The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror

Starred review from August 16, 2021
The stellar lineup of 30 stories selected by Guran for this annual “best-of” volume attest to the imaginative breadth of dark fantastic fiction written in 2020. Victor Lavalle’s “Recognition” is a ghost story set in contemporary Manhattan during the Covid-19 pandemic. By contrast, Alix E. Harrow’s “The Sycamore and The Sybil” and Alison Littlewood’s “Swanskin” approach their explorations of gender roles through traditional fairy and folktales. Elizabeth Bear mixes the whimsical with the weird in “On Safari in R’lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera,” while Brian Evenson’s “The Thickening” and Elizabeth Hand’s “The Owl Count” end with nightmarish thunderclaps of genuinely unsettling horror. The familiar weird fiction themes of the haunted house and the vampire get creative makeovers in John Wiswell’s “Open House on Haunted Hill” and Craig Laurance Gidney’s “Desiccant,” respectively, while A.C. Wise’s “To Sail the Black” and Elaine Cuyegkeng’s “The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter” probe the relatively underexplored dark side of science fiction. There’s not a story in the mix that doesn’t merit the appellation of “best,” and the diversity of the selections bodes well for future annuals.

September 24, 2021

Guran's (editor of Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold and Blood Sisters: Vampire Stories by Women) latest short story anthology features a diverse group of authors who provide a wide array of cultural, ethnic, and sexual orientation and gender identity perspectives in these dark fiction stories. Not the typical fantasy/horror stories, these works expand the genre, overlaying the dark and horrific with the mundane as well as shining a light on political issues such as feminism, genetics, and climate change. Meet the ghosts of COVID-19 in Victor LaValle's "Recognition." Find a gem of a haunted house in John Wiswell's "Open House on Haunted Hill." Watch as a genetically engineered "perfect" child uncovers the ultimate betrayal in Elaine Cuyegkeng's "The Genetic Alchemist's Daughter." Read the diary of a teenage sea monster in Soleil Knowles's "Lusca." See a twist on the Daphne and Apollo myth in Alix E. Harrow's "The Sycamore and the Sybil." View the past and the future through the lens of a Betamax video camera in Catherynne M. Valente's "Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo." Discover the ghost in the machine in Kelley Armstrong's "Drunk Physics," and see a new take on the zombie apocalypse in Steve Rasnic Tem's "The Dead Outside My Door." VERDICT Recommended for fans of dark fiction and other literary-minded readers who enjoy a dash of the strange and unusual.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 8, 2021
This collection includes a diverse group of writers utilizing some classic horror, sci-fi and fantasy elements and themes. There are ghost stories--like Zen Cho's ""Odette,"" or Victor LaValle's ""Recognition"" (which takes place during the pandemic in a New York apartment), and Brian Evenson's creepy ""The Thickening."" There are stories of tiny invaders of the body in Craig Laurance Gidney's ""Desiccant."" John Wiswell's aptly named ""Open House on Haunted Hill"" gives a somewhat hopeful spin to the haunting of this home. Creature stories are retold: zombies in Steve Rasnic Tem's ""The Dead Outside My Door""; the Caribbean mythological creature ""Lusca"" by Soleil Knowles; and the shape-shifters in Alison Littlewood's ""Swanskin."" A. C. Wise has a great take on pirates on a ghost ship in space in ""To Sail the Black."" Acclaimed writer Elizabeth Bear has a fantastic story about underwater frog people that must be read to be appreciated. There are others by notable writers and newcomers alike, all deservedly part of this excellent collection.

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