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Nightmare Magazine 25: October 2014. Women Destroy Horror! Special Issue
NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.
Funded as a stretch goal of our sister-magazine LIGHTSPEED’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! Kickstarter campaign, this month we're presenting a special issue of NIGHTMARE called Women Destroy Horror!: an all-horror extravaganza entirely written—and edited!—by women.
Here’s what we’ve got lined up for you in this special issue:
Original horror—edited by legendary editor Ellen Datlow—by Gemma Files, Pat Cadigan, Catherine MacLeod, Katherine Crighton, and Livia Llewellyn.
Reprints—also selected by Datlow—by Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, and A.R. Morlan.
And nonfiction articles—edited by Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton—by Galen Dara, Lucy A. Snyder, Maria Alexander, Chesya Burke, Lisa Morton, and Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Plus an original cover illustration by Carly Janine Mazur.
Funded as a stretch goal of our sister-magazine LIGHTSPEED’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! Kickstarter campaign, this month we're presenting a special issue of NIGHTMARE called Women Destroy Horror!: an all-horror extravaganza entirely written—and edited!—by women.
Here’s what we’ve got lined up for you in this special issue:
Original horror—edited by legendary editor Ellen Datlow—by Gemma Files, Pat Cadigan, Catherine MacLeod, Katherine Crighton, and Livia Llewellyn.
Reprints—also selected by Datlow—by Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, and A.R. Morlan.
And nonfiction articles—edited by Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton—by Galen Dara, Lucy A. Snyder, Maria Alexander, Chesya Burke, Lisa Morton, and Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Plus an original cover illustration by Carly Janine Mazur.
238 pages, Paperback
First published September 29, 2014
17 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Datlow
276 books1,875 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 22, 2021
Found some new favorite writers and artists in these pages. Great stories, the article topics were perfectly fitting, and the art was wicked. Highly recommend!
November 11, 2014
The Destroy Project excited me from the first time I heard about it, but Nightmare magazine is the first of the three issues I've read. I'm not nearly as much of a Horror reader as I am a science fiction and fantasy reader, so go figure.
Of the original pieces, It Feels Better Biting Down worked the best. The more narrow focus and creative take on body horror connected with me and creeped me out.
The best story, though, was the reprint from Tanith Lee, Black and White Sky. Magpies start inexplicably rising into the sky in a vividly apocalyptic Britain. Questions of human nature and existence are explored by the citizens of a small rural town. Death and resurrection also came to mind, though in a sort of gruesome reversal of the Christian familiarity--life rises to the heavens leaving the people to make sense of the mystery until death finally falls down on them.
Pat Cadigan's Unfair Exchange , Katherine Crighton's The Inside and the Outside, and Joyce Carol Oates's Martyrdom all worked for me on some levels.
Stories with mythic elements usually stand out to me, but the last three stories of this issue, which all have these elements, were the ones which worked least. The writing is good, but they didn't connect. It's probably partly my lack of familiarity with the genre, but I think horror works best when there's a personal connection, and I didn't have one here.
I was also initially disappointed by the essays in the second part. Then I realized I was expecting them to be something they never promised. An Historical Overview of Classic Horror Novels and Women's Short Horror Fiction: An Historical Overview both are good jumping-off points for some good reading. With all the historic works out there, I wonder if anyone has done a website collecting the public domain works. The H Word:
The H is for Harassment (a/k/a Horror’s Misogyny Problem) added another layer to the already monumental pile of evidence out there of misogyny in our genres--Burke ends with a good reminder.
This was altogether a good read, one which I'll certainly recommend along with the other Destroy efforts. It was a fitting October read.
Of the original pieces, It Feels Better Biting Down worked the best. The more narrow focus and creative take on body horror connected with me and creeped me out.
The best story, though, was the reprint from Tanith Lee, Black and White Sky. Magpies start inexplicably rising into the sky in a vividly apocalyptic Britain. Questions of human nature and existence are explored by the citizens of a small rural town. Death and resurrection also came to mind, though in a sort of gruesome reversal of the Christian familiarity--life rises to the heavens leaving the people to make sense of the mystery until death finally falls down on them.
Pat Cadigan's Unfair Exchange , Katherine Crighton's The Inside and the Outside, and Joyce Carol Oates's Martyrdom all worked for me on some levels.
Stories with mythic elements usually stand out to me, but the last three stories of this issue, which all have these elements, were the ones which worked least. The writing is good, but they didn't connect. It's probably partly my lack of familiarity with the genre, but I think horror works best when there's a personal connection, and I didn't have one here.
I was also initially disappointed by the essays in the second part. Then I realized I was expecting them to be something they never promised. An Historical Overview of Classic Horror Novels and Women's Short Horror Fiction: An Historical Overview both are good jumping-off points for some good reading. With all the historic works out there, I wonder if anyone has done a website collecting the public domain works. The H Word:
The H is for Harassment (a/k/a Horror’s Misogyny Problem) added another layer to the already monumental pile of evidence out there of misogyny in our genres--Burke ends with a good reminder.
This was altogether a good read, one which I'll certainly recommend along with the other Destroy efforts. It was a fitting October read.
