Another great anthology from Ellen Datlow. A couple of stories I’ve read before, but most were new to me.

Psychological horror is my favourite type of horror. It can be much more menacing than supernatural horror. I couldn’t wait to read this collection. Some of the authors are known to me and some I read for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories. I enjoyed every story. I also enjoyed the fact they were all different so I never knew what to expect when I turned the page. I especially liked A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman, Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan, The Wink and the Gun by John Patrick Higgins and Where Are You Going Where Did You Come From? By Joyce Carol Oates which I’ve read several times. I’d recommend this dazzling collection.

Great collection of tales. Perfect going into fall.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital review copy.

ARC 📖 Review: Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub Date: 9/10/24

When I saw psychological horror I was sold! Such a great collection of short horror stories. A few favorites were “Bait” by Simon Bestwick, “Back Seat” by Bracken MacLeod, and “Cavity” by Theresa DeLucci. I loved discovering new authors this way! Thank you @netgalley and @tachyonpub for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

💀🦷🚗

In this uniquely unsettling anthology, editor Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what humanity fears most: People.

#fears #psychologicalhorror #bookstagram #bookworm #booknerd #booklover #books #reader #horrorreads #spookybooks #readmorehorror

A wonderfully unsettling collection of short stories that stuck with me long after I finished reading them.
A fantastic coming together of some incredibly talented writers.
For a more in depth review: https://youtu.be/qXMEJXpPZSk?si=Ks8U2mAZNCUuhltz

"Simon Bestwick, Annie Neugebauer, Josh Malerman, Dale Bailey, Steve Duffy, Margo Lanagan, Bracken MacLeod, Tim Nickels, Stewart O'Nan, Priya Sharma, John Patrick Higgins, Livia Llewellyn, Laird Barron, Theresa DeLucci, Sharon Gosling, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Cluley, Carole Johnstone, Hailey Piper, Charles Birkin, Stephen Graham Jones.

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."

I mean, I'm excited for all these authors in this collection, but really hyped for Margo Lanagan!

i usually enjoy anthologies and short story collections but this one did feel like a chore to get through — most of the stories weren’t that exciting and i did end up skipping a few. which i usually don’t like doing. but i don’t think i’d ever have finished this if i hadn’t.

some of the stories were genuinely very good and i think id have enjoyed reading them outside of the anthology collection.

teeth by stephen graham jones
unkindly girls by hailey piper
cavity by theresa delucci
one of these nights by livia llewellyn
the donner party by dale bailey
a sunny disposition by josh malerman

but as a whole i don’t think it worked for me. which is a shame because the idea behind it was really interesting and there’s a bunch of great authors in the mix.

I enjoyed this anthology of psychological horror. Some of these stories were honestly terrifying and truly creeped me out and I had to take a break after a few. I would definitely recommend this one, especially with spooky season being upon us. I'm giving it four because a couple of these stories didn't quite hit for me.

Thank you for the ARC Net Galley.

Look for it September 10th!

Fears is a solid anthology of psychological Horrors. My favorites were The Pelt, where the main character's slow decent into madness is on full display and the very definition of the psychological sub genre, and The Donner Party which is a twist on the historic story. There were 1 or 2 stories that I felt left to much for the reader to infer to a point where they didn't make much sense. Another few, I'd prefer to be longer, like The Wrong Shark. All of the stories have been previously published and the editor has selected them for the anthology. Ellen Datlow has done a lot of these, you can never go wrong with one of her anthologies.

• Bait by Simon Bestwick- 3
• The Pelt by Annie Neugebauer- 4
• A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman- 4
• The Donner Party by Dale Bailey- 3
• White Noise in a White Room by Steve Duffy- 2
• Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan- 4
• Back Seat by Bracken McLeod- 4
• England and Nowhere by Tim Nickels- 2
• Endless Summer by Stewart O' Nan- 3
• My Mother's Ghosts by Priya Sharma- 4.5
• The Wink and the Gun by John Patrick Higgins- 3.5
• One of These Nights by Livia Llewellyn- 4
• LD50 by Laird Barron- 2
• Cavity by Theresa DeLuccci- 3.5
• Souvenirs by Sharon Gosling- 3
• Where Are You Going, Where Did You Come From? by Joyce Carol Oats- 2
• The Wrong Shark by Ray Cluley- 3
• 21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion by Carole John Stone- 3
• Unkindly Girls by Hailey Piper- 3.5
• A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts by Charles Birkin- 3
Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones- 3.5

Overall, this collection of stories felt like a waste of time.

This is a great collection of short stories taking different facets of horror to truly scare you. As with any collection of short stories some are better than others but that is truly up to the reader on author preference and what scares them. All stories were worth reading. Well done. 4.5 ⭐️

Finding a collection of shorts from different authors that is cohesive and maintains a high quality of writing throughout is often difficult, but Fears knocks it out of the part. Each one of these stories packs a punch, so much so that I'm having a difficult time picking a favorite. Datlow did a phenomenal job selecting these stories. And like the name suggests, this is some scary sh*t. Ghosts, monsters and demons can certainly spook me, but at the end of the day, they're all fictional. But humans, and the terrible things they are capable of, are very very real. This selection of short stories is so effective because of that. This collection is a gem!

4.5 out of 5 stars

This is one of the best short story collections I've had the pleasure of reading! Particular standouts for me are "Bait," "A Sunny Disposition," "The Donner Party," "The Wrong Shark," and "A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts." These had me gasping out loud, getting goosebumps (which is rare for me), and thinking about them several days after reading them. I will absolutely explore novel-length books from their authors!

Being horror, almost every story includes gore and/or death. More thorough content warnings are listed below by story.

"Bait"
Content warnings: References to sexual assaults

"White Noise in a White Room"
CWs: Implied suicide

"Back Seat"
CWs: Burglary, child death, neglectful parents

"Endless Summer"
CWs: Kidnapping

"My Mother's Ghosts"
CWs: Incest, sexual coersion, cheating, parent with dementia, ableism, child murder, animal death, use of the r-slur (challenged)

"One of These Nights"
CWs: Statutory rape, pedophilia, underage sex, underage drinking

"LD50"

CWs: Animal abuse, use of guns

"Cavity"
CWs: Domestic abuse, animal abuse, stalking, victim-blaming, suicide, rape, eating disorders, brief mentions of mass shootings and racism

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
CWs: Stalking, sexual coercion, pedophilia, kidnapping

"The Wrong Shark"
CWs: Racism, depiction of hate crime, animal abuse

"21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion"
CWs: On-page rape, domestic abuse, alcoholism, home invasion

"Unkindly Girls"
CWs: Victim-blaming, pedophilia, sexual assault

"A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"
CWs: Takes place in a German concentration camp, so there are references to Hitler, ableism, anti-Semitism, genocide, gun violence, and starvation/illness

"Teeth"
CWs: Animal death, cancer, drugs

**HUGE thank you to Tachyon Publications for granting me an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!**

I love horror anthologies/short stories, so I had high hopes for this one. While there were definitely a few standouts, I found a good number of the stories a little underwhelming.

Psychological horror is a favourite of mine so I was super excited for this collection, I wasn't disappointed, what a great collection, I had a few favourites but all were stellar stories that explored the nature of fear, a lot of these haunted me long after I'd finished reading

I love a good anthology. Psychological horror remains one of my favorites. A few standout stories, for me, were from Josh Malerman, Laird Barron, Hailey Piper and, of course, Stephen Graham Jones. Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC. Check this out when it publishes on September 10, 2024!

This was a super intriguing read. I loved a good amount of the stories in here. These would be perfect stories to share around a fire. Enough to freak people out but also give them something to think about. Overall I was very impressed.

This was my first collection by Ellen Datlow and it did not disappoint! I LOVE short form horror, it has the ability to feel so much creepier than full length novels. Something about packing all the good stuff into just a few pages really ramps it up.

This collection started off with a bang and just never stopped. From serial killers and madness to eyeball horror and cannibalism and everything in between, there is a story for just about every terror you could imagine.

Fears reminds us that often times the most frightening monsters come straight out of humanity. Why fear ghosts, vampires and werewolves when the most terrifying creatures walk among us - in our homes, at our jobs, sitting at the barstool right next to us?

The majority of this book was a solid 5 stars for me, but I've taken it down as a whole to 4 simply because there were a few stories that I just couldn't wrap my head around - they were just a little too ambiguous for me and ultimately left me a little confused and with more questions than answers and feeling like I'd missed something.

I'm looking forward to sifting through Ellen Datlow's backlog after reading this for sure! If you love short horror, don't sleep on this one!

In Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror, you'll find stories that knock your socks off, stories that leave the hair standing on the nape of your neck, stories that leave you with a wicked grin, and stories that don't quite land for you. Such is the nature of anthologies. Thankfully, this anthology contains mostly stories that produced the first three results. Though some readers might be disappointed that this collection is mostly, if not entirely, reprints, they come from a variety of places and most of the stories will be new-to-you.
This collection leans away from the supernatural into human monsters, dread, and amped-up tension. Some of the stronger stories in the bunch include "Unkindly Girls" by Hailey Piper, "My Mother's Ghosts" by Priya Sharma, "LD50" by Laird Barron, "Where Are You Going, Where Did You Come From?" by Joyce Carol Oates (a classic, and one that some readers may already know), and "Teeth" by Stephen Graham Jones. Also worth mentioning, "The Wrong Shark" by Ray Cluley is worth the cover price on its own, a novella-length Jaws-inspired story about holding onto our beliefs and fears.

I thought this was a new collection of short stories, but it's not. The "author" slash editor just compiled a list of stories published across multiple decades and repurposed them in this collection. As I love horror and short stories, I have read most of them already. If I had purchased this, I would be incredibly upset at being mislead.