Reviews

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One, by Ellen Datlow

squirrelz's review against another edition

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A lot of these straight up aren't horror.

emilyyjjean's review against another edition

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1.0

DNF- 25%

I'm giving this book only a 1/2 star. This is not horror to me, I don't know, maybe it's because these stories were picked in 2008? I do know that they were super boring, and I will not be reading the other volumes of this "best" horror of the year volumes.

macbean221b's review against another edition

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3.0

This book took me a ridiculously long time to read. There was nothing wrong with it, it just didn't grab my attention. "Penguins of the Apocalypse" will probably stick with me, and not only because of the absurd title. I expect "Esmeralda" and "Very Low-Flying Aircraft" will, too. But other than that, none of the other eighteen stories really spoke to me, and there were even a couple that I flat-out disliked instead of just being indifferent.

gretchenw1976's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.0

There were 21 stories I only like 5.5 of those stories .5 because one was barely ok. This is the first edition of a series that has many editions. I do hope it gets better. Most of these stories weren’t even horror, more like thrillers and the two aren’t exactly the same. Quite a few of the stories were just plain stupid, and juvenile. 
 I read some where that there was a series before this, like this one, but the editor was different. I don’t know why it was changed. I wonder if it was better? I can’t imagine it was worse. Another thing is, there a lot of typos in this book. That is very irritating.
 To have a title claiming THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR, is quite a boast. One would think there would be some great quality between the pages. Geesh, even the stories I liked were far from the “the best” of anything. I don’t know where the editor was pulling from when she chose the stories and authors in this book, but if she thinks any of the stories and authors in this book are the best of anything, she must teach first grade. If this book was the best writing her first graders came up with and she published it, from the standpoint..ok sure,it wasn’t bad a book for first graders except it had really vulgar parts in so shame on her..lol

james7634's review against another edition

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5.0

This anthology wasn't for me. High quality stories to be sure, but they focused too much on the fantastical. I just couldn't get into the vast majority of stories.

jennyengel's review against another edition

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3.0

This one was just ok. Some were better than that, but most of them were not.

sarahdenn27's review against another edition

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2.0

Ehhhh. Not scary, most of these were just whatever.

quilly14's review against another edition

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2.0



Must have been a lean year in horror fiction.

fraeyalise's review

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3.0

Girl in Pieces, which was more dark fantasy than horror, was my favorite. I really liked it. All the rest of the stories were alright. Kind of disappointed.

henryarmitage's review against another edition

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3.0

Pretty decent collection, mostly good stories.