The Best Horror of the Year Volume Eleven

by Ellen Datlow

  The Book of M by Peng Shepherd (William Morrow) is a fascinating, chilling, dystopian first novel. A man in India loses his shadow, and the whole world watches in fascination. But when he begins to lose his memory, sliding into a premature dementia, and other people around the world begin losing their shadows and memories there is alarm, panic, and ultimately civilization is dismantled. There are several powerful threads, as groups of survivors learn to cope—or not.

  My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday) is a first-person narrative by a Nigerian woman stuck cleaning up after her beautiful, charismatic, and deadly younger sister. This short, fast-paced novel grew on this reader, despite the shallowness of the young beauty who keeps killing off her boyfriends. This might be because the dynamics of the relationship between the two sisters slowly reveals itself to be deeper than one initially thinks.

  Strange Ink by Gary Kemble (Titan Books) is an absorbing, fast-paced Australian debut about a disgraced journalist who, upon waking up with a hangover, discovers a tattoo on the back of his neck. He has no memory of receiving the tattoo, but isn’t too worried until he has a nightmare, and another tattoo mysteriously appears on his body—depicting that nightmare.

  The Night Market by Jonathan Moore (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is a grim crime novel set in near-future San Francisco, opening with a grisly, inexplicable crime scene investigated by a homicide detective and his partner, leading to conspiracy, paranoia, and dark tech. It would make a perfect movie.

  Porcelain by Nate Southard (Lethe Press) opens with a seemingly unmotivated mass shooting/suicide in Cincinnati, Ohio, by a female stripper—not the usual perpetrator of such atrocities. The names and contact information of five friends from high school are scribbled on her apartment wall. Something happened to them all twelve years earlier. Something awful. Something they can’t remember. The only one who left the city returns to find out what. Dark, erotic, disturbing. A great read.

  Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is a short, fast-moving novel about a young girl who, with her parents, becomes part of an experiment with a group of archeological students and their professor who plan—for two weeks—to live as close to the Iron Age inhabitants of Northern England as they can. For the girl’s strict, fundamentalist father this is the culmination of his obsession with throwing off the corrupting influence of modern civilization for the so-called purity of the past. Subtly, psychologically brutal.

