This anthology collects some remarkable short horror fiction written in 2017. The authors included in this volume are exclusively Anglo, with all of tThis anthology collects some remarkable short horror fiction written in 2017. The authors included in this volume are exclusively Anglo, with all of them residing in either the UK, the US, Canada, or Australia. Now, I'm pretty skeptical that the best horror stories in English that's published in a certain year would only come from just four countries, but I guess I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and judge the stories on their own merits.
I read the very long Introduction on the current state of horror/fantasy in various forms of media (books, movies, comics, TV series, etc) and at first I was off-put by the commentary. I was thinking that it should have tried to be objective but really, accepting that I have some opinions that diverge quite a ways with Jones's, if it had been so it might have ended up a tedious chore to read. The editor's wrily entertaining views made it possible for me to slog through the entire thing. It also made me aware of excellent books and shows that somehow escaped my radar, so it's all good.
I only skimmed over the Necrology section, which like the Introduction is pretty voluminous.
Moving on to the stories: these are mostly horror tales of the quiet, literary sort. A few do seem a tad anemic or hard to parse, but I found most of them interesting, especially the following:
His Heart Shall Speak No More - a jilted bridegroom discovers the Dark Heart of Dunwich, the petrified heart of a scorned girl which brings doom to all those who keep it
A Song of Dust - a noble family messes with the wrong girl as they poison the young heiress bride of one of their scions on her nuptial feast
After Sunset, in the Second Drawing Room Garden - Hollywood haints infect the owner of the eponymous room with the power to destroy people in the biz
The Seventeen-Year Itch - a nonagenarian mass murderer who has been confined for half a century is bound for a hellish scratching spree this coming Halloween. The new administrator ordered the only working restraint off tho . . .
I'm rating this anthology 7/10 or 4 stars out of 5....more
Like the latest iteration, I noticed that all of the authors included here hail from just a handful (in this case three) of Anglo countries. That limiLike the latest iteration, I noticed that all of the authors included here hail from just a handful (in this case three) of Anglo countries. That limits the cultural purview of the stories, and while that's understandable in many horror anthologies, for one with the term "Best" in its title it seems rather constrictive. I did notice that this seems to be a feature of the other contemporary Best of horror anthologies so I guess there's no use mentioning this again.
The stories presented here are mostly exceptional though. I enjoyed them and I'm pleased to say that out of the whole book there's only one or two that I'm ambivalent about. I didn't encounter any full-on dud. In any case I plowed through all of the pieces in just two days - that's how entertaining they are - though tbh I just skimmed the introduction and necrology. It's a solid horror anthology, with more than a handful of stories that are worth a re-read.
The following are my favorites:
India Blue - featuring the first and last game of the sadly curtailed America's Rockin' Professional Cricket
Walking With The Cross - an antiquities enthusiast accidentally witnesses a shocking Good Friday ritual
On These Blackened Shores of Time - a couple searches for their son below the sinkhole that claimed his car, leading to a long-closed mine that houses ancient secrets
White Feathers - a girl in love goes in search of a white feather with its promise of pristine and ultimately predatory beauty
Mare's Nest - a desperate husband creates an unnatural tomb for his dying wife
The Red Forest - a village strikes a deal with a dying baba yaga to save their village from pestilence, war, and famine, with unintended consequences
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