A review by petrolfox
Year's Best Hardcore Horror Volume 5 by Randy Chandler, Cheryl Mullenax

3.0

I would have given this four stars similar to vol 3 that I read last year for having overall more good stories than bad ones but the story “What did you do to the children?” Was so bad it brought the whole book down a star. Contrary to what the author of that fecal smear of a story thinks I am not upset by the extreme lengths that they went to trying to shock their audience nor do I believe it should be banned or censored making them the great martyr for free speech that they ape themselves to be in the author’s note. No I just found the story to be the most desperate and pathetic attempt at an attention grab I’ve seen this side of an ICP album. I feel dumber for having read it. Simply regurgitating swearing and body horror onto a transcript doesn’t make you a horror writer. Suspense, terror, and shining a spotlight on the parts of humanity and the world around us that we don’t want to look at is what makes you a horror writer.