  ALSO NOTED

  Hollywood Dead by Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager) is the tenth volume in the entertaining dark fantasy Sandman Slim series about Nephilim (half angel/half human) James Stark, who has been in trouble and making trouble for humans, angels, devils, and his friends while on earth or in hell. This time, after being killed, he’s offered a deal he can’t refuse—Wormwood will reanimate him if he tracks down their enemies in Los Angeles. Tear Me Apart by J. T. Ellison (Mira) is a dark mystery full of satisfying twists. The story begins simply, with a star teenage skier who has a possibly career-ending accident, and becomes a mystery of murder, genetics, and psychopathology. Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker (Putnam) is a fictionalized account of young Bram Stoker’s life leading up to his writing of Dracula. Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield (ChiZine Publications) is an entertaining dark fantasy taking place in 1328 Bruges, with monstrous chimeras forged out of Hellfire, dead soldiers reanimated as revenants, who when invited in by their families carry plague. The protagonists are two widows and a transgender soldier whose arm has been transformed by a Hellmade gauntlet. The Hollow Tree by James Brogden (Titan Books) is about a woman who, after losing a hand in an accident, begins to have nightmares about a woman trapped inside a tree, related to an old legend. In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey (John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) uses a trope that’s difficult for me to warm up to: the cheating spouse, dead child, deteriorating marriage. In spite of this, Bailey is such a good writer that one is compelled to read this moody ghost story about deep woods and ugly deeds. In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt (Little, Brown) is a short, dark fairy tale about a woman lost in the woods, and who and what she discovers there. The Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross (Tor) is the newest entry in his “Laundry” files series about Lovecraftian, and other deadly creatures in the real world fighting and killing each other with zest and gore. Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl (Delacorte) is a young adult dark fantasy novel by the author of the marvelous Night Film. It’s a compelling story of the fallout from the mysterious death of one of a group of friends. Although ruled a suicide, his girlfriend isn’t convinced, returning for answers to the estate where they all used to hang out. It’s got secrets, time slips, and death haunting every page. Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams/ Mariner) is an entertaining dark fantasy about a young woman on Long Island illegally selling moonshine to support her family during Prohibition. When she acquires some dicey liquor, she stumbles across a heinous plan to “cleanse” her beloved land of outsiders. The Mask Shop of Doctor Black by Steve Rasnic Tem (Hex Publishers) is a young adult novel about a teenager who takes her little brother to a shop for a Halloween costume, with dire consequences. 100 Fathoms Below by Steven L. Kent and Nicholas Kaufmann (Blackstone Publishing) is a high-concept product of the audio’s publisher’s relatively recent (first books published in 2017) electronic-and-print book line: Vampires on a submarine during the Cold War. There were at least three horror novels about metal bands published in 2018: We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix (Quirk Books) is about a 1990s heavy metal band whose lead singer dumped the rest of the group to embark on a wildly successful solo career. The former guitarist goes on a road trip twenty years later to find out exactly what happened and why. Corpsepaint by David Peak (Word Horde) is about the washed-up leader of the black metal band, Angelus Mortis, who is sent by his record label to collaborate with a cult act in the Ukraine. Distortion by Lee Thomas (Lethe Press) is also about a former member of a metal band—this one receives a call from a stranger, telling him the daughter he never knew he had is in trouble. Bad Man by Dathan Auerbach (Blumhouse/Doubleday) is about the older brother of a toddler mysteriously vanished in a grocery store, who won’t give up the search. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson was reissued by The Swan River Press in a beautiful new limited edition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Hodgson’s death in WWI. The volume has cover art and illustrations throughout by John Coulthart, an introduction by Alan Moore, and an afterword by Iain Sinclair. The book also includes a CD of music composed and performed by Jon Mueller, specially for the reissue. Tide of Stone by Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gatherum Media) is about a world in which the worst criminals are housed and kept alive for eternity—if they choose that over being executed. Which is worse? Deep Roots by Ruthann Emrys (Tor) is the sequel to Winter Tide, both darkly fantastic Lovecraftian works. Naraka by Alessandro Manzetti (Independent Legions Publishing) is a horror novel about a Hellish future in which cannibalism and torture are the norm. Bedfellow by Jeremy C. Shipp (Tor.com) is an unnerving novel about a person/creature/alien—something invading a family’s home, and gradually taking over their lives. The Outsider by Stephen King (Scribner) is about an impossibility. A child is murdered, and an arrest is made after eyewitnesses and DNA evidence prove the accused did the deed. But the accused can also prove he was elsewhere, with an airtight alibi. What’s going on? Dark Mary by Paolo Di Orazio (Independent Legions Publishing) is a grisly, graphically violent novel about a vampire lesbian DJ.

  MAGAZINES, JOURNALS, AND WEBZINES

  Artists don’t receive enough recognition for their work in the field of fantastic fiction—dark or light. The following created dark art that I thought especially noteworthy in 2018: Jim Burns, Vincent Chong, Vince Haig, Joachim Luetke, Jonas Yip, Kevin Peterson, Laura Sava, C7 Shiina, Toni Tošić, Mikio Murakami, Samuel Araya, Sam Weber, Victo Ngai, Dave Felton, Anton Semenov, Dave Senecal, Wendy Saber Core, Chorazin/Fotolio, Richard Wagner, Audrey Benjaminse
n, Aron Wiesenfeld, Luke Spooner, David Whitlam, Tran Nguyen, Sean Gladwell, Paul Lowe, Virgil Suarez, Rovina Cai, and Jon Foster.

  BFS Journal edited by Allen Stroud is a twice yearly non-fiction perk of membership in the British Fantasy Society. It includes reviews, scholarly articles, and features about recent conventions. In 2018 there were articles about The X-Men Franchise, historical fantasy, and an analysis of a story by Gabriel García Marquez. BFS Horizons edited by Shona Kinsella and Tim Major is the fiction companion to BFS Journal. There were notable dark stories by Hannah Hulbert, Jasmine Brown, Amelia Wreford, and George Sandison, and a notable poem by Cardinal Cox.

  Rue Morgue edited by Andrea Subissati is a bi-monthly Canadian non-fiction magazine for horror movie aficionados. It’s light-weight but entertaining and has up-to-date information on most of the horror films being produced. The magazine includes interviews, articles, and lots of gory photographs, along with regular columns on horror books, music, and graphic novels.

  Fangoria, the other main non-fiction horror magazine, announced its return to print after a hiatus of several years. Now edited by Philip Nobile Jr., the first new issue is full of horror coverage, mostly movie but also with book reviews, a couple of fiction excerpts and, most notably, a new short story by Chuck Palahniuk.

  Weird Fiction Review is a website devoted to the weird, run by David Davis. Founded by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer upon the launch of their monumental anthology The Weird in late 2011, the site covers all things related to the sub-genre, including artwork and books, and regularly features reprints and excerpts of weird fiction and interviews with their authors. It’s loosely affiliated with the S. T. Joshi edited print journal, Weird Fiction Review.

  Wormwood edited by Mark Valentine is a critical journal covering literature of the fantastic, supernatural, and decadent and is published twice a year. In 2018 there were articles about Caitlín R. Kiernan and Hope Mirrlees, a survey of the golden age of Czech fantasy, a study of Margaret Benson’s collection of ghost stories (she was sister to the three better-known Benson brothers), reviews, and more.

  The Green Book: Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural, and Fantastic Literature edited by Brian J. Showers is a marvelous resource for discovering underappreciated writers. The two issues from 2018 contained articles about many writers active between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, plus an overview of the work of contemporary Irish playwright/filmmaker Conor McPherson.

  Dead Reckonings: A Review of Horror and the Weird in the Arts edited by Alex Houstoun and Michael J. Abolafia had two issues out in 2018 but I only saw one. Issue #23 had interviews with Michael Kelly and Farah Rose Smith, lots of interesting reviews, and essays by Ramsey Campbell and S. T. Joshi.

  Lovecraft Annual edited by S. T. Joshi is filled with scholarly (but accessible) articles about H. P. Lovecraft. A must for Lovecraft enthusiasts.

  Black Static edited by Andy Cox continues to be the best, most consistent venue for horror fiction. In addition to essays, book and movie reviews, and interviews there was notable fiction by Sam Thomson, Joanna Parypinski, Steven Sheil, Tim Cooke, Kay Chronister, Kailee Pedersen, Matt Thompson, David Martin, E. Catherine Tobler, Simon Avery, Michael Wehunt, J. S. Breukelaar, and Jack Westlake. Its sister magazine, Interzone, also edited by Andy Cox, specializes in science fiction and fantasy, with the occasional foray into the dark, such as the one by Aliya Whiteley. It also includes a generous amount of non-fiction.

  Nightmare edited by John Joseph Adams is a monthly webzine of horror. It publishes articles, interviews, book reviews, and an artists’ showcase, along with two reprints and two original pieces of fiction per month. During 2018 there were notable stories by Theodore McCombs, A. Merc Rustad, Stephanie Malia Morris, Emma Osborne, Lori Selke, and Adam-Troy Castro. The story by Castro is reprinted herein.

  Cemetery Dance edited by Rich Chizmar published one issue in 2018. It included notable stories by John Hornor Jacobs, Mariano Alonso, and Nathan Lee, interviews with Joe R. Lansdale and director Mike Flanagan, and plus book reviews and regular columns (one by me).

  Supernatural Tales edited by David Longhorn is an excellent source of supernatural fiction, plus book and movie reviews. The three issues in 2018 had strong dark stories by Helen Grant, Mark Valentine, Jane Jakeman, Eloise C. C. Shepherd, and Chloe N. Clark. The story by Shepherd is reprinted herein.

  Dark Discoveries edited by Aaron J. French published one issue, its last, in 2018. The magazine was publishing since 2004, originally intending to come out quarterly, but it was never able to keep to that schedule. It contained fiction, non-fiction articles, book reviews, and interviews. The last issue had a notable story by Ramsey Campbell.

  Tales From the Shadow Booth: A Journal of Weird and Eerie Fiction Volume 2 edited by Dan Coxon is filled with interesting dark fantasy and horror that definitely fulfills the promise of its first, 2017 issue. There were very good stories by Kirsty Logan, Johnny Mains, Ralph Robert Moore, Mark Morris, George C. Sandison, Giovanni Repetto, Gareth E. Rees, and Dan Grace. The story by Moore is reprinted herein.

  Weirdbook edited by Douglas Draa published two issues in 2018. The long-running magazine publishes both prose and poetry. The strongest work in 2018 was by Kyla Lee Ward, Loren Rhoads, Hannah Lackhoff, W. H. Pugmire, James Machin, John Linwood Grant, Matt Neil Hill, and Bekki Pate.

  Forbidden Futures edited by Cody Goodfellow is a new pulp zine that’s Lovecraft, Lovecraft all the time. I only saw one issue in 2018, the 2nd with an editorial by Goodfellow that appears to posit that Lovecraft’s influence on the world-at-large is waning. I suspect that’s not quite true, although there was a sharp drop-off in Lovecraftian-themed anthologies in 2018. The issue is illustrated with monsters galore and there are twelve pieces of flash fiction. The magazine should make fans of Lovecraftian fiction very happy.

