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A review by exeidur
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 1 by Ellen Datlow
3.0
2,9* out of 5 if we average out all of the separate scores here. So it wasn't great overall. I did not enjoy most stories, and would not recommend this bundle, were it not for the absolute last story in here, The Narrows which gave me the shivers.
The anthology starts with 50 pages of pretty much everything that appeared in 2008 when it comes to horror. Needless to say, I didn't read any of this.
On to the stories (with spoilers in most reviews):
2*
Not a great start to the anthology, in my opinion. An airplane is filled with coffins containing the bodies of men, women and children who killed themselves/were killed in the Jonestown Massacre, and the protagonist and others have to accompany them on the flight.
A bit boring, not a lot of tension, flat characters.
2. If Angels Fight - by Richard Bowes
1,5*
Some guy has a guardian angel and his family is big into politics, then he dies.
Honestly this was so incredibly boring, very American-centric. I didn't like the writing style, it's quite choppy, and the story jumps back and forth along a timeline, so it's difficult to follow. I really wanted to give up halfway through, but I stuck through and it didn't get much better. It did make more sense at the end, but I was actively disliking this and I do not see how this can be called a horror story.
3. The Clay Party - by Steve Duffy
3,5*
Yeah, this one was pretty horrific. A party of about 50 settlers sets off on a long journey towards California and encounters plenty of difficulties along the way. This is written as a set of diary entries, interspersed with newspaper articles about the event. I didn't like the voice in the diary entries much, and it takes a turn towards a more abstract/bizarre voice towards the end, but it was pretty exciting to have it told this way. It definitely made me more invested. The plot was a bit predictable - I even felt like I read this before (though I don't think I have) in parts - but that definitely didn't take away from the overall story.
4. Penguins of the Apocalypse - by William Browning Spencer
2,5*
Alcoholism does strange things to your mind, but can it bend time and space as well?
Didn't much like this one, though I do think it was written well enough. It just made me anxious, mostly for the child that was endangered in the story.
5. Esmeralda: The First Book Depository Story - by Glen Hirshberg
1*
Boring. Books are put into depositories because physical books aren't used anymore. You get to read about the entire history of these depositories coming into existence, because they're the main setting. But the setting could've just as easily been already existing warehouses or storage units or whatever. No need for the lengthy explanation, and the main story/plot was boring as well. I'd be hard pressed to call this "horror".
6. The Hodag - by Trent Hergenrader
2*
Not too scary. Some people are killed in a strange way near a small town, it turns out to be a creature called a "hodag" - which, from its description, seems no scarier than the Pokémon Salazzle - which is chased off while men half-drown in a frozen pond. No more murders, protagonist ages 70 years within two pages, happens to read about the creature, and almost - but not completely - dies of a heart attack.
7. Very Low-Flying Aircraft - by Nicholas Royle
1,5*
Already the title set me up for mediocrity. A man is decapitated by an aircraft which flies really low. Didn't see that one coming. The characters were uninteresting, the story predictable, and the writing style unclear. Boring, next.
8. When the Gentlemen Go By - by Margaret Ronald
4*
Quite creepy, and Ronald manages to build a believable character in only a few pages.
In the Hollow, children are sometimes taken. In return, crops always grow, women have no miscarriages, etc.. It doesn't seem like such a good deal to the protagonist though, so she ends up breaking it. Sadly, this cannot be done without dire consequences.
9. The Lagerstätte - by Laird Barron
3,5*
This one's written in a very descriptive style, which can get a bit tiresome. And it is one if the longer stories in this anthology as well, which made it difficult to get through in one sitting (for me). The plot: woman loses husband and young child and proceeds to attempt suicide quite frequently over the following few years. She might also have found a magical way to travel to "The Lagerstätte", a sort if place between life and death, I believe? She either manages it, or has gone completely insane in her grief. My money is on the latter.
10. Harry and the Monkey - by Euan Harvey
3,75*
Started out strong, but I didn't like the ending at all. The build-up was creepy, and Harvey has a very accessible writing style, but I hoped for more than a half-baked urban legend.
Summary: Father makes up an imaginary monkey for boisterous son. Monkey may or may not have manifested itself a few years later to scare off some would-be kidnappers.
11. Dress Circle - by Miranda Siemienowicz
2,5*
This one reads like a nightmare. Strange, incomprehensible, the kind of scary you're sure to wake up from any moment. And because it's quite short, it doesn't really pack a punch. Not enough build-up to really get into it, and not enough at the ending to make it stick. I'll probably have forgotten about this one before the end of the anthology.
12. The Rising River - by Daniel Kaysen
2,5*
A woman claims she sees ghosts, but she may simply suffer from a mental disorder. A bit boring, not much of a twist to the story, but the writing style is nice.
13. Sweeney Among the Straight Razors - by JoSelle Vanderhooft
3*
A short poem about Sweeney Todd. It was alright.
14. Loup-Garou - by R. B. Russell
3,25*
A man watches a film in which he recognises both himself and his wife when they were younger. When he wants to show it to his wifez it is nowhere to be found, until, years later, he finds a copy through the internet. He watches it again and notices big differences, which afterwards manifest in real life. No idea why; they just do.
15. Girl in Pieces - by Graham Edwards
3,5*
A murder has been committed and a golem is being blamed. Mr. detective protagonist will try to help him out in this town where apparently lots of dimensions come together and you can therefore fold garbage cans into scarves and fold yourself in half with no repercussions. Right. Interdimensional travel hijinks aside, it's a short whodunit with a bit of horror injected into it. Only it's treated so lightly that it doesn't leave an impact at all, and it just becomes a fun read.
16. It Washed Up - by Joe R. Lansdale
2,5*
A thing from the sea lures people to their deaths in the deep in a manner akin to the pied piper. The only ones safe from this fate are those unable to move: the deaf, the terminally ill, and the newborn, and two out of those three die from starvation after all the town has been lured away. A horrific idea indeed, but not one to inspire too much fear or lingering horror in me.
17. The Thirteenth Hell - by Mike Allen
3*
A short poem which I didn't mind.
18. The Goosle - by Margo Lanagan
2*
Hansel and Gretel but Gretel is named Kirtle, the house is made of mud, not candy, and Hansel has to stick his "peepette" through the bars, instead of his finger. And he escaped only to be regularly sexually abused by an older man, Grinnan, who then takes him back to the "witch" (called "mudwife" here) so he can bang her. What even.
So yeah, when the witch ends up eating her way through the abuser's manbits, it's honestly not that shocking or surprising, therefore not horrifying. I feel like the author just piled all sorts of horror elements on top of each other to make the story more horrific, but the lack of contrast has the exact opposite effect: the worst of horrors now seem mundane.
19. Beach Head - by Daniel LeMoal
3,5*
Something a lot of these stories have in common, is the lack of a proper explanation or foundation. There is simply an unexplained (horrific) event going on, which stays a mystery. In some cases, this would work. But I think it brings this story from a 4,5 to a 3,5. The protagonist finds himself stuck in the sand on an island, with a friend and an enemy. Exciting, scary, will he get out? A twelve year old boy then murders both enemy and friend, even though they would have died of dehydration soon anyway. Will the protagonist get out or will he die as well?
Spoiler: He gets out! But why was he trapped? Does he survive the open sea on a small lifeboat? Why exactly can the twelve year old suddenly fly? Not a clue.
20. The Man from the Peak - by Adam Golaski
4*
No need to use a comparison when just the regular description will do:
"With a sound like marbles clicking, or teeth, the wine bottle and whiskey bottle on the passenger seat bumped against each other."
I understand you're going for a horror vibe, hence the "teeth clicking", but bottles clinking together makes a distinctly different sound. So this just seems really forced to me. Moreover, it was completely unnecessary, as the story was scary enough. It was a quick read, with an easy to understand plot and a slightly predictable but fitting end.
21. The Narrows - by Simon Bestwick
5*
Leave the best for last, eh? This one is atmospheric, it's scary, there's character development, I actually felt really invested! After an atomic bomb is dropped on Manchester, three teachers and their students escape underground to avoid radiation poisoning. They make a home around an underground lake, but are forced to head into the narrow passages leading further inward when radiation starts leaking in. I won't spoil this one, because if you are going to read this anthology, this is the story you're doing it for.
