The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen, page 5
CHAPBOOKS AND NOVELLAS
The Moaning Words by Alan Dean Foster (Hippocampus Press) is a Lovecraftian novella about three people, each of whom possesses a portion of the infamous Necronomicon, who band together to find the final segment.
Nicholas Royle’s Nightjar Press published several chapbooks in 2024. Only a few are dark enough to be considered horror, but those that are include Old Tutor, New Tutor by Arthur Mandal—a story that is just a wee bit off-kilter about a series of tutors who come to help a couple of sisters with their exams. Removals by Ian Critchley is about a supposedly easy job of moving some cartons for an old lady. Junction by Alison Moore is about a chance encounter between two men involved in a traffic accident. The local man who caused the accident brings the other to his home where he wines and dines him. While nothing particularly odd happens, the tale becomes creepier and creepier. Topsoil by J. G. Lynas is a short, creepy story about what sleeps (not very soundly) under a sports field. The Grandchildren by Megan Taylor is another good little horror tale about the unexpected consequences of a group of grandparents pressured into caregiving while the parents work. Only Animals Can Make Me Smile by Alex Older has a nice sense of dread, and is about an insomniac who starts following a fox at night and where it leads.
Charlie Says by Neil Williamson (Black Shuck Books) is an extremely downbeat novella about a comedian who thought he’s escaped the racist, hateful town where he grew up but finds himself drawn back in when he returns for his mother’s funeral.
In the Valley of the Headless Men by L. P. Hernandez (Cemetery Gates Media) is an excellent novella about stepbrothers and their attempt to reconnect after years apart by traveling to and exploring a mysterious park in Canada.
Bad Hand Books published a few novella chapbooks: Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman is a terrific novella about a seventy year old man traumatized and haunted by the death of his fifteen year old son forty years earlier. He has never stopped replaying the last, imagined hours of his son’s life and is obsessed with finding out who killed him and why. Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper is a well-done novella about two criminal enforcers assigned to investigate the derelict hotel in which their boss’s adult son was violently assaulted, and which has a reputation of being the location of similar violent attacks and disappearances.
All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn by Eric LaRocca (from the collection This Skin Was Once Mine) is a harrowing story about what happens when a man encounters a strange salesman while shopping for a special knife for his husband’s dinner party.
Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram (Titan Books) is a strong novella about a man whose plan to commit suicide fails, when he finds himself in an infinite subway station.
Nightfire, the horror imprint of Tor Publishing, has been regularly publishing novellas. Some of the best in 2024 were Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud, which is an indelible mix of pulp science fiction and gothic horror all wrapped up in gorgeous writing. A woman is committed to an asylum on the moon in the 1920s to treat her depression. The doctor in charge is experimenting on his patients with a substance taken from the giant spider under the building with dire results. (acquired and edited by me). What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire) is a follow-up to What Moves the Dead. A retired soldier returns to their family hunting lodge, and discovers death and destruction and rumors of a monster that steals breath. Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine, an excellent novella about a woman hiding in isolation from a pandemic that drives people into a murderous frenzy if the two people make eye contact. All bets are off when a neighbor moves nearby and she attempts to break out of her acute loneliness (and possible mental illness). The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir translated by Mary Robinette Kowal (Nightfire) is an excellent novella of creeping dread, as a young woman begins to wake up in pain and covered in bruises, remembering nothing once she falls asleep. She visits multiple doctors, but none are able to explain what is happening to her nor help her. Then things get really weird when she puts on a watch with a pedometer and discovers that she’s walked 40,000 steps during the night.
Absinthe Books is a novella chapbook imprint of PS Publishing, with all the titles acquired and edited by Marie O’Regan. Remnant by Conrad Williams is a powerful novella about a glacial archaeologist invited to the excavation of an artifact buried in ice in Iceland. She accepts, eager to get away from a bad break-up in England, even as she experiences a few mysterious events prior to departure. All the Devils are Here by Paul Finch is a strong police procedural about murder, zombie-like creatures, and a defrocked priest who is at the center of a supernatural whirlwind of terror. Grey by Ian Rogers is an enjoyable supernatural noir about the only one who can prevent the imminent apocalypse—Heaven’s hatchet man, Grey, who has to find and bring back the last human soul, which was stolen by the Devil. If you enjoy Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, you’ll appreciate this. Grackle by A. C. Wise is an absorbing tale about a road trip intended to bring two sisters together in order to appreciate their late mother’s love of ghost stories. Things don’t go as planned after an argument at their grandmother’s funeral leaves the sister who planned the trip on her own. Instead another student joins her and tells a ghost story in the car. Great mixture of ghosts, folk horror, a bit of lust thrown in, and a large hint of the weird.
