The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 23 (Mammoth Books) Read online

  From Barnes & Noble’s bargain Fall River imprint, The Body Snatcher and Other Classic Ghost Stories edited by “Michael Kelahan” (Stefan R. Dziemianowicz) contained twenty-nine tales by M. R. James, Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton and others.

  Also edited under the “Kelahan” name from the same imprint, M is For Monster was an anthology of twenty-six stories arranged alphabetically by monster, from “Alien” to “Zombie”.

  “Kelahan” also contributed an Introduction to H. P. Lovecraft Goes to the Movies, a collection of fifteen stories that were made into films (or at least inspired them), while Dziemianowicz himself introduced Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Terrifying Tales, which included the title novel and eight short stories.

  Published as part of the Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading with an Introduction by Jeffrey Andrew Weintock, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Dark Tales was an attractive hardcover collection of fifteen tales that included notes and story introductions by S. T. Joshi.

  From Creation Oneiros, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Oneiric Tales contained the title novella and fifteen stories by Lovecraft, with an Introduction by D. M. Mitchell.

  Meanwhile, Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre was a companion volume to the earlier Lovecraft collection, Necronomicon (2008), once again edited with an Afterword by Stephen Jones and illustrated throughout by Les Edwards. The leather-bound volume contained fifty-four stories and poems, including the complete “Fungi from Yuggoth” cycle, along with the author’s seminal essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”.

  From the same editor/illustrator team of Jones and Edwards, copies of Conan’s Brethren were actually produced in 2009, but distribution was delayed for more than a year over a legal wrangle concerning copyright in the works of Robert E. Howard, who died in 1936.

  The 40th Anniversary edition of William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist was slightly revised with a scene added.

  Originally published in 1992, Kim Newman’s classic Victorian vampire fantasy Anno Dracula was re-issued by Titan Books as a classy-looking trade paperback that included plenty of additional material by the author.

  A thirteen-year-old was told three stories of loss and grief by a walking tree in Patrick Ness’ powerful young adult novel A Monster Calls, inspired by an idea by the late children’s author Siobhan Dowd and illustrated by Jim Kay.

  Eddie: The Lost Youth of Edgar Allan Poe was a novel about the misadventures of the author as a young man, written and beautifully illustrated by Scott Gustafson.

  A young girl from Louisiana travelled to a London boarding school, where she became involved in a series of murders apparently inspired by Jack the Ripper in The Name of the Star, the first in Maureen Johnson’s “Shades of London” trilogy.

  The offspring of a serial killer discovered a doorway to another place in Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves.

  Children sent to camp to overcome their phobias began to change ominously in Patrick Carman’s Dark Eden, which was also available in a multimedia app version.

  In the near-future, a girl looked for her past in a New Orleans cut-off from the rest of the US and inhabited by supernatural creatures in Kelly Keaton’s Darkness Becomes Her.

  In The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge, a teenager living in the city of Lovecraft in an alternate 1950s tried to avoid going mad, as the rest of her family had done, when she turned sixteen.

  A girl became obsessed with the objects she discovered in her family’s new home in Jennifer Archer’s ghostly novel Through Her Eyes.

  While they were staying at an old lake house, a girl’s boyfriend started acting strangely in Emma Carlson Berne’s Still Waters, and The Hunting Ground was another haunted house novel by Cliff McNish.

  A teenager could hear the voices of his missing school-friends in Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann.

  Two sisters encountered a powerful ghost in Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore, the daughter of a fake Victorian medium could see a real ghost in Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey, and a girl could see ghosts during a visit to the English city of York in Dark Souls by Paula Morris.

  A ghost tried to solve her own murder in Ghost of a Chance by Rhiannon Lassiter, while a ghost watched as his former girlfriend and best friend got involved with each other in Wherever You Go by Heather Davis.

  And a dead teen tried to discover what happened to her with the help of another spirit in Between by Jessica Warman.

  Seventeen-year-old Cas and his Wiccan mother travelled to Ontario to destroy the ghost of a murdered 1950s high school teen in Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake.

  A family of witches kept their powers secret in Witches of East End (aka Witches of the East), the first in the “Beauchamp Family” series by best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz.

  Crave was the first book in a trilogy by Melissa Darnell about a war between witches and vampires.

  The Cellar by A. J. Whitten (Shirley Jump and Amanda Jump) was a YA horror novel inspired by Romeo and Juliet, while Stacey Jay’s Juliet Immortal found Shakespeare’s lovers on opposite sides in the battle between Good and Evil.

  Jackson Pearce’s Sweetly was a dark twist on the “Hansel and Gretel” story, and This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Ogiwara was a prequel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, about Victor Frankenstein and his dying twin brother Konrad. Chris Priestley’s Mister Creecher was based on the same source novel.

  Two teenagers found themselves staring at death after a car wreck in August by New Zealand writer Bernard Beckett, while three teens living a New Zealand town discovered the secret behind the suspicious deaths of their brothers in The Shattering by Karen Healey.

  Death Watch was the first in the “Undertaken” trilogy by Ari Berk.

  Illustrated by Coleman Polhemus, Return to Daemon Hall: Evil Roots was the second volume in the series by Andrew Nance, and From Bad to Cursed was the second title in Katie Alender’s “Bad Girls Don’t Die” series.

  A girl was torn between her living and ghostly boyfriends in Shift, the sequel to Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade, while The Waking: Spirits of the Noh was the second book in a Japan-set trilogy by “Thomas Randall” (Christopher Golden).

  Ocean of Blood and Palace of the Damned were the second and third volumes in the “The Saga of Larten Crepsley” vampire spin-off series by “Darren Shan” (Darren O’Shaughnessy).

  Lisi Harrison’s Monster High 2: The Ghoul Next Door and Monster High 3: Where There’s a Wolf There’s a Way were the second and third volumes in a series of YA tie-in novels based on a series of dolls.

  Set in a haunted boarding school, The Screaming Session was the third book in Nancy Holder’s “Possessions” series. The busy author also teamed up with Debbie Viguié for Damned, the second in the “Wicked” spin-off series, “Crusade”, and Unleashed, the first volume in the “Wolf Springs Chronicles”.

  The Isle of Blood was the third in Rick Yancy’s “Monstrumologist” series about an apprentice monster-hunter.

  Everfound was the final book in Neal Shusterman’s supernatural “Skinjacker” trilogy, while The Hidden was the third and final book in Jessica Verday’s trilogy set in Sleepy Hollow.

  The Spook’s Destiny (aka The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen) was the eighth in Joseph Delaney’s series about an apprentice ghost-buster, illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith.

  A young girl had a strange reaction to a vampire’s bite in R. A. Nelson’s Throat, and Jane Jones: Worst Vampire Ever was a humorous novel about a nerdy undead teenager by Caissie St. Onge.

  The Slayer Chronicles: First Kill was the first in a spin-off series from “The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” by Heather Brewer, while By Midnight was the first volume in Mia James’ “Ravenwood” vampire mystery series. It was followed by Darkness Falls.

  Catlyn Youngblood, a descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, unknowingly fell in love with a vampire in After Midnight, the first volume in the “Youngbloods” series by “Lynn Viehl�
� (Sheila Kelly, who writes under a variety of pseudonyms).

  Jason Henderson’s Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead was the second book about another teenage vampire-hunter, and The President’s Vampire was the second book in a series by Christopher Farnsworth.

  The Vampire Diaries: The Return Vol.3: Midnight was the seventh volume in the overall series by L. J. Smith, while The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries Vol.3: The Craving and Vol.4: The Ripper were the third and fourth volumes in the uncredited spin-off series based on Smith’s books and TV series. The author was also only credited as “creator” on Vampire Diaries: Hunters: Phantom.

  Thirst No.4: The Shadow of Death was the latest volume in the YA “Last Vampire” series by Christopher Pike, and Afterlife was the fourth book in the vampire school series by “Claudia Gray” (Amy Vincent).

  Waking Nightmares was the fifth in Christopher Golden’s “Shadow Saga” series about Christopher Octavian.

  Blood Ties by Mari Mancusi was the sixth in the “Blood Coven Vampire” series, and Melissa de la Cruz’s Bloody Valentine and Lost in Time were the latest titles in the prolific author’s “Blue Bloods” series.