The anthology starts with 50 pages of pretty much everything that appeared in 2008 when it comes to horror. Needless to say, I didn't read any of this.
On to the stories (with spoilers in most reviews):
Spoiler
1. Cargo - by E. Michael Lewis2*
Not a great start to the anthology, in my opinion. An airplane is filled with coffins containing the bodies of men, women and children who killed themselves/were killed in the Jonestown Massacre, and the protagonist and others have to accompany them on the flight.
A bit boring, not a lot of tension, flat characters.
2. If Angels Fight - by Richard Bowes
1,5*
Some guy has a guardian angel and his family is big into politics, then he dies.
Honestly this was so incredibly boring, very American-centric. I didn't like the writing style, it's quite choppy, and the story jumps back and forth along a timeline, so it's difficult to follow. I really wanted to give up halfway through, but I stuck through and it didn't get much better. It did make more sense at the end, but I was actively disliking this and I do not see how this can be called a horror story.
3. The Clay Party - by Steve Duffy
3,5*
Yeah, this one was pretty horrific. A party of about 50 settlers sets off on a long journey towards California and encounters plenty of difficulties along the way. This is written as a set of diary entries, interspersed with newspaper articles about the event. I didn't like the voice in the diary entries much, and it takes a turn towards a more abstract/bizarre voice towards the end, but it was pretty exciting to have it told this way. It definitely made me more invested. The plot was a bit predictable - I even felt like I read this before (though I don't think I have) in parts - but that definitely didn't take away from the overall story.
4. Penguins of the Apocalypse - by William Browning Spencer
2,5*
Alcoholism does strange things to your mind, but can it bend time and space as well?
Didn't much like this one, though I do think it was written well enough. It just made me anxious, mostly for the child that was endangered in the story.
5. Esmeralda: The First Book Depository Story - by Glen Hirshberg
1*
Boring. Books are put into depositories because physical books aren't used anymore. You get to read about the entire history of these depositories coming into existence, because they're the main setting. But the setting could've just as easily been already existing warehouses or storage units or whatever. No need for the lengthy explanation, and the main story/plot was boring as well. I'd be hard pressed to call this "horror".
6. The Hodag - by Trent Hergenrader
2*
Not too scary. Some people are killed in a strange way near a small town, it turns out to be a creature called a "hodag" - which, from its description, seems no scarier than the Pokémon Salazzle - which is chased off while men half-drown in a frozen pond. No more murders, protagonist ages 70 years within two pages, happens to read about the creature, and almost - but not completely - dies of a heart attack.
7. Very Low-Flying Aircraft - by Nicholas Royle
1,5*
Already the title set me up for mediocrity. A man is decapitated by an aircraft which flies really low. Didn't see that one coming. The characters were uninteresting, the story predictable, and the writing style unclear. Boring, next.
8. When the Gentlemen Go By - by Margaret Ronald
4*
Quite creepy, and Ronald manages to build a believable character in only a few pages.
In the Hollow, children are sometimes taken. In return, crops always grow, women have no miscarriages, etc.. It doesn't seem like such a good deal to the protagonist though, so she ends up breaking it. Sadly, this cannot be done without dire consequences.
9. The Lagerstätte - by Laird Barron
3,5*
This one's written in a very descriptive style, which can get a bit tiresome. And it is one if the longer stories in this anthology as well, which made it difficult to get through in one sitting (for me). The plot: woman loses husband and young child and proceeds to attempt suicide quite frequently over the following few years. She might also have found a magical way to travel to "The Lagerstätte", a sort if place between life and death, I believe? She either manages it, or has gone completely insane in her grief. My money is on the latter.
10. Harry and the Monkey - by Euan Harvey
3,75*
Started out strong, but I didn't like the ending at all. The build-up was creepy, and Harvey has a very accessible writing style, but I hoped for more than a half-baked urban legend.
Summary: Father makes up an imaginary monkey for boisterous son. Monkey may or may not have manifested itself a few years later to scare off some would-be kidnappers.