Remedy by J. S. Breukelaar (PS Publishing) is about a woman abducted from her life by a flying monster with giant talons and deposited . . . somewhere else. She and other survivors of this traumatic arrival—who have new lives and families and jobs despite remembering their origins—meet and try to make sense of their new world. And then someone arrives who claims to have a remedy to their plight.
Raw Dog Screaming Press has also begun to publish novella chapbooks, including Asylum by Sarah Hans, about a group of junkies and thieves who are hoping to get clean, but make the unfortunate decision of hiding out in an abandoned, isolated asylum. 12 Hours by L. Marie Wood is about a cabbie who’s been attacked while on his break and what happens over the next twelve hours. Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce is about a woman returning to the house where she experienced childhood trauma and how it changes her.
One of the Dead by Richard Farren Barber (Crystal Lake Publishing) is about a man who can see predators that drain the life force of people just by touching them. His girlfriend has become the target of one.
In Her Mind a Darkness by L. S. Johnson (Traversing Z. Press) is about a teenage girl who is constantly harassed by a group of local boys, and how she comes to deal with them.
Bitter Breed by Dino Parenti (JournalStone) is about a group of seven travelers stranded in a mountain diner by a snowstorm, hoping to survive an assault by enhanced humanoid creatures.
Red Skies in the Morning by Nadia Bulkin (Dim Shores) is about two sisters trying to survive in the midst of an epidemic of people dying horribly after being possessed by visions.
I Can See Your Lies by Izzy Lee (Dark Matter INK) is about a woman who can literally see when someone is lying to her. She’s traumatized by her actress mother’s disappearance years before, and with her marriage on the rocks, she decides to do some digging into the past and find out what happened to her mother.
A Voice Calling by Christopher Barzak (Psychopomp) is a dark ghost story about a house with a history of harming its occupants.
Shortwave Media published Rest Stop by Nat Cassidy, about a poor schmo of a guy who stops for gas and a pee at a deserted gas station and becomes locked in the bathroom where . . . things start coming out of the vent above his head. They also published Cicada by Tanya Pell, which is about a couple on the verge of breaking up who come upon a film festival about a giant killer cicada.
NON-FICTION
Queer Horror: A Film Guide edited by Sean Abley and Tyler Doupé (McFarland) is a filmography with more than nine hundred entries. Filtered Reality: The Progenitors and Evolution of Found Footage Horror edited by Rebecca Booth and Valeska Griffiths (House of Leaves) is a collection of sixteen essays exploring the genesis and development of the contemporary found footage horror film. With a foreword by Stephen Volk and an introduction by Aislínn Clarke, it is divided into two sections: Progenitors and Evolution. A Doorway to Joe: The Art of Joe Coleman (Fantagraphics) is a 450-page monograph with reproductions of over 150 paintings by this purveyor of visceral nightmares, often taken from true crime archives. With extensive commentary by the artist, art critics, artists, and writers, and includes an introduction by Tom Waits. The Metamodern Slasher Film by Steve Jones (Edinburgh University Press) analyzes slasher films of the past fifteen years that attempt to innovate within the subgenre. It claims to be the first book to use metamodernism to analyze film in a sustained way, and the first academic work to use metamodernism to examine horror. Lovecraft’s Library: A Catalogue by S. T. Joshi & David E. Schultz (Hippocampus Press) is this volume’s fifth edition, adding forty-four new titles and adding material to the listings of books owned by H. P. Lovecraft. American Scary: A History of Horror, From Salem to Stephen King and Beyond by Jeremy Dauber (Algonquin Books) is a cultural history of horror tying influences ranging from the Salem witch trials and enslaved-person narratives to H. P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen King, and Jordan Peele. A Cut Below: A Celebration of B Horror Movies, 1950s-1980 by Scott Drebit (McFarland) draws from sixty movies, dividing them into twelve categories including “killer animals” and “lethal children.” Born With a Tail: The Devilish Life and Wicked Times of Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder of the Church of Satan by Doug Brod (Hachette Books) is a serious investigation into LaVey, about whom many tall tales have been told. Lovecraftian Proceedings No. 5 edited by Elena Tchougounova-Paulson (Hippocampus Press) is the official organ of the Dr. Henry Armitage Memorial Symposium established in 2013 as part of NecronomiCon, in Providence, Rhode Island. This issue gathers fifteen of the papers presented at the symposium held at NecronomiCon in 2022. A must for Lovecraftian scholars. Cult Following by J. W. Ocker (Quirk Books) is a compendium of thirty extreme cults. More a breezy pop culture overview than a serious investigation, it’s still an enjoyable read. The Soul of Wes Craven by Joseph Maddrey (Harker Press) is an overview of Craven’s life and work, and includes more than eighty new interviews. Matthew Gregory Lewis: The Gothic and Romantic Literary Culture by Dale Townshend (University of Wales Press) puts Lewis—author of the infamous novel The Monk—and his work firmly into the sphere of the broader history of gothic literature. Large and dense, at 500-plus pages. Creep This Way: How to Become a Horror Writer by Rebecca Cuthbert (Seamus and Nunzio Productions) is a basic writing guide, with much of it appropriate for any kind of writer. Horror for Weenies by Emily C. Hughes (Quirk Books) is a basic but entertaining manual for moviegoers who never watch horror movies but might like to dip their proverbial feet into the waters of fear. Hughes covers twenty-five movies, from Psycho to Hereditary, including each plot in detail and the movie’s importance to the contemporary horror canon. Women of Horror and Speculative Fiction in Their Own Words: Conversations With Authors and Editors edited by Sebastien Doubinsky and Christina Kkona (Bloomsbury Academic) includes twenty-four interviews (one with me) with women-identifying authors and editors from different countries and cultures, of different races and sexual orientations. It’s informative and thought-provoking, and not overly academic, although there’s the occasional question that screams “academia alert.” Ripples from Carcosa: H.P. Lovecraft, Haunted Landscapes, and True Detective by Heather Miller (Hippocampus Press) is an academic exploration of the first season of the hit television show True Detective, obviously influenced not only by Lovecraft and Robert Chambers, but by Thomas Ligotti and Laird Barron’s work (although Barron is never credited in the book). The Horror Aesthetic: Essays From the Dark Corners of the Genre by L. Marie Wood (Mocha Memoirs Press) is a readable volume of essays written by the author during the last decade, covering some common ground as she delves into why people like horror, the various creatures of horror, and more interestingly the subject of African American horror and the evolution of horror fiction from African folklore. The section on “Reclaiming Agency in Literature and Film” is especially good, in tandem with last year’s The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema From Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris (Gallery Books/Saga Press). Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction edited by Gabriela Lee, Anna Felicia Sanchez, and Sydney Paige Guerrero (University of Philippines Press) is the first collection of essays covering the history and writing of speculative fiction (and horror) in the Philippines. In addition to essays, the book includes a brief timeline of Philippine Speculative fiction from the seventeenth century through 2022. Gore-Geous: Personal Essays on Beauty and Horror by Alexandra West (Astrophil Press) is a smart, entertaining collection of essays in which West blends her personal history with film criticism, examining gender norms, beauty standards, and cultural expectations. Taking aim at movies, from Walt Disney’s 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through Takashi Miike’s 1999 Audition, she does a bang-up job dissecting her subject. Glowing in the Dark by Orrin Grey (Word Horde) is an entertaining collection of more than sixty columns, reviews, and essays about horror movies written between 2011 and 2023. The Routledge Introduction to the American Ghost Story by Scott Brewster and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock traces the historical development of the American ghost story from its Indigenous, Puritan, and Enlightenment origins through the nineteenth century and up to contemporary texts, movies, and television, video games, and podcasts. Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold On Us by Anna Bogutskaya (Faber & Faber Ltd.) looks at horror movies from a feminist perspective, explaining why a love of horror is okay. David Cronenberg: Clinical Trials by Violet Lucca (Harry N. Abrams) is an illustrated monograph. With a foreword by Viggo Mortensen, the author mixes Jungian psychology with her analysis of Cronenberg and his films.
