Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror Edited by Ellen Datlow

 

Bestselling horror editor Ellen Datlow (Body Shocks) returns with her most eclectic anthology. Here are twenty-one stories of extreme psychological dread from horror icons such as Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Simon Bestwick, and more. The unsettling tales explore the nature of fear as it stirs in dysfunctional families, toxic friendships, and mismatched lovers, and culminates in relentless stalkers, remorseless killers, and perpetrators of savage rituals.

Your grandfather confesses his heinous crime to you alone. You try to save a young girl from sexual assault, but she’s not really a victim. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mom is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you’re stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead.

Far below the unlikeliness of the supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. We live in fear of the cruelties of respected leaders and of the despicable crimes of neighbors who seem normal. We live with anxiety about our innermost desires and the unforgivable things we might do in a moment of passion. Or, if we fail to curb our urges, we live with the terrible secrets of our unfettered resentments.

In this uniquely unsettling anthology, editor Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what humanity fears most: People.

I am a huge fan of horror anthologies so I was probably holding my breath from the time I requested this book from Edelweiss until the minute the approval came. It's not easy to scare me so I will not hold it against the title for being unable to arouse any fears in me. Still, it conjured up several other emotions and I have always said the stories I enjoy the most are the ones that can make me feel something.

Among my many favorites were The Pelt by Annie Neugebauer about a woman who finds the skin of an unidentified animal mysteriously draped over her fence.

A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman about a boy who is left to sit with grandpa while his parents are out. Grandpa has a secret he is dying to share and who would believe an imaginative child if he decided to spill the beans?

The Donner Party by Dale Bailey in which a woman of lower social standing gets a taste for the high class side of life.

Back Seat by Bracken MacLeod about a young girl whose desperate circumstances lead to a traumatic discovery.

Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan is a story that ripped my heart out, about a cruel and unusual punishment that is customary among a particular group of people.

These were my favorites, yours may differ. That's what's great about anthologies, you can take what you like and leave the rest.

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Bitter Is the Heart by Mina Hardy

Tamar Glass fled an abusive mother when she was eighteen, running away from home to find a better life elsewhere. She has lived in freedom from her mother, Ruth, for decades, until one night she wakes to find her now-elderly mother standing over her bed.

As Tamar takes in her mother, strange events start happening inside her the house is oppressively hot, lights flicker, and cupboards open and shut on their own. Whispers filter beneath her bedroom door. Tamar learns that Ruth has been kicked out of her assisted living home and other facilities refuse to house her and endanger their own residents. Tamar has spent years suppressing her childhood trauma, but it comes rushing back with each strange event in her home. As Tamar copes with their disturbing past which her mother stubbornly refuses to admit to, Tamar can’t shake the feeling that there’s something worse than her mother lurking in the shadows.

Perfect for fans of The Haunting of Hill House, this terrifying novel unravels one dark strand at a time.

Tamar Glass grew up in a house where she was neglected at best and physically and emotionally abused at worst. Or maybe that wasn't even the worst. Maybe the worst was the thing standing over her bed, the whispers coming from the drains, the complete and utter aloneness she felt in knowing that there was nowhere to turn, and nobody to believe her. Maybe the worst was seeing how her mother doted on her sister, while never sparing an ounce of love or kindness for Tamar. Or maybe the worst was yet to come.

After barely escaping with her life, she never looked back. She is close to her sister but has avoided her mother as much as possible for the past 3 decades. Until the night she awoke to her mother appearing in her bedroom, having left the elderly housing apartment in the middle of the night and walked barefoot all the way to Tamar's house. Now she is stuck with her. The elderly housing complex is kicking her out, for unspecified reasons although something sinister is implied. No other home will take her. Tamar feels duty-bound to care for her until other arrangements can be made, but the creepy happenings that plagued her childhood are starting again.

For me, the pacing was perfect. Secrets are gradually revealed, and disturbing incidents that at first appear to be the normal progression of dementia taking hold of a woman who was never particularly kind to begin with turn undeniably to supernatural evil. Mina Hardy has combined a dysfunctional family dynamic with Jewish Folklore for the win. I loved this book.

5 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to Crooked Lane Books

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Pale Blades of Moonlight by Joe Pawlowski

In a dark alley in St. Paul, Minnesota, a pair of boys think they’re breaking into an abandoned secondhand store, but what they’re really entering is a nightmare from which they may never escape.

Meanwhile, in a nearby city, a caped figure appears as it does every night on the sidewalk outside the house of that old woman who neighbors believe is really a witch.

And in a rural woodland, ghouls unearth the residents of an ancient graveyard and carry off the rotting remnants for sinister purposes.

All by the silvery light of the moon.

The nine tales in this collection by award-winning writer Joe Pawlowski feature a hapless real-estate agent driven to extreme measures by his love of a severely deformed woman; a trio of farmers who discover a presence from beyond lurking in the corn; a paraplegic miss who rides the supernatural into realities far from the confines of her hospital bed; the American tourist in Mexico City who discovers the deeper meaning of the Day of the Dead; and the wise guy who learns it’s not OK to shortchange a sin eater.

It’s surely looking like a bad moon is on the rise.

Pale Blades Of Moonlight is a collection of nine intriguing stories that range from horror to fantasy with a touch of sci-fi.

 Black magic, strange rituals, grave robbers, alien beings, and more, made for an entertaining read.

My favorites were as follows...
Shadow Man, in which a reclusive woman who guards a dangerous object lets her defenses down.

It Came Out Of The Sky- When a strange metal capsule crashes to the earth a couple of elderly men follow the trail of its occupant. They should have run the other way!

A young woman who has survived a traumatic and devastating injury that robbed her of the life she should have had travels the globe without leaving her bed in A world Apart.

A realtor becomes obsessed with a deformed client in Iris.

A man tries to cheat a sin eater out of his fee and learns that some things are far more dear than money in Elliot's Just Dessert.

If you're in the mood for shivery thrills and startling chills you'll find them here in Pale Blades Of Moonlight.

My thanks to Joe Pawlowski.

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More books by this author

 

Book Spotlight! Asunder by Kerstin Hall

 Book Spotlight

Here's a book that's on my radar. I haven't had time to read it yet, but it sounds good and I wanted to share it with you. 

"There is no doubt in my mind that Kerstin Hall is one of the great imaginative minds writing fantasy today."—Isabel Cañas, USA Today Bestselling author of Vampires of El Norte

Sabriel meets Witch King in Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall's beguiling new standalone novel. A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024.

We choose our own gods here.

Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch being—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with some very dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.

Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they must journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors, and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.

And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due.

Available for Pre-order

My thanks to Tordotcom for the gifted copy

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom (August 20, 2024)

Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 20, 2024

Print length ‏ : ‎ 427 pages

Fantasy Action & Adventure