Just in time for Halloween, Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton presents an anthology of scary stories. My favorite stories are “Witch-Hazel” by Jeffery Ford and “Lost in the Dark” by John Langan. Datlow and Morton’s anthology provides a wide variety of stories so there’s something here for almost any reader’s taste. If you want to get into the Halloween spirit, these stories will take you there. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION By Lisa Morton ix
With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfbane Seeds /by Seanan McGuire 3
Dirtmouth /by Stephen Graham Jones 23
A Small Taste of the Old Country /by Jonathan Maberry 45
Wick’s End /by Joanna Parypinski 70
The Seventeen Year Itch / by Garth Nix 83
A Flicker of Light on Devil’s Night / by Kate Jonez 100
Witch-Hazel /by Jeffrey Ford 114
Nos Galen Gaeaf /by Kelley Armstrong 129
We’re Never Inviting Amber Again / by S. P. Miskowski 149
Sisters /by Brian Evenson 169
All Through the Night / by Elise Forier Edie 182
A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds / by Eric J. Guignard 201
The Turn / by Paul Kane 226
Jack / by Pat Cadigan 244
Lost in the Dark / by John Langan 269
The First Lunar Halloween /by John R. Little 325
About the Authors 341
About the Editors 349
Permissions 351
Read most of these when the book came out last year. Can’t remember much about it. A mixture of favorite writers-Langan, Evenson, ,Ford, Cadigan, Nix and a number of unknowns like Jonez, Little, Kane, Guignard, Edie, Miskowski and Parypinski. I probably only read the writers I knew and skipped the rest.
Steve, Ellen Datlow is one of my favorite editors. I’ve enjoyed most of her anthologies.
Datlow has a pretty high average when it comes to anthologies.
Steve, most of Datlow’s anthologies include original stories. It takes a knack to beat the bushes to find new, original stories on a specific theme. Datlow has it.
Not a fan of this kind of thing! Passeroo!
Bob, I like to read some scary stuff to get in the mood for Halloween.
Perfect for the season.
Patti, HAUNTED NIGHTS fits in nicely with Halloween.
Nah. Only familiar with a few – Kelley Armstrong wrote a series turned into a show that Jackie liked, the silly BITTEN – and I’ve read Ford and McGuire (who, for me, never lives up to the hype others give her).
Jeff, I find these theme anthologies uneven, but the good stories are worth reading.
Apparently I’m really falling behind in the world of short horror fiction, a genre I used to love. I haven’t read a single one of these stories and have only heard of seven of the authors. Guess I at least need to start reading a couple of the annual Best Horror collections.
Michael, welcome to the club of Falling Behind Readers! I’m surrounded by stacks of books waiting to be read. Finding time to read them is always a challenge!
I’m with Bob, nat a horror fan. I’ll pass too.
Rick, there’s not a lot of horror in HAUNTED NIGHTS. Just some spooky, scary stuff.
Not horror but scary? A lot of realistic suspense fiction?
Todd, the gore content in HAUNTED NIGHTS seemed low to me. I associate “horror” with gory goings-on. M. R. James, King of the Ghost Story, set the template for classic ghost stories: distant screams, no sex, and “a modicum of blood, shed with deliberation and carefully husbanded.”
Ah. I think you’re not alone in this, though most of the horror fiction which leans toward gore these days is in the Splatterpunk mode…of course, there’s suspense fiction thus, too…
But, certainly, Charles Grant and others were strong proponents of what they called “quiet horror”…relatively subtle and allusive.
Todd, I’m fond of Charles Grant’s work and anthologies. I almost always prefer subtlety over splatterpunk gore.
Datlow’s newest, the ten-year retrospective on her current annual, just got this review in the NYT, much to her expressed pleasure:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/books/review/new-horror-novels.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&fbclid=IwAR0HtsNmpRTGgJaPmVALYeMnEPban83-PD73_wLo0SnDu8pZS8IqilX37uQ
I participated in her discussion of the book on WBAI FM in New York and was awarded a signed copy…
Todd, nice! I think Ellen Datlow is one of the top anthologists working right now.
Somehow I don’t get warm with that kind of story – neither with horror.
Even Fantasy has problems – if it’s just action …
But maybe I’m too critical – following Sturgeon’s law:
90% of everything is crap …
Wolf, execution of the elements of writing and style attract me despite the genre.