Review copies of Hugo, Stoker, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Award-winning editor Ellen Datlow’s latest anthology FEARS: TALES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR are now available via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY.

Ellen Datlow has long ago earned her place as the premier anthologist of fantasy and horror. Appearing in one of her unique volumes is recognized as a significant honor, and Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror is no different.

—Joe R. Lansdale, author of In the Mad Mountains

For decades, Ellen Datlow has set the bar. One of the most influential editors in the history of genre fiction, the gold standard of anthologists, and the ultimate tastemaker for Horror stories. Datlow’s career and reputation are entirely unique—there’s only one Ellen.

—Christopher Golden, author of Ararat

FEARS: TALES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

Edited by
Ellen Datlow

ISBN: 978-1-61696-422-1 (print); 978-1-61696-423-8 (digital)

Published: September 10, 2024

Available Format(s): Trade paperback and digital

Bestselling horror editor Ellen Datlow (Body Shocks) returns with her most eclectic anthology. Here are twenty-one stories of extreme psychological dread from horror icons such as Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Simon Bestwick, and more. The unsettling tales explore the nature of fear as it stirs in dysfunctional families, toxic friendships, and mismatched lovers, and culminates in relentless stalkers, remorseless killers, and perpetrators of savage rituals.

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 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.

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• “Bait” by Simon Bestwick
• “The Pelt” by Annie Neugebauer
• “A Sunny Disposition” by Josh Malerman
• “The Donner Party” by Dale Bailey
• “White Noise in a White Room” by Steve Duffy
• “Singing My Sister Down” by Margo Lanagan
• “Back Seat” by Bracken MacLeod
• “England and Nowhere” by Tim Nickels
• “Endless Summer” by Stewart O’Nan
• “My Mother’s Ghosts” by Priya Sharma
• “The Wink and the Gun” by John Patrick Higgins
• “One of These Nights” by Livia Llewellyn
• “LD50” by Laird Barron\
• “Cavity” by Theresa DeLucci
• “Souvenirs” by Sharon Gosling
• “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates
• “The Wrong Shark” by Ray Cluley
• “21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion” by Carole Johnstone
• “Unkindly Girls” by Hailey Piper
• “A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” by Charles Birkin
• “Teeth” by Stephen Graham Jones