11. Dress Circle - by Miranda Siemienowicz
2,5*
This one reads like a nightmare. Strange, incomprehensible, the kind of scary you're sure to wake up from any moment. And because it's quite short, it doesn't really pack a punch. Not enough build-up to really get into it, and not enough at the ending to make it stick. I'll probably have forgotten about this one before the end of the anthology.
12. The Rising River - by Daniel Kaysen
2,5*
A woman claims she sees ghosts, but she may simply suffer from a mental disorder. A bit boring, not much of a twist to the story, but the writing style is nice.
13. Sweeney Among the Straight Razors - by JoSelle Vanderhooft
3*
A short poem about Sweeney Todd. It was alright.
14. Loup-Garou - by R. B. Russell
3,25*
A man watches a film in which he recognises both himself and his wife when they were younger. When he wants to show it to his wifez it is nowhere to be found, until, years later, he finds a copy through the internet. He watches it again and notices big differences, which afterwards manifest in real life. No idea why; they just do.
15. Girl in Pieces - by Graham Edwards
3,5*
A murder has been committed and a golem is being blamed. Mr. detective protagonist will try to help him out in this town where apparently lots of dimensions come together and you can therefore fold garbage cans into scarves and fold yourself in half with no repercussions. Right. Interdimensional travel hijinks aside, it's a short whodunit with a bit of horror injected into it. Only it's treated so lightly that it doesn't leave an impact at all, and it just becomes a fun read.
16. It Washed Up - by Joe R. Lansdale
2,5*
A thing from the sea lures people to their deaths in the deep in a manner akin to the pied piper. The only ones safe from this fate are those unable to move: the deaf, the terminally ill, and the newborn, and two out of those three die from starvation after all the town has been lured away. A horrific idea indeed, but not one to inspire too much fear or lingering horror in me.
17. The Thirteenth Hell - by Mike Allen
3*
A short poem which I didn't mind.
18. The Goosle - by Margo Lanagan
2*
Hansel and Gretel but Gretel is named Kirtle, the house is made of mud, not candy, and Hansel has to stick his "peepette" through the bars, instead of his finger. And he escaped only to be regularly sexually abused by an older man, Grinnan, who then takes him back to the "witch" (called "mudwife" here) so he can bang her. What even.
So yeah, when the witch ends up eating her way through the abuser's manbits, it's honestly not that shocking or surprising, therefore not horrifying. I feel like the author just piled all sorts of horror elements on top of each other to make the story more horrific, but the lack of contrast has the exact opposite effect: the worst of horrors now seem mundane.
19. Beach Head - by Daniel LeMoal
3,5*
Something a lot of these stories have in common, is the lack of a proper explanation or foundation. There is simply an unexplained (horrific) event going on, which stays a mystery. In some cases, this would work. But I think it brings this story from a 4,5 to a 3,5. The protagonist finds himself stuck in the sand on an island, with a friend and an enemy. Exciting, scary, will he get out? A twelve year old boy then murders both enemy and friend, even though they would have died of dehydration soon anyway. Will the protagonist get out or will he die as well?
Spoiler: He gets out! But why was he trapped? Does he survive the open sea on a small lifeboat? Why exactly can the twelve year old suddenly fly? Not a clue.
20. The Man from the Peak - by Adam Golaski
4*
No need to use a comparison when just the regular description will do:
"With a sound like marbles clicking, or teeth, the wine bottle and whiskey bottle on the passenger seat bumped against each other."
I understand you're going for a horror vibe, hence the "teeth clicking", but bottles clinking together makes a distinctly different sound. So this just seems really forced to me. Moreover, it was completely unnecessary, as the story was scary enough. It was a quick read, with an easy to understand plot and a slightly predictable but fitting end.
21. The Narrows - by Simon Bestwick
5*
Leave the best for last, eh? This one is atmospheric, it's scary, there's character development, I actually felt really invested! After an atomic bomb is dropped on Manchester, three teachers and their students escape underground to avoid radiation poisoning. They make a home around an underground lake, but are forced to head into the narrow passages leading further inward when radiation starts leaking in. I won't spoil this one, because if you are going to read this anthology, this is the story you're doing it for.