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stepriot's review against another edition
4.0
It's a pretty strong collection and an interesting reminder of what our collective anxieties were at the time.
books_n_cats_1973's review
5.0
This is a great collection of horror stories. Most of the stories held my attention and were gruesome, truly holding to the horror genre. I told my wife last night I just finished this book of horror stories. She asked why I was listening to a book of whore stories. Apparently she did not hear me correctly.
evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
Many of the stories in year's best horror volume 5 are of an outstanding calibre and quality that few anthologies can match, and Ellen Datlow has picked an eclectic mix of different cultures, incorporating a good balance between featuring male and female authors while letting the stories speak for themselves and win readers over, and it doesn't get much better than the year's best.
Rather than discuss each story individually, I'll say that as with all anthologies, some stories will knock it out of the park from the first page. Others, while still tremendously well-written, will not appeal to everyone. Different things appeal to different people and all that. But the proportion of intelligent, well thought out, prose--more "literary" horror that isn't based on gore and doesn't go to extremes to disturb the reader--is very high indeed in this meticulously crafted and well put together anthology.
Rather than discuss each story individually, I'll say that as with all anthologies, some stories will knock it out of the park from the first page. Others, while still tremendously well-written, will not appeal to everyone. Different things appeal to different people and all that. But the proportion of intelligent, well thought out, prose--more "literary" horror that isn't based on gore and doesn't go to extremes to disturb the reader--is very high indeed in this meticulously crafted and well put together anthology.
cowardlylion's review against another edition
My notables:
Little America - Dan Chaon
The Magician's Apprentice - Tamsyn Muir
The Pike - Conrad Williams
Magdala Amygdala - Lucy A. Snyder
Little America - Dan Chaon
The Magician's Apprentice - Tamsyn Muir
The Pike - Conrad Williams
Magdala Amygdala - Lucy A. Snyder
articulatedream's review
4.0
A solid collection of creepy stories that run the gamut from body horror to cosmic horror and everything in between.
camerontrost's review
2.0
Even now and then, I read an anthology with "best of" in the title because I want to know whether there is one out there that lives up to the claim. But, yet again, I was disappointed. I have read numerous great horror stories that were first published in 2012, but none of them appear in this volume. The prose was of a generally commendable quality but the tales themselves were lacking in narrative, direction, and originality. There were only two that I particularly liked; "Nanny Grey" and "None So Blind". Gary McMahon's two contributions weren't bad either. Some others could have been good stories. For example, "A Natural History of Autumn" and "The Callers" started beautifully and had potential but just faded towards the end. If anybody has read a "best of" anthology that actually contains the best tales of a particular year, please tell me.
pixelina's review
3.0
Giving this a 3 star rating. Some stories deserved more, other less but all in all it was a fun read.
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