TITLE: Nightmares (A New Decade of Modern Horror)
PUBLISHER: Tachyon Publications
EDITION: Kindle
RELEASE DATE: Expected 31 October 2016
PAGES: 432
SOURCE: Publisher
BOOK PAGE: PUBLISHER’S WEBSITE
I got an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
WHAT’S IT’S ABOUT
From the most acclaimed horror editor in the business comes the most ground-breaking horror of the new millennium. In Nightmares, editor extraordinaire Datlow has skilfully reprised her classic anthology Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror. Here you will find iconic authors mingling with unexpected new masters of terror. These tales represent the finest stories of a new era, in which evil both everyday and unfathomable will simply not go away.
In “Ambitious Boys like You,” two inexperienced thieves discover a residence which makes Home Alone seem like a playground romp. The question of “Is She Wicked? Is She Good?” is asked by concerned parents whose cruel child courts fairy revenge. The “Ash Mouth Man” may be just a legend to girls who wish to waste away – but is he only worth just one kiss?
Stories included:
- Shallaballah by Mark Samuels
- Sob in the Silence by Gene Wolfe
- Our Turn Too Will One Day Come by Brian Hodge
- Dead Sea Fruit by Kaaron Warren (Aurealis Awards nominee)
- Closet Dreams by Lisa Tuttle (International Horror Guild winner/Bram Stoker nominee)
- Spectral Evidence by Gemma Files
- Hushabye by Simon Bestwick
- Very Low-Flying Aircraft by Nicholas Royle
- The Goosle” by Margo Lanagan (Ditmar Award winner)
- The Clay Party by Steve Duffy
- Strappado by Laird Barron (Shirley Jackson nominee)
- Lonegan’s Luck by Stephen Graham Jones (Shirley Jackson nominee)
- Mr Pigsny by Reggie Oliver
- At Night, When the Demons Come by Ray Cluley
- Was She Wicked? Was She Good?” By M. Rickert
- The Shallows by John Langan
- Little Pig” by Anna Taborska
- Omphalos by Livia Llewellyn (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
- How We Escaped Our Certain Fate by Dan Chaon (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
- That Tiny Flutter of the Heart I Used to Call Love by Robert Shearman (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
- Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
- The Atlas of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud
- Ambitious Boys Like You by Richard Kadrey
OPENING
A WIG COVERED his bald scalp. (SHALLABALLAH BY MARK SAMUELS)
WHAT I THOUGHT
Datlow offers another impressive, diverse and hugely enjoyable collection of short fiction. I’ve loved horror fiction since I was a teenager and didn’t think this genre had anything really new to offer. This never bothered me because reading horror fiction is sometimes like slipping into a pair of well-worn shoes, moulded to the shape of your foot and still comfortable. Nightmares (A New Decade of Modern Horror) proves there is always something new for the horror genre to offer. I enjoyed every story in this collection. One of the stand-out stories of the collection is At Night, When the Demons Come by Ray Cluley which I’m pretty sure I read a few years ago in an old issue of Black Static magazine. This is a brilliant, chilling story and it was great fun to read it again. I also loved Our Turn Too Will One Day Come by Brian Hodge, Was She Wicked? Was She Good?” By M. Rickert, Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix. The other stories are all excellent but these shone a little brighter. This is a great collection of horror fiction. I’d highly recommend it.
RATING
The Book Lover's Boudoir 