Horror Aficionados discussion

Are The best horror of the year edited by Ellen Datlow, The mammoth book of best new horror edited by Stephen Jones and The year's best dark fantasy and horror edited by Paula Guran the best anthologies nowadays or are there more anthologies equally interesting?

Datlow, Jones and Guran provide the lay of the land. Also try two recent anthologies that are destined to be classics: The Grimscribe's Puppets and The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron.

In terms of themed anthologies, I love Cemetery Dance's "October Dreams", which is a mix of short stoires and non-fiction essay "memory" pieces. The original is a classic, and the second one just released this year is quite good, if not quite at the same level as the original, IMO.

I tend to prefer novels and novellas, so I actually don't read many anthologies - sorry I can't really provide more input.

I read a lot of horror anthologies/collections whatever you want to call them. I can give you the names of some of the ones I've really liked if you want.
It might be a longish list so just let me know! :)

The Dark Descent

Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror by Kirby McCauley seems to be quite legendary. It features writers such as Karl Edward Wagner and T.E.D. Klein.

Ekel wrote: "Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror by Kirby McCauley seems to be quite legendary. It features writers such as Karl Edward Wagner and T.E.D. K..."

I second this one!

Grace wrote:It might be a longish list so just let me know! :)

Great idea!!! write them here or send me a message as you prefer, thanks in advance

Ekel wrote:Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror by Kirby McCauley seems to be quite legendary. It features writers such as Karl Edward Wagner and T.E.D. Klein.

Dark forces is the best and more complete anthology I have read

Give the Terror Tales anthologies edited by Paul Finch a try. Or the Black Books of Horror.

Ok, finally got my shelves straightened out so here we go. Some are physical books and some are e-books. I do have some single author collections in here as well:

H.R. Wakefield is an author i really like despite some...unflattering opinions on women, lol.
He's a devotee of M.R. James so a few are similar but most are his own, unique voice.

On e-book there are the Wildside Megapacks that are pretty cheap but have some good stories. Especially if you like older horror.

If you like Sherlock stories with a supernatural twist there are these that have some good stories in them: Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes, Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes, Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes

Ghosts: Recent Hauntings edited by Ellen Datlow

I don't know if you like Lovecraft or not but I do have some Lovecraft themed anthologies

Lovecraft's Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow

The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories

The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories

One Buck Horror: Volume One. There are more volumes of these if you like them.

A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings

Searchers After Horror a Lovecraftian
themed book

The Shock Totem 1: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted is an e-zine (I think?). It's available on Amazon and it's set up like a magazine with author interviews, short stories and movie and book reviews. There are some really good short stories in them though.

Shock Rock, Volume I and Shock Rock, Volume II

Complete Collection Of H.P.Lovecraft - 150 eBooks With 100+ Audio Book Links

Dark Delicacies series has some good stories

Dark Water

These next ones are all physical books and some I've had for a very long time do I'm not sure how easy they would be to find.

Dark MasquesDark Masques

Eight Strange Tales

Haunting Women: Stories of Fear and Fantasy by Women Writers

Horrors! 365 Scary Stories

The Museum of Horrors

My Favorite Horror Story. Horror authors tell what their favorite horror stories are.

The Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams

The Pan Book of Horror StoriesRobert Bloch's Psychos

Shadow Dreams

Shudders

Twisted Tales

House of Fear

And that's all I have for now but let me go through my kindle a bit, I know I have more.

I also have these two, which are more in the fantasy genre but a couple of the stories verge on horror.

The Anything Box and The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales.

I will add more when i dig more out!

Very interesting list Grace, I miss anthologies from the 80's like The year's best horror stories, Shadows, Masques, Borderlands... do you like them?

Yes I used to have more before I moved. A lot of the time I like to read shorter stories because if I start a longer book before bed I'll stay up way too late past my bedtime, lol. So shorter stories are easier.

If you can find the Horrors! 365 Scary Stories I highly recommend it. The title makes it sound a little ya but it's not.

Francisco wrote: "Very interesting list Grace, I miss anthologies from the 80's like The year's best horror stories, Shadows, Masques, Borderlands... do you like them?"

It has been a long time since I read them, but I seem to recall thinking the Borderlands series of anthologies were indeed quite good.

This anthology is a very special one, since literary tribute anthologies to musicians are something rather extraordinary, I guess, but this collection is a fascinating journey. I wouldn't even call it mandatory to be familiar with Neofolk/Apocalyptic Folk artist David M. Tibet to enjoy this collection, but it comes in handy. Amongst the contributers are veterans like Thomas Ligotti, Joseph S. Pulver and Robert M. Price.

An anthology with a very original and exotic theme I'm reading at the moment:

Ekel wrote: "An anthology with a very original and exotic theme I'm reading at the moment:

"

This one's deep in my to-be-read pile, should I move it up?

Yes, definitely. I've onle completed one third yet and those stories alone are already reason enough to read it.

Ekel wrote: "Yes, definitely. I've onle completed one third yet and those stories alone are already reason enough to read it."

Great, thanks!

Some nice recommendations in this thread!

Tales from the Borderlands and all its volumes are high quality.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Blackwater is little known but short and absolutely worth checking out!

Lovecraftian horror meets steampunk. This one is one of the best and most amazing Cthulhu mythos anthologies ever.

Outside of anthologies written by a specific author such as H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Joe Lansdale etc. The best two anrhologies I have ever read were The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Volume 1 and The Best Horror Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Volume 2 edited by Edward L. Ferman. Not one bad story in two volumes.

David wrote: "Outside of anthologies written by a specific author such as H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Joe Lansdale etc. The best two anrhologies I have ever read were [book:The Best Horror Stories from the Mag..."

Adding these to my TBR shlef! I occasionally read that magazine and have always liked the horror stories in them.

This was one was solid:

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

Splatterpunks! edited by Paul Sammon. This is the
best kept secret of the entire Splatterpunk subgenre.

, and .

Kimberly wrote: ", and ."

I really need to pick those up (what with me having so few books to read, of course :-)

Robert wrote: "Kimberly wrote: ", and ."

I really need to pick those up..."

LOL! Exactly! But with the VALANCOURT selections, I've found that it's worth making the time for--especially after reading a mid-range book. Their picks really are "different"! And of course, I love the short story selections around this time of year, especially.

Great resource, thanks. I've been writing 2-3 new horror stories every week for my collections, so I'm always on the lookout for new inspiration. Cheers,

Horror Stories: 51 Sleepless Nights: Thriller short story collection about Demons, Undead, Paranormal, Psychopaths, Ghosts, Aliens, and Mystery

I always liked

Bark wrote: "This was one was solid:

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror "

I agree with that-solid 5 stars!

Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, edited by Douglas E. Winter
Revelations, edited by Douglas E. Winter
999: Twenty-nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense, edited by Al Sarrantonio
Foundations of Fear, edited by David G. Hartwell
Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Phyllis Fraser
Those are just the ones in my bedroom.

I LOVED 999! I just picked up The Best of Cemetery Dance at a library book sale...I was so excited! Read it years ago and now I get to own it.
The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume One and The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume Two were really fun to read--one short story selected from every year in the 20th century.
For something a bit newer, I really enjoyed The Blumhouse Book of Nightmares: The Haunted City.