This colleciton is great if you wanna try out some very well known authors (and even new authors) and getting a taste of their style and thinking before attempting one of their books or series. I really liked and was surprised by how much bipoc and lgbt there was in this collection even though it's from 2014. Some notable favourites:

The Good Husband by Nathan Ballingrud
The Soul in the Bell Jar by KJ Kabza
Shadows of Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
The Plague by Ken Liu
Let My Smile Be Your Umbrella by Brian Hodge
Air, Water, and The Grove by Kaaron Warren
Our Lady of Ruins By Sarah Singleton
Rag and Bone by Pirya Sharma
The Dream Detective by Lisa Tuttle
Event Horizon by Sunny Moraine
Moonstruck by Karin Tidbeck
The Ghost Makers by Elizabeth Bear

Anthologies are always an interesting conglomeration of new and veteran authors in a particular genre, and since horror has been mostly neglected, books like Guran’s are more useful than ever. In this 2014 edition, we take a look at what she deems the most interesting stories of 2013. There were a couple written in the second person but I don’t find that bothering in any way. Some would say a story or two don’t have ‘horror’ elements (ie, monsters, ghosts, etc) but even something that puts you off (like weird, unorthodox sex descriptions, or too gory scenes, even outright --on purpose-- misogynist phrases) is allowed to be included, I find. As always, 3 star stories are those which I think will fare better with other people, therefore, I’d recommend those first. 4 and over starred stories are for my very personal taste (sometimes very weird!).


