The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010

Kyle Murchison Booth

by Paula Guran (Editor), Kelley Armstrong, Holly Black

Darkness surrounds us. We can find darkness anywhere: in a strange green stone etched with mysterious symbols; at a small town's annual picnic; in a ghostly house that is easy to enter but not so easy to leave; behind the dumpster in the alley where a harpy lives; in The Nowhere, a place where car keys, toys, people disappear to; among Polar explorers; and, most definitely, within ourselves. Darkness flies from mysterious crates; surrounds children whose nightlights have vanished; and flickers between us at the movie theater. Darkness crawls from the past and is waiting in our future; and there's always a chance that Halloween really is a door opening directly into endless shadow. Welcome to the dark. You may never want to leave. This inaugural volume of the year's best dark fantasy and horror features more than 500 pages of dark tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique. Chosen from a variety of sources, these stories are as eclectic and varied as the genre itself.

Contents
9 • What the Hell Do You Mean By "Dark Fantasy and Horror?" • essay by Paula Guran
13 • The Horrid Glory of Its Wings • (2009) • shortstory by Elizabeth Bear
23 • Lowland Sea • (2009) • novelette by Suzy McKee Charnas
41 • Copping Squid • (2009) • novelette by Michael Shea
56 • Monsters • (2009) • novelette by Stewart O'Nan
73 • The Brink of Eternity • (2009) • shortstory by Barbara Roden
85 • Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre • (2009) • shortstory by Seth Fried
95 • Sea-Hearts • (2009) • novella by Margo Lanagan
138 • A Haunted House of Her Own • (2009) • shortfiction by Kelley Armstrong
153 • Headstone in Your Pocket • (2009) • shortstory by Paul G. Tremblay [as by Paul Tremblay ]
166 • The Coldest Girl in Coldtown • (2009) • novelette by Holly Black
182 • Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film • (2009) • shortstory by Gary McMahon
190 • A Delicate Architecture • (2009) • shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente
196 • The Mystery • (2009) • shortfiction by Peter Atkins
205 • Variations on a Theme from Seinfeld • (2009) • shortstory by Peter Straub
211 • The Wide, Carnivorous Sky • (2009) • shortfiction by John Langan
251 • Certain Death for a Known Person • (2009) • novelette by Steve Duffy
267 • The Ones Who Got Away • (2009) • shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones
274 • Leng • (2009) • shortfiction by Marc Laidlaw
292 • Torn Away • (2009) • shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale
301 • The Nowhere Man • (2009) • shortfiction by Sarah Pinborough
314 • The Bone's Prayer • (2009) • shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
327 • The Water Tower • (2009) • shortstory by John Mantooth
337 • In the Porches of My Ears • (2009) • shortstory by Norman Prentiss
348 • The Cinderella Game • (2009) • shortstory by Kelly Link
355 • The Jacaranda Smile • (2009) • shortstory by Gemma Files
366 • The Other Box • (2009) • shortfiction by Gerard Houarner
388 • White Charles • [Kyle Murchison Booth] • (2009) • novelette by Sarah Monette
406 • Everything Dies, Baby • (2009) • shortstory by Nadia Bulkin
414 • Bruise for Bruise • (2009) • shortstory by Robert Davies
422 • Respects • (2009) • shortstory by Ramsey Campbell
433 • Diamond Shell • (2009) • shortstory by Deborah Biancotti
446 • Nub Hut • (2009) • shortstory by Kurt Dinan
452 • The Cabinet Child • (2009) • shortfiction by Steve Rasnic Tem
458 • Cherrystone & Shards of Ice • (2009) • shortstory by Ekaterina Sedia
469 • The Crevasse • (2009) • shortstory by Nathan Ballingrud and Dale Bailey
482 • Vic • (2009) • shortfiction by Maura McHugh
490 • Halloween Town • (2009) • novella by Lucius Shepard
543 • The Long, Cold Goodbye • (2009) • novelette by Holly Phillips
562 • What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night • (2009) • shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Short Story Collection

544 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Paula 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.

Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the stories were middling at best unfortunately, very few great stories.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fine, solid stories - but kind of predictable. Maybe I'm getting better at predicting stories, but it felt like a lot of these were stories of a particular type without a lot of twist to it. I suspect I'm like, "But there are other anthology editors I especially love, and this is okay but doesn't scratch that itch," and that's all there is to it, and this is perfectly fine but I just can't love it. Any of the stories on their own would be fine...

[Jaffa Kintigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology of the macabre and unsettling started what has now become an annual almanac of horror. I really enjoyed The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: 2015 . This predecessor includes a third more stories, but more is not always better.

Two tales merit top marks. "Lowland Sea" by Suzy McKee Charnas spectacularly brings together modern day slavery and an apocalypse in a work of speculative fiction. The beauty of this piece is in capturing the unique narrative voice of Miriam who witnesses the apocalypse years after her own world has been upended by her enslavement. Norman Prentiss' "In the Porches of My Ears" is a double tale involving the same characters in all-too-real situations. The first tale embeds subtly if not uneasily before achieving a devastating paradigm shift with the second tale calling every detail of the first into question. It is the epitome of tragic without any elements of fantasy or speculation needed. No horrors other than what life is amply able to provide.

