Table of contents - "The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 7" edited by Ellen Datlow

For the past several years one of my highlights of each reading calendar is Ellen Datlow’s series of anthologies, “The Best Horror of the Year”. Each year, since 2009, “The Best Horror of the Year” not only rewarded me with some excellent short stories, but it also offered me the possibility to discover plenty of others through the list of honorable mentions published by Ellen Datlow in every volume. This year “The Best Horror of the Year” sees the publication of its 7^th volume and yet again Ellen Datlow’s anthology comes with a very interesting list of short stories and a catchy, suggestive cover artwork.

“[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.” —Clive Barker

For over three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror readers crave. Now, with the seventh volume of this series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night.

With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this “light” creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness, as articulated by today’s most challenging and exciting writers.

“As usual, Datlow delivers what she promises, ‘the best horror of the year,’ whether it’s written by the famous (Neil Gaiman) or the should-be famous (Laird Barron and many others).” 
—Washington Post

“The Atlas of Hell” by Nathan Ballingrud (Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow, ChiZine Publications)

“Winter Children” by Angela Slatter (Postscripts #32/33 Far Voyager, edited by Nick Gevers, PS Publishing)

“A Dweller in Amenty” by Genevieve Valentine (Nightmare Magazine, March 2014)

“Outside Heavenly” by Rio Youers (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, edited by Mark Morris, Spectral Press)

“Shay Corsham Worsted” by Garth Nix (Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow, ChiZine Publications)

“Allocthon” by Livia Llewellyn (Letters to Lovecraft, edited by Jesse Bullington, Stone Skin Press)

“Chapter Six” by Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com, June 2014)

“This is Not for You” by Gemma Files (Nightmare Magazine, September 2014)

“Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #100, May 2014)

“The Culvert” by Dale Bailey (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2014)

“Past Reno” by Brian Evenson (Letters to Lovecraft, edited by Jesse Bullington, Stone Skin Press)

“The Coat Off His Back” by Keris McDonald (Terror Tales of Yorkshire, edited by Paul Finch, Gray Friar Press)

“the worms crawl in” by Laird Barron (Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow, ChiZine Publications)

“The Dog’s Home” by Alison Littlewood (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, edited by Mark Morris, Spectral Press)

“Tread Upon the Brittle Shell” by Rhoads Brazos (SQ Magazine, Edition 14, May 2014)

“Persistence of Vision” by Orrin Grey (Fractured: Tales of the Canadian Post-Apocalypse, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Exile Editions)

“It Flows From the Mouth” by Robert Shearman (Shadows & Tall Trees, Volume 6)

“Wingless Beasts” by Lucy Taylor (Fatal Journeys, Overlook Connection Press)

“Departures” by Carole Johnstone (The Bright Day is Done, Gray Friar Press)

“Ymir” by John Langan (The Children of the Old Leech, edited by Ross E. Lockhart & Justin Steele, Word Horde)

“Plink” by Kurt Dinan (Postscripts #32/33 Far Voyager, edited by Nick Gevers, PS Publishing)

“Nigredo” by Cody Goodfellow (In the Court of the Yellow King, edited by Glynn Owen Barras, Celaeno Press)