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.

As with any anthology series, you expect some of the stories to be great, some to be mediocre, and some to be downright "not-for-you." This holds true to this anthology as well. In my opinion, some of the best and most disturbing stories are loaded in the front of the book, followed by a decline in shock and fear factor, then rising back up toward the end to leave you with a strong entry in Stephen Graham Jones' "Teeth." Keep in mind with a book that is focusing on psychological terror, you will have several subjects that can trigger you (ex. murder, incest, sexual abuse, etc.). Many of the tales are meant to keep you thinking and stay in your mind like a hungry tick. Namely, for me, "The Pelt" by Annie Neugebauer, "A Sunny Disposition" by Josh Malerman, "The Donner Party" by Dale Bailey, and "One of these Nights" by Livia Llewellyn. With that said, I was disappointed in a few that, not only did not have an affect on my psychological well-being, but were riddled with grammatical errors that I hope were just an unfortunate corruption in the file being uploaded/downloade0d (A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts - multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Ex. "-finished distributing trophies among the [risoners-" page 275 per the file). Overall, the book is definitely worth reading for the amazing stories that it contains, even if they're sometimes sandwiched between a couple that keep your sanity intact.

Twenty-one stories by many of my favorite horror authors?!? I was definitely all in when I saw this book. I absolutely loved these stories! Honestly, I could not pick a favorite because they were so different and made me feel different things. I do enjoy an anthology from time-to-time because sometimes you don't want to read a whole novel. This anthology definitely fit the bill and now I have some new authors to follow!

Thanks to Netgalley I managed to read this ARC ahead of publication. Due to be published on 10/09/24.

I love horror but hadn't read anything for a while so thought a collection of short stories would be a good reintroduction to the genre!

These are absolutely brilliant. Some more captivating and intriguing than others. 21 short stories in total by a range of different authors.

I particularly enjoyed that a number of stories detail women as the aggressor showing that females can be much deadlier than the male - and often more calculating! Bait is a good start to the collection and has a vigilante type that dishes out cold justice. It kind of sets the tone for the book where you learn quickly not to take anything for granted and things aren't all what they might initially seem.

There's a collection of killers, ghosts and cannibals here! A great anthology of horror 😁

I love thrillers and psychological horror.

My favorites from this anthology:

LD50 by Laird Barron

Trigger warning for animal abuse.

This one was a little crazy, revenge tale. I loved the retribution the female protagonist gets.

Cavity by Theresa DeLucci

I loved how this was set up in short little paragraphs about how she meets each murderer. Even some great statistics. Did you know people, on average, meet 36 murderers in their lifetime?

The Wrong Shark

I happen to adore the movie Jaws and this story includes lots stories about the shooting of the film and facts about sharks. Of course there’s some trauma and I twist at the end.

Like most anthologies this had a mix of stories I loved and stories I found okay, I didn't dislike any I just feel if they were a bit longer it would have helped.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc!

I actually ended up DNFing this one which with short stories collections and anthologies I try really hard not to do. What I did like about it was some of the stories plots were interesting, and I saw the potential. If the story was just a tiny bit longer they could've been really good and something I would've enjoyed. I just think psychological horror just isn't for me. But I do think people who enjoy psychological horror would really enjoy this. I prefer books with more outward and obvious horror if that makes sense. I also think some of the stories didn't go as far as I wanted them. I did enjoy some of the stories that I did read but unfortunately most of them just weren't my favorite.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

“Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror” edited by Ellen Datlow:

“Fears” delves deep into the human psyche, exploring the darkest corners of our fears and anxieties. The stories are not just about supernatural entities or grotesque monsters; they are about the horrors that lurk within us and around us. 

Datlow’s curation is impeccable, with each story meticulously chosen to evoke a sense of unease and terror. The writing styles vary, offering a rich tapestry of voices and perspectives.

Among the standout stories is Stephen Graham Jones’ contribution, which masterfully blends psychological horror with a touch of the supernatural. Priya Sharma’s tale is another highlight, offering a haunting exploration of familial bonds and the darkness that can fester within them. 

“Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror” is not just a collection of scary stories; it is a profound exploration of the human condition. Datlow has once again proven why she is considered the gold standard of horror anthologists. 

Trigger warnings: if you are a fan of this type of book, you will likely enjoy it, however if this is your first foray into a book of this type, realize this contains tales such as a mother drowning her children and other relatives (alive) in a tar pit, a grandfather telling a child how he pulled out his wife's eyeballs to put them into his own empty eye sockets (also when she was alive) and much, much more.

There are a lot of great editors that play in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror sandbox. But are any of them as consistently brilliant at crafting genre anthologies, as consistently brilliant at attracting the very best authors and building drool-worthy tables of contents, as Ellen Datlow? No. She’s the very best, as Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror amply demonstrates.

When it comes to Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror, you should definitely take the word Horror in the title seriously, because these stories are one gut-punch after another. There’s not a supernatural entity to be found here, just human being inflicting violence, terror, and depravity upon each other. Some are over the top in the horrors they display, and some are quiet, subtle shockers—both types of stories are equally disquieting, equally disturbing. When it came to choosing the contents of this book, Datlow did not fuck around.

While every story in the anthology has something to recommend it, here are a few that were standouts to me, and your favorites may be totally different than mine. Most of the stories were new to me, but the two I had read before happened to be two of my favorites, so let’s start with those.

Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan—This brilliant piece of anthropological fantasy was my introduction to the extraordinary Lanagan, and it’s a shattering study of a family caught in a cultural trap they cannot escape. I’ve read this story half a dozen times, and I get something new from it every time.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carole Oates—You’ve probably read this at one time or another, it’s one of the most taught, most anthologized stories in history. It still packs as much punch as it did when it was published in the sixties. A chilling study in power dynamics coercion.

Bait by Simon Bestwick—The first story in the collection, about a young woman who’s not what she seems, it lets you know exactly what you’re in for.

A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman—Old, frail Grandpa Ray gives his young grandson a peek behind a very dark curtain.

Back Seat by Bracken MacLeod—I said above that every story here is a gut-punch…this one made me put the book down and go for a walk. Crushingly sad and hopeless.

One of These Nights by Livia Llewellyn—Two teenage girls and a public swimming pool in the summer are the ingredients for this twisted little tale.

Cavity by Theresa Delucci—The life of one woman connected, in one way or another, to thirty-six murderers. Told in cold, clinical, matter-of-fact detail that makes it shockingly powerful.

Unkindly Girls by Hailey Piper—What happens when you discover a devastating family secret? What do you do?

Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones—Hard-boiled crime fiction shot through with a queasy kind of horror, proof that Jones should maybe write more crime fiction.

Those are my favorites, but as I said, there’s not a clunker in the bunch. Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror releases September 10th, and is available for pre-order now. Don’t miss this one.