REVIEW: The Best Horror of the Year Volume 11

The Best Horror of the Year Volume 11
Authors: Various
Editor: Ellen Datlow

Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. Every year as summer turns to autumn, I start reading all the horror novels and short stories I can get my hands on. I sit out on my porch on cool fall evenings reading whatever chilling, spooky bit of fiction (or even non-fiction) has come to hand. This year, my horror season started early as I discovered story anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow. OMG....how did I miss these?? Datlow has been editing fantasy, sci-fi and horror anthologies for 25 years. I am SO glad that I received a review copy of this book because my TBR pile has grown exponentially in my three favorite genres!

The Best Horror of the Year Volume 11 gathers 25 stories Some of the authors were familar favorites (like Joe Hill for example) and others were new to me (Carly Holmes, Laird Barron). This is a varied, outstanding collection of horror fiction! There wasn't a single story I didn't like. Some were more to my taste than others....but the joy of a story anthology is that it's a collection of differing writing styles and flavors. I read this story collection slowly, giving myself time to enjoy it. One or two stories a night...took time to read up on the authors....and smiled as my TBR list got a lot larger. I added several books and stories by the featured authors to my must-read list, as well as every anthology edited by Ellen Datlow.  :) I will be kept in horror, fantasy and sci-fi bliss for the foreseeable future!

At the back of the book there is also an "honorable mention'' list for stories that almost made the cut for this anthology....I'm going to find those stories or other works by those authors and read those as well!

My library has several of the back volumes of this series as audio books! I'm so excited! I can have some outstanding horror read to me! Woot! :)

Great book! Full stars from me!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Skyhorse Publishing. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**