[**] Wheatfield with Crows, by Rasnic Tem. An eerie story about a mother and son visiting her daughter’s disappearance in the midst of a wheat field. There is mostly no dialogue, but Tem’s prose is very good. However, the ending doesn’t quite deliver.
[**] Blue Amber, by David J. Schow. A sort of insect horror story which prose reminds me of Stephen Kings’. It is humorous but a bit self-conscious in that it repeatedly states that this is not a horror movie and hence, movie tropes don’t fit in here therefore this is an original take(?). The ending is alright.
[**] The Legend of Tropp 13, by Kit Reed. A darkly humorous story about a missing group of girl scouts near an observatory that is visited by rich people and nasty men. Given that premisa alone, that could have been great in showing this clash of genres (male-female) that is ripe in horror films and novels. However, the way Reed tells it diminishes the impact or novelty of the story and it delves in short bursts into each character’s perspective. The ending was fast and seemed hurried.
[**] The Good Husband, by Nathan Ballingrud. A sort of metaphor (?) for a suicidal person. The living corpse of a man’s wife keeps trying to kill herself while he stops her at every turn, while having it very difficult to live with her.
[***] The Soul in the Bell Jar, by K. J. Kabza. The Victorian ambient felt really refreshing and was a throwback to classical horror. It is a well written story about a girl who visits his uncle's estate where strange experiments take place. The ending felt a bit rushed, though.
[***] The Creature Recants, by Dale Bailey. What if the Creature from the Black Lagoon had human feelings? Would he like starring in movies? Well, in this one can find out. It was funny and endearing writing.
[*] Termination Dust, by Laird Barron. A sort of Alaskan murder story. The setting is fresh but the way Barron tells it is way too disjointed for it to work. Short vignettes don’t always work well. It looks like it’s part of a series with some of the same characters. Too bad it was not ‘self-conclusive’.
[**] Postcards from Abroad, by Peter Atkins. A guy with a supernatural job visits an old lady. Good prose and an apt ending. However, it was not that original.
[***] Phosphorous, by Veronica Schanoes. Now this one was original. A retelling of the London’s Match Girl Strike in which the protagonist suffers from ‘phossy jaw’ while living with her grandma. The ending is truly poignant.
[***] A Lunar Labyrinth, by Neil Gaiman. Usually not a Gaiman fan but this one worked for me. A tourist visits an old labyrinth where rituals took place in the past. The ending was a bit unexpected and I liked it a lot. It’s a slow burner for sure.
[****] The Prayer of Ninety Cats, by Caitlín R. Kiernan. One of those ‘lost movie’ that doesn’t exist type of story but a very inventive one at that about a mysterious film about Elizabeth Bathory. The invented movie is really interesting and the writing itself of it it’s really engaging. An author revelation.
[***] Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, by Brandon Sanderson. A bounty hunter story with fantasy elements. Even though it’s a novelette in size, Sanderson conjures a mystical world with myth in them in such a short space which is quite impressive. However the story is not at gripping, but has good prose.
[**] The Plague, by Ken Liu. A metaphor about man’s dangerous doings to the environment and then the relation between the healthy and those ‘plagued’ by that pollution. It deals with the former’s helping of the latter but then, what makes them the ‘right’ aid? Do the plagued want to be helped?
[***] The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning, by Joe R. Lansdale. A fast-paced story about a detective investigating some paranormal happenings in Paris. Ape men, demons (?) from beyond and even the Necronomicon appear here. Inventive and fun tale.
[***] Let My Smile Be Your Umbrella, by Brian Hodge. At first, I thought this one was going to be about an unnamed narrator mocking an ‘attention-whore’ type of person that ‘tries’ to commit suicide by doing a hunger strike. It is a mockery of a story and you’d think that the narrator shouldn’t commit so much of his time in someone that is ‘worthless’, and yet he/she keeps on mocking, on and on until you realize that his attention to her (even if it’s in a joking way) is what he wasn’t supposed to give someone that ‘tricks’ people into feeling misery for her. That didn’t hit me until the very last lines, meanwhile you’re thinking is this a guardian angel speaking? a demon maybe? whoever the narrator is, it’s well written.
[****] Air, Water and the Grove, by Kaaron Warren. In the first few pages it feels like The Purge kind of story until it keeps growing weirder and weirder. It is another ‘ecological’ science fiction but a very bleak one. Really good.
[**] A Little of the Night, by Tanith Lee. The commander of an army retells one supernatural story in a german (?) castle and the finding of his pet, a dog-wolf. There are some ghosts, but ultimately, he fights the Nothingness, which is a nice concept. Well written, although a bit too long.
[****] A Collapse of Horses, by Brian Evenson. The main pivot of the story is about a man’s encounter with four horses on a paddock and a man with the back to them. Are the horses dead, or simply asleep? The protagonist's shock at the scene and the imagining of its nature haunt him for days. After that he starts to have visions in his house of his family who sometimes is complete but sometimes lacks some of its members. He starts to lose his mind fast. For some reason, the image of the horses repeatedly in his mind reminded me of the video sequence of the Ring films.
[*] Pride: A Collector’s tale, by Glen Hirshberg. A man who calls himself the Collector visits a town along with his girl friend. There they find a woman who bewitches (?) the women around her. It feels like the main character is part of a series of stories because we get no background for him, and yet he seems to fight evil spirits or beings quite regularly. It was mostly forgettable.
[*] Our Lady of Ruins, by Sarah Singleton. One of the most cliché stories of the lot involves a man finding in the middle of nowhere a girl who leads him to a moving church where he meets a cult of virgins. The story is predictable to the end, the writing isn’t necessarily witty or inventive. One of the most annoying parts is that the character after finding the girl doesn’t really give a damn about his car or trying to get back to home or getting help, he just follows along with this weird lot of people as if it was the most natural thing and not even asking questions.
[***] The Marginals, by Steve Duffy. Short and mysterious. A man takes a job that involves spying on some people on a highway. He only sees their silhouettes, sometimes there are more, sometimes less people but he can’t catch the moment a new person arrives or leaves. The title is a bit of a giveway, but Duffy maintains the enigma all the way.
[****] Dark Gardens, by Greg Kurzawa. Probably the creepiest story in this anthology. It has weird mannequins, a magician and a subterranean pool. The story is fast paced and Kurzawa doesn’t deal with too much description, it goes where it needs fast, that doesn’t mean the story doesn’t work, but sometimes, when a story is bare bones and still captivates you, you know you have a good story.
[***] Rag and Bone, by Priya Sharma. In a dystopian England rich people buy the poor’s skin and bones. What for? Well that’s not explicitly explained but one can gather it is to replace theirs and hence, live longer or better. The character is one of the poors who procures ‘bodies’ for the rich. It is well written and the end was fitting.
[*] The Slipway Gray, by Helen Marshall. Not really horror per se, but a fantasy story about a guy that comes in close contact with an ethereal being in certain points of his life. Not really a standout for me.
[**] To Die for Moonlight, by Sarah Monette. Apparently the main character, Kyle Murchison Booth, is the protagonist of other stories. He is an archivist and is called to inspect a library and find out anything of value. The owners of the place and their intentions are somewhat sketchy and some familiar curses are involved. Passable.
[*] Cuckoo, by Angela Slatter. The writing is sharp and to-the-point, but the story is very ambiguous. A demon (?) possesses several people only to find the mind of said people a bit disgusting.
[**] Fishwife, by Carrie Vaughn. A deal with the devil kind of story about a fishwife that wishes for a better hunt for her community, of course, there is a payment to be made.
[***] The Dream Detective, by Lisa Tuttle. A man dates a woman who calls herself a Dream Detective. Although it is a bit misleading, there is no sleuthing to be done, but the guy thinks he sees that woman recurrently in his dreams.
[*] Event Horizon, by Sunny Moraine. One of those type of stories where the author feels incumbent upon him (or is it their?) to infuse the story with pro-trans/gay background. The story doesn’t really need it, but ok, it’s fine. A haunted house serves as background for a teenage love story that involves some bullies and a gay couple. Meh.
[***] Moonstruck, by Karin Tidbeck. A beautiful story about women and the influence of the moon on them and the planet. Very haunting writing, with a nice original ending. Melancholia movie vibes.
[***] The Ghost Makers, by Elizabeth Bear. A former servant robot (?) of a wizard seeks revenge and teams up with a warrior who also is looking for the same person. The writing is gritty and reminded me of the Conan the Cimmerian tales. Very fun yarn.
[***] Iseul’s Lexicon, by Yoon Ha Lee. Bonus points for using words as a weapon (although not an original spin on the theme). A spy fights wizards and learns new spells to fight some beings that control her enemies in a colonized country. Well written.

A great sneakpeek at what's coming in a particular genre. Thanks for the overview!