  Awakened and Destined were the eighth and ninth volumes, respectively, in the “House of Night” vampire series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

  After an electromagnetic pulse wiped out technology, a sixteen-year-old girl and her friends attempted to evade the flesh-eating “Changed” of a post-apocalyptic world in Ashes, the first in a new trilogy by Ilsa J. Bick.

  In Ty Drago’s The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses, a boy discovered that he could see that many of the people around him were actually the walking dead.

  The Fear by Charlie Higson was the third in the author’s zombie series that began with The Enemy and The Dead, and following on from The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, The Dark and Hollow Places was the final volume in Carrie Ryan’s post-apocalyptic zombie trilogy.

  Wereworld: Rise of the Wolf was the first in a new YA series by Curtis Jobling, while Fateful was a werewolf romance set on the Titanic by “Claudia Gray” (Amy Vincent).

  Christine Johnson’s werewolf novel Nocturne was a sequel to Claire de Lune, Karen Kincy’s Bloodborn was the second novel about a shape-shifting teen in the “Others” series, and Trial by Fire was the second volume in Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ “Raised by Wolves” series about human Were-pack alpha Bryn.

  The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group was Australian writer Catherin Jinks’ follow-up to the humorous The Reformed Vampire Support Group, as a teenage werewolf received help from an unexpected source.

  Changeling: Zombie Dawn was the fifth and final volume about a teenage werewolf by Steve Feasey.

  R. L. Stine, Margaret Mahy and Nina Kiriki Hoffman were amongst the contributors to the young adult anthology Bones: Terrifying Tales to Haunt Your Dreams.

  The Doll: The Lost Short Stories was a collection of thirteen “forgotten” short stories (not all genre) by Daphne du Maurier, mostly written between 1926–32, eight of which were re-discovered online by a bookseller in Cornwall. Cemetery Dance published a limited hardcover edition.

  Steel and Other Stories was a collection of fifteen stories by Richard Matheson, published to coincide with the release of the movie Real Steel, which was based on the title story.

  Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense collected ten reprint stories by Joyce Carol Oates.

  * * *

  Ellen Datlow’s Supernatural Noir featured sixteen original dark fantasy stories with a noir sensibility by Lucius Shepard, Jeffrey Ford, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Melanie Tem, John Langan and others, while Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy from the same editor contained twenty contributions from, amongst others, Shepard, Ford, Kiernan, Jim Butcher, Peter S. Beagle, Christopher Fowler, John Crowley and Pat Cadigan.

  Datlow’s Blood and Other Cravings was about different kinds of vampirism and featured seventeen (two reprint) mostly horror-lite stories by Reggie Oliver, Steve Duffy, Melanie Tem, Lisa Tuttle, Barbara Roden, Kathe Koja, Steve Rasnic Tem, Carol Emshwiller and Margo Lanagan.

  Co-edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Teeth contained seventeen YA vampire stories by Garth Nix, Kathe Koja, Lucius Shepard and others, along with a poem and the lyrics to a song.

  Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, Down These Mean Streets: All-New Stories of Urban Fantasy collected sixteen tales by Charlaine Harris (whose name was bigger than everybody else’s on the cover), Joe R. Lansdale, Simon R. Green, S. M. Sterling, Carrie Vaughn and others.

  Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers brought together seventeen original stories by Lucius Shepard, Robert Silverberg, Garth Nix, Gene Wolfe, Margo Lanagan, Peter S. Beagle, James Morrow, Terry Dowling and others. Unfortunately, most were more steampunk than supernatural.

  One of the first titles to be published by the new Jo Fletcher Books imprint from Quercus was A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones. The original anthology contained fourteen alternating novellas and short stories by Stephen King, Peter Crowther, Angela Slatter, Dennis Etchison, John Adjvide Lindqvist, Ramsey Campbell, Michael Marshall Smith, Elizabeth Hand and others.

  To mark the launch of the imprint, JFB also produced a paperback sampler that included contributions from, amongst others, Tom Fletcher, Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden, Alison Littlewood, Sarah Pinborough, Tom Pollock and Michael Marshall Smith, as well as a useful ring-bound notebook.