Want to read
October 15, 2018Maybe I'll read some of these for Halloween.
May 19, 2015
Several of these stories made me uncomfortable and I'd rather not read them again, so mission accomplished for horror! The editor says that it was an entirely unexpected coincidence that twins feature prominently in many unrelated stories in this edition, but I read it and now I'm having twins. Spoooky.
January 7, 2015
I wanted to love love love this but it was just okay. I didn't find the horror horrifying or scary or even that unsettling (bar a few exceptions).
September 1, 2019
Fiction
This is Not For You by Gemma Files: 3/5
Sideshow by Catherine MacLeod: 2.5/5
Unfair Exchange by Pat Cadigan: 2.75/5
The Inside and the Outside by Katherine Crighton: 3/5
It Feels Better Biting Down by Livia Llewellyn: 2/5
Martyrdom by Joyce Carol Oates: 1/5
Black and White Sky by Tanith Lee: 3.5/5
...Warmer by A. R. Morlan: 3/5
Non-fiction
An Historical Overview of Classic Horror Novels by Lucy A. Snyder: 4/5
Baby Got Backbone: What Makes Strong Women Kick in Horror Films and TV Shows by Maria Alexander: 4.25/5
The H Word: The H is for Harassment (a/k/a Horror's Misogyny Problem) by Chesya Burke: 4/5
Women's Short Horror Fiction: An Historical Overview by Jessica Amanda Salmonson: 4/5
Average rating: 3.08/5 stars, pushed down to a 2/5 because that more accurately encompasses my feelings about this issue as a whole. Nothing here majorly stood out to me or screamed "amazing!" or even "great!" to be honest, and I felt like I didn't really gain anything overall from reading it other than a slight education on horror short story history in the non-fiction section.
This is Not For You by Gemma Files: 3/5
Sideshow by Catherine MacLeod: 2.5/5
Unfair Exchange by Pat Cadigan: 2.75/5
The Inside and the Outside by Katherine Crighton: 3/5
It Feels Better Biting Down by Livia Llewellyn: 2/5
Martyrdom by Joyce Carol Oates: 1/5
Black and White Sky by Tanith Lee: 3.5/5
...Warmer by A. R. Morlan: 3/5
Non-fiction
An Historical Overview of Classic Horror Novels by Lucy A. Snyder: 4/5
Baby Got Backbone: What Makes Strong Women Kick in Horror Films and TV Shows by Maria Alexander: 4.25/5
The H Word: The H is for Harassment (a/k/a Horror's Misogyny Problem) by Chesya Burke: 4/5
Women's Short Horror Fiction: An Historical Overview by Jessica Amanda Salmonson: 4/5
Average rating: 3.08/5 stars, pushed down to a 2/5 because that more accurately encompasses my feelings about this issue as a whole. Nothing here majorly stood out to me or screamed "amazing!" or even "great!" to be honest, and I felt like I didn't really gain anything overall from reading it other than a slight education on horror short story history in the non-fiction section.
October 13, 2017
4-4.5
Precioso.
Precioso.
August 13, 2021
Magpies and ladies
both sinister in large groups
mind your own business.
both sinister in large groups
mind your own business.
September 22, 2021
I particularly liked the stories by Gemma Files, Katherine Crighton, and Livia Llewellyn, as well as the re-prints, which were all new to me.
February 27, 2025
The median of all the stories, some were better than others, some were just abysmal.
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December 29, 2014I wouldn’t normally review a magazine from last month, but the October issue of Nightmare Magazine is something special, and it’s still available. In this issue, Women Destroy Horror! Issue 25 is devoted to horror written by women, the result of a Kickstarter originally intended to help women destroy science fiction (in the June 2014 issue of Lightspeed Magazine) that met its stretch goals. (Full disclosure: I contributed to the Kickstarter.)
The guest fiction editor of this issue is Ellen Datlow, who is the foremost horror editor working today, of any gender. She picked a lot of great stories for this special issue. Her editorial reminds us that women not only once dominated horror, but actually invented it. Ghost stories and gothic tales were written by women for decades before... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/maga...
The guest fiction editor of this issue is Ellen Datlow, who is the foremost horror editor working today, of any gender. She picked a lot of great stories for this special issue. Her editorial reminds us that women not only once dominated horror, but actually invented it. Ghost stories and gothic tales were written by women for decades before... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/maga...
February 3, 2015
As another reviewer said, I wanted to love this issue (as much as I loved its sister issue, Women Destroy Science Fiction), but I couldn't. The fiction was oddly unaffecting -- even the iconic reprints. The roundtable discussion is the main reason to pick this issue up.
November 12, 2015
The first story in this issue is "This Is Not For You" by Gemma Files gave me nightmares. It is an amazing, creepy, perfect slice of life worthy of Shirley Jackson. I have to seek out more stories by this author!
January 23, 2015
LOVED the Tanith Lee reprint in this.
August 17, 2016
Some of these were good but holy shit that JCO story. I have never read anything more fucked up in my life and now I can't get it out of my head. Wish I hadn't read it.
July 19, 2016
I really liked the one with the birds, but the rest haven't stuck with me much
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews