The Horror Anthology Of Horror Anthologies [Paperback]

Themed anthologies can be predictable or repetitive, with similar themes being regurgitated in one story after another. The HA of HA is a glorious exception.

The brief, that every story should be about, or inspired by, a horror anthology, is sufficiently vague for authors to off at various tangents, and they certainly have. The tales vary from the fairly straightforward to the bizarrely surreal, dealing with subjects from the banal to the most existentially absurd.

The volume as a whole is a thoroughly satisfying read, an eclectic collection of hideous parts assembled into a Frankensteinian beast by an editor who obviously loves his subject. There are half a dozen absolute gems in here, a remarkable batting average for a volume of this type, nestled in a solidly well-written and engaging set of tales.

It's not perfect - a few passages came across just as a little too carefully and self-consciously put together, as if by an author who hasn't quite found his or her own voice yet, but every single story has something to recommend it. There are no fillers here; it's all worth reading.

Over the last two decades the classic staples of horror fiction have been hijacked and sanitised for the mainstream, so the current generation of horror writers are probing new avenues to unsettle us in different ways. I can't think of a book that demonstrates this more effectively than this one.

A definite recommend for horror fans.

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Most of you should now stop wasting your lives reading online reviews and go buy the book - what comes next is a short individual critique of each story, for people who like that sort of thing.

1. It's Only Words, by Colleen Anderson.

There is a grand metaphor at the heart of this short piece, about the power of words to remake an individual. Ms Anderson handles it quite deftly overall, her high poetic language beautiful and emotive, though some of the more prosaic sections seem a bit dull by comparison. A good idea, well executed, which is as much as one can ask from a piece this length. I might have preferred it without the last paragraph, which more or less explains it all - I was enjoying the uncertainty.

2. Tree Ring Anthology, by Daniel Ausema

Splendidly original, this is an epic tale of a post apocalyptic world, told over several decades of environmental turmoil. We are given a few key facts, but much more is hinted at, and the implication that brutalized flora might eventually turn on us is a chilling one. An excellent and thought-provoking piece of work - it's worth buying the book just for this story.

3. The Useless, by Dominy Clements

This starts in a fairly standard way, with an easy-to-follow lineal narrative. Mr Clements takes a couple of horror cliches from our collective comfort zone, then turns everything on its head. I had to read this twice to figure out what happened, and I'm still not sure. A confusing, but satisfying read.

4. Tears of the Mutant Jesters, by Rhys Hughes

There is a tightrope between intelligent wordplay and groan-inducing puns, and this story strides along it with confidence, with a couple of minor slips. A short and amusing piece, it plays with deep existential themes but doesn't properly explore them. Shades of both Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde. Fun.

5. The Apoplexy of Beelzebub, by Colin Insole

This is dark, disturbing and unrelentingly grim. We can all feel trapped by family, place, convention, culture. In Mr. Insole's nightmare city, insularity is celebrated, cruelty the greatest tradition, escape the worst sin. This will resonate with anyone who lives in any kind of community, or has a family, and will stick with me for a long time.

6. Paper Cuts, by Nick Jackson

In this collection, the theme of circularity crops up several times. Here, a writer writes about a writer, and the words bite back. Every writer will recognise the feeling of digging as deep as you can inside yourself, laying your soul on the page and still only seeing a poor shadow of better writers' work. Sometimes your own words come back and mock you - here they do worse than that. Ironically, this is a highly original piece, and often quite beautiful, in a red, squishy and dripping sort of way.

7. Horror Stories For Boys, by Rachel Kendall

At the heart of this story is a rather implausible incident, but Ms Kendall writes so nicely we have to forgive her. A story firmly rooted in reality, and the banal everyday horrors of troubled families everywhere. She just pushes it a little further and skews the point of view enough to make this a compelling read.

8. Common Myths and Misconceptions regarding Rita Kendall, by A.J. Kirby

This is an ingenious exploration of identity, with a protagonist we empathise with from the start, even as we gradually realise how little she is in touch with reality. There is a tragic past, some things we are all actually afraid of, and a proper horror story moment.

9. Midnight Flight, by Joel Lane

A story about one of the things we fear most in real life. The supernatural elements serve largely as metaphors for real-world terrors, and it's all the more effective for that.

10. The Fifth Corner, by E. Michael Lewis

A great little supernatural tale, somewhat in the style of Ramsay Campbell with a little nod to Lovecraft. Short and pacy, with a good sense of growing menace.

11. The Follower, by Tony Lovell

We are scared of lots of things in real life, and this story deals subtlely with several of them. On the surface it's about a life that isn't terrible or tragic, but goes wrong in the hundred little ways that life can. It's by turns touching, sad and sinister.

12. Residua, by David Mathew

A lovely and gradual unfolding of the psychological complexity of an apparently simple, if unpleasant scenario. Mr. Mathew takes a not entirely original concept and moulds it into something new and unique.

13. The American Club, by Christopher Morris

A story with layers of meaning, it leaves the reader with many questions unanswered, but that's fine by me. Elements of Jeckyll and Hyde, and The Spiderwick Chronicles

14. The Rediscovery of Death, by Mike O'Driscoll

It's a common conceit among writers that words have power, that books are magical, that something can be written strongly enough to exist independently after it's sent out into the world.

The idea of a book that feeds and grows fat on its readers is not completely new, but Mr. O'Driscoll delas with it confidently here, juggling abstract concepts with an exciting, pacy story. A great read.

15. Flowers of the Sea, by Reggie Oliver

Another story about a very real fear. An artist with advancing dementia creates works that mirror her deteriorating mental state. It seemed a little contrived once or twice, but the imagery and metaphor make for a powerful and affecting tale.

16. The Pearl and the Boil, by Roseanne Rabinowitz

In adolescence, we form very strong attachments to music, films or books that seem to speak to us. Such things can stick with us for life, and a rediscovery in middle age can be as evocative of youth as photographs or diaries. This story is about that rediscovery, about regret and missed opportunities. Ms. Rabinowitz writes in a subtle impressionistic style that perfectly complements the subject matter.

17. The Writer, by Clayton Stealback

Some beautifully written passages and nice touches of domestic detail make this a convincing little tale. It's a study of obsession, sliding into psychosis, all undermined by a magnificently unreliable narrator.

18. Horror Planet, by S. D. Tullis

There are many good things to say about this piece. The author paints vivid word pictures and our protagonist is well drawn if not entirely sympathetic. The central premise is good and quite novel. Unfortunately, his word choice and sentence structure were often distracting, sometimes almost random. Some passages I had to reread to get the meaning properly. And I felt it stopped, rather than ended.

19. You Walk The Pages, by Mark Valentine.

One of horror's favourite archetypes is the highly intelligent, articulate and cultured homicidal psychopath, yet most real acts of evil are committed for petty reasons, by people who are a little insecure and not very bright.

Real characters with these properties are not popular because they are less engaging and more annoying, yet Mr. Valentine has created one we can absolutely enjoy spending time with. It's a first person narration from someone with little literary skill, but the character voice is consistent and engaging, and the slow drip feed of growing terrors is nastily effective.

20. All His Worldly Goods, by D. P. Watt

While most writers make an effort to make characters engaging, quirky or interesting, Mr. Watt has deliberately given us a horrifically dull individual, who apparently has no interests, hobbies, friends, or discernible personality. As the character says himself, he may as well be dead, and in the end, death is the most interesting thing that happens. Yet the story is gripping - an excellent coda for a wonderful book.

For horror fans who enjoy fiction about fiction, the new anthology from editor and author D. F. Lewis is a rare treat. As its title suggests, The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies features stories about volumes that reveal the dark corners of existence. From real titles to invented ones to those that stretch the term in striking ways, the anthologies that drive these twenty tales expose their writers and readers to worlds of confusion, obsession, and terror within their pages. From ghost stories to absurdism to visionary horror, the works selected for inclusion here are as varied as those in an anthology with no theme, let alone a self-referential one, and, though the authors' command of style and subtlety is often limited, the concepts in play are strong enough to sustain the anthology through those rough patches.

Some of the most readable stories feature "anthologies" that collect horrors of a different order. Daniel Ausema's "Tree Ring Anthology" uses the description of the rings on a tree stump to recount a range of ecological nightmares with a science fiction edge, demonstrating again that perspective and voice can lend any subject a strange and disturbing atmosphere. In Colin Insole's "The Apoplexy of Beelzebub," the anthologies also collect fact rather than fiction, the cruelties of a decayed city whose residents keep elaborate records of the nastier aspects of their history. And the haunting "Flowers of the Sea" by Reggie Oliver uses a particularly upsetting homemade anthology to reflect on the ravages of dementia and grief.

Other successful stories use more traditional anthologies. "The Follower" by Tony Lovell traces the melancholy connection between a woman and the stories of "her" anthology from youth to old age. Joel Lane's gift for the evocation of contemporary urban despair and the darkly redemptive promise of the uncanny makes the remembered anthology Midnight Flight powerfully symbolic in a story of the same name. In "The Rediscovery of Death," Mike O'Driscoll adapts the responsibilities and uncertainties of a small press editor and the seductive quality of great fiction to comment on gradual psychological collapse.

At times these symbolically-potent treatments of horror fiction are weakened by prose that, in striving to generate atmosphere, states themes too clearly or disrupts itself through awkwardness. To state tragedy too clearly is to dampen its effect, seeming maudlin rather than insightful, and absurdism demands a greater mastery of style than straightforward realism to avoid an impression of amateurism and immature style. For exaomple, Nick Jackson's "Paper Cuts" has some fine images and a workable concept, but its surreal setting lacks the paradoxical coherence necessary for such a story to succeed. S. D. Tullis' "Horror Planet" attempts an elaborate and compressed prose style that allows for some excellent moments but also falls prey to distracting digression and flashes of awkwardness.

But the thing to take away from my comments on these stories is not that I found the execution awkward but that I liked the ideas involved. In the past I've praised anthologies that included well-written stories I found dull, but more and more I feel inclined to swallow my distaste for unpolished prose in the hope of finding fiction of striking imagination. In that regard, The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies delivers. Despite its basic print-on-demand book design (enlivened by Tony Lovell's cover image) and language that is likewise initially unpromising, the anthology provides a satisfying range of thoughtful dark tales.

Right here goes nothing, my first ever real time review. I've had this book for what seems like ages. Whenever it came to selecting a new book to read. I always passed on this. The reason for this was not the authors collected in this anthology, for it contains a large number of authors who I like and respect, as well a number who I have never heard off. The main reason for holding of on this collection, was due to the feeling that I might not be able to do it justice.

D.F. Lewis, for those of you who know him is a genre heavyweight. One of those people who for no other reason than there sheer knowledge of the genre, kind of intimidate. I'm a fan, a big dumb fan, where as to me D.F. Lewis comes across as the extremely intelligent professor. Just search on the internet for intelligent discussions of the genre and you'll find him there throwing intellectual right hooks like Mike Tyson after a few beers.

For this reason I thought I try and do what D.F does best and do a real time review. So each time a finish a story in the anthology I'll post a review here and update the post. I'll try and do them in order, but I'm a fickle person and I may jump around.

For those not in the know, the title may seem like a boast, however in reality, the title refers to the theme of the anthology. Each story relates in some way to a collection, or anthology, hence the title.

Kicking of the anthology is It's Only Words by Colleen Anderson. In it Lloyd, who is an avid collector of horror stories, struggles with everyday life, he finds it hard to interact with people, and thinks that everyone is out to get him. One day he finally snaps, and kidnaps a smug smart arsed traffuc warden. Once he is bound and gagged in Lloyds house, Lloyd dsecides to tell his story to the traffic warden in a very unusual way. Soon Lloyd embarks on a quest top get his story told to all those who deems have wronged him. Colleen Anderson kicks off the anthology in a stunning fashion, this is a moving tale, tat shows there is a power in words and stories.

Next up is Tree Ring Anthology by Daniel Ausema , an unusual tale, where the life story of a tree, and the history of the world around it is told by reading the anthology of secrets held within it's rings. I'll be honest I haven't read a story like this before, and it was a joy to read such a different tale. I never thought I would be moved by the story of a tree.

The Useless by Dominy Clements, is another unusual tale, it is a well written, spooky tale, with an image of a wierd woman who thows balls at trucks, that is really unnerving. However I'm not sure I really got the what the story was about.

Next up is a humorous tale by Rhys Hughes, where an avid book collector has to deal witrh a book that is suffering from appendicitis, yes Mr Hughes loves a pun, and story is filled with puns. It is a lightweight tale that after three very heavy and serious tales brought a nice bit of light relief to the collection

Right folks I'm going to jump ahead a a bit. Reggie Oliver has a story here, and I'm beginning to fall head over heels in love with his writing. Reggie is one of my discoveries of the year. Flowers of the Sea, is a heart breaking, moving, and poignant story that will move you when you read. After narrowly avoiding an accident, a husband has to watch his wife slip into the realms of dementia. Reggie's sory sums up what a great short story should be.

Right back to the flow, next up is The Apoplexy of Beelzebub by Colin Insole. This one of the longer pieces of the collection, whilst researching the history of her Town for the Curator, sounds like a Dr Who villain), Cate uncovers, the horrific truth about the city, and in urns finds out the truth about her fate. This is a well written story that captures the readers interest, however I did think it would have been more powerfull if shortened slightly.

That's all for this week, folks. work, life and house work means that I will have to postpone the reviews until next week, when I'm on holiday yeah for me

Back again.

Paper Cuts, by Nick Jackson, one morning horror writer Mr Volpis is bitten by a serpent hiding in his rose bushes. Is a fine story that mix the comedic elements of the story well with the more tenser moments.

Horror Stories For Boys, by Rachel Kendall, has Gary a migraine sufferer having to make a journey to visit his dying dad, a journey that throws up old memories, and decisions that Gary must make. This is a grim and melancholic story that works very well.

Common Myths and Misconceptions Regarding Rita Kendall by AJ Kirby. Is an account of past her prime horror actress Rita Kendall, who is recounting her life for a reporter commissioned to write an article for The Horror of Horrors anthology. This is a well written, story, that draws you in with some excellent use of flashback story telling.

Midnight Flight by Joel Lane. Is a brilliantly moving tale of an old man loosing his mememory who feels completely out of touch with a modern world. He begins a quest to track down a book and its edititor , that he remembers reading from his youth. This is at times a hard and painfull tale to read, not because of bad writing, but due to the intense emotional imagary of the story.

The Fifth Corner by E. Michael Lewis, is so far the most horror story, horror story here. Looking to assemble a great anthology of horror stories, Vared Kyle wants an unpublished tale by Roman Maddox Booth. However, Booth after writing this story thought it too terrible see the light of day. It has been sealed in an envelope and stitched in to the lining of one of his limousines. This is an out and out horror story that tips its hat to both H P Lovecraft and Stephen King's Christine. A nice change of pace in he collection.

The Follower by Tony Lovell, charts the power and consequences of reading through the life of Dorothy, from her childhood to that of a grown up mother reading to her son Kevin. This story works very well, and I liked how the events of passed had repercussions in the future.

Residua by David Matthew, Steve Bilty is in prison, and prison guard Orwenson knows something about the crime Bilty has been charged with. When Bilty comes across a copy of and Alfred Hitchcock anthology, strange and mysterious things begin to happen. This is fun story which could easily have found a lace in Hitchcock presents antho. It will keep you guessing as to whether Bilty is innocent or guilty. Highly recommended.

The American Club by Christopher Morris is a brilliant tale, Daniel Polzer is a student sitting his final exams, but when he hears that his father has been put in hospital after a hit and run accident, he has to rush home. When he gets there he discovers that his father has been acting odd, and it all seems to centre around a collection of tales. A highly enjoyable read.

The Rediscovery of Death by Mike O'Driscoll. This is another one of those tales that reminds me of The Tales of The Unexpected, and that is a good thing. They were a staple of my childhood andI still remember them fondly. Nicholas Cleaver is given the chance to save hissmall publishing company, when he meets Simon, who claims to have the rights to unpublished stories from masters of the genre. Of course there is a catch, you get nothing for nothing, but you need to read this tsale to find out what that catch is.

The Pearl and The Boil By Rosanne Rabinowitz This is a good story at heart, but it was a bit to flowery if you know what I mean for my own tastes.

The Writer by Clayton Stealback. This is one of those stories that keeps you guessing right up to the end. The worlds of fiction and reality start to meld into each other as author Steve struggles to finish writing a short story. This is a very good story. That manages to be a fresh take on this sort of tale.

Horror Planet by S.D. Tullis, I so much wanted to like this boy meets girl, then ends up in space story. But I just found it to be far too over written, for my tastes.

You Walk the Page by Mark Valentine . This is another story that didn't quite catch my interest, nice idea but it just didn't gel with me.

All His Worldly Goods by D.P. Watt The anthology is rounded of in great fashion with rather sad tale that builds with a great sense of menace and dread, this is the perfect story to finish off this anthology.

Overall this is an excellent anthology, D.F.Lewis not only knows his stuff, but clearly has a love for the genre. Yes not all of the stories worked for me, but that is probably more down to my personal tastes, than the quality of the writing. I'm a fickle person, that knows what he likes and likes what he knows. Some of these stories where just a little bit to wordy for me. But please, please don't let that put you off. There is a great deal of excellent and brilliant story telling held with in these pages. The pay off for the reader very high indeed and defiantly worthy of your hard earned cash.