Far beneath the mere supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mom is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you're stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead. In her newest landmark anthology, Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what people should fear the most: other people.
***
Late night, in a bar where you couldn't smoke anymore but where the memory of stale tobacco hung in the air like a ghost (BAIT BY SIMON BESTWICK)
***
(@TachyonPub, 10 September 2024, e-galley, 336 pages, ARC from the publisher via @NetGalley)
***
***
Psychological horror is my favourite type of horror. It can be much more menacing than supernatural horror. I couldn't wait to read this collection. Some of the authors are known to me and some I read for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories. I enjoyed every story. I also enjoyed the fact they were all different so I never knew what to expect when I turned the page. I especially liked A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman, Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan, The Wink and the Gun by John Patrick Higgins and Where Are You Going Where Did You Come From? By Joyce Carol Oates which I've read several times. I'd recommend this dazzling collection.