I have many honorable mentions that earned 4-stars:
Bear, Elizabeth--"The Horrid Glory of Its Wings"
Black, Holly--"The Coldest Girl in Coldtown"
Duffy, Steve--"Certain Death for a Known Person"
Laidlaw, Marc--"Leng"
Langan, John--"The Wide, Carnivorous Sky"
Mantooth, John--"The Water Tower"
O'Nan, Stewart--"Monsters"
Sedia, Ekaterina--"Cherrystone and Shards of Ice"
Tem, Steve Rasnic--"The Cabinet Child"

I've individually reviewed all of the included short stories and novellas. Also included are:
Dale Bailey & Nathan Ballingrud's --"The Crevasse"--3 stars
Biancotti, Deborah--"Diamond Shell"--3 stars
Campbell, Ramsey--"Respects"--3 stars
Dinan, Kurt--"Nub Hut"--3 stars
Fried, Seth--"Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre"--3 stars
Kiernan, Caitlin R.--"The Bone's Prayer"--3 stars
Lanagan, Margo--"Sea-Hearts"--3 stars
Link, Kelly--"The Cinderella Game"--3 stars
McHugh, Maura--"Vic"--3 stars
Monette, Sarah--"White Charles"--3 stars
Pinborough, Sarah--"The Nowhere Man"--3 stars
Roden, Barbara--"The Brink of Eternity"--3 stars
Shepard, Lucius-- Halloween Town --3 stars
Smith, Michael Marshall--"What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night"--3 stars
Straub, Peter--"Variations on a Theme from Seinfeld"--3 stars
Tremblay, Paul--"Headstone in Your Pocket"--3 stars
Valente, Catherynne M.--"A Delicate Architecture"--3 stars
Armstrong, Kelley--"A Haunted House of Her Own"--2 stars
Atkins, Peter--"The Mystery"--2 stars
Bulkin, Nadia--"Everything Dies, Baby"--2 stars
Davies, Robert--"Bruise for Bruise"--2 stars
Files, Gemma--"The Jacaranda Smile"--2 stars
Houarner, Gerard--"The Other Box"--2 stars
Jones, Stephen Graham--"The Ones Who Got Away"--2 stars
Lansdale, Joe R.--;"Torn Away"--2 stars
McMahon, Gary--"Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film"--2 stars
Phillips, Holly--"The Long, Cold Goodbye"--2 stars
Shea, Michael--"Copping Squid"--2 stars

[Tzu-Mainn Chen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The library I go to ran out of volumes of my go-to yearly horror anthology (“The Best Horror of the Year”, edited by Ellen Datlow), so I picked up “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010”, saw that it contained a few stories that I liked from “The Best Horror of the Year”, and thought, eh, worth a shot. My reactions were varied.

One or two stories felt like they didn’t belong in a horror anthology at all, instead trending towards psychological drama with a complete lack of the supernatural or anything that felt, well, horrific. That being said, I explicitly liked these stories. And although I didn’t feel like they belonged in the collection, I later ran across a story that was another psychological drama that perhaps edged *slightly* closer in the direction of horror, and I thought it was amazing and definitely earned its place in the book. My conclusion: it’s completely fair for the editor’s definition of “dark” and “horror” to differ from my own.

There were a good amount of stories that I did not think were very good. Of these, the vast majority that I disliked were because the stories lacked subtext, which is an expectation I did not realize that I had until I noted its absence. Stories that rely entirely on surface-level plot - sometimes with a “it was the butler all along!” kind of twist - simply aren’t resonant to me as a reader, as there’s no one for me to sympathize or empathize with. These stories were immediately forgettable for me.

And then there were stories that I liked a lot: unsettling gems replete with dark imagination and meaning.

So overall? “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010” was okay; a mix of good and bad, with the quality perhaps slightly lower than that of “The Best Horror of the Year”. However there’s one aspect of the anthology that I absolutely hated: immediately after every story, the editor puts in a few sentences detailing their thoughts. This had the effect of immediately taking me away from whatever story I just read, and made it difficult for me to collect my own thoughts and feelings. Would it have been possible to simply not read the editor’s notes? Maybe - but they’re always *right there* and I guess I don’t have the self-control to not read words that are on the page. So perhaps this is a “me problem”, but I do wish the editor’s notes had been grouped together in a section at the end of the book.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and it is rather sturdy and consistent in its selection of stories. Almost all the stories are very good, but I didn't find anything risky inside. Like all anthologies, it has a couple extraordinary entries, as well as a clunker or two. I actually found one story subpar, but it may be that this story is the risky one and I just didn't get it. In which case, this entire paragraph is founded on false premises.

The stories that I thought stood head and shoulders above the others were: "Monsters" by Stuart O'Nan; "The Jacaranda Smile" by Gemma Files; and " The WaterTower" by John Mantooth. Each of these stories deals with childhood fears and vulnerabilities and none uses supernatural elements to forward its plot. These were the stories that have stayed with me the longest.

The Joe R. Lansdale and Marc Laidlaw stories, "Torn Away" and "Leng" respectively, I thought were good enough, but seemed slightly-lesser efforts from these otherwise stellar authors. We also find Peter Straub deep in his "New Horror" stage with "Variations on a Theme from Sienfeld."

There are a few stories that overlap other collections: "What Happens When You Wake Up at Night" by Michael Marshall Smith; "The Crevasse" by Dale Baily and Nathan Balingrud; and "In the Porches of My Ears" by Norman Prentiss. These would be collected in one or the other of the Mammoth (Stephen Jones) or Best New Horror (Ellen Datlow) anthologies for 2010. I don't have these books at hand, so I'm sorry for the lack of specificity.

A good collection, but this series hits its stride with later editions. If you are a fan of the series, go for it; if you are new to the series or the genre, start with the 2012 or later editions.

One final note: some of the stories have editorial problems, most notably among these was "Halloween Town" by Lucius Shepherd. I otherwise loved this story, but found the lack of copy editing infuriating. (The protagonist, Clyde, is referred to as "Cliff" at one point.) Still, this is a thick anthology, so a few mishaps are inevitable, I suppose.

[Sir He-Man · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say, Paula Guran is now my new favorite editor. What a great assortment of stories. I liked most of them.

The absolute best here are "Copping Squid", "Sea-Hearts", "The Mystery", "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky", "Leng", "The Nowhere Man", "The Other Box", "Halloween Town", and "What Happens When You Wake Up in the NIght".





THE HORRID GLORY OF ITS WINGS, Elizabeth Bear - Depressing and moving seem to be Elizabeth Bear's specialties. A gritty urban locale, and a harpy that is almost as unbearable make for an interesting dichotomy to one miserable teenage girl. It reminded me of Charles deLint's darker works.

LOWLAND SEA, Suzy McKee Charnas - A nice little slice of life at the end of civilization due to disease, as some rich people party their remaining time away; never suspecting their own greed could lead to their undoing. Somewhat typical revenge story; a reworking of Poe. It could be interpreted as a commentary on the rich and their view of the rest of us as merely expendable.

COPPING SQUID, Michael Shea - Oh, I love me a good Cthulthu story and this is an exceptional one set in my native SF Bay Area. Wonderful characters and perfectly fits in with mythos lore.

MONSTERS, Stewart O'Nan - Touching and poignant, this is atypical for a horror collection. It is a literate tale of an accident, a parent's nightmare as their child is injured and recovers, and one boy's intense guilt. It is the sort of horror that we feel at the worst moments of our lives, which is probably why it got included. Nothing overtly supernatural, merely a reminder of the awful feeling of feeling awful.

THE BRINK OF ETERNITY, Barbara Roden - In a similar vein, this story of an Arctic explorer is all too believable, and I was certain the ending would include something out of the ordinary. The only thing that is horror is entirely psychological. Riveting and horrifying, for none of the reasons I expected.

FROST MOUNTAIN PICNIC MASSACRE, Seth Fried - A very hard to classify Stephen King-esque story of a small American town unable to avoid unfortunate events. I notice many online didn't care for this story but I thought it was clever and darkly funny. There are curses and then there's this place. I liked how the running gag became more in depth and sinister as you go along.

SEA-HEARTS, Margo Lanagan - Easily my favorite story from this collection. A mesmerizing, enchanting, and sad tale of an island of fishermen who have captured selkies for wives, and the aftermath it presents. Ultimately, there is a price to pay for subjugating women under the rule of men in any culture, and this story illustrates that feminist truth beautifully.

A HAUNTED HOUSE OF HER OWN, Kelley Armstrong - A twisted little tale of obsession and betrayal as a couple tries to make a home for ghosts. Sometimes you get what's coming to you, ghosts and all. I liked the twist, personally.

HEADSTONE IN MY POCKET, Paul Tremblay - Very well done magical realist story about a Southwest town, a pair of old friends, and a secret from their childhood. Good prose here, and a touching commentary on memory.

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN, Holly Black - Not so great vampire story. Vampires are in locked down ghettos and feed on humans. It's like Daybreakers lite. Notice I don't use light, there. Ha ha.

STRANGE SCENES FROM AN UNFINISHED FILM, Gary McMahon - Sort of boring until the end. Which I did NOT see coming, I will give it that. Another story of obsession, this time of obscure horror films, leads to the unexpected.

A DELICATE ARCHITECTURE, Catherynne M. Valente - Deliciously weaves a story of a dark fairy tale villain's origin. Lush prose, and a wonderful parable for man's inhumanity to man, or woman. Indifference to suffering and exploitation begets the worst outcome for everyone.

THE MYSTERY, Peter Atkins - Short and extremely awesome ghost story. Breathtaking, crisp prose.

