I love short stories and anthologies. Even the best author must flex their writing skills to deliver quality short stories. In less than a usual chapter length, they must introduce us to the characters and their communities/ back stories, commit to an "event" and then solve it, all while keeping the reader engrossed and flipping pages. I often find that an author will switch genres in an anthology, which gives me an even better appreciation for their talent.
Many have a similar theme with the writers giving their story an unusual “spin” to meet the theme’s intent without copying each other. It is not unusual to find a true gem mixed in with the overall excellent stories, making anthologies a triple threat/ treat.

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror is a great compilation of short stories that will stick with you. I couldn't tear myself away from the pages.
I really enjoyed A Sunny Disposition, The Donner Party, and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.
Like any compilation, there will be some less enjoyable stories. There wasn't anything wrong with them, I just didn't connect with White Noise In A White Room and Singing My Sister Down.
Overall, I give Fears 4 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tachyon Publications for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Nice collection of stories by some of my favorite writers. This also introduced some new writers to me. I especially enjoyed "My Mother's ghosts" and "Teeth." Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Ellen Datlow is a name that is almost synonymous with interesting, solid anthologies that contain a mixure of known and unknown authors, a high bar for quality, and interesting themes that add a lot of variety to seemingly narrow fields, and her upcoming anthology Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror is no real exception. Mixing stories from known titans like Laird Barron and Stephen Graham Jones with any number of less known authors (including one who is listed as "more of a reader than a writer), Fears focuses, as the title suggests, around psychological horror, and that range allows for a lot of range. There are supernatural tales here, of course, including some genuine knockouts - Carole Johnstone's “21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion” delivers one of the most unsettling sequences in recent memory as a family deals with an invasion during a power outage - but Fears has much more to its contents than traditional horror. Margo Lanagan's "Singing My Sister Down," for instance, revolves around the slow execution of a family member, all witnessed by her family who is attempting to turn her death into a celebration of life; Dale Bailey's "The Donner Party" is a wicked piece of social satire whose psychological screw-turning comes with a hefty dose of class warfare; Bracken McLeod's "Back Seat" works every bit as well as a look at surviving on the margins of society as it does a heartbreaking tale of a ghost looking for justice. There are a few oddities here and there, of course; while no one would argue that Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" isn't a classic, it still feels like an overly familiar tale to show up here. Similarly, Charles Birkin's "A Lovely Batch of Coconuts" introduces the Holocaust into the book, feeling out of place in terms of subject matter and tone, especially coming in the midst of more psychological horror about broken people. Fears isn't entirely essential, I'd say, but neither will you regret your time here. It's a solid, varied collection that eschews normal boundaries, as typical for Datlow, and in doing so gives you not only a great range of authors, but also a set of stories that show just how much you can do with a single concept.

I feel very mixed about this collection. I thought it was interesting but it loses you at some points. All in all, I would reread it. 3.5/10

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Some of the stories in this book were scary. Some were not. Some were just confusing, and one was riddled with typos and mistakes.

This could be an amazing book with the removal of some of the stories.

This collection of previously published shorts is full of big name authors in the horror genre writing bleak stories about killers with no remorse or logical motivation. Highlights include "The Wink and the Gun" by John Patrick Higgins and "My Mother's Ghosts" by Priya Sharma--both fantastic--but the others are pretty consistently disappointing. It's a scattershot approach, including everything from a slightly worn classic from the sixties to forgettable ephemera published in 2022. Even the typically superb editor's introduction seems half-hearted in this collection of mostly mediocre fiction.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the ARC.

I. LOVE. ANTHOLOGIES.

That's all there really is to it.

I am so thankful to Tachyon Books, Ellen Datlow, Netgalley and all the wonderful contributors who wrote stories for this anthology. I CANNOT wait until publication day -- September 10, 2024.

Some of my favorite writers and authors contributed stories to this collection, including Josh Malerman, Hailey Piper, Stephen Graham Jones, Carol Johnstone, and so many more. Regarding psychological horror, these writers knew how to pack a punch. I couldn't get enough and look forward to the following anthological collection.

This book was a reminder of the power of a great editor. I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology. It starts off super strong and kept me intrigued through the end. Like any anthology, the mix of stories has some real gems and some I’ve already forgotten; however, the writing and skill is superb of all the included authors. I am a huge fan of psychological horror and would definitely recommend this to someone looking for bite-sized chunks!

