{"id":9359,"date":"2022-10-12T21:45:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T01:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9359"},"modified":"2022-10-12T22:41:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T02:41:51","slug":"book-review-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-and-horror-vol-3-edited-by-paula-guran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-and-horror-vol-3-edited-by-paula-guran\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror Vol. 3, edited by Paula Guran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Vol. 3, e<\/em><\/span>dited by Paula Guran<\/span><\/p>\n

Pyr, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1645060345\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0 (pre-order) (<\/strong>\u00a0Bookshop.org <\/a>|\u00a0 Amazon.com <\/a><\/strong><\/span>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now that British editor Stephen Jones has discontinued his long-running annual series <\/span>Best New\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Horror, <\/span><\/i>the burden of choosing and collecting the previous year\u2019s supposedly best short stories in the genre remains exclusively in the capable hands of two American ladies, Ellen Datlow and Paula Guran.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Guran\u2019s\u00a0 latest anthology includes twenty-three stories published in books and magazines during 2021. I haven\u2019t seen Datlow\u2019s forthcoming anthology yet, but, according to the provisional table of contents, this time there are no repeated titles featured in both volumes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among the authors collected in Guran\u2019s book are some of today\u2019s most celebrated and popular horror writers, but if these stories represent the best of their recent production, I must admit that 2021 was not a great year for horror, at least according to the editor\u2019s choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But never fear, amidst various run-of-the-mill tales, there are some pieces standing out and providing engrossing reading and actual shivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe God Bag\u201d, by Christopher Golden, is an insightful, gentle story featuring a woman trying to get her wishes fulfilled by means of an unusual system. In\u00a0 “Refinery Road\u201d,\u00a0 penned by Stephen Graham Jones, past family tragedies return to haunt the present.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alison Littlewood contributes the subtly horrific \u201cJenny Greenteeth\u201d, where an evil creature hunts its victims by a pool, and\u00a0 Alix E. Harrow provides \u201cMr. Death\u201d, a perceptive piece about a recalcitrant professional reaper trying to save a little boy from his lethal destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My favorite pieces are the outstanding, atmospheric \u201cFor Sale by Owner\u201d by Elizabeth Hand, taking place in a mysterious, abandoned house where three women decide to spend the night, and the superior post-apocalyptic novella \u201cAcross the Dark Water\u201d by Richard Kadrey, where a guide and a thief take a long and perilous journey to get to a target which is actually not what they expect.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Vol. 3, edited by Paula Guran Pyr, 2022 ISBN: 978-1645060345\u00a0 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0 (pre-order) (\u00a0Bookshop.org |\u00a0 Amazon.com )   Now that British editor Stephen Jones has discontinued his long-running annual series Best New\u00a0Horror, the burden of choosing and collecting the previous year\u2019s supposedly best short stories<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1825,5201,590,2622,5202,750,3163,1809,5203,3209,5200],"class_list":["post-9359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alison-littlewood","tag-alix-e-harrow","tag-anthologies","tag-christopher-golden","tag-elizabeth-hand","tag-horror-anthologies","tag-horror-short-stories","tag-paula-guran","tag-richard-kadrey","tag-stephen-graham-jones","tag-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-and-horror-volume-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9359"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9370,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9359\/revisions\/9370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}