Best horror editor around. I love these collections and purchased for my home library. Absolutely recommended. Thank you for the advanced copy

An awesome and very dark collection of stories from a wide variety of writers including established names that I love like Malerman, Piper, and Stephen Graham Jones, and plenty of authors I had never read anything by before that I will definitely be seeking out. Their is not a real specific uniting theme across these stories aside from them being pretty dark and nasty, which I loved.

Fears tales of psychological horror is a cornucopia of curated horror short stories, where some of them are straight chilling, others leave you wondering what the hell did I just read? Personally some could’ve been a whole small novel on their own, whereas in others I was lost for words, in a literal sense. It’s a roll the dice kinda book, you might get your lucky number and read a really good one or you might just be left wondering at what time you should take a nap this upcoming weekend. Overall I enjoyed this book, some of the stories that stood out to me the most are as follows:

Bait by Simon Bestwick- A bar onlooker keeps witnessing another pub patron stalk and possibly do unspeakable things to inebriated gals as they’re leaving the bar, he finally decided to take action one night and he’s met with the switcheroo of his life.

The Pelt by Annie Neugebauer- A young couple living semi off grid in a plentiful land find a pelt of an unknown animal left by an anonymous somebody and things start to not add up.

The Donner Party by Dale Bailey - Mrs. Breen life is elevated to a new level in the higher class society when Lady Donner invites her to partake in a rather unorthodox dinner, but things can go awry if you so much decline an invitation and later she learns there is a high price to pay to enjoy such a tender and succulent meal.

Back Seat by Bracken MacLeod - A little girl and her Dad navigate the harshness of life while being homeless and while trying to score a bit of change, the change is delivered via a back seat find.

Cavity by Theresa DeLucci- How many times have you walked by a killer and not known?

21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion by Carole Johnstone
Some people have really fucked up families, and family friends, but things change when there is a power outage and there is a stranger in the house.

There are a few others that are notable and great reads but in the fear of turning this into a complete essay or spoiling some of the fun we will leave it at that. I do recommend this if you enjoy different perspectives of the human mind and what makes us the most terrifying monster in the dark. I received this e-book via NetGalley to read and give an honest review and I do thank them since some of these tales have left a sour taste in my mouth, and with horror, what is better than to be left with an aftertaste?

When stories from Stewart O'Nan (!?) , Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen Graham Jones appear together in an anthology of body and extreme horror it must be well curated. And Fears certainly is. Multiple award winning Editor Ellen Datlow is a prolific presence in a wide variety of genre collections and has collected these stories as a box of poisoned chocolates. One per night before sleep is plenty!

As it goes with almost all short story collections I read, I ended up giving this one three stars- not amazing and not terrible. The stand out stories for me were right at the beginning, Bait, The Donner Party, Singing My Sister Down, Back Seat, and My Mother's Ghosts. The rest of the stories varied on a scale of pretty good to just fine and all of them were well written and pretty concise. My best piece of advice going into this collection would be to not do what I did and read all the stories one after the other with no breaks- the stories kind of end up blending together and there are several which use the same themes in order to create discomfort and tension and while the stories themselves are not terrible, having them feel so close together made the collection start to feel a little repetitive and boring. I'd definitely suggest switching between reading a story and then picking up a different book so that the story has time to sit with you and stand out on its own before you move onto the next one. It's what I should've done so I didn't really take it into account much when I was deciding on my rating, but even so I just wish there was a bit more variety with the types of stories that were put in the collection. That being said, this collection was a fairly enjoyable read and I'll definitely be looking into reading more works by some of the authors included here.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Human Monster horror is a favourite sun-genre of mine so I had really high hopes for this collection. And lucky for me, most of 21 stories were big hits. And this incredible line-up of authors?! How could ya go wrong? I recommend this anthology to all horror fans - it’ll be a great Halloween/spooky season read.

I saw this anthology on NetGalley and was intrigued by the notion of “psychological” horror. What did that look like? How much only within the human mind could horror stories exist? Of course, my expectation and reality are quite different things. In her introduction, Ellen Datlow quotes Bracken MacLeod: fear is “an anticipation of emergent or imminent harm.” Psychological is meant to be the foil of supernatural, rather than inner life versus outer life. The emphasis is on the concept of fear rather than the visceral experience of terror.

The center piece of the anthology is Joyce Carol Oates’ classic “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” I’ve previously described Oates’ work as discomfiting and that is an adjective that could be used for many of these stories. Many of them also focus on sexual assault, or the fear of sexual assault, which sadly takes up a lot of brain space for women. For me, a reader who is also a woman, that was taxing.

Some of my favorites of the anthology:

“The Donner Party” by Dale Bailey – a cleverly plotted story of ambition that backfires.
“Singing My Sister Down” by Margo Lanagan – I believe this was a reread for me. It was nominated for pretty much every speculative fiction award when it was first published in 2004. With good reason. Evocative of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.”
“My Mother’s Ghost” by Priya Sharma – As someone with a mild level of face blindness, I’ve never seen it depicted very well in fiction. This nails it, uncomfortably.
“The Wrong Shark” by Ray Cluley – a story about Jaws and a legacy of trauma.

FEARS is a collection of short stories that contain elements of psychological horror. There’s a wide array of stories, ranging from creepy grandpas to murdering psychopaths to cannibals. Several stories had me cringing and saying WTF. As seems to be the case with all collections, there were stories that I loved and others that weren’t for me, but all in all, I thought this was a solid collection that boasts some top tier authors.

Favorites:

👁️ A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman — I think this might’ve been my favorite story. The unease just *builds* in this one. The story went where I wanted it to, and the ending was the payoff I was hoping for. It’s just a fun creepy story!

🐺 LD50 by Laird Barron — This was my first time reading Barron, and I’m looking forward to reading more from them! I really loved the grittiness of this story. The characters felt familiar and real in a way that few authors can manage. The writing style took a moment to acclimate to, but ultimately I really enjoyed it.

🦷 Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones — Okay, it’s SGJ, so of course I loved it. This story had a bit of a True Detective vibe, which I dug. The ending was either effed up or metaphorical or both, I dunno, but I was left with wide eyes and questioning what I’d just read (the best way to leave a story, imo).

Bonus Mentions:

🍽️ The Donner Party by Dale Bailey
🌺 Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan

I really enjoyed both of these stories. I’ll definitely be looking for more by these authors!

If you’re looking for a short story collection perfect for spooky season, give this one a try! Available now!

✅ Recommend

To paraphrase Forrest Gump: “Anthologies are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” The best guide for potential readers is to look at the book’s theme, the authors selected, and, most of all, the editor who selected the individual works. At first glance, it would appear that “Fears,” a horror anthology compiled by acclaimed anthologist Ellen Datlow, would be a surefire winner for genre fans. Unfortunately, while some of the anthology’s 21 stories are excellent, others are confusing or long-winded and, ultimately, not scary on any level. The result is a collection that’s batting about fifty percent.

The problem with “Fears” starts with the book’s theme. It’s easy to compile a collection of vampire or ghost stories. However, Datlow eschewed stories that contained supernatural elements. That still leaves many classic horror tales from “Psycho” to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Datlow attempts to narrow her criteria further in the book’s Introduction, where she quotes author Bracken MacLeod (whose story, “Back Seat,” is one of the best in the book): “[F]ear is the precursor to terror—an anticipation of emergent or imminent harm that can start small like an unseen virus until it’s taken over… Fear transforms into terror. Terror leaves us with lingering fear. But one’s germinating while the other is cascading.” So, fear is when you hear the chainsaw; terror is when Leatherface chases you. That makes sense, but that distinction is rarely evident in these stories. Instead, Datlow’s theme seems to be any story that is supposed to make readers feel creepy but doesn’t involve supernatural phenomena. I’d be okay with that, but half the stories in the collection fail this test.

At least, the best stories in “Fears” are terrific. All 21 stories were previously published, most of them first appearing in other anthologies in the last ten years. Genre fans have likely encountered some of them in their previous readings, but the source material includes many obscure anthologies (Datlow loves crediting her competition in this field), so all but the most completist of readers should find enough new material to make the collection worthwhile… if they like the selections.
Two stories in “Fears” date from the 1960s and are two of the best. Joyce Carol Oates contributes an acclaimed genre classic, “Where Are You Going, Where Did You Come From?” A 15-year-old girl left home alone one afternoon is startled by the arrival of two men in a colorful car, asking her to go out with them. She soon realizes that they are considerably older than her and know a lot about her. Their leader gradually coaxes, cajoles, and impliedly threatens the teenager to break down her defenses. What surprised me most in re-reading the story was how a novelette written in 1965 was even more relevant in the social media age, where predators have much greater access to personal information.

The other 1960s story is actually a 1940s story. In “A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” Charles Birkin takes readers to a Nazi concentration camp where some inmates are forced to entertain the guards in a rather sadistic fashion. In 1964, readers were more familiar with this type of depravity than they are today, so the story’s ending probably is more shocking now. Another excellent story, Ray Cluley’s “The Wrong Shark,” also has a factual basis. It’s set in Martha’s Vineyard, where Darnell Jackson lived as a boy. In 1975, Steven Spielberg and his production crew arrived to film “Jaws.” Jackson and many other residents showed up frequently to watch the filming and vie for roles as extras. Jackson stood out because he was the only black person in the crowd. Martha’s Vineyard in 1975 wasn’t the most racially tolerant community, a fact that figures in the real-life horror Jackson encounters… and his reaction when he returns some 40 years later as an adult.

Another story worth noting is “One of These Nights” by Livia Llewellyn. In it, two 15-year-old girls commit a shocking crime in full view of dozens of witnesses, but nobody realizes what the girls are doing until long after they’ve left the scene. The story deservedly won the Best Short Story Edgar Award in 2021. By contrast, the horror in Carole Johnstone’s “21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion” remains in the dark… literally. A family is terrorized by home invaders one night, and their plight becomes much worse when there’s a power failure. The horror in Sharon Gosling’s “Souvenirs” doesn’t reveal itself until the last page, but the understated prose packs a huge emotional wallop. A dutiful daughter finally persuades her 70-something father, who has been a worldwide adventure seeker, to settle in a retirement home near her. The story’s title hints at what he brings with him to the home.

As I mentioned earlier, Bracken MacLeod contributes “Back Seat.” A homeless father and young daughter eke out a “living” by having the girl break into parked cars at night (with her father’s help). She then pilfers any spare change or even leftover food. One night, she discovers a dead baby in the back seat and must spend several terrifying hours in the infant’s company. The author tells the story from the girl’s point of view as she struggles with what she sees and hears during those hours and what she imagines.

At its best, as in these stories, “Fears” is an excellent read for horror fans. Unfortunately, the book falls short of those heights frequently. Several stories were hard to follow or understand, even though I read them several times. They include the last story in the book, “Teeth,” by Stephen Graham Jones. This tale has a great premise, a dying cop on the verge of retirement who tries to solve one last case. Human bones keep turning up all over the city, and the police soon determine that they all come from the same body. The bulk of the story is engaging; the last few pages are a confusing mess.

“The Donner Party” by Dale Bailey is easy to understand, however. It’s also a lame attempt at satire. The story’s title should clue readers in about the principal ingredient in the special dish being served at some Victorian England dinner parties. (Read Stanley Ellin’s “Specialty of the House” for a much better take on the same theme.) I think “The Donner Party” was intended as dark humor instead of straight horror. It fails at both, being neither creepy nor amusing. “A Sunny Disposition” by Josh Malerman also squanders a great set-up. A young boy is alone with his dying, blind grandfather. Before the boy can leave, the grandfather reveals something quite shocking. An edited version of this story might have been one of the best in the anthology. Unfortunately, before the big reveal, the boy has to listen to a nearly interminable monologue by Grandpa. I imagine if I were a young boy in that situation, I’d be scared out of my wits. But as an adult reading the speech, I had a more jaded reaction.

I would recommend about half the selections in “Fears” as stand-alone stories. “A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” and “Souvenirs,” in particular, will remain with me for a long time. But I struggle to remember three or four others less than a week after I read them, and I doubt I’ll understand them no matter how many times I re-read them. Given an enormous amount of potential source material that would qualify for inclusion based on the somewhat nebulous premise of “Fears,” that’s a disappointment for an anthology from Ellen Datlow. There’s enough good material here for a three-star rating and marginal recommendation. But I’m afraid this anthology is nowhere near Datlow’s best effort.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.

3.5 stars rounded to 4. Many hit and misses here, but overall an interesting anthology, of the very high quality of all Datlow anthologies. The twenty-one stories have been published previously (the earliest from the 1960s, but all the rest from 2000, 2013 and the 2020s), but they’re not easy to find in one place, so Datlow has my gratitude for giving readers like me the opportunity to enjoy them in a single package.

The theme is horror perpetrated by people rather than supernatural entities. The stories rely on atmosphere, diversity, and original twists, though there's some slight repetition. The authors are all well-known names, though the stories have not been selected on that basis.

I especially liked the Malerman story, actually I enjoyed it very much, as well as Bailey's "Donner Party," but I was most impressed by "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan. "The Wrong Shark" by Ray Cluley deserves special mention, but it won't be to everyone's liking.

In sum, a solid anthology perfect for the fall!

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own

A nice mix of thrillers and fan would like. It reminds me of TV shows like Tales from the Crypt or the Twilight zone.

Wonderful collection of stories for the those who like to have their mind messed with a bit.

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror gathers 21 stories that explore many different facets of unease, but most of them concern serial killers. Top billing goes to stories by Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen Graham Jones, but also included are Josh Malerman, Priya Sharma and Simon Bestwick.

By its nature, it is a mixed anthology. A few stories are exceptional, while most are good with a few middling or poor. Many unfold quite predictably, with supposed twists guess-able by anyone with a passing interest in the horror genre. Most are from a single perspective, exploring an alternate cannibalistic world, childhood trauma, dysfunctional families, revenge, toxic social situations, stalkers and or killers.

Which in some ways is a shame, it is book ended well with strong, creepy stories. Simon Bestwick's "Bait" manages to defy normal convention with a revenge driven narrative seen at a remove. and Graham Jones' "Teeth" is a typically for him unsettling take on the police procedural with the main character about to retire, but for that one last case. Malerman's "A Sunny Disposition" is also a stand out, as it makes the most out of a child left to be minded by his grandfather. "Cavity" by Theresa DeLucci also stands out for its unique narration through 32 numbered passages.

Recommended for readers of horror, short fiction or creative works that emphasize humans as they true monsters.

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror has twenty-one stories from some fantastic writers.
This psychological horror anthology was amazing!

Short story collections are rarely a 5 star read for me and this one was no different. The first few stories were great and I also loved “Teeth” by Stephen Graham Jones. It’s a good collection, but I found myself getting really bored with a lot of the stories in the middle.

This book contains short tales of psychological horror by some of the best horror writers and storytellers out there today - Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, and Joyce Carol Oates just to name a few. These 21 short tales examine terror, human depravity, psychological terror, and fear.

This collection is made up of previously published short stories for the reading enjoyment of horror fans. With most short story collections, there were ones that I enjoyed more than others, but I found this a worthwhile read. I had not read anything included in this anthology before and I also enjoyed how this book introduced me to some authors whom I have not read before.

My favorites were: A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman, The Donner Party by Dale Bailey, and Bait by Simon Bestwick.

Three Words That Describe This Book: heartwrenching, sinister, dreadful

I hadn’t read anything by Ellen Datlow before and was motivated to request an arc for Fear after seeing the amazing cover. She has won multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, and Shirley Jackson awards and is an editor at Tor.com.

Favourite line: “You’ll come to be haunted by a lot of things. The older you get. Each year brings another haunting. Until you got forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, a hundred things you try not to think about.”

Fears: Tales Of Psychological Horror is a great collection of dreadful stories that effectively use fear, guilt, and emotion to disturb the reader. My favourite stories in this collection are "Teeth" by Stephen Graham Jones, “21 Brooklands” by Carole Johnstone, "Backseat" by Bracken Macleod, and "A Sunny Disposition" by Josh Malerman.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Anthologies tend to be a mixed bag. Sometimes you get more stories that suit your taste, sometimes you don’t. Because there’s a chance I’m going to find a new favourite author amongst them, I tend to read more anthologies than I plan to. There’s always a draw card, the author who sucks me into the experience when my TBR pile is shouting at me to look away. Here, that was Stephen Graham Jones.

“They're about serial killers, hunters of murderers and the blowback this can cause in the hunter, about cruel traditions, horrific appetites, toxic friendships, dysfunctional intimate relationships, revenge for real and imagined slights.”

Although I love most sub-genres of horror, psychological horror is one of my favourites because, let’s face it, humans are the real horror story. While there were quite a few stories here that I could take or leave, there were also some standouts.

A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman

Grandpa Ray wanted to see the world like Grandma Meryl did.

“You ever feel haunted, Benji?”

Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan

Today is Ik’s day.

“I’m stuck now”

Souvenirs by Sharon Gosling

Reg only wants to take one thing with him to Wisteria Lodge.

“Your daughter’s told us all about you - we’re all excited to hear your stories about travelling.”

Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones

Naturally. This story was the reason I was here.

“And then, one day, one day you … you see it.”

All of the stories included were reprints, originally published between 1964 and 2022.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the opportunity to read this anthology. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

I've been meaning to try an Ellen Datlow collection, and this was my first one. The theme here is "psychological horror" which can be kind of broad, but overall I liked the stories that were included in this collection. Short story collections are always a bit of a grab bag, and that was true here as well. There were some stories that I felt were a bit obvious, some I just didn't get, and some that I really enjoyed. I think my favorites were "Back Seat" by Bracken McLeod & "The Wrong Shark" by Ray Cluley, but I also was very excited when I finally got to Stephen Graham Jones' story.

Overall it was a good taster for different authors, even if I did not find the stories particularly scary.

Overall, Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror is a good compilation of horror stories. I liked some stories more than an others. I have read some of the authors in this book before and some I hadn't read before. Ellen Datlow is good at putting horror story collections together. I look forward to reading the next one. Any horror fan will enjoy reading this book.

Fears is an interesting horror short story collection that focuses not on supernatural horror, but instead on the all too human darkness that surrounds us. I liked that there was a bigger variety of horror tropes (from one story set in a concentration camp during the holocaust to a modern military torture site to murderous high school girls) and not just your typical (male & "insane") slasher, but in most cases I would have liked some more motivation for the "evil" people in here, since the supernatural cannot provide an answer this time and their human motivations are sometimes not really explored in enough detail for me to be interesting. I did really enjoy the variety in fast-paced gorey horror and the more creeping dread in this anthology though and so I think there will be something for everybody who enjoys horror. Personally I enjoyed quite a few of the stories here, my favorites being: A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman, The Donner Party by Dale Bailey, Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan, My Mother's Ghost by Priya Sharma, Cavity by Theresa DeLucci and The Wrong Shark by Ray Cluley. Some of the stories were unfortunately a bit too short or too confusing to me, but I still had a good time reading most of them.
Below a short summary of every short story, including trigger warnings and some thoughts on them:

