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A review by greengaybles
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve by Ellen Datlow
4.0
It did take me the better part of a year to finish this book, but I still don’t understand the wealth of negative reviews for it. Were there some typos that could have been easily corrected? Yes. Were there a couple of stories that were either boring or too vague? Yes.
Still, I enjoyed more stories than I didn’t, and the outstanding ones were really outstanding. I’m not going to go through them all here and summarize them, as I’ve seen some people do, because I simply don’t have the patience. But Kristi DeMeester’s A Song for Wounded Mouths, Gemma Files’ The Puppet Motel, Sarah Langan’s The Night Nurse, and Ren Warom’s Nor Cease You Never Now were my particular favorites. Especially Ren Warom’s story, so beautiful, so gross, so accurate with regard to the depiction of trauma and its aftermath.
What I do want to expound on is the final story in the collection. Nathan Ballingrud’s The Visible Filth is one of the nastiest, creepiest things I’ve ever read, so it stands to reason that his novella, The Butcher’s Table, would be equally as spectacular. It’s worth the price of the whole book just to read it. It’s violent, bloody, brutal, funny, tender, and bleak all at the same time. No one is particularly likable, but somehow everyone is at least a little sympathetic. There are pirates and carrion angels and cannibals and a sea voyage into hell, literally, and I loved it so much. When I started it, I thought it wasn’t going to grab me, and I almost considered just skipping it and calling it a day, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. You should definitely read it if you have the stomach for it. What a gem.
Ellen Datlow hasn’t assembled a flawless collection, but who could? It’s still one I’ll return to, even if not in its entirety, and thus it’s worth the 4 stars to me.
Still, I enjoyed more stories than I didn’t, and the outstanding ones were really outstanding. I’m not going to go through them all here and summarize them, as I’ve seen some people do, because I simply don’t have the patience. But Kristi DeMeester’s A Song for Wounded Mouths, Gemma Files’ The Puppet Motel, Sarah Langan’s The Night Nurse, and Ren Warom’s Nor Cease You Never Now were my particular favorites. Especially Ren Warom’s story, so beautiful, so gross, so accurate with regard to the depiction of trauma and its aftermath.
What I do want to expound on is the final story in the collection. Nathan Ballingrud’s The Visible Filth is one of the nastiest, creepiest things I’ve ever read, so it stands to reason that his novella, The Butcher’s Table, would be equally as spectacular. It’s worth the price of the whole book just to read it. It’s violent, bloody, brutal, funny, tender, and bleak all at the same time. No one is particularly likable, but somehow everyone is at least a little sympathetic. There are pirates and carrion angels and cannibals and a sea voyage into hell, literally, and I loved it so much. When I started it, I thought it wasn’t going to grab me, and I almost considered just skipping it and calling it a day, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. You should definitely read it if you have the stomach for it. What a gem.
Ellen Datlow hasn’t assembled a flawless collection, but who could? It’s still one I’ll return to, even if not in its entirety, and thus it’s worth the 4 stars to me.