About the Book
Bestselling horror editor Ellen Datlow (Body Shocks) returns with twenty-one stories of extreme psychological dread from such horror icons as Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Josh Malerman, Margo Lanagan, and more. The unsettling tales explore the nature of fear as it stirs in dysfunctional families, toxic friendships, and mismatched lovers, which culminates in relentless stalkers, remorseless killers, and perpetrators of savage rituals. 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.
Your grandfather confesses his heinous crime to you alone. You try to save a young girl from sexual assault, but she's not really a victim. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mum 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.
Far below the unlikeliness of the supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. We live in fear of the cruelties of respected leaders and of the despicable crimes of neighbors who seem normal. We live with anxiety about our innermost desires and the unforgivable things we might do in a moment of passion. Or, if we fail to curb our urges, we live with the terrible secrets of our unfettered resentments.
In this uniquely unsettling anthology, editor Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what humanity fears most: People.
Fears contributors include:
Dale Bailey
Laird Barron
Simon Bestwick
Charles Birkin
Ray Cluley
Theresa DeLucci
Steve Duffy
Sharon Gosling
John Patrick Higgins
Carole Johnstone
BTPS Fall/Winter 2024 Adult Catalog
Stephen Graham Jones
Margo Lanagan
Livia Llewellyn
Josh Malerman
Bracken MacLeod
Annie Neugebauer
Tim Nickels
Joyce Carol Oates
Stewart O'Nan
Hailey Piper
Priya Sharma
About the Author :
Ellen Datlow is one of horror's quintessential, bestselling, and most acclaimed editors. She has won multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, and Shirley Jackson awards and has received lifetime achievement awards from several organisations including the World Fantasy and World Horror Associations. She was the fiction editor of OMNI for nearly twenty years, and edited the magazines Event Horizon and Sci Fiction, and is currently a genre fiction editor at Tor.com. Her many anthologies include the long-running Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, the Best Horror of the Year series; Snow White, Blood Red; Lovecraft's Monsters; Naked City; The Monstrous; Body Shocks; and Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror. Datlow lives in New York City.
Review :
"Fears is modern horror fiction at its finest."
--Vogue Horror "For decades, Ellen Datlow has set the bar. One of the most influential editors in the history of genre fiction, the gold standard of anthologists, and the ultimate tastemaker for horror stories. Datlow's career and reputation are entirely unique--there's only one Ellen."
--Christopher Golden, author of Ararat
"Ellen Datlow has long ago earned her place as the premier anthologist of fantasy and horror. Appearing in one of her unique volumes is recognized as a significant honor, and Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror is no different."
--Joe R. Lansdale, author of In the Mad Mountains
"Datlow's latest themed anthology gathers 21 stories, all reprints that have previously appeared across the publishing landscape since 2000 (except for one, the penultimate story by the late Charles Birkin, which was originally published in 1964). Together, these tales illustrate the evolution of the psychological horror subgenre, moving these stories out of the hands of narrators with severe mental illness and into spaces where the fear can seep in from anywhere and anyone--a dinner party, your own family, random encounters, vacation. Things are clearly not as they seem, and the monsters are more human than anyone wants to admit. The anthology has plenty of big names to draw readers in, from Josh Malerman to Joyce Carol Oates to Stephen Graham Jones (whose previously out-of-print story, 'Teeth, ' which closes the volume, is a worthy draw here in and of itself). But Datlow has racked up the awards because she is able to identify excellent stories from authors that readers may be less familiar with; here, she includes the intense, atmospheric unease of an overburdened caregiver in Priya Sharma's 'My Mother's Ghost, ' the reality of a young girl's father terrifyingly unveiled by Hailey Piper in 'Unkindly Girls, ' and the existentially unsettling 'Cavity' by Theresa DeLucci, which lists the 32 times the main character has met a murderer, including her own. This collection is not for the faint of heart, but there are legions of fans of both psychological suspense and horror, meaning there is a built-in audience that will be eager to get their hands on this book. It also pairs well with the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Dark Matter Presents Human Monsters (2022), edited by Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Sawyers, in which Malerman's story first appeared."
--Booklist
"Ellen Datlow has a supernatural talent for assembling fantastic stories into must-read anthologies, and Fears is another extraordinary example of that talent.
--Josh Rountree, author of The Legend of Charlie Fish
"Ellen Datlow has expertly gathered stories that surprise by enticing us down one path and then morph, unexpectedly, into a deeper level of anxiety and dread."
--Linda D. Addison, author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend
"With Fears, the latest addition to [Datlow's] already remarkable bibliography, she proves yet again that she is one of the premier anthologists of her--or any other--generation."
--Pete Atkins, author of Hellraiser: Bloodline
"In her introduction, Datlow writes that she hopes her chosen stories 'will inspire a frisson of fear in the reader.' By that criterion, Fears indelibly succeeds."
--Rue Morgue
"Ellen Datlow's latest anthology is a masterclass in psychological horror."
--The Secret Book Review
"The issue with this one was it was so good that I had to put it down and reset between stories."
--MI Book Review
"Datlow, once again is at the top of her form." --Midwest Book Review
