of the exhibition Körperwelten/Body Worlds; it's a show that sprung out of the crazy (arguably) genius of Gunther von Hagens who invented the "plastination" procedure with which dead bodies can be preserved and exhibited. The exhibition puts these bodies, that once were real humans, into weird, sometimes ridiculous positions and even though many of the subjects volunteered to be in one of his exhibitions (sometimes for the prospect of money to save their families from poverty), it always has been polemical, even problematic. And finally someone discovered this creepy, but also insanely popular exhibition's potential for horror.
An Act of Sorrow by James Cooper: We're following a moirologist, a professional mourner who makes a show of their grief by crying loudly at funerals. Our protagonist is hired by one the oldest families in his town, but he knows something is off when he's asked to sign an NDA. What follows is peculiar to say the least.
Fancy Dad by David Nickle is a whirlwind of a story in which a bunch of drunk people enter the realm of ghosts; The Rock Statue by Mark Falkin confuses its readers as to who is the victim and who the perpetrator when a group of middle aged women staying in a remote cabin are visited by two teenage girls knocking at their door in the middle of the night, and Dan Coxon's In Flickering Light focuses on an ominous film director who ruins women's lives.
Finally, I Love the Very Flesh Off You by Robert Shearman: Alistair has lead a luscious life and had more than any man could have asked for: skin soft as a baby's bum, five ex wives; Sasha, Tricia, Portia I, Portia II, Letitia and (his current wife) Marcia, all of whom turn his funeral into an interesting happening where absurdly scandalous things happen. Told from the point of view of Portia I's current husband, things take a very unexpected turn when Marcia appears to the funeral dressed in something very strange and shocking. And that's not all, they still need to discuss the inheritance.
All in all, this seventeenth volume of the horror of all horrors comes as successful as an anthology can come, can't wait for the next tome.
In my own reading experience, I have seen it all – anthologies that start strong but fizzle out, anthologies that have a strong middle streak, collections that end with a banger, or those that suck all together.
And this year's Best Horror of The Year begins for me with a lucky strike of a series of extraordinarily good stories, only to fade away at the middle mark, but to end with a true gem, one of the best short stories I've read this year; Robert Shearman's I Love the Very Flesh Off You.
My highlights;
The Cleaner by Victoria Dalpe: The story starts with a seemingly regular crime scene clean-up, but changes its direction towards the build-up of a whole new universe in which supernatural predators search for human prey and make unlikely allies. It's interesting, because some stories are good at describing single incidences, and others discuss a complete dystopia that could easily fit into a 500 page toe crusher in only a few paragraphs. This one is like the latter.
Summer Bonus by Lee Murray: It is scary and uncanny to be at the other end of the world as a teenager, or generally as a young person. Lee Murray explores that feeling in this story of two English girls living on a New Zealand farm for work and vacation and the accommodation conditions keep getting weirder.
Like Furies by Epiphany Ferrell: Like Hitchcock's The Birds, but with pterosaurs.
Body Worlds by Tom Johnstone: If you never heard of the exhibition Körperwelten/Body Worlds; it's a show that sprung out of the crazy (arguably) genius of Gunther von Hagens who invented the "plastination" procedure with which dead bodies can be preserved and exhibited. The exhibition puts these bodies, that once were real humans, into weird, sometimes ridiculous positions and even though many of the subjects volunteered to be in one of his exhibitions (sometimes for the prospect of money to save their families from poverty), it always has been polemical, even problematic. And finally someone discovered this creepy, but also insanely popular exhibition's potential for horror.
An Act of Sorrow by James Cooper: We're following a moirologist, a professional mourner who makes a show of their grief by crying loudly at funerals. Our protagonist is hired by one the oldest families in his town, but he knows something is off when he's asked to sign an NDA. What follows is peculiar to say the least.
Fancy Dad by David Nickle is a whirlwind of a story in which a bunch of drunk people enter the realm of ghosts; The Rock Statue by Mark Falkin confuses its readers as to who is the victim and who the perpetrator when a group of middle aged women staying in a remote cabin are visited by two teenage girls knocking at their door in the middle of the night, and Dan Coxon's In Flickering Light focuses on an ominous film director who ruins women's lives.
Finally, I Love the Very Flesh Off You by Robert Shearman: Alistair has lead a luscious life and had more than any man could have asked for: skin soft as a baby's bum, five ex wives; Sasha, Tricia, Portia I, Portia II, Letitia and (his current wife) Marcia, all of whom turn his funeral into an interesting happening where absurdly scandalous things happen. Told from the point of view of Portia I's current husband, things take a very unexpected turn when Marcia appears to the funeral dressed in something very strange and shocking. And that's not all, they still need to discuss the inheritance.
All in all, this seventeenth volume of the horror of all horrors comes as successful as an anthology can come, can't wait for the next tome.
January 14, 2026
A full review is forthcoming on our website, but this is an anthology not to be missed by horror fans. Every story is strong and offers a different take on the genre (and its subgenres). Additionally, there is so much information, mention, and discussion of the genre as a whole, and where to go to find great work of other lengths and in other formats. Fabulous.
January 14, 2026
The best horror of the year, indeed! Not a single not great story in the whole book, plus loads of other information on other works, and horror in other formats, to enjoy.
August 12, 2026
Reviews for three of my favorite pieces:
23. I Love the Very Flesh Off You by Robert Shearman (B+)
Oh god. Very, very narrowly edged out The Ribbon Rule for the most upsetting imagery in the collection. I liked the voice, and the characters were all markedly memorable. I feel like the work is telling a similar story to Body Worlds with its human drama but commits to the strange and uncomfortable atmosphere much more.
To be honest, I’m sure there is a metaphor here—it certainly feels like there is—but I don’t know if I can stomach it long enough to puzzle that out.