What constitutes psychological horror is pretty subjective. While many of the stories selected for this anthology were arguably solidly in that realm, there were a number of tales that felt to me like they didn't solidly fit into any particular subgenre of horror, so they were classified as psychological horror just to fit the book. Other than maybe the entries by Josh Malerman, Haley Piper and one or two others, there really weren't any stories in here that stood out to me, at least in a good way. I've enjoyed many anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow, but this was not one of the better ones.

A journey ‘cross an aluminum tinged landscape, spattered with blood, brutalized with suffering and the memories thereof. 

A journey as gleefully thrilling as shocking. 

Come along, see the world through the eyes of murderers and all around bad people. 

You might cringe, might have to keep or force one thing or another down — hopefully not fleshy bones — but you’ll have a blast all the same. 

Seriously. 

Last time I had so much fun reading about the terrible, horrible, no good, just bad bad bad some people do? Hard to say. I mean, being a horrorhound, that’s kind of a daily, to an extent. 

But still.

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror delivers, and keeps on delivering. 

Here is the world where mysteries start to haunt you, and the longer you stay, the more haunted you become. 

Here, if you don’t know the steps, don’t know the dance, well, it was nice knowing ya?

Here, fairytales and life are one and the same, as nasty and bloody as anything. 

Here, in the land of murderers and Starbucks, you never know who you might meet. Thought it may just be your very own murderer. 

Here, the faces are masks and the dead are wanting. 

Here, you’ll be shaken, like me, to your core. But, you’ll savor it. You, too, will hunger, want more, much more. 

So throw your keys into the river — they’ll only end up there anyway. Let’s go for a ride. Let’s take a tour of fears.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror.

Anthologies are a mixed bag; rarely do you enjoy all the stories. If you're lucky, you'll like one or two.

If you're really lucky, you'll like more.

I've read anthologies edited by Ms. Datlow before so I knew this anthology would feature quality work from talented, quality authors.

Not surprisingly, some stories are better than authors.

My faves were Pelt, Back Seat, LD50, The Donner Party, and Cavity. The stories feature the kind of horror we should be most afraid of than zombies and ghosts: humans.

I look forward to reading more anthologies by Ms. Datlow.

This book was a really mixed bag. It started out really strong with stories by Simon Bestwick, Annie Neugebauer, Josh Malerman, Dale Bailey. After that, though, it went really downhill for quite a while. Here are my individual ratings:

Bait - 4/5
The Pelt - 5/5
A Sunny Disposition- 5/5
The Donner Party - 4/5
White Noise in a White Room - 2/5
Singing My Sister Down - 1.5/5
Back Seat - 5/5
England and Nowhere - 3.5/5
Endless Summer - 4/5
My Mother’s Ghosts - 3/5
The Wink and the Gun - 3/5
One of These Nights - 3/5
LD50 - 2/5
Cavity - 3/5
Souvenirs - 3.5/5
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? - 3/5
The Wrong Shark - 3.5/5
21 Brooklands - 3.5/5
Unkindly Girls - 3.5/5
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts- 3.5/5
Teeth - 4/5

My final rating is 3.5, rounded down. Still, there were a few stories that I absolutely loved, which made it more than worthwhile.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

(I know that ARCs often have typos, but I found it necessary to let you know that A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts is absolutely riddled with typos and was almost unreadable at times as a result.)

Not a bad mix of stories overall. Some shine brighter than others. My favorites are "The Donner Party" by Dale Bailey, "Teeth" by Stephen Graham Jones, "Where Are You going, Where Did You Come From?" by the master Joyce Carol Oates, and "Souvenirs" by Sharon Gosling.

One never has to worry about an anthology edited by the award-winning Ellen Datlow being a dud, but some are better than others. This one is definitely at the “better” end of that continuum to be sure. It’s one of my favorites in recent memory. There are no ghosts or cosmic monstrosities within these pages. The monsters are strictly of the human variety. If your taste in horror runs in that vein you will not be disappointed. A truly stellar compendium of nastiness. Highly recommended,

Twenty-one tales of how psychological horror….”hell is other people.”

Nice mix of stories. My favorites were “The Donner Party” by Dale Bailey, “Endless Summer” by Stewart O’Nan, “The Wrong Shark” by Ray Cluey and a story I had read before but was just as great on the re-read, “Where Are You Going, Where Did You Come From?” by Joyce Carol Oates.