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Book Review: A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers edited by Joyce Carol Oates

A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers

Edited by Joyce Carol Oates

Akashic Books, 2023

ISBN: 978-1636141343

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers disturbs the imagination and makes horror reality. Writers Megan Abbott, Margaret Atwood, Aimee Bender, Tananarive Due, Elizabeth Hand, Cassandra Khaw, Sheila Kohler, Aimee LaBrie, Raven Leilani, Lisa Lim, Joanna Margaret, Valerie Martin, Joyce Carol Oates, Lisa Tuttle, and Yumi Dineen Shiroma offer many strange, twisted stories that attest to the diversity of approaches to the genre.

Editor Joyce Carol Oates divides these little masterpieces into three sections: “You’ve Created a Monster,” “Morbid Anatomy,” and “Out of Body, Out of Time.” Aimee Bender’s story “Frank Jones” opens the book with the weird creation of a skin tag doll that should not have been taken to the office. Margaret Atwood delves into female anatomy through a snail who suddenly becomes a woman customer service rep in “Metempsychosis, or The Journey of the Soul.” And then we find a new wife, in ““Sydney” by Sheila Kohler, who finds herself in a shocking sexual situation with a gender-bending robot when she ventures into a part of her home that is designated as off limits by her husband.

There are often very surprising developments in these stories. In “Concealed Carry” by Lisa Tuttle, Kelly, fresh from London, finds out that there is a strict moral code in Texas that is enforced in a way she could never imagine. In “Malena” by Joanna Margaret, Laura, who makes sculptures of women with missing body parts, discovers that the artistic “gift inside her” is also literally inside her. In “Dancing with Mirrors” by Lisa Lim, a beautiful woman addicted to mirrors hides spectacularly murderous veins..

In addition to being entertaining, these writers are not afraid to tackle serious issues. “Dancing” by Tananarive Due and “Breathing Exercise” by Raven Leilani grapple with the impact of racism on the mind, body and soul.. Aimee Labrie in “Gross Anatomy”, and Cassandra Khaw in “Muzzle”, deal with physical violence against women. These are stories that head straight to the heart of the matter without becoming entangled in politics and platitudes.

Readers truly benefit from iconic writer Joyce Carol Oates’s expert shaping of this excellent collection of stories. There is not one dull moment in this book, and beginning the next story is like the start of a new and darker adventure.

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror Vol. 3, edited by Paula Guran

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Vol. 3, edited by Paula Guran

Pyr, 2022

ISBN: 978-1645060345

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition (pre-order) ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Now that British editor Stephen Jones has discontinued his long-running annual series Best New Horror, the burden of choosing and collecting the previous year’s supposedly best short stories in the genre remains exclusively in the capable hands of two American ladies, Ellen Datlow and Paula Guran.

Guran’s latest anthology includes twenty-three stories published in books and magazines during 2021. I haven’t seen Datlow’s forthcoming anthology yet, but, according to the provisional table of contents, this time there are no repeated titles featured in both volumes.

Among the authors collected in Guran’s book are some of today’s 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’s choices.

But never fear, amidst various run-of-the-mill tales, there are some pieces standing out and providing engrossing reading and actual shivers.

“The God Bag”, by Christopher Golden, is an insightful, gentle story featuring a woman trying to get her wishes fulfilled by means of an unusual system. In “Refinery Road”, penned by Stephen Graham Jones, past family tragedies return to haunt the present.

Alison Littlewood contributes the subtly horrific “Jenny Greenteeth”, where an evil creature hunts its victims by a pool, and Alix E. Harrow provides “Mr. Death”, a perceptive piece about a recalcitrant professional reaper trying to save a little boy from his lethal destiny.

My favorite pieces are the outstanding, atmospheric “For Sale by Owner” by Elizabeth Hand, taking place in a mysterious, abandoned house where three women decide to spend the night, and the superior post-apocalyptic novella “Across the Dark Water” 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.

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi