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A review by brennanlafaro
New Fears: New Horror Stories by Masters of the Genre by Mark Morris
3.0
I picked this collection up at the beginning of this summer, looking to read a few stories from modern horror voices I knew and hoping to discover some new authors. Like a lot of collections this size and this diverse, there are stories that stand out and stay with you, stories that are fine but you likely won’t revisit, and stories that don’t quite hold your attention. The good ones, and the big names, are spread out enough to carry a reader through the entire book.
I’d like to start by highlighting a few authors I wasn’t familiar with before. The opening story, The Boggle Hole by Alison Littlewood was one of my favorites in the book. It’s a spin-on a creature story that features significantly more characterization than creature and put Littlewood on my radar. Departures by A.K. Benedict was another terrific read, and mixes horror with something like fantasy. It’s much easier to recommend than to describe. The Embarrassment of Dead Grandmothers by Sarah Lotz offers us something different, an excellent black humor story. The Abduction Door by Christopher Golden is one of those stories that gives us some new every day object to fear, elevators here, and a surprisingly poignant ending.
The big names also have some excellent stories sprinkled throughout. Josh Malerman’s House of the Head, which is now getting rave reviews on the return of creepshow, was originally written for this anthology and is every bit as good as you hope. It’s a great spin on haunted house fiction. Brian Keene delivers Sheltered in Place, a pretty engaging story with a fantastic ending. Adam Nevill’s Eumenides (The Benevolent Ladies) goes to the kind of deep, dark place we might expect from this author, but we’re here for the ride as per usual.
Being relatively new to the not-featured-at-Barnes & Noble horror community, this collection served as a nice introduction to some of these authors. If it peaks your interest, Mark Morris has also edited and released a second volume. It currently resides on my bookshelf and is waiting to introduce me to some new voices.
I’d like to start by highlighting a few authors I wasn’t familiar with before. The opening story, The Boggle Hole by Alison Littlewood was one of my favorites in the book. It’s a spin-on a creature story that features significantly more characterization than creature and put Littlewood on my radar. Departures by A.K. Benedict was another terrific read, and mixes horror with something like fantasy. It’s much easier to recommend than to describe. The Embarrassment of Dead Grandmothers by Sarah Lotz offers us something different, an excellent black humor story. The Abduction Door by Christopher Golden is one of those stories that gives us some new every day object to fear, elevators here, and a surprisingly poignant ending.
The big names also have some excellent stories sprinkled throughout. Josh Malerman’s House of the Head, which is now getting rave reviews on the return of creepshow, was originally written for this anthology and is every bit as good as you hope. It’s a great spin on haunted house fiction. Brian Keene delivers Sheltered in Place, a pretty engaging story with a fantastic ending. Adam Nevill’s Eumenides (The Benevolent Ladies) goes to the kind of deep, dark place we might expect from this author, but we’re here for the ride as per usual.
Being relatively new to the not-featured-at-Barnes & Noble horror community, this collection served as a nice introduction to some of these authors. If it peaks your interest, Mark Morris has also edited and released a second volume. It currently resides on my bookshelf and is waiting to introduce me to some new voices.