The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22
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Abaddon Books’ “Tomes of the Dead” series continued with Tide of Souls by Simon Bestwick, Stronghold by Paul Finch, Empire of Salt by Weston Ochse and Way of the Barefoot Zombie by Jasper Bark. The Best of Tomes of the Dead Volume 1 reprinted three novels by Matthew Smith, Al Ewing and Rebecca Levene with new Introductions to their work by the authors.
Brains was a first novel by Robin Becker, set in a post-apocalyptic future where a reanimated professor attempted to bring zombies and humans peacefully together.
Nine years after she died in a car crash, a girl came back as a zombie in Joan Francis Turner’s first book, Dust, and an entire Texas high-school football team was brought back from the dead in Ryan Brown’s humorous debut Play Dead.
State of Decay, the debut novel by James Knapp, was the first in a new zombie series set in the near future, where reanimated “revivors” were used for cheap labour. It was followed by The Silent Army.
Written by former funeral director “Carnell” (he apparently doesn’t need a first name), No Flesh Shall Be Spared was another debut novel set in the near future, where zombies were used as pit fighters.
When a couple moved to a remote old farmhouse in northwest England, they discovered an ancient evil waiting for them in Tom Fletcher’s first novel, The Leaping.
A woman inherited a haunted house on a remote island in The Tale of Halcyon Crane, the debut novel from short-story writer Wendy Webb, while Robert Jackson Bennett’s first novel, Mr Shivers, was a revenge thriller set during America’s Great Depression.
F.J. Lennon’s debut, Soul Trapper, featured a musician-turned-ghost-hunter and was based on the author’s iPhone app game.
Claire de Lune was a young adult debut novel about a sixteen-year-old female werewolf by Christine Johnson, while Andrea Cremer’s first novel, Nighshade, was set in a world where humans were subservient to werewolves.
Entangled was the first novel by best-selling non-fiction author and lecturer Graham Hancock. A troubled teenager’s near-death experience hurled her soul 24,000 years into a parallel past, where she teamed up with a Stone Age woman to prevent a demon horde destroying humanity.
In Rachel Hawkins’ YA debut Hex Hall, a teenage witch was sent to a special reform school for supernaturals, where somebody was killing the students, and a high-school student discovered that vampires were real in A.M. Robinson’s first book, Vampire Crush.
An Edgar Allan Poe fan pulled a cheerleader into his Gothic dream world in Kelly Creagh’s debut novel Nevermore.
Karen Kincy’s debut YA novel, Other, was set in a small Washington town where supernatural creatures were turning up dead. A girl discovered on her sixteenth birthday that her parents had been murdered in Dead Beautiful, a first novel by Yvonne Woon, and a boy had the ability to enter the land of the dead in Anna Kendall’s debut Crossing Over.
Throughout the year the publishing industry continued to flog the “literary mash-up” concept to death with such titles as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith, which was a prequel to the best-seller by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Smith, describing how Elizabeth Bennet became a zombie-slayer.
A young Abe set out to revenge his mother’s death armed with his trusty axe in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, television writer Grahame-Smith’s follow-up to the best-selling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and supposedly based on the future President’s secret journals.
Emma and the Vampires by Jane Austen and Wayne Josephson poked fun at another of Austen’s books, while Jane was still alive as a vampire in Michael Thomas Ford’s Jane Bites Back. Jane Austen joined the vampire resistance in an England invaded by France in Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany.
Jane Slayre by Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin re-imagined Brontë’s heroine Jane Eyre as a vampire-slayer. Meanwhile, Little Vampire Women was a teen mash-up of Louisa May Alcott’s novel and the undead by Lynn Messina, and Little Women and Werewolves was meant to be an unexpurgated version of Alcott’s classic, co-credited to Porter Grand.
Mark Twain’s adventurous youngster confronted a zombie plague in Don Borchert’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead. Predictably, neither the author nor his publisher (Tor) were aware – or probably cared – that “undead” refers to vampires, not zombies.
The monarchy protected the British Empire from zombies and other supernatural creatures in Queen Victoria Demon Hunter by A.E. Moorat (Andrew Holmes), and Henry VIII: Wolfman was another title from the same author.
