{"id":9896,"date":"2023-11-16T17:41:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T21:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9896"},"modified":"2023-11-16T17:41:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T21:41:23","slug":"book-review-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-and-horror-volume-4-edited-by-paula-guran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-and-horror-volume-4-edited-by-paula-guran\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror volume 4 edited by Paula Guran"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, vol. 4<\/em>\u00a0edited by Paula Guran<\/p>\n

PYR 2023<\/p>\n

ISBN:\u00a0 978-1645060673<\/p>\n

Available : Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy:\u00a0 \u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a> \u00a0|\u00a0 Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor Paula Guran is one of the two American women (the other one being Ellen Datlow) who keep providing every year the best short fiction that appeared in print the year before in the area of horror and dark fantasy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The present, hefty volume includes twenty-one \u201cbest\u201d tales. Frankly. to me 2022 doesn\u2019t appear to have been such a great year for horror and dark fantasy, at least in the short form, because only a few among the selected stories were able to impress me and entertain me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cRed Wet Grin\u201d by Gemma Files, is a very dark, unsettling story where a nurse working in a care home witnesses a series of weird events.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stephen Graham Jones contributes \u201cMen, Women and Chainsaws\u201d an engrossing, although a bit puzzling story, revolving around an old Camaro endowed with dangerous properties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Voice of a Thousand Years\u201d by Fawaz Al-Matrouk is a dark fable about an old man endeavoring to give life to an\u00a0 automaton, while \u201c How Selkies are Made\u201d by Cassandra Khaw is a splendid fairy tale featuring a beautiful, unhappy bride.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cChallawa\u201d by Usman T. Malik\u00a0 is a powerful, outstanding piece with a distinctive exotic taste, in which ancient gods take possession of an American tourist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The Long Way Up\u201d by Alix E. Harrow is a disturbing allegory where a woman retrieves her dead husband in a deep chamber, and convinces him to return to the world of the living.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AC Wise provides \u201cSharp Things, Killing Things\u201d, an obscure but intriguing story in which a group of youngsters have to deal with some unexpected deaths.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These are my favorite stories. Other readers could make a different selection, but these are the rules of the game and such a huge volume has plenty of material to offer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, vol. 4\u00a0edited by Paula Guran PYR 2023 ISBN:\u00a0 978-1645060673 Available : Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0 \u00a0Bookshop.org \u00a0|\u00a0 Amazon.com     Editor Paula Guran is one of the two American women (the other one being Ellen Datlow) who keep providing every year the best short fiction that appeared in<\/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":[5499,5201,5030,5500,3802,750,645,749,5498,1809,1776,3209,5497,3837],"class_list":["post-9896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ac-wise","tag-alix-e-harrow","tag-cassandra-khaw","tag-fawar-al-matrouk","tag-gemma-files","tag-horror-anthologies","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-hortor-anthologies","tag-paula-guran","tag-short-story-anthologies","tag-stephen-graham-jones","tag-the-years-best-dark-fantasy-horror-volume-4","tag-usman-malik"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9896","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=9896"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9940,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9896\/revisions\/9940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}