  MIXED-GENRE MAGAZINES

  Uncanny edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas publishes both non-fiction and fiction. The fiction veers toward the weird, and sometimes is quite dark. In 2018 there were notable stories by R. K. Kalaw, Sunny Moraine, Elizabeth Bear, Vivian Shaw, and Sarah Monette. The Dark edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace is a monthly webzine dedicated to dark fantasy and horror. It publishes new stories and reprints. During 2018, there were notable new stories by Michael Harris Cohen, Lindiwe Rooney, Kay Chronister, Hadeer Elsbai, Hamilton Perez, J. B. Park, Wenmimareba Klobah Collins, and Michael Wehunt. Not One of Us edited by John Benson is one of the longest-running small press magazines. It’s published twice a year and contains weird and dark fiction and poetry. In addition, Benson puts out an annual “one-off” on a specific theme. The theme for 2018 was “Animal Day II.” There were notable dark stories and poems throughout the year by Nicole Tanquary, Mat Joiner, Aurea Kochanowski, Matthew Lyons, Alexandra Seidel, Sonya Taaffe, and Steve Toase. Mythic Delirium edited by Mike Allen was published for the last time with two 2018 issues of fantasy, dark fantasy, fiction, and poetry. There was notable dark work by Jaymee Goh and Peri Fae Blomquist. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by C. C. Finlay is one of the longest running sf/f/h magazines in existence. Although it mostly publishes science fiction and fantasy, it often includes quality horror. During 2018 the strongest horror stories and poetry were by Albert E. Cowdrey, Geoff Ryman, Lisa Mason, Melanie West, G. V. Anderson, R. S. Benedict, Dale Bailey, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Stephanie Feldman, Jeffrey Ford, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Jeff Crandall, and Marc Laidlaw. The Bailey story is reprinted herein. MAR: Mid-American Review is published twice a year by the Department of English at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. It includes fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. In 2018 there was dark material by Margaret Cipriano and C. A. Schaefer. Vastarien: A Literary Journal debuted in the spring and published three issues during 2018. Edited by Matt Cardin and Jon Padgett, it’s an ambitious mixture of weird fiction and essays influenced by Thomas Ligotti and his work. There was notable dark fiction and poetry during the year by Jordan Krall, Aaron Worth, Joanna Par
ypinski, Emmie Bristow, Julie Travis, Rayna Waxhead, John Linwood Grant, Sean M. Thompson, Brooke Warra, F. J. Bergmann, Amelia Gorman, Robert Beveridge, and Kurt Fawver. Crimewave 13: Bad Light is the fine crime/mystery magazine irregularly published by Andy Cox, publisher/editor of Interzone and Black Static. In this issue there are twelve stories, the best and darkest by Ray Cluley, Andrew Hook, Simon Bestwick, and Ralph Robert Moore. Bourbon Penn edited by Erik Secker is always a great read, even though there usually isn’t any actual horror in the journal. But in 2018 there were some fine dark stories by Brian Evenson, Camille Grudova, Matt Snell, Daisy Johnson, and J. Ashley Smith. Conjunctions edited by Bradford Morrow is a long-running literary journal bi-annually published by Bard College. It occasionally publishes dark works and often taps genre writers to contribute. There was notable dark fiction in 2018 by Lauren Green, Maud Casey, and Jeffrey Ford. Also an excerpt from Elizabeth Hand’s forthcoming Henry Darger novel, Curious Toys. FIYAH Lit edited by Troy L. Wiggins and Devaun Sanders is a quarterly digital publication of fantasy, science fiction, and horror by black writers. In 2018 there was notable dark fiction by Ize-Iyamu Osahon, Takim Williams, and Tade Thompson. Aurealis edited by Dirk Strasser, Stephen Higgins, and Michael Pryor is one of only a few long-running Australian mixed-genre magazines. In 2018 there were notable dark stories by P. R. Dean, Deborah Sheldon, and Matt O’Connor.

  ANTHOLOGIES

  Dark Screams Volume Nine edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar (CD-Hydra) contains six stories, three new. The best of the new were by Kelley Armstrong and Jonathan Moore. Volume Ten had six stories, four new, the best by Heather Herrman.

  Hark! The Herald Angels Scream edited by Christopher Golden (A Blumhouse Books/Anchor Books Original) has eighteen new horror stories focused on the theme of Christmas. The strongest are by Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Elizabeth Hand, Kelley Armstrong, Scott Smith, Josh Malerman, Angela Slatter, and Tim Lebbon.