Fears
Tales of Psychological Horror
Bestselling horror editor Ellen Datlow (Body Shocks) returns with twenty-one stories of extreme psychological dread from such horror icons as Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Josh Malerman, Margo Lanagan, and more. The unsettling tales explore the nature of fear as it stirs in dysfunctional families, toxic friendships, and mismatched lovers, which culminates in relentless stalkers, remorseless killers, and perpetrators of savage rituals. Far beneath the mere supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mom is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you're stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead. In her newest landmark anthology, Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what people should fear the most: other people.
Your grandfather confesses his heinous crime to you alone. You try to save a young girl from sexual assault, but she's not really a victim. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mum is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you're stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead.
Far below the unlikeliness of the supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. We live in fear of the cruelties of respected leaders and of the despicable crimes of neighbors who seem normal. We live with anxiety about our innermost desires and the unforgivable things we might do in a moment of passion. Or, if we fail to curb our urges, we live with the terrible secrets of our unfettered resentments.
In this uniquely unsettling anthology, editor Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what humanity fears most: People.
Fears contributors include:
- Dale Bailey
- Laird Barron
- Simon Bestwick
- Charles Birkin
- Ray Cluley
- Theresa DeLucci
- Steve Duffy
- Sharon Gosling
- John Patrick Higgins
- Carole Johnstone
- BTPS Fall/Winter 2024 Adult Catalog
- Stephen Graham Jones
- Margo Lanagan
- Livia Llewellyn
- Josh Malerman
- Bracken MacLeod
- Annie Neugebauer
- Tim Nickels
- Joyce Carol Oates
- Stewart O’Nan
- Hailey Piper
- Priya Sharma
Ellen Datlow is one of horror’s quintessential, bestselling, and most acclaimed editors. She has won multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, and Shirley Jackson awards and has received lifetime achievement awards from several organisations including the World Fantasy and World Horror Associations. She was the fiction editor of OMNI for nearly twenty years, and edited the magazines Event Horizon and Sci Fiction, and is currently a genre fiction editor at Tor.com. Her many anthologies include the long-running Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, the Best Horror of the Year series; Snow White, Blood Red; Lovecraft’s Monsters; Naked City; The Monstrous; Body Shocks; and Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror. Datlow lives in New York City.
