A review by camerontrost
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five by Ellen Datlow

2.0

Even now and then, I read an anthology with "best of" in the title because I want to know whether there is one out there that lives up to the claim. But, yet again, I was disappointed. I have read numerous great horror stories that were first published in 2012, but none of them appear in this volume. The prose was of a generally commendable quality but the tales themselves were lacking in narrative, direction, and originality. There were only two that I particularly liked; "Nanny Grey" and "None So Blind". Gary McMahon's two contributions weren't bad either. Some others could have been good stories. For example, "A Natural History of Autumn" and "The Callers" started beautifully and had potential but just faded towards the end. If anybody has read a "best of" anthology that actually contains the best tales of a particular year, please tell me.