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Book Review: Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology edited by Ellen Datlow

Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology edited by Ellen Datlow

Pegasus Books, 2017

ISBN: 9781861773216

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

This anthology of avian-themed fiction, edited by Ellen Datlow, presents a fantastic collection of short stories by some of the best authors in the horror genre. Each story features, as the anthology title indicates, birds that act as agents of death, sentinels, communicators, and more. The authors present the darkness the bird realm can represent, and present unique philosophical questions and uncomfortable answers in this collection.

Datlow has collected some of the best writers for this anthology. Authors include Sandra Kasturi, Nicholas Royle, Seanan McGuire, Paul Tremblay, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Bowes, Alison Littlewood, Jeffrey Ford, Mike O’Driscoll, Usman T. Malik, Stephen Graham Jones, A.C. Wise, M. John Harrison, Pat Cadigan, Livia Llewellyn, and Priya Sharma.

There is not a single story in this anthology that does not linger with the reader. A struggling academic studying owls gets too close to his research subjects, much to his wife’s concern, and ending in a deadly discovery. What happens to him will change his family forever. A young girl obsessively counts the types of birds she sees throughout the day, and interprets the numbers to mean certain things will happen. She’s never wrong. A grieving widow begins to relate to the herons on her property, who help her deal with the death of her husband. The birds seemingly take care of her problems and provide her with a new sense of freedom. Rogue birds are being investigated by an occult group for helping humans cheat death. A twin returns home after her father’s death, reconnects with her sister, and finds out the terrible truth about herself after the funeral. These tales are only a fraction of what this collection offers to the reader.

While there is very little in the way of gore, there are definitely psychological horrors that the reader will encounter. Sometimes these can be more terrifying than any amount of blood and guts.

Datlow has won multiple Hugo, Locus, and Shirley Jackson awards and has received several lifetime achievement awards, including the Bram Stoker Award. She is adept at anthology selection, and I promise you won’t be disappointed with this collection. Highly recommended

Contains: brief sex, abuse, psychological terror

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Kirsten, Reply

Book Review: Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow

Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror edited by Ellen Datlow
Tachyon Publications, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1616962326
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Nightmares is a collection of stories chosen by Ellen Datlow as the best stories of 2005-2015. It is a companion volume to Darkness, a previously published anthology of stories chosen by her as the best stories written between 1985 and 2005. Not being as widely read in contemporary short horror fiction as Datlow is, I can’t say whether I agree with her choices or not, but I can say that the stories she chose do live up to the book’s title: in one way or another, they are all nightmares.

Datlow chose stories that take a variety of approaches to instilling horror, from the understated to over-the-top: you’ll find weird fiction, cosmic horror, twisted fairy tales, disturbing family secrets, ghosts and hauntings, Gothic horrors, body horror, incestuous relationships, and more than enough blood and gore. As a reader who prefers creepy and atmospheric writing to graphic descriptions, I found this book to be emotionally, mentally, and even physically exhausting. I received it as an ebook from NetGalley and am not sure how long it actually was, but it required several days for me to read it through. However, as a sampler of well-done short fiction in the horror genre, I think it is successful. Certainly, I have found that several stories have stuck with me even though a few weeks have passed since I finished it.

Standout stories include “Shallaballah” by Mark Samuels, a surreal tale that takes a disoriented plastic surgery patient through a disturbing Punch-and-Judy inspired hospital experience; “Dead Sea Fruit” by Kaaron Warren, about a dentist with a taste for revenge who destroys a man whose kiss drives girls to starve themselves to death; “Closet Dreams” by Lisa Tuttle, the story of a girl who was trapped in a closet by her kidnapper; “The Goosle” by Margo Lanagan, a horrific take on the Hansel and Gretel story requiring the reader to have an iron stomach; “The Shallows” by John Langan, a tale of a gardener trying to keep going after his wife has died, his son has left, and tentacled aliens have begun their invasion; and “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” by Caitlin Kiernan, a bloody tale of a road trip of serial murders by vicious, incestuous, necrophiliac sisters that you won’t soon forget.

For those horror readers who enjoy variety in their short fiction, Nightmares is an excellent way to discover authors they may not have tried out before. With her choices for this collection of short fiction from the past decade, despite her disclaimer, Ellen Datlow continues to show not just her enthusiasm as a fan of the horror genre, but her excellence as an anthologist. Recommended.

Contains: graphic gore and torture, cannibalism, incest, necrophilia, violent murders, disturbing sexual situations, body horror, rape

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Kirsten, 2 comments

MonsterLibrarian.com’s Top Picks for 2011- Young Adult and Children’s Books

So here we are- part two of the Top Picks list for 2011.

Each book on the list below was reviewed in the past year, although not all the books were published in 2011. If the book made a Top Picks list in the past, it won’t be on this year’s list (Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, was first reviewed in 2009 and made the list that year, so it’s not on this year’s list).

Books that made this list were chosen by our reviewers as exceptional examples of compelling writing, creativity, and original illustration or presentation. Many of them provided considerable food for thought as well as entertainment value. The choices were made only from books reviewed for the site, so there are many fine titles that do not appear here. The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for 2011, listed below, have not been ranked in any order(although I tried to list them alphabetically). We created lists for adult books, young adult books, and kids’ books. I previously posted the Top Picks for Adult Fiction in 2011. You’ll find the Top Picks booklists for young adults and children below. Enjoy!

Note for librarians and readers: As with all recommended reading lists, not all of The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for 2011 will be appropriate for or appreciated by every reader. Please take the time to check out reviews of these titles at MonsterLibrarian.com before making a decision about reading them or recommending them to others.

The Monster Librarian’s Top Picks for Young Adults, 2011

A special mention goes to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, chosen as a top pick by four different reviewers independently of each other.

Abarat series by Clive Barker (Abarat, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, and Abarat: Absolute Midnight)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

Ghost Town (Morganville Vampires, Book 9) by Rachel Caine

Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely) by Melissa Marr

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 by Alexander Gordon Smith

Mercy by Rebecca Lim

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Nickel Plated by Aric Davis

Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore

Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls) by Maggie Stiefvater