VARIATIONS OF A THEME FROM SEINFELD, Peter Straub - Wonderfully scary alternate world fantasy story from the author of "The Talisman". The title is a rather hilarious reference, and ironic, considering.

THE WIDE, CARNIVOROUS SKY, John Langan - It took me a while to get through this tale of military men in search of revenge against a flying space vampire. One of the best created monsters I have read in quite some time, with some all to real commentary on the state of veterans in the US. The story leads us to question which is worse, their daily lives and memories of war, or the haunting specter that follows them afterwards? Perhaps a bit of both. This would make a really good horror film.

CERTAIN DEATH FOR A KNOWN PERSON, Steve Duffy - Psychologically, very frightening. Probably one of the most frightening stories in this volume with no real gore to speak of. Well done, if not a trope I've seen before many times, it was pulled off well so it stands on its own merit.

THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY, Stephen Graham Jones - Dumb criminals mess up and get the wrong address and one of them gets tortured. Wheee great. Unimpressive.

LENG, Marc Laidlaw - An even better Lovecraftian yarn from "Lovecraft Unbound", a collection I am going to read simply because of how awesome this story was. It ranks as my fave along with "Sea Hearts" and I could definitely see it being filmed as a Masters of Horror episode. A Tibetan fungi expert finds mischief afoot, you say? A true mycological mess! Horror at its best.

TORN AWAY, Joe R. Lansdale - A fun, whimsical rural monster story relating to the shadow self concept. Jungian models never grow old, and this one had a nice flow to it.

THE NOWHERE MAN, Sarah Pinborough - Completely terrifying story of a missing person, a potential madman, and nothing is quite as it seems. Bravo.

THE BONE'S PRAYER, Caitlín R. Kiernan - Fairly unnerving story taking place near the sea as a pair of female lovers try to determine the nature of a little stone. I love Caitlin Kiernan's ability to take ordinary, small things and make them into wonderfully written nightmares.

THE WATER TOWER, John Mantooth - This is one of those stories that has an ending that could be interpreted many ways. What happens after? It could be anything. It's horrifying in about a dozen different ways and all of them work. If you like small town horror stories with poverty at the center, and places no one should go...

IN THE PORCHES OF MY EARS, Norman Prentiss - This story really didn't grip me at all until the very end, which changes the context of everything that comes before it. Nicely done.

THE CINDERELLA GAME, Kelly Link - Link rarely writes stories I don't like. Very believable dialogue here, coupled with the realization that sometimes young kids should not be underestimated.

THE JACARANDA SMILE, Gemma Files - Fiction within fiction, a deftly written story about the process of writing. Writers that attempt to write about writers often fail, but not here. As the editor notes, the tone of the story is objective rather than introspective.

THE OTHER BOX, Gerard Houarner - Completely awesome story. I was riveted. It starts off as a run of the mill crime story and then vaults its way into madness, all the while we are asking whether or not madness is responsible for the motivations of the main character or someone she knows. The ending is incredible and I won't ruin it for you. Not to be confused with the horror movie "The Box" which is far more disjointed, to say the least.

WHITE CHARLES, Sarah Monette - Probably the only comedic entry here, it has the uneven contrast of starting out the scariest and then winds up somewhat disappointing in the latter half.

EVERYTHING DIES, BABY, Nadia Bulkin - Meh. Weird fiction only goes so far for me, I suppose. This was just not doing it for me.

BRUISE FOR BRUISE, Robert Davies - Another weird fiction story. The prose was interesting but I felt like I was reading someone's bad acid trip. The religious imagery felt somewhat forced. It was weird for weirdness sake. It was like a cross between the show Jeremiah, parts of the Dark Tower series, and the movie Freaks. So yeah. Not great but not entirely without merit. There were some ideas that struck me as interesting, and certain visuals that really stood out but sometimes it just felt like words were assaulting me like so many insects on a summer's night...

RESPECTS, Ramsey Campbell - Awful, trashy neighbors make an old woman feel scared. I like Campbell's work but his statement regarding what he viewed as a disgusting media complicity in mourning criminals who are shot while stealing things...struck me as a bit callous and classist. He's not just creating unlikeable characters, he is stating unequivocally that anyone who is even related to a criminal is almost inhuman and I get the feeling he very much looks down on the lower class. I didn't like the story but I liked it less when confronted with his rather conservative stereotypes.

DIAMOND SHELL, Deborah Biancotti - Odd little Australian story about another disappearance (it seems to be a theme in this volume!). Not so original, but I liked the narration.

NUB HUT, Kurt Dinan - Easily the worst story I read in this book. I don't think it has any redeemable value. Sorry. This gets my only F.

THE CABINET CHILD, Steve Rasnic Tem - I avoid Tem's work after giving him multiple chances to woo me. The only one I didn't bother with.

CHERRYSTONE AND SHARDS OF ICE, Ekaterina Sedia - A tale of a town divided between living and not so living. It had a different feel to it, most likely the enchanted little burb was flavored with a gritty urban vibe mixed with Russian folkore. Great mix between the two.

THE CREVASSE, Dale Bailey and Nathan Balingrud - A little exploration happens to swing past the Mountains of Madness. A fine jaunt into Antarctic nightmare.

VIC, Maura McHugh - A mysterious, sick little boy reveals something slowly to us through his memory and desires.

HALLOWEEN TOWN, Lucius Shepard - It is really hard to describe this story. Essentially it takes place In our own reality. Our own United States. But the town in question is a fantasy world of immense scope, both geographically, and socially, that it betrays that reality. It tricks us, because it claims to be what it is not. I love fantasy like this, it gets under your skin by parading entirely all too real characters, characters that could easily exist in New York, or Detroit, or Miami, or somewhere, but instead they just happen to be dealing with Impossible Things. The story gave me Synecdoche, New York vibes and if you have seen that film it is close to what this story achieves, only Shepard's work is ultimately more accessible. Ultimately, what it says is that no place is perfect, and you can't just move your life to a new place to start anew and expect that. Everything has a cost and a price, apparently.

THE LONG, COLD GOODBYE, Holly Phillips - You might read this and think, this story makes no sense. In context, it is thick with possible metaphor. I'm not sure, but the underlying moral of the story is what counts. Tell the people who mean the most to you what they mean. Don't let fear get in the way or a lifetime will end merely in regret. Fantastical images and sly clues lay hidden in this story like gems in the snow.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE NIGHT, Michael Marshall Smith - Entirely disturbing little Twilight Zone like story. I adore Michael Marshall Smith. Read any story of his you get a chance to, you won't be sorry.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid collection with some stories that I loved and none that I hated (although some I liked less, for sure). It’s such a huge collection that I can’t imagine anyone who enjoys horror or fantasy wouldn’t find some stories they like—I now have quite a list of authors whose works I want to read.

[Dan Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a great compilation but the dark fantasy parts weren’t my favourite. Too many tales of the Fae making off with kids, which isn't the kind of horror I’m looking for.
Some big hits, only a couple whiffs in this anthology and it covered a very broad array of horror. Different types each had a chance on display. The overall tone was consistently creepy and unsettling. Excellent gender mix in a genre usually fairly "boy's club-ish".


Prelude - Paula Curan
Bit of a teaser, bit all over the place but you have to be to cover the intro to a book so thick and diverse in a short span. I appreciated the brevity. 4/5. Her short, punchy comments after each story don’t feel well thought out, or could be outright groan-inducing. 1/5

The Horrid Glory of its Wings- Elizabeth Bear
That was a masterpiece of short fiction. I wanted to applaud the ending. A hunchbacked young woman, an AIDS baby who somehow made it to 18, has a friend in the alley. A foul but wise Harpy. 5/5.

Lowland Sea - Suzy McKee Charnas
A modern day “Masque of the red death”
Where rich celebrities hide to ride out a plague. When the protagonist is sacrificed to go exploring and left out to die, she takes her revenge. Really well told but I hated the fatalistic (though totally reasonable) choice to kill all the other survivors . 4/5

Coping Squid - Michael Shae.
This was in The Black Wings Of Cthulhu anthology, so I read and enjoyed it there. 4/5.

Monsters - Stewart O’Nan.
Two boys playing with a Daisy airsoft gun, one outs the others eye out. It was non-supernatural and the suspense was very real while waiting to see if he’d keep the eye. Just a slice of life but very evocative of how close we always are to catastrophe. And that’s genuinely scary. 4/5.

The Brink Of Eternity- Barbara Roden
Reminded me of some of the artic survival part from Ursula K LeGuinns Left Hand Of Darkness. Certainly an homage to Poe and his ideas of the hollow earth. I enjoyed that it just left that as the nebulous goal. It wasn’t the plot, it was the protagonists obsession. 3.5/5

Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre- Seth Fried
Hilarious dark comedy about the inevitable annual free picnic/massacre. Unavoidably fatal for many, injurious to nearly all. A dark cabal of identical men in suits and a web of financial fraud set it up every year. Very “Welcome to Nightvale”. 5/5

Sea-Hearts by Margo Lanagan.
Long and low on action, this story uses the selkie myth (I had at first thought more of HPLs Innsmouth than Irish folk tales) to paint a a picture of life on a small island where they trap selkies for sea wives, fantastic looking Fae mermaids slavishly devoted to their bonded mates. Fair to all sides, the boys the mums and even the husbands. They’d be the villains if the story needed one. 5/5.

A Haunted House Of Her Own - Kelly Armstrong.
A woman looking to buy and run an old house as a “haunted B&B” discovered it was actually haunted. There were two twists, one good and then the other pretty lame. 2/5

Headstone in your pocket - Paul Tremblay
A creepy but banal tale of a border patrol officer who ends up with a confiscated baby tooth in his pocket. This leads to haunting nightmares of the child and teeth, so he breaks down his life and eventually sets out to cross the desert into Mexico and return the tooth to the father. 2/5

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown - Holly Black
This was a fun riff on modern vampires, where ghettos are set up to contain the outbreak and a truce upheld. The protagonist was great and the story painted a deeply detailed and living setting in a short time. 5/5

Strange Scenes From an Unfinished Film - Gary McMahon
A noir story about a horror film buff who watches a cursed tape that becomes an interface between the hungry film and himself? The watcher becomes the watched. 4/5

A Delicate Architecture- Catherynne M Valente
The fairy tale origin story of the witch in the gingerbread house. Does an excellent job of slowly laying it out without being obvious until the end. 5/5

The Mystery - Peter Atkins
A paranormal investigator arrives at a haunted site and releases the souls there to their final resting place. Well told but dispassionate. 4/5

Variations On A Theme From Seinfeld - Peter Straub
A doppelgänger in the mirror story that didn’t do much with the premise, but was still pretty interesting. Left on a dark note. 2/5

The Wide Carnivorous Sky - John Langan
A great way to modernize the vampire as a real monster, more a sci-fi horror than gothic. Very true to the lived experience of veterans, very no-nonsense approach to practical elimination of the problem. 4/5

Certain Death For a known person - Steve Duffy
The twist in this story could be felt coming from a long way off, but it was still very well told. 3/5

The ones who got away - Stephen Graham jones
Some punk kids get talked into performing a kidnapping that they thought (being really stupid) wouldn’t be that big a deal. The lifelong trauma of being the one who walked away stays with the narrator his whole life. True crime, noir, gritty. 4/5

Leng- Marc Laidlaw
Glorious myconids. The tale of a mighty, eternal fungal bloom manipulating the world around it. Drawing in scientists in a very HR Haggard style. Twist ending was telegraphed. 3/5

Torn Away - Joe R Lansdale
Peter Pan meets “it follows”. An interesting situation where the small town cop flips and is actually able to overcome skepticism and be helpful. 3/5

The Nowhere Man - Sarah Pinborough
This one really had me until it started to feel (and was the revealed to be) the opening chapter of a YA dark fantasy. Great story but a big letdown with a “to be continued…” feeling.
2/5

The Bones Prayer - Caitlin R Kiernan
Very Cthulhu as dark romance/lesbian occultist. A lost stone turns a woman into a mermaid when inserted. A curse? The curse whole thing has a dream quality.
3/5

The Water Tower - John Mantooth
Two teens trying to come to grips with their dead end Appalachian town and family life . One thinks he’s found an alien in a water tower. Not an alien.
3/5

In The Porches Of My Ears - Norman Prentiss
A blind man in a movie theatre has his wife expertly narrate the film for him, to the annoyance then delight of the cinephile older couple who sit behind them. Then there’s an ominous turn and their fate crashes and not them in a sweet and melancholy way.
4/5

The Cinderella Game - Kelly Link
Shirt story about two step siblings playing a rough game, the older brother seeming like a dangerous psycho only to have the tables turn and discover the psychopathy of the little sister. Bloody and ominous.
3/5

The Jacaranda Smile - Gemma Files
Too much reminiscence about her childhood and the emotional fallout of her parents divorce. The spells full of malice she casts as an angry child turn up after a ten year delay.
3/5

The Other Box - Gerard Houarner
One by one her kids go missing and then she goes “crazy”. Her family has ties to the Fae so the young ones go off to fight some mystery leaving her behold and bewildered. Didn’t like the story but love the idea of every setting where the kids go away to another world for great adventures but leave the family broken and wondering where they went.
2/5

White Charles - Sarah Monette

Lovecraftian tale of a homunculus loose in a museum that wants its freedom in death.
5/5

Everything dies, baby - Nadia Bulkin
A sweet but lame ghost story revolving around a plane crash that ejected a coffin before crashing.
2/5

Bruise for bruise - Robert Davies
A grotesque small town peopled by mutants of every kind. A lady without a flair develops a special power of stigmata bruises. A guy falls in obsessive love, gets hurt, she goes full Carrie on the town.
3/5

Respects - Ramsey Campbell
Interesting ghost story about an old lady in a slum that degrades pretty hard into a racist diatribe about society going down the drain and blaming black people. Solidly written story if you can strip away the racism.
1/5

Diamond Shell - Bedorah Biancotti
A sort of cyber-punk existential crisis.
2/5

Nub Hut - Steve Rasnic Tem
Torture porn about a cult where you freeze off limbs and extremities to join the inner circle.
2/5

Cherry stone and shards of ice - Ekaterina Sedia
A fantasy about half a city destined to walk the world after death, but they aren’t evil or cannibals or anything, just cursed to walk around rotting. Great fantasy setting, well acted by the protagonist.
5/5

The crevasse - DB & NB
Lovecraftian Arctic setting with a sled crash and an underground cyclopean stairwell.
3/5

Vic - Maura McHugh
A slow reveal, told by implication and slowly revealed. A tragic child...built? Kept alive? By his loving but mad scientist father and maybe experiment or spare parts source mother.
Aching beauty, tragic horror. Reminds me of the Chimera in Full Metal Alchemist.
5/5

Halloween Town - Lucius Shepard
This Novella took a lot of twists and turns but they were all very satisfying. Some alien weirdness, mad science, evil rock and roll has been in a tower with henchmen, plant people. Cats? Love interests, lots of sex, some violence. Ending with redefining a kingdom.
5/5

The Long Cold Goodbye - Holly Philips
A dreamlike fantasy about the ice-pocalypse consuming a town and a girl trying to find her childhood friend in the big party before the end.
2/5

What happens when you wake up in the night - MM Smith
A short little snippet from the point of view of a child who wakes up cold in the dark. Their parents are also there but it’s a dark cold stone cave and they’re all trapped.
2/5

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really expected to enjoy this a lot more than I actually did. I had hoped it would be a throwback to the now defunct "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" that we all used to know and love... but honestly there were so many selections in here that made no sense that I cannot say that there is very much similarity in quality.
I've read other Guran-edited volumes that were a lot more cohesive and engaging than this one, so I will not give up on her by any means. I thought "New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird" was a great read, for instance.

In this book, I enjoyed these stories in particular - however, I must note that I had already read them in other collections, for the most part.
Leng, by Mark Laidlaw
What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night, Michael Marshall Smith
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky by John Langan, which I've seen in quite a few collections at this point
Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film, Gary McMahon - great atmosphere.

Best story that I had not previously seen was Sea-Hearts by Margo Lanagan. This woman creates simply gorgeous prose and you should seek out her work immediately.

[Bill Borre]

"The Horrid Glory of its Wings" by Elizabeth Bear - Desiree has a discussion about her loneliness with a harpy and chooses to become a harpy.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highlights from the collection are:

'Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre' by Seth Fried
'Monsters' by Stewart O'Nan
'The Wide, Carnivorous Sky' by John Langan
'Certain Death For a Known Person' by Steve Duffy
'The Water Tower' by John Mantooth
'Nub Hut' by Kurt Dinan
'The Crevasse' by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
'What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night' by Michael Marshall Smith

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a couple of these collections, and they are always mixed. There’s not a huge amount of actual horror here, mostly just weird and unsettling stories. There are the usual Cthulhu stories, of course, and overall I only found a few that I skipped all together.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any anthology, some stories appeal more than others. I was hoping for more fantasy than straight horror, though I did enjoy a few of the latter. Lots of open-ended disturbing kinds of stories, where you're not quite sure what happened.

[Anna Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in this series, these are not the rivers of blood and piles of hacked up body parts found in your standard horror stories. These are much better... sleep with the lights on kind of scary.

[Stephanie Boisvert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, worst book I've read in such a long time. I made it about 250 pages into the book and only two stories were horror and/or dark fantasy.

Absolutely Terrible. Do NOT recommend. I had high hopes for this and I am thoroughly disappointed

[Deborah Replogle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, yes. A very enjoyable read...if you like this kind of thing.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love big beefy anthologies, acknowledging that the stories are going to be hit-and-miss as far as taste, enjoyment, etc.

This one was very hit-and-miss, and the misses were way way out there.

[butterbook · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved John Langan's The Wide, Carnivorous Sky. Everything else was just ok.

[frank augustine]

OKAY. BUT TOO MANY SIMILARITIES AUTHOR TO AUTHOR. MY FAULT, SHOULD HAVE KNOWN.

[James Reyome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy smoke. Holy smoke! HOLY SMOKE! Okay, so maybe that's a bit of overkill, but be fair, this is the best anthology I've read in a long while, and it tops the 2011 edition EASILY. Yes, I know I read them out of order, sue me, I received them that way. Looks like this one will be an annual to keep on the Christmas list for many years to come. Horror purists will probably complain that there's not enough out-and-out scary stuff in these, but keep in mind, it's "Dark Fantasy and Horror" in the title, not the other way around. There are so many good catches in this collection that I can scarce name them all, but the ones that really stick out are Stewart O'Nan's "Monsters" (it's not what you think!), "Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre" by Seth Fried, which probably IS what you think, "The Water Tower" by John Mantooth, and "What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night" by Michael Marshall Smith. Vying for Best-Of-Show honors though are "Halloween Town" by Lucius Shepard and Maura McHugh's "Vic", quite possibly the most affecting story I've read in a very long time.

Now then. My ONE complaint. This is two books from Prime which I own, and both of them have a significant number of typos. This edition didn't seem quite as bad as the 2011 book, but really...I know, it's a lot of pages, a lot of words, maybe it's just that in the rush to get a book out that copy editing is allowed to let slip. Please, Prime, don't allow this. Please. Hey, if you need an editor...call me. I work for free books!

Wow. Wow! WOW! If you are a genre fan, chances are you already have it in your to-read list...if you don't, then run, do not walk, and get this book while it's still available!