The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor: Vampire Slayer by Lucy Weston spoke for itself, while William Shakespeare was a vampire necromancer in Loris Handeland’s humorous Shakespeare Undead.
Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion by Alan Goldsher was a humorous retelling of the birth of the Beatles, with three members of the pop group as the living dead.
The War of the Worlds, Plus Blood, Guts, and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown was enough to make anyone’s heart sink.
Edited by Joyce Carol Oates for the prestigious Library of America imprint, Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories reprinted the novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, along with the complete contents of the collection The Lottery, plus a further twenty-one stories and vignettes, the text of a talk given by Jackson, and a chronology of the author’s work.
Dover reprinted Charles Brockden Brown’s 1798 novel Wieland: or, The Transformation; An American Tale with a new Introduction by John Matteson, while The String of Pearls (aka Sweeney Todd), Thomas Preskett Prest’s 1850 expansion of his serial, was reissued by Pocket Penguin Classics in trade paperback.
Edited with an Introduction and notes by Michael Newton, The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce contained nineteen classic reprints and quickly went into a second printing.
Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories collected twenty-two classic tales from Bram Stoker, John Polidori and Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman, amongst others, edited by Michael Sims.
From Barnes & Noble’s bargain books imprint Fall River, Dracula’s Guest & Other Tales of Terror brought together Bram Stoker’s 1914 title collection and the author’s 1881 volume Under the Sunset. The Horror of the Heights & Other Strange Tales collected fourteen stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Macabre Tales featured nineteen stories by Washington Irving, and The Picture of Dorian Gray & Other Fantastic Tales was reprinted from The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, and contained three extra stories and six prose poems. All four books included Introductions by Michael Kelahan.
For the same imprint, Kelahan edited the reprint anthologies The Screaming Skull and Other Classic Horror Stories featuring thirty tales by H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, Robert W. Chambers, E. Nesbit and others, and The End of the World, which included twenty stories and one poem from such authors as Lovecraft, H.G. Wells and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators by Rocky Wood included versions of Frankenstein, Dracula and Beowulf illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne.
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures was a collection of thirteen adventure stories by Robert E. Howard, with an Introduction by Steve Tompkins and an Afterword by David A. Hardy, illustrated by Tim Bradstreet and Jim and Ruth Keegan.
Pan Books reissued the initial volume of The Pan Book of Horror Stories selected by Herbert van Thal as a trade paperback. First published in 1959 and boasting the original cover design, the classic anthology contained twenty-two stories by Joan Aiken, Jack Finney, L.P. Hartley, Hazel Heald, Nigel Kneale, Seabury Quinn, Muriel Spark, Bram Stoker and others, along with a new Foreword by Pan Book of Horror expert Johnny Mains.
Who Fears the Devil? The Complete Tales of Silver John from Paizo/Planet Storis contained thirty stories by Manly Wade Wellman about John the Balladeer (including two previously uncollected in the series), along with Introductions by Mike Resnick and the late Karl Edward Wagner.
Adding to the John Newbery Medal he received in 2009 from the American Library Association for The Graveyard Book, in June Neil Gaiman also won the UK’s most prestigious children’s fiction prize, the Cilip Carnegie Medal, for the same title. It was the first book to have ever won both prizes.
In August, Ricky Gervais was sued in the British High Court by obscure author John Savage, who claimed that the comedian’s illustrated children’s book Flanimals was based on his own 1998 publication, Captain Pottie’s Wildlife Encyclopedia.
My Name is Mina was a prequel to David Almond’s acclaimed children’s book Skellig and was written in diary format.
The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Birth of a Killer was the first book in a prequel series to “The Demonata” series by Darren Shan (Darren O’Shaughnessy), which itself apparently concluded with the tenth volume, Hell’s Heroes.
Two boys investigated a locked park and uncovered a mystery involving the legendary Greek gorgon Medusa in Christopher Fowler’s first young adult novel, The Curse of Snakes: Hellion.
A pair of siblings had to rescue their Egyptologist father from Ancient Egyptian gods and demons in Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, the first book in the “Kane Chronicles”.
A young girl could see a mark on people who were destined to die within twenty-four hours in Jen Nadol’s The Mark, while a girl discovered that she could heal the dying in Banished by Sophie Littlefield.
A young girl could see into people’s minds just by touching them in Angel by L.A. Weatherly, and a pair of special glasses allowed a boy to see into another world in Andrew Smith’s The Marbury Lens.
Jill Jekel teamed up with Tristen Hyde to create an old family formula in Beth Fantaskey’s YA romance Jekel Loves Hyde, while a boy’s disturbing drawings helped solve a murder from the past in Draw the Dark by Ilsa J. Bick.
A girl was stalked by strange creatures accidentally raised by her parents in Mara Purnhagen’s Past Midnight, the first in a new series, and Witchfinder: Dawn of the Demontide was the first book in a new trilogy by William Hussey.
Jack: Secret Circles was the second volume in F. Paul Wilson’s trilogy about a teenage Repairman Jack.
Rick Yancey’s The Curse of the Wendigo was the second volume in the “Monstrumologist” series featuring apprentice monster hunter Will Henry.
Kate Brain’s The Book of Spells involved a coven of schoolgirls and was a prequel to the author’s “Private” series, while The Haunted was Jessica Verday’s sequel to The Hollow, once again set in Sleepy Hollow.
Darke Academy: Blood Ties was the second book in the series by Gabriella Poole, and Mr Monster was a sequel to Dan Wells’ I Am Not a Serial Killer.
A group of children found themselves trapped in an evil comic-book world in Havoc, Chris Wooding’s follow-up to Malice. Dan Chernett supplied the illustrations.
Factotum was the third and final volume in D.M. Cornish’s “Monster Book Tattoo” or “The Foundling’s Tale” series, depending on whether you live in Australia or the US.
Lisa Fade’s Gone was the third book in the series that began with Wake and Fade, Fearscape by Simon Holt was the third book in the “Devouring” series, and My Soul to Keep was the third book in Rachel Vincent’s “Soul Screamers” series about a teenage banshee.
Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil was the fifth volume in the mystery series by Derek Landy.
A teenager found himself haunted following a car crash in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ Token of Darkness, and in a world where teenagers could see ghosts, a girl’s dead boyfriend decided to stay around in Shade by Jeni Smith-Ready.
A girl and her dead boyfriend’s brother were haunted by ghosts in the YA novel Chasing Brooklyn, written by Lisa Schroeder in blank verse.
A teen could see dead people in Sarah Smith’s The Other Side of Dark, while Among the Ghosts by actress Amber Benson was about a teenager who could also see spirits. Sina Grace supplied the illustrations.
After her parents went missing, a girl ended up at a New England prep school where she could communicate with ghosts in Deception, the first volume in Lee Nichols’ “Haunting Emma” series.
A girl received a text from her apparently dead schoolfriends in Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck, and the ghost of a dead homecoming queen needed the help of a loser at her high school in The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade.
A young maidservant had to contend with ghosts and a scheming housekeeper in The Poisoned House by Michael Ford, while Clare B. Dunkie’s The House of Dead Maids was a ghostly novella prequel to Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
In 7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando, a murdered teen had to re-experience her death through the eyes of the people who most hated her.
The Evil Within was the second volume in Nancy Holder’s “Possession” series, set in a haunted boarding school.
The mayor’s mansion was haunted by an evil spirit in Marley Gibson’s Ghost Huntress Book 3: The Reason, the third in the trilogy about a girl with psychic powers.
The Back Door of Midnight was the fifth book in the “Dark Secrets” series by Elizabeth Chandler (Mary Claire Helldorfer).
The Spook’s Nightmare (aka The Last Apprentice: Rise of the Huntress) was the seventh volume in Joseph Delaney’s “Wardstone Chronicles” series about an apprentice ghost hunter, illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith. A companion work to the series, The Spook’s Bestiary, also by Delaney, was illustrated by Julek Heller.
A fourteen-year-old discovered that he was destined to become a vampire hunter in Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising by Jason Henderson, while Daphne Van Helsing fell for a rival vampire slayer in Amanda Marrone’s Slayed.
Jealousy was the latest volume in Lili St. Crow’s “Strange Angels” series, in which tough teen Dru Anderson was hunted by a 400-year-old nosferat and his bloodthirsty army of suckers.
A terminally ill girl discovered that she could be cured by a vampire’s blood in Crave by J. Laura Burns and Melinda Metz.
An overweight fifteen-year-old was accidently turned into one of the undead in Adam Rex’s humorous Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story, while a not very interesting 100-year-old vampire who looked like a teenager wanted to impress the new girl at school in Tim Collins’ Diary of a Wimpy Vampire (aka Notes from a Totally Lame Vampire), illustrated by Andrew Pinder.
Crusade by Nancy Holder and Debbie Vigulé was the first in a new vampire spin-off series from the best-selling Wicked books, and Mia James’ By Midnight was the first book in the “Ravenwood” series.
Following on from Nightfall, Shadow Souls was the second volume in L.J. Smith’s spin-off series Vampire Diaries: The Return, while Douglas Rees’ Vampire High: Sophomore Year was a belated sequel to the author’s 2003 novel.
Still Sucks to Be Me was the humorous sequel to Kimberly Pauley’s Sucks to Be Me, about new vampire Mina, and Melissa Francis’ Love Sucks! was a sequel to Bite Me!, about another teenage vampire.
V is for . . . Vampire was the third in the humorous “Vampire Island” series by Adele Griffin, about three vampire children living in New York who were fruit/vampire bat hybrids.
Two teenagers were recruited by the FBI to battle evil in ReVamped by Lucienne Diver (aka Kit Daniels), the follow-up to Vamped. End of Days was the second title in Max Turner’s “Night Runner” series, and Hourglass was the third in the vampire school series by “Claudia Gray” (Amy Vincent).
Somewhat confusingly, Thirst No. 3: The Eternal Dawn by Christopher Pike followed two omnibus volumes containing six novels in the “Last Vampire” series.
Bad Blood was the fourth book in Mari Mancusi’s “Blood Coven” series, in which a pair of twins secretly attended a vampire convention in Las Vegas.
Eleventh Grade Burns and Twelfth Grade Kills were the fourth and fifth entries, respectively, in Heather Brewer’s serie
s The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, about a half-vampire boy.
Vampirates: Empire of Night was the fifth book in the series by Justin Somper, and Misguided Angel was the fifth in the vampire “Blue Bloods” series from Melissa de la Cruz.
Spirit Bound was the fifth of Richelle Mead’s “Vampire Academy” books, and the author concluded the series with the sixth volume, Last Sacrifice.
From P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, Burned and Awakened were the seventh and eighth volumes, respectively, in the “House of Night” series.
Kiss of Death and Ghost Town were the eighth and ninth volumes in the best-selling “The Morganville Vampires” series by “Rachel Caine” (Roxanne Longstreet Conrad).
Sisters Scarlett Red and Rosie March hunted werewolves in Atlanta in Jackson Pearce’s Sisters Red, a young adult variation on the “Little Red Riding Hood” story.
After meeting a new student at school, a girl finally remembered how her parents died in Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin, while Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Raised by Wolves was the first in a new series about a human teenager who witnessed her parents being murdered by werewolves before being taken in by the pack’s alpha male.
Once in a Full Moon was the first in a new werewolf romance series by Ellen Schreiber, Linger by Maggie Stiefvater was another YA werewolf romance, and Francesca Block’s The Frenzy also featured a teenage werewolf.
Blood Wolf and Demon Games were the third and fourth books, respectively, in the Changeling werewolf series by Steve Feasey.
Michael Thomas Ford’s Z was a YA zombie novel set in the gaming world.
The Dead-Tossed Waves was Carrie Ryan’s companion volume to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, set in a post-apocalyptic zombie world, while Charlie Higson’s The Dead was a follow-up to The Enemy, in which a worldwide sickness had turned the adult population into zombies.
Jonathan Mayberry’s Rot & Ruin was also set in a world overrun by the walking dead, and a school newspaper critic fell for a zombie singer in Adam Selzer’s I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It.
Undead Much was the second volume in Stacey Jay’s series about Megan Berry, “Zombie Settler”.