A review by chuckstafer
The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: Ten Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction, by Suzy McKee Charnas, Nathan Ballingrud, Brian Evenson, Livia Llewellyn, Lucy Taylor, Mira Grant, Ellen Datlow, Simon Bestwick, Stephen Graham Jones, Peter Straub, Steve Rasnic Tem, Carole Johnstone, Gemma Files, Stephanie Crawford, Siobhan Carroll, Brian Hodge, Ramsey Campbell, Adam Golaski, Cody Goodfellow, Laird Barron, Tanith Lee, Glen Hirshberg, Jane Jakeman, Dan Chaon, Duane Swierczynski, John Langan, Neil Gaiman, E. Michael Lewis

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

Overall, this was a pretty good anthology. A good mix of great stories, good ones, and a few duds (and one real stinker). Here's my rating of each story (because I decided to keep track for some reason):

Lowland Sea - 4
Wingless Beasts - 5
The Nimble Men - 3
Little America - 3
Black and White Sky - 1
The Monster Makers - 2
Chapter Six - 2
In a Cavern, In A Canyon - 1
Allochton - 1
Shepherd's Business - 3
Down to a Sunless Sea - 5
The Man From the Peak - 5
In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos - 4
The Moraine - 4
At the Riding School - 3
Cargo - 4
Tender as Teeth - 5
Wild Acre - 4
The Callers - 3
This Stagnant Breath of Change - 4
Grave Goods - Did Not Finish (1)
The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine - 2
Majoriena - 2
The Days of Our Lives - 2
You Can Stay All Day - 4
No Matter Which Way We Turned - 4
Nesters - 3
Better You Believe - 2

Average Rating: 3.071 Stars