[Sheherazahde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduction by Paula Guran
The Horrid Glory of Its Wings by Elizabeth Bear
Lowland Sea by Suzy McKee Charnas
Copping Squid by Michael Shea
Monsters by Stewart O'Nan
The Brink Of Eternity by Barbara Roden
Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre by Seth Fried
Sea-Hearts by Margo Lanagan
A Haunted House Of Her Own by Kelley Armstrong
Headstone In My Pocket by Paul Tremblay
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Strange Scenes From an Unfinished Film by Gary McMahon
A Delicate Architecture by Catherynne M. Valente
The Mystery by Peter Atkins
Variations of a Theme from Seinfeld by Peter Straub
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky by John Langan
Certain Death for a Known Person by Steve Duffy
The Ones Who Got Away by Stephen Graham Jones
Leng by Marc Laidlaw
Torn Away by Joe R. Lansdale
The Newhere Man by Sarah Pinborough
The Bone's Prayer by Caitlin R. Kiernan
The Water Tower by John Mantooth
In the Porches of My Ears by Norman Prentiss
The Cindrella Game by Kelly Link
The Jacaranda Smile by Gemma Files
The Other Box by Gerard Houarner
White Charles by Sarah Monette
Everything Dies, Baby by Nadia Bulkin
Bruise For Bruise by Robert Davies
Respects by Ramsey Campbell
Diamong Shell by Deborah Biancotti
Nub Hut by Kurt Dinan
The Cabinet Child by Steve Rasnic Tem
Cherrystone and Shards of Ice by Ekaterina Sedia
The Crevasse by Dale Bailey and Nathan Balingrud
Vic by Maura McHugh
Halloween Town by Lucius Shepard
The Long, Cold Goodbye by Holly Phillips
What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night by Michael Marshall Smith

[Travis Heermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology is a smorgasbord of naughty, delicious delectables. And just like a feast, there are some dishes more to one's taste than others. There is some absolutely jaw-dropping writing here, most notably Lucius Shepard's novella, "Halloween Town", so full of lush prose, truth, insight, and weirdness that I am left shaking my head in wonder.
Other high points include:
"Copping Squid" by Michael Shea, a brilliantly creepy Lovecraftian tale.
"Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre" by Seth Fried, a stunning piece of almost literary, almost speculative prose that has something very dark, scary and true to say about the human race.
"Monsters" by Stewart O'Nan, an everyday slice-of-life horror, an amazing exploration of the old cliche, "You'll shoot your eye out!"
"The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" by John Langan, an creepy, gritty vampire-story-meets-modern-war story.
"Leng" by Marc Laidlaw, another Lovecraftian tale that HAUNTS.
Of course not all of these were to my taste. I have little patience for the kind of writing where the narrator is so unreliable and the language so surreal and disjointed that it obfuscates rather than illuminates, resulting in a chunk of pretty vagary that signifies nothing. There were a couple of stories like that here.
But by and large, 90% of the stories here are well worth their ink. Highly recommended.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seemed to have more depressing than horror or dark fantasy stories. There were several that I could not get through, but the good stories boosted the rating.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is missing some punctuation. It should say "Dark, Fantasy, & Horror" since many of the stories contain no elements of either fantasy or horror, but may be called dark. Though I define genres broadly and have a very liberal view on what could be considered fantasy or horror, some of these stories really had none of that, even by a stretch. Some were hardly even dark.

Catherynne M. Valente is the best in this book. Having no context, with a few pages left in her story I figured out exactly where it was going and was thrilled to see it through. Brilliant. Definitely dark fantasy and horror in that story. A Delicate Architecture is probably my favorite of this whole collection.

Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan was also quite good, though it was unclear what was going on for quite a lot of the story.

Respects by Ramsey Campbell seemed a bit racist, and Guren's comment on that story was especially so.

Overall these stories were decently written, but mostly didn't fit the title's genres.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some stuff in here that was really creative, but some of the stories just went on and on and never got anywhere. Hey, I know writing short stories take some skill and work. I finally had to quit when I was in the middle of a story reading about a former writing professor who said that he taught his students not to write complexity for its own sake, but the story just kept adding more complexity and never resolved.

[Wendopolis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not titled correctly. The first half of the book consists of stories that the editor included just because she liked them, as her annoying and dumb remarks at the conclusion of each story attest. The latter half of the collection is better, but still not up to par with other similar collections such as The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (any edition).

[Darcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read the Kelley Armstrong and Holly Black stories. They were pretty good. Black's story made me wish it was a full length book, I really wanted to know more about the world that the story was set in.

[Jordan Peacock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent:
Leng
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky
Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre
Lowland Sea

Good:
What Happens When You Wake Up In The Night
Nub Hut
White Charles
Headstone in my Pocket
The Mystery
A Delicate Architecture
The Brink of Eternity
Halloween Town
The Water Tower

[shaggy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll confess I didn't read these all, but I came across a few stand-outs:

Holly Black / Coldest Girl in Coldtown - read it before, and always delighted.
Michael Marshall / ...When you wake up in the night - so wonderfully unexpected.
Caitlin Kiernan / The bone's prayer - so atmospheric.

[Lótë (Iris)]

The writing in this book was good, but I wasn't so much into all the stories.
I'd only recommend it if your into the horror genre a lot. It does have a lot of creative stories in it, I think; they just weren't my kind of cupcake.