  Edited by Jonathan Oliver, House of Fear: Nineteen New Stories of Haunted Houses and Spectral Encounters included original fiction by Lisa Tuttle, Terry Lamsley, Robert Shearman, Christopher Fowler, Nicholas Royle, Tim Lebbon, Joe R. Lansdale and others, along with more irritating story introductions by the editor.

  There were more ghosts to be found in Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead edited by Stephen Jones. However, these revenants haunted specific items, locations and people in twenty-four stories (ten original) and a poem by such authors as Ramsey Campbell, Neil Gaiman, M. R. James, Tanith Lee, Richard Matheson, Robert Silverberg and Michael Marshall Smith.

  From Virago, Something Was There . . . Asham Award-Winning Ghost Stories edited by Kate Pullinger featured sixteen stories, including the winner of the 2011 writing award for women and a recently discovered new tale by Daphne du Maurier.

  With Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, and Ghosts: 25 Classic Stories of the Supernatural, editors Barbara H. Solomon and Eileen Panetta covered all their bases with stories by Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, H. P. Lovecraft and, er . . . Woody Allen.

  Edited by John Skipp, Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed was another catchall anthology of thirty-five stories, two novel excerpts and two essays by Neil Gaiman, Kim Harrison, W. W. Jacobs and others.

  The Monster’s Corner edited by Christopher Golden contained nineteen stories (one reprint) told from the monster’s point-of-view by Kelley Armstrong, Michael Marshall Smith, Kevin J. Anderson, Simon R. Green, Sarah Pinborough and others.

  In the Shadow of Dracula from IDW Publishing contained twenty-one classic vampire stories from 1816–1914, edited with story introductions by Leslie S. Klinger.

  From Skyhorse Publishing, Vintage Vampire Stories edited by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Richard Dalby included thirteen rare vampire stories, along with two novel excerpts, notes for an early draft of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and a historical essay.

  Mike Ashley edited and introduced Vampires: Classic Tales that included twelve stories, mostly written before Stoker’s novel, but also featuring contributions by Brian Stableford, Nancy Holder and Tanith Lee.

  A new edition of The Mammoth Book of Dracula edited by Stephen Jones added a reprint “Sookie Stackhouse” story by Charlaine Harris.

  Harris and Toni L. P. Kellner edited Home Improvement: Undead Edition, which contained fourteen stories about horrific house renovations, including a new “Sookie St
ackhouse” tale about an old murder and a ghost.

  Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! edited with an Introduction by Otto Penzler was a huge anthology about (mostly) . . . zombies. It contained fifty-seven stories by Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Robert R. McCammon, Theodore Sturgeon, Henry Kuttner, Manly Wade Wellman, H. P. Lovecraft and others.

  Zombiesque, edited with Stephen L. Antczak, James C. Bassett and Martin H. Greenberg, featured sixteen original stories told from the walking dead’s point of view by Nancy Collins, Tim Waggoner, Gregory Nicoll, Nancy Holder, Wendy Webb and others.

  Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three featured twenty-one stories, Stephen Jones’ The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22 contained twenty-three, and Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2011 Edition collected thirty-one.

  The Datlow and Jones volumes overlapped with six stories (by John Langan, Brian Hodge, Norman Partridge, Karina Sumner-Smith, Mark Morris and Christopher Fowler) and one author (Joe R. Lansdale). The Jones and Guran books each contained the same stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Partridge, and different stories by Lansdale and Angela Slatter, while the Datlow and Guran anthologies shared just the Partridge story and authors Laird Barron, Stephen Graham Jones and Tanith Lee.

  “Lesser Demons” by Norman Partridge was the only story to appear in all three “Year’s Best” horror volumes.

  From new print-on-demand imprint Dark Continents Publishing, Quiet Houses was a portmanteau collection of seven haunted house stories by Simon Kurt Unsworth, loosely linked together by paranormal researcher Richard Nakata. The author also helpfully supplied a guide to his inspirations for the buildings concerned.

  Paul Kane’s novel Pain Cages from Books of the Dead Press came with an Introduction by Stephen Volk.

  We Live Inside You from Swallowdown Press collected nineteen stories by Jeremy Robert Johnson and featured glowing cover quotes from Jack Ketchum, John Skipp, Cody Goodfellow and Chuck Palahniuk.