7. Only Children by Gemma Files (B)
Okay; I can see why Files is advertised on the cover. She's good!
The story is atmospheric; like The Cleaners, it is largely centered on the narrator’s inner world. But Sera is such an interesting character! Each reveal recontextualized her in ways that feel both earned and engaging. The peripheral lore is eerie. And while the prose was mostly invisible (in a good way) there was a lot of good imagery and lines that carried exactly the right amount of weight (“That’s what the monster drills are for”).
In the end, my only real criticism is that the very final line was a little silly.
11. The Boy in the Closet by Douglas Ford (B)
I really liked it! It is a very effective campfire story, short and to the point—with good characters, tension, and a moment of dread in the middle so palpable I very nearly had to skip to the end. That said, I do wish that it had committed to the more obviously evil ending. Cowards!
Honorable mentions:
-The Ribbon Rule by Mae Jimenez
-In Flickering Light by Dan Coxon
-Ms. Crace by Cliff McNish
-Archies by Douglas Ford
-Summer Bonus by Lee Murray
23. I Love the Very Flesh Off You by Robert Shearman (B+)
Oh god. Very, very narrowly edged out The Ribbon Rule for the most upsetting imagery in the collection. I liked the voice, and the characters were all markedly memorable. I feel like the work is telling a similar story to Body Worlds with its human drama but commits to the strange and uncomfortable atmosphere much more.
To be honest, I’m sure there is a metaphor here—it certainly feels like there is—but I don’t know if I can stomach it long enough to puzzle that out.
7. Only Children by Gemma Files (B)
Okay; I can see why Files is advertised on the cover. She's good!
The story is atmospheric; like The Cleaners, it is largely centered on the narrator’s inner world. But Sera is such an interesting character! Each reveal recontextualized her in ways that feel both earned and engaging. The peripheral lore is eerie. And while the prose was mostly invisible (in a good way) there was a lot of good imagery and lines that carried exactly the right amount of weight (“That’s what the monster drills are for”).
In the end, my only real criticism is that the very final line was a little silly.
11. The Boy in the Closet by Douglas Ford (B)
I really liked it! It is a very effective campfire story, short and to the point—with good characters, tension, and a moment of dread in the middle so palpable I very nearly had to skip to the end. That said, I do wish that it had committed to the more obviously evil ending. Cowards!
Honorable mentions:
-The Ribbon Rule by Mae Jimenez
-In Flickering Light by Dan Coxon
-Ms. Crace by Cliff McNish
-Archies by Douglas Ford
-Summer Bonus by Lee Murray
March 23, 2026
A good anthology here. Ellen Datlow's (42-page!) summary review of 2024 included quite a bit of information about various horror periodicals and small publishers, which was very appreciated. She obviously focused on lesser known authors and publishers. I would have appreciated reading her reviews of more of the works put out by the better known authors in the field.
While I did not truly love any of the 23 stories, all of them had good qualities. My favorite was "Mrs Crace" by Cliff McNish. The story is dedicated to Robert Aickman and McNish does a very good job capturing Aickman's unique "Strange Stories" style. A few others that stood out for me were "Body Worlds" by Tom Johnstone (who was the witch?), "The Boy in the Closet" by Douglas Ford (which was honestly scary) and "Only Children" by Gemma Files (who is consistently original).
I would have appreciated it if Datlow had included a few longer selections. Only a few exceeded 20 pages. Nevertheless, I liked this anthology enough that I ended up ordering six "Best Horror of the Year" volumes from previous years after reading this one.
While I did not truly love any of the 23 stories, all of them had good qualities. My favorite was "Mrs Crace" by Cliff McNish. The story is dedicated to Robert Aickman and McNish does a very good job capturing Aickman's unique "Strange Stories" style. A few others that stood out for me were "Body Worlds" by Tom Johnstone (who was the witch?), "The Boy in the Closet" by Douglas Ford (which was honestly scary) and "Only Children" by Gemma Files (who is consistently original).
I would have appreciated it if Datlow had included a few longer selections. Only a few exceeded 20 pages. Nevertheless, I liked this anthology enough that I ended up ordering six "Best Horror of the Year" volumes from previous years after reading this one.
March 29, 2026
i love horror writers! I read this anthology series each year, sometimes to discover new writers and other times to read new content from some of my favourite writers. This time around, it was all about writers I know, just not enough of them:
Gemma Files
Steven Volk
Brian Evenson
Gemma Amor
Premee Mohamed
Robert Sherman
New to me was Lucie McKnight Hardy with a fantastic story near the end of the book.
Most of the stories in the first half of this book left little to chew on, but the second half was on fire. I closed the last page with a smile, so in the end it was a pleasure to read.
Gemma Files
Steven Volk
Brian Evenson
Gemma Amor
Premee Mohamed
Robert Sherman
New to me was Lucie McKnight Hardy with a fantastic story near the end of the book.
Most of the stories in the first half of this book left little to chew on, but the second half was on fire. I closed the last page with a smile, so in the end it was a pleasure to read.
April 13, 2026
Another solid entry from Ellen Datlow. Highlights include a duo of unforgettably haunting body horror takes from Tom Johnstone and Robert Shearman. James Cooper, Victoria Dalpe, Gemma Amor, Paul Tremblay, and Brian Evenson demonstrate their tremendous abilities to take a horror take and add an intense depth of human emotion.
May 23, 2026
This wasn’t my favorite collection of stories, and vol. 16 seemed to have a better selection. I really enjoyed Charles Wilkinson’s “The Boy in the Closet” and found “The Ribbon Rule” by Mae Jimenez to be an intriguing entry as well. The final tale, “I Love the Very Flesh Off You” by Robert Shearman was really strange. I can’t wait for vol. 18!
May 20, 2026
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews