Oh, my. Psychological horror, indeed.

The author list alone is pretty impressive. Josh Malerman, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Graham Jones. And some new (to me) authors that I fell in love with- Priya Sharma, Hailey Piper, Livia Llewellyn. If you're looking for horror that leaves you with the unrelenting need to scrub and scrub and scrub your skin because you just can't quite get rid of the stench, this is your book.

4 stars. All the trigger warnings. Seriously.

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

Fears is an interesting horror short story collection that focuses not on supernatural horror, but instead on the all too human darkness that surrounds us. I liked that there was a bigger variety of horror tropes (from one story set in a concentration camp during the holocaust to a modern military torture site to murderous high school girls) and not just your typical (male & "insane") slasher, but in most cases I would have liked some more motivation for the "evil" people in here, since the supernatural cannot provide an answer this time and their human motivations are sometimes not really explored in enough detail for me to be interesting. I did really enjoy the variety in fast-paced gorey horror and the more creeping dread in this anthology though and so I think there will be something for everybody who enjoys horror. Personally I enjoyed quite a few of the stories here, my favorites being: A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman, The Donner Party by Dale Bailey, Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan, My Mother's Ghost by Priya Sharma, Cavity by Theresa DeLucci and The Wrong Shark by Ray Cluley. Some of the stories were unfortunately a bit too short or too confusing to me, but I still had a good time reading most of them.
Below a short summary of every short story, including trigger warnings and some thoughts on them:

Bait by Simon Bestwick: A man wants to stop the local creep at the bar he frequents after he follows a young girl outside, but the girl turns the tables on him, I enjoyed the way the story examined and refuted various tropes around women surviving sexual abuse, tw: csa, rape, murder, gore, violence, castration
The Pelt by Annie Neugebauer: A short story about a woman who finds an unusual pelt on her property's fence and realizes that her husband seems... different after, very good at building the atmosphere and showing the disorientation of questioning the foundation you built your life on, tw: gore, violence
*FAV* A Sunny Disposition by Josh Malerman: A grandchild is left to be babysat by his grandfather, who decides he needs to get something off his chest before it's too late, very unsettling and incredibly good at building dread, I enjoyed it a lot, tw: gore, murder
*FAV* The Donner Party by Dale Bailey: A story set in victorian society following a woman climbing the ranks as she first gets to participate in a rare event called a "First Day Feast", both utterly different than the title suggests and yet similar in the most obvious ways, I really enjoyed this story and was (intentionally) reminded of "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. A pleasure to consume indeed. tw: cannibalism, murder, brutality, anti black racist language
White Noise in a White Room by Steve Duffy: A retired militairy "interrogator" (aka top torturer) is called back from retirement for a weird case, a bit disjointed to me and not that interesting unfortunately, tw: murder, violence, descriptions of torture
*FAV* Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan: A terrifying and heartbreaking justice is done in this story where a young woman is executed for having killed her husband. Really messed up, but fascinating to read. tw: murder
Back Seat by Bracken Mac Leod: A world frozen by record cold temperatures forces a small family of a father and a daughter to steal to survive until the daughter finds something unsettling in the backseat of a car, okay, but I disliked the semi-supernatural (psychic or haunting) aspect in the story here? I think it cheapened the horror a bit to me. tw: child death, child neglect
England and Nowhere by Tim Nickels: A story following an older man as he becomes invested in the lives of the two young people and watches them all the time, told in a rather aprubt way with many scene cuts, I didn't really get it and it didn't really interest me (maybe because I didn't get it). Unfortunately not my style. The prose was interesting though, even though I couldn't follow the story. tw: death
Endless Summer by Stewart O'Nan: A short and sweet slasher. Fun and I enjoyed it, but it is veeery short. tw: murder
*FAV* My Mother's Ghost by Priya Sharma: A daughter taking care of her parents as their health and minds fail them, finally has to deal with the family's past when the brother taken away as a child returns as an adult man and things just keep getting worse and more gothic, really fucked up and full of creeping dread, I really enjoyed reading it! tw: ableism, r-slur, murder, child murder, child abuse, incest, rape
The Wink and the Gun by John Patrick Higgins: A lonely man gets ready for his school reunion, but something weird happens as he is preparing, unsettling and a good use of creepy children (make them cruel schoolboys, that's always accurate). tw: eye trauma, eye gore, graphic injury
One of These Nights by Livia Llewellyn: This story follows a small group of highschool girls and the jealousy surrounding one of the girl's father that threatens to tear them apart until something finally has to change, weird and unsettling, but I do looooove messy sapphics, tw: incest, past child sexual abuse, threatened sexual abuse of a teenager, murder, drowing
LD50 by Laird Barron: A hitchhiker befriends a truck driver just as the report of a string of dog murders spreads throughout the various bars along the highway and the hitchhiker starts to wonder who the truck driver really is, tw: animal cruelty, animal murder, past attempted murder
*FAV* Cavity by Theresa DeLucci: A story told in short summaries of all the murderers the protagonist (unnamed, told in 2nd person) has met throughout their life. Very interesting and progressively more unsettling. I liked it. tw: murder, csa, suicide, misogyny, cat calling, rape, eating disorder mention
Souvenirs by Sharon Gosling: A man who used to travel all across the globe in his youth is now too old to keep living on his own and is brought into a nursing home where he decides to decorate his room with some of his souvenirs, I enjoyed the grisly reveal, tw: fatphobia, murder
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates: A teenage girl stays home from a family party to relax. Then a stranger pulls up to her driveway, wanting her to take a ride with him. Unsettling and very good at character voices. tw: threats of rape, kidnapping, murder, misogyny
*FAV* The Wrong Shark by Ray Cluley: In this story a man returns to his childhood town where the filming of Jaw happened and remembers a traumatic experience during it, really heartbreaking and exploring the cruelty of racism with a very satisfying end, tw: racism, animal murder, violence, bullying
21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out red lion by Carole Johnstone: A story set in a mostly abandoned street where a family's evening takes a turn for the worse when their lights are suddenly cut and somebody breaks into their house, quite tense and makes use of darkness as a horrifying experience really well, tw: murder, child abuse, physical violence, cheating, unsafe sex
Unkindly Girls by Hailey Piper: A daughter meets "unkindly girls" at the beach, girls who don't dress modestly enough, which her father disapproves off, but maybe after years of short-lived summer friendships she hopes that something can finally change, interesting and tense, tw: misogyny, murder, violence
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts by Charles Birkin: A story set during the second world war in a concentration camp, featuring a very cruel contest held by the officers, tw: holocaust, implied sexual abuse, murder
Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones: A strange case featuring human remains being found in various unusual places becomes a cop's new obsession, interesting, but could have done without the ableism, tw: ableism, cannibalism, murder

ARC Review

This is a book made up of several stories by multiple authors. Some authors I had heard before & read their previous works, while others I had not, but will be checking out their other projects.

If you’re looking for a fun read, give this book a shot! I’m sure you’ll find a story you enjoy.

Some writing styles are not everyone’s cup of tea (personally, there were a couple I could not get into & did end up skipping them & not finishing).

With so many different stories and styles, there has to be one that is up your alley & could introduce you to your new favorite author!

Some stories were disturbing, while others left me wondering what I had just read (in a good creepy way).

Worth the read!

this book just felt like a chore and most of the stories were uninteresting, uninspired drabbles of i don’t know what but definitely not horror!

Thanks to Netgalley I managed to read this ARC ahead of publication. Due to be published on 10/09/24.

I love horror but hadn't read anything for a while so thought a collection of short stories would be a good reintroduction to the genre!

These are absolutely brilliant. Some more captivating and intriguing than others. 21 short stories in total by a range of different authors.

I particularly enjoyed that a number of stories detail women as the aggressor showing that females can be much deadlier than the male - and often more calculating! Bait is a good start to the collection and has a vigilante type that dishes out cold justice. It kind of sets the tone for the book where you learn quickly not to take anything for granted and things aren't all what they might initially seem.

There's a collection of killers, ghosts and cannibals here! A great anthology of horror

I enjoyed this anthology of psychological horror. Some of these stories were honestly terrifying and truly creeped me out and I had to take a break after a few. I would definitely recommend this one, especially with spooky season being upon us. I'm giving it four because a couple of these stories didn't quite hit for me.

Thank you for the ARC Net Galley.

Look for it September 10th!

Ellen Datlow doesn’t mess around when she puts together a horror anthology! Fears has a great line up of authors and stories. I enjoyed that the theme of this anthology is psychological fears as that topic can be drastically different from one person - or author - to the next.

That being said, not every story hit it out of the park but overall there were some fantastic reads. I wanted to highlight some of my favorites: