First off I adore this cover and applaud the designer. It caught my eye immediately.

This is a large volume of horror at over 400 pages. While I can't say I fell in love with every story, it surely has something for every horror lover. My favorites of the bunch were "Sob In The Silence" which was a story of murder. "Dead Sea Fruit" a very strange tale about the Ash Mouth Man who can make you waste away with a kiss. "Closet Dreams" which was about an escape of sorts from a most vile predator. "Lonegan's Luck" which of course was not really good luck at all. "Was She Wicked? Was She Good?" Is about the aftermath of a little girl who likes to pull the wings off....well you'll see.

"The Shallows" was a strange and fascinating story of a family that I really can't even begin to describe. Now that is not to say the other stories weren't good, these are just the ones that will haunt me for a while.
I received an advance copy for review ( )

I received an advance review copy of this anthology from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you are following current horror fiction you really need to pay attention to anthologies like this one. Many of the current cast of heavy hitters are here, certainly the new wave of authors. Also, the stories in this anthology, even the ones that I really didn’t like, share a literary quality that elevates them above pure genre fiction. In other words, these folks are first, great writers, and second, writers of dark fiction. I am not a fan of the term “horror” as a genre description because it simply isn’t descriptive of the best of these authors. I pre-read the 2015 O’Henry Award Winners anthology and the writing in this anthology reminds me of those stories, just much darker, at times unbearably so.

You won’t find many lumbering beasts or typical horror tropes in this collection—although you will encounter a couple. Less than half of them deal with supernatural themes. In fact, “Little Pig” and “Very Low-Flying Aircraft” are not really “horror” as anyone would describe it. Both of these stories deal with awful things that happen to people when they wind up against the cutting edge of circumstances. Both set in the past and in war conditions, I felt that either of these stories could have and perhaps did happen. Probably did, actually. “Little Pig” could be a companion piece to the quite disturbing “My Grandmother Tells Me A Story” from the 2015 O’Henry Award Winners Anthology. The line between literary stories and its darker cousins is very fuzzy indeed.

“Sob in the Silence,” “Closet Dreams,” and “Interstate Love Song” are a few of the modern stories dealing with human monsters and the terrible things that they do to children and the helpless people that they encounter. While they were certainly dark, I did find them to be well written although distasteful. “Omphalos” and “The Goosle” on the other hand are so disturbing that I skimmed them. I am not a fan of these types of stories. They seem to me to be focused on disturbing the reader with their nastiness.

The supernatural was not entirely cast aside in this collection. There are a few more traditional stories as well a very interesting example of science fiction horror. “The Clay Party” and “How We Escaped Our Certain Fate” are interesting stories of people attempting to survive extreme conditions and explore the concept that preserving your humanity and dignity is more important than survival. “Mr. Pigsny” and “The Atlas of Hell” are very atmospheric demonic stories. “Shay Corham Worsted” is a fine example of sci-fi horror that I wished was much longer. I agree with another reviewer who lamented not being given the very interesting back story to the technological monster. My favorite story in the bunch was “Ambitious Boys Like You” which follows a traditional horror story format and does it proud. A familiar yet satisfying ride.

Coming up with a rating for an anthology is very hard and I really don’t know a good way to do it. I have seen people rate the stories individually and then take the average, which has merit and logic to it. However, I am choosing to give this a rating of 4 based on the high literary quality and writing (I liked most of the stories) of all of the stories and taking off a point based on personal preference because I didn’t enjoy a few of the stories and even found two of them repulsive—but others may disagree.
( )

There are certainly some interesting and well written stories in here, but overall this anthology has a more subtle horror feel than I would have liked. It changes towards the end, but this wasn't a book I found to be a page-turner. ( )

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Since this hasn't been released yet, I'm going to skip all the spoilerish stuff and the Story by Story gush or other reaction, and instead pick out some of my absolute favorites and otherwise tease some of the best ideas and themes for the rest, because I'm gonna be honest... the whole book of horror tales was rather fantastic.

I mean, it should be. This was a cherry-picking of the last ten year's best horror stories from some of the biggest non-stratospheric names in the business. Meaning it's mostly underrated authors or authors that are up-and coming or are well on their way to becoming household names.

That being said, I was thoroughly creeped out, disturbed, amused, and even awed. Most of these did a very good job at keeping me on the edge of my seat, and some even managed to make me really squirm and and want to say, "Enough, enough" and a few made me want to go out and pick up everything that author has ever written and be thankful that this book let me in on the big secret of their existence. :)

As for that last group, here they are:

Kaaron Warren's Dead Sea Fruit

Truly creeped me out and it had some of the best triggers in the business. Ash Mouth Man? Wow. Totally knocked me over. :)

Gemma Files's Spectral Evidence

This one was stylistically a fantastic treat with lots of easter eggs, written as notes in an investigation with pictures and tons of footnotes that tell an even more interesting tale than I might have guessed from the standard section. It isn't a traditional tale, but it's a freaking excellent one. :)

Ray Cluley's At Night, When the Demons Come By

A rather bright spotlight of a look at gender issues and an epic look at a world after demons infest the skies and shred humanity, zombie-style, but a bit more dire. The voice in this one is haunting and fantastic.

Livia Llewellyn's Omphalos

Totally haunting. I doubt I'll look at maps the same way again. And I'll also be totally creeped out about this one all night, now. Thanks a lot.


Now, just so you know, I loved almost all of these stories, and leaving some of these out actually kind of pains me. :) I'm still anxious after reading this entire book. And that's all because of the fantastic skills and the creepy dolls and the western zombies and the UF overdrive of hell infestations and good old fashioned roadtrip murder sprees. :)

Really, this one one hell of a fun ride. Anyone just looking for a good sampler or just a crazy good time could do FAR worse than this. :)
( )

facebook // twitter // bloglovin // youtube

Sad to say, but I just could not get through Nightmares a New Decade of Horror to the end. I got to around 40% and was just bored out of my brain. The stories did not scare me a bit. I think every single creepypasta I’ve read has gotten more of a rise out of me than all of the short stories I read in this collection. Most of the stories in the collection were just talk and descriptions with nothing happening. No building up of suspense. No thought that this could happen to me. It all fell flat, especially compared to other horror collections and stories I’ve read. The scariest thing to me was the cover.

// I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this title. //
( )