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A review by inquisitrix
When Things Get Dark by Ellen Datlow
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
It's hard to imagine a more certain success than an Ellen Datlow horror anthology. That might be a high expectation, but When Things Get Dark fully lives up to it.
There isn't a single filler story in this book. While I think some are more successful than others at conveying a sense of tribute to and inspiration by Shirley Jackson, all of them are killer stories in their own right. Particular highlights for me included Richard Kadrey's gleefully nasty little domestic murder, Cassandra Khaw's gruesome remote village revenge, Laird Barron's horrifyingly murky collage of memory and family mystery, and Kelly Link's majestically eerie fable of graduate school, housesitting, and the beyond. That isn't to say that any of the others left me cold, though; this might be the most consistently excellent anthology I've read in years.
I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone interested in a trying a sampler of many of the finest, most interesting writers in contemporary horror (I mean, on top of the authors whose stories were personal favourites, a book that also contains Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Gemma Files, and all the rest is just an amazing snapshot of a phenomenal era for terrifying and truly excellent horror writing), as well as to those who are already fans of any of the authors in the book (or of Datlow herself).
I received a free e-ARC of this title from Titan Books via NetGalley in exchange for my review.
There isn't a single filler story in this book. While I think some are more successful than others at conveying a sense of tribute to and inspiration by Shirley Jackson, all of them are killer stories in their own right. Particular highlights for me included Richard Kadrey's gleefully nasty little domestic murder, Cassandra Khaw's gruesome remote village revenge, Laird Barron's horrifyingly murky collage of memory and family mystery, and Kelly Link's majestically eerie fable of graduate school, housesitting, and the beyond. That isn't to say that any of the others left me cold, though; this might be the most consistently excellent anthology I've read in years.
I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone interested in a trying a sampler of many of the finest, most interesting writers in contemporary horror (I mean, on top of the authors whose stories were personal favourites, a book that also contains Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Gemma Files, and all the rest is just an amazing snapshot of a phenomenal era for terrifying and truly excellent horror writing), as well as to those who are already fans of any of the authors in the book (or of Datlow herself).
I received a free e-ARC of this title from Titan Books via NetGalley in exchange for my review.