Ellen Datlow: The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 6

N0S4A2 by Joe Hill (William Morrow) is rich in characterization and a terrifically satisfying read. We follow Vic through a magical girlhood during which she discovers an impossible bridge to the past where she can find lost objects. Unfortunately, she’s also noticed by an evil piece of work named Charlie Manx and his sadistic lunatic sidekick named Bing who kidnap children and take them to Christmasland in a vintage Rolls Royce nicknamed The Wraith. The encounter reverberates through the rest of Vic’s troubled life.

Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes (Lethe Press) is a fictional memoir beautifully incorporating fourteen previously published (I originally published five) fantasy and dark fantasy stories of the ghosts — figurative and literal — that haunt us all throughout our lives. Bowes’ book is a fascinating look at life in Boston and New York in the decades leading up to 9/11, an event that changed Manhattan — and the world — forever. The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic by Bruce McAllister (Aeon Press Books) is another successful incorporation of eight previously published stories into a coming-of-age story, this one about a young American boy moving with his family to a small village in Italy.

Stephen King returned to the world of The Shining with Doctor Sleep (Scribner), a sequel starring the grown-up Danny Torrance. He also published the relatively short supernatural/crime/coming-of-age novel Joyland (Hard Case Crime) about a twenty-one-year-old who works at the eponymous amusement park the summer of 1973. Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane (William Morrow), his first adult novel since Anansi Boys , is a dark magical fairy tale. We are Here by Michael Marshall (Orion) is about two couples encountering strangers who want … something from them. Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz (Bantam) is the sixth volume in the Odd series. What Happens in the Darkness by Monica O’Rourke (Sinister Grin) has a twelve-year-old girl struggling for survival in a mostly destroyed Manhattan. Parasite by Mira Grant (Orbit) is a near-future medical thriller about genetically engineered tapeworms. The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce (Gollancz) is a ghost story about a young man who takes a summer job at a seaside resort in 1976, the year of a great ladybird (ladybug in the United States) invasion plus great social upheaval in England. A Necessary End by Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson (Shadowridge Press) is about a plague of flies that spreads a fatal auto-immune disease throughout the world and the aftermath. The Asylum by John Harwood (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is a gothic about a woman who awakens in a private asylum with no memory of the past weeks. When she can’t prove who she is, she’s held prisoner. The Gospel of Z by the prolific Stephen Graham Jones (Samhain) takes a dangerous trip into the past, ten years after zombies destroyed the world. Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard 1976–1991 by Kim Newman (Titan Books) is the newest novel in Newman’s Anno Dracula series, this time with a new younger vampire who moves to Manhattan in the 1980s and wreaks havoc. Kitty Rocks the House by Carrie Vaughn (Tor) is the eleventh in this urban fantasy series about the eponymous werewolf named Kitty. The Wolves of Midwinter by Anne Rice (Knopf) is a werewolf novel, the second in the Wolf Gift Chronicles series. The Abominable by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown) is about the 1924 Mt. Everest recovery expedition to bring back the corpse of an earlier climber. Island 731 by Jeremy Robinson (St. Martin’s Press/ Dunne) is a horror/thriller inspired by The Island of Doctor Moreau. Long Black Coffin by Tim Curran (Dark Fuse) is about a deadly car. The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice (Gallery Books) takes place in New Orleans, where a wealthy family has finds a well with strange powers on their property. Days after the daughter and a schoolmate are immersed in the water, she and her family are presumed dead and the boy jumps from a high rise, surviving in a comatose state. It becomes apparent that despite his coma, he can psychically cause devastation in the physical world. The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco) is an account of a local curse in Princeton, New Jersey, 1905–1906, provided by an obnoxious amateur historian. The Least of My Scars by Stephen Graham Jones (Broken River Books) is a snappy, edgy (always with Jones), weird little novel about a deranged serial killer. The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones by Jack Wolff (Penguin) is about a demented young man studying medicine in London in 1751. Rivers by Michael Farris Smith (Simon & Schuster) is about a man who has lost everything to a series of southern hurricanes and, who when migrating north, encounters a dangerous preacher and his congregation. The Ruining by Anna Collomore (Razorbill) is a young adult novel inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates (Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press) is about child abduction and abuse when a young boy is kidnapped by a sadistic, part-time reverend. Gun Machine by Warren Ellis (Mulholland Books) is a bizarre crime novel about a detective who comes upon a cache of guns all connected to unsolved crimes. The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon (William Morrow) is about a middle-aged woman forced to confront the past when her mother, who had been abducted by a serial killer twenty-five years earlier, shows up alive. Evil and the Mask by Fuminori Nakamura (Soho Crime) is about a child educated by his wealthy, enigmatic father to create as much destruction and unhappiness in the world around him as a single person can. Only the Thunder Knows by Gord Rollo (Journalstone) is about Burke and Hare, the infamous grave robbers and murderers flourishing in late 1820s Scotland, and the possible accomplices who egged them on, for reasons of their own. Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central) is a dark fantasy about formerly conjoined twins faced with the mystery surrounding their birth. The ’Geisters by David Nickel (CZP) is about a young woman haunted by the imaginary friend/poltergeist she thought she’d gotten under control as a child. Malediction by Lisa Morton (Evil Jester Press) is about a teenage girl who arrives in Los Angeles determined to use her psychic abilities to destroy everything in her path and the only two residents that might be able to stop her.

First novels: Bait by J. Kent Messum (Plume) is an ugly little book about six junkies who are strangers and find themselves on an island with no heroin. They’re forced to swim to another island for their next fix. Are there sharks? Of course there are sharks. The Golem and the Jinn by Helen Wecker (HarperCollins) is about the relationship of two magical creatures that mysteriously appear in the New York of 1899. Splintered by A. G. Howard (Abrams/Amulet) is a young adult dark retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman (Minotaur) is about a former FBI agent drawn back into one of her unsolved cases involving a sexual predator. The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen (Haunted Stars) is the author/editor’s first novel. A young harpist residing on a river boat infested by ghouls is drawn into a fight to save the world by using her music as magic — dark and light. Stoker’s Manuscript by Royce Prouty’s (Putnam) is about a manuscript and handwriting expert lured back to his native Rumania to authenticate the original draft of Stoker’s Dracula . Longtime Lovecraft expert S. T. Joshi’s first novel, The Assaults of Chaos: A Novel About H. P. Lovecraft (Hippocampus Press), celebrates Lovecraft’s life and his work. The Year of the Storm by John Mantooth (Berkley) is about a young boy searching for his mother and sister after they disappeared in a violent storm. Harrowgate by Kate Maruyama (47 North) is about a man faced with increasingly bizarre behavior in his wife after the birth of their son.