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A review by labunnywtf
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016 by Paula Guran
3.0
Received via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Urgh.
The one thing I will say about the short stories in this collection is they are unexpected. There's a lot of horror tropes, Frankenstein-esque monsters, aliens, demons, dolls, serial killers. All things you kind of come to expect when discussing horror stories.
And a lot of these short stories revisit those themes. But just because you're familiar with the theme doesn't mean you know what you're about to get with the stories. Oh, yeah, just another Frankenstein monster.
Nope. It's Frankenstein with an entirely new twist that I didn't see coming at all, and loved so hard. Jack the Ripper, from the perspective of a very different kind of police officer. Alien invasion starting with a girl who is attacked by a serial killer. Mermaids. Dolls. Creepy water demon god (don't ask me to explain that one, but the ending is fantastic).
Sadly, not all of these stories are attention grabbing. I started this well before the publish date, but it's taken nearly a month to slog through the stories that just weren't interesting, period. Thankfully, there are more than enough stories to catch your interest, and make you want to read more by the authors.
But truth be told, don't pick this up expecting horror. There was only one story that truly gave me the heebie jeebies, another story about dolls, and a sincerely creepy little brother. It took a very strange twist at the end, though.
I give it three stars, and the stories that got the book to three stars REALLY earned their stars. The Jack the Ripper story alone deserved five stars.
Urgh.
The one thing I will say about the short stories in this collection is they are unexpected. There's a lot of horror tropes, Frankenstein-esque monsters, aliens, demons, dolls, serial killers. All things you kind of come to expect when discussing horror stories.
And a lot of these short stories revisit those themes. But just because you're familiar with the theme doesn't mean you know what you're about to get with the stories. Oh, yeah, just another Frankenstein monster.
Nope. It's Frankenstein with an entirely new twist that I didn't see coming at all, and loved so hard. Jack the Ripper, from the perspective of a very different kind of police officer. Alien invasion starting with a girl who is attacked by a serial killer. Mermaids. Dolls. Creepy water demon god (don't ask me to explain that one, but the ending is fantastic).
Sadly, not all of these stories are attention grabbing. I started this well before the publish date, but it's taken nearly a month to slog through the stories that just weren't interesting, period. Thankfully, there are more than enough stories to catch your interest, and make you want to read more by the authors.
But truth be told, don't pick this up expecting horror. There was only one story that truly gave me the heebie jeebies, another story about dolls, and a sincerely creepy little brother. It took a very strange twist at the end, though.
I give it three stars, and the stories that got the book to three stars REALLY earned their stars. The Jack the Ripper story alone deserved five stars.