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A review by tombomp
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen by Ian Rogers, Matthew Holness, Eóin Murphy, Simon Strantzas, Brian Evenson, Kaaron Warren, A.C. Wise, Ellen Datlow, Jonathan Raab, Simon Bestwick, Carly Holmes, G.V. Anderson, Christopher Golden, Steve Toase, Sarah Lamparelli, Gerard McKeown, Gemma Files, Robin Furth, Laird Barron, Glen Hirshberg, Steve Duffy, Michael Marshall Smith, Eric LaRocca, Lee Murray
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Take that 3 as a positive 3. I very much enjoyed my time with this book! It's just as is usually the case with anthologies I found my opinions varied a lot between stories and there weren't any huge standouts either. But there's definitely quite a few high quality stories here.
Thinking of faves:
- Caker's Man: Great creepy story about the very real creepiness of certain adults as experienced by kids, yet done without depicting any truly awful acts. The horror of being overfamiliar, leering, suggesting gross things. The possibly supernatural element springs from that, and it's vague and uncertain but works well due to being grounded in relatable horror.
- Dancing Sober in the Dust: The creepy narrator recovers the costumes of a grim dancing duo, with the sections of the story interspersed with museum catalogue style descriptions of the costumes. The ending almost feels a touch cliche but the whole thing really works, with the extra theme of the past as living memory vs the past as stuck in archives.
- The God Bag: this is how you pull off a "twist" ending when the reveal seems inevitable. Heavy on the theme of dementia and aging and what you lose andwhat you'd give to get yourself back. It's not clear if the mother's sacrifice is something she'd have done in her right mind - maybe it was just the first thing that came to mind while barely conscious - but it doesn't really matter. It's really chilling and effective, again grounded in very relatable horror around parenthood and loss of self.
- The Quizmasters: A shorter one based on a kind of goofy concept that's pulled off effectively and doesn't outstay its welcome. The horror of random chance and "why would someone do that"
- The Steering Wheel Club: Powerfully hones in on the emotions and drives of abusive men. The ending really boils it down to something incredibly effective - getting what you want foreveras horrifying punishment
- Shards: Friends go to a cabin and it destroys their lives. A cursed object type story, but written really well.
- Chit Chit: There's a really effectively creepy sceneof someone having their skull "massaged" so it's soft and can be transformed into a horse skull but I admit my appreciation of this one is mostly due to featuring a folk horror favourite tradition Mari Lwyd
- Tiptoe: A Laird Barron story that taps into what seems to be his usual discomfort with parenting and the horrors that emerge from heterosexual relationships. Nearly nothing horrific actually happens in view, so it's mostly just a constant unease, realising there are people who are not like you that you pass every day and they're dangerous. With an excellent closing image.
A few of the others were pretty decent but didn't make an impact on me, most of the rest weren't *bad* bad but felt like they didn't work totally or just weren't right for my tastes.
The Offering: I think this wasn't bad exactly - although the conclusion could have been chopped off - but I just couldn't help feeling these were the absolute worst AirBnB hosts of all time. It actually bugged me a lot how irresponsible they were! This would be fine but the conclusion talks about the aftermath and doesn't address it. Weirdly weakens the story for me.
Poor Butcher-Bird: This had some good stuff (and the most effective and consistent use of gore and descriptions of horror imagery) but I just really really hatestories where it's about a supernatural creature and her human lover and we're supposed to be like, cheering the supernatural creature eating humans or w/e because the creature is really cool and morally right. I mean... yeah, obviously, in the story it's fine for her to do it. idk just a daft pet peeve
The King of Stones: Just a bit of a mess.
Thinking of faves:
- Caker's Man: Great creepy story about the very real creepiness of certain adults as experienced by kids, yet done without depicting any truly awful acts. The horror of being overfamiliar, leering, suggesting gross things. The possibly supernatural element springs from that, and it's vague and uncertain but works well due to being grounded in relatable horror.
- Dancing Sober in the Dust: The creepy narrator recovers the costumes of a grim dancing duo, with the sections of the story interspersed with museum catalogue style descriptions of the costumes. The ending almost feels a touch cliche but the whole thing really works, with the extra theme of the past as living memory vs the past as stuck in archives.
- The God Bag: this is how you pull off a "twist" ending when the reveal seems inevitable. Heavy on the theme of dementia and aging and what you lose and
- The Quizmasters: A shorter one based on a kind of goofy concept that's pulled off effectively and doesn't outstay its welcome. The horror of random chance and "why would someone do that"
- The Steering Wheel Club: Powerfully hones in on the emotions and drives of abusive men. The ending really boils it down to something incredibly effective - getting what you want forever
- Shards: Friends go to a cabin and it destroys their lives. A cursed object type story, but written really well.
- Chit Chit: There's a really effectively creepy scene
- Tiptoe: A Laird Barron story that taps into what seems to be his usual discomfort with parenting and the horrors that emerge from heterosexual relationships. Nearly nothing horrific actually happens in view, so it's mostly just a constant unease, realising there are people who are not like you that you pass every day and they're dangerous. With an excellent closing image.
A few of the others were pretty decent but didn't make an impact on me, most of the rest weren't *bad* bad but felt like they didn't work totally or just weren't right for my tastes.
The Offering: I think this wasn't bad exactly - although the conclusion could have been chopped off - but I just couldn't help feeling these were the absolute worst AirBnB hosts of all time. It actually bugged me a lot how irresponsible they were! This would be fine but the conclusion talks about the aftermath and doesn't address it. Weirdly weakens the story for me.
Poor Butcher-Bird: This had some good stuff (and the most effective and consistent use of gore and descriptions of horror imagery) but I just really really hate
The King of Stones: Just a bit of a mess.