Reviewing the Mail: Week of August 31, 2024

One book came in the mail this week, so I'm going to tell you about it here. (I also got books other ways, since I was on vacation, but I'm bumping those to later weeks, for mostly not-wanting-to-spend-all-my-vacation-time-typing reasons.)

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror is a new reprint anthology edited by Ellen Datlow, gathering twenty-one stories, mostly from the last five or so years. There's also a cluster stories from the Aughts - a Stewart O'Nan from 2000, Margo Lanagan's "Singing My Sister Down" from 2004, other stories from Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Graham Jones, and Tim Nickels - and one real oldie, Charles Birkin's "A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" from 1964. Other authors included here are Laird Barron, Livia Llewellyn, and Simon Bestwick - and about a dozen others; if you squint you might be able to read all the names on the cover.

I think the subtitle explains it pretty well; these are stories of psychological horror. Datlow is the premier editor of short horror fiction of our time, so I trust her judgement. (I mean, I might not read the book, because I'm not fond of horror, but I have a vast and undying respect for her, and firmly believe she picks the best stories of the kind that I don't like.)

This is a trade paperback from Tachyon, officially publishing a week from Tuesday. Though...I have a real book in my hands right now, so your favorite bookseller might just be able to get you your own copy slightly before that date, if you ask them nicely.