Bait by Simon Bestwick: A man wants to stop the local creep at the bar he frequents after he follows a young girl outside, but the girl turns the tables on him, I enjoyed the way the story examined and refuted various tropes around women surviving sexual abuse, tw: csa, rape, murder, gore, violence, castration
The Pelt by Annie Neugebauer: A short story about a woman who finds an unusual pelt on her property's fence and realizes that her husband seems... different after, very good at building the atmosphere and showing the disorientation of questioning the foundation you built your life on, tw: gore, violence
*FAV* A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman: A grandchild is left to be babysat by his grandfather, who decides he needs to get something off his chest before it's too late, very unsettling and incredibly good at building dread, I enjoyed it a lot, tw: gore, murder
*FAV* The Donner Party by Dale Bailey: A story set in victorian society following a woman climbing the ranks as she first gets to participate in a rare event called a "First Day Feast", both utterly different than the title suggests and yet similar in the most obvious ways, I really enjoyed this story and was (intentionally) reminded of "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. A pleasure to consume indeed. tw: cannibalism, murder, brutality, anti black racist language
White Noise in a White Room by Steve Duffy: A retired militairy "interrogator" (aka top torturer) is called back from retirement for a weird case, a bit disjointed to me and not that interesting unfortunately, tw: murder, violence, descriptions of torture
*FAV* Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan: A terrifying and heartbreaking justice is done in this story where a young woman is executed for having killed her husband. Really messed up, but fascinating to read. tw: murder
Back Seat by Bracken Mac Leod: A world frozen by record cold temperatures forces a small family of a father and a daughter to steal to survive until the daughter finds something unsettling in the backseat of a car, okay, but I disliked the semi-supernatural (psychic or haunting) aspect in the story here? I think it cheapened the horror a bit to me. tw: child death, child neglect
England and Nowhere by Tim Nickels: A story following an older man as he becomes invested in the lives of the two young people and watches them all the time, told in a rather aprubt way with many scene cuts, I didn't really get it and it didn't really interest me (maybe because I didn't get it). Unfortunately not my style. The prose was interesting though, even though I couldn't follow the story. tw: death
Endless Summer by Stewart O'Nan: A short and sweet slasher. Fun and I enjoyed it, but it is veeery short. tw: murder
*FAV* My Mother's Ghost by Priya Sharma: A daughter taking care of her parents as their health and minds fail them, finally has to deal with the family's past when the brother taken away as a child returns as an adult man and things just keep getting worse and more gothic, really fucked up and full of creeping dread, I really enjoyed reading it! tw: ableism, r-slur, murder, child murder, child abuse, incest, rape
The Wink and the Gun by John Patrick Higgins: A lonely man gets ready for his school reunion, but something weird happens as he is preparing, unsettling and a good use of creepy children (make them cruel schoolboys, that's always accurate). tw: eye trauma, eye gore, graphic injury
One of These Nights by Livia Llewellyn: This story follows a small group of highschool girls and the jealousy surrounding one of the girl's father that threatens to tear them apart until something finally has to change, weird and unsettling, but I do looooove messy sapphics, tw: incest, past child sexual abuse, threatened sexual abuse of a teenager, murder, drowing
LD50 by Laird Barron: A hitchhiker befriends a truck driver just as the report of a string of dog murders spreads throughout the various bars along the highway and the hitchhiker starts to wonder who the truck driver really is, tw: animal cruelty, animal murder, past attempted murder
*FAV* Cavity by Theresa DeLucci: A story told in short summaries of all the murderers the protagonist (unnamed, told in 2nd person) has met throughout their life. Very interesting and progressively more unsettling. I liked it. tw: murder, csa, suicide, misogyny, cat calling, rape, eating disorder mention
Souvenirs by Sharon Gosling: A man who used to travel all across the globe in his youth is now too old to keep living on his own and is brought into a nursing home where he decides to decorate his room with some of his souvenirs, I enjoyed the grisly reveal, tw: fatphobia, murder
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates: A teenage girl stays home from a family party to relax. Then a stranger pulls up to her driveway, wanting her to take a ride with him. Unsettling and very good at character voices. tw: threats of rape, kidnapping, murder, misogyny
*FAV* The Wrong Shark by Ray Cluley: In this story a man returns to his childhood town where the filming of Jaw happened and remembers a traumatic experience during it, really heartbreaking and exploring the cruelty of racism with a very satisfying end, tw: racism, animal murder, violence, bullying
21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out red lion by Carole Johnstone: A story set in a mostly abandoned street where a family's evening takes a turn for the worse when their lights are suddenly cut and somebody breaks into their house, quite tense and makes use of darkness as a horrifying experience really well, tw: murder, child abuse, physical violence, cheating, unsafe sex
Unkindly Girls by Hailey Piper: A daughter meets "unkindly girls" at the beach, girls who don't dress modestly enough, which her father disapproves off, but maybe after years of short-lived summer friendships she hopes that something can finally change, interesting and tense, tw: misogyny, murder, violence
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts by Charles Birkin: A story set during the second world war in a concentration camp, featuring a very cruel contest held by the officers, tw: holocaust, implied sexual abuse, murder
Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones: A strange case featuring human remains being found in various unusual places becomes a cop's new obsession, interesting, but could have done without the ableism, tw: ableism, cannibalism, murder