“With Fears, the latest addition to her already remarkable bibliography, [Datlow] proves yet again that she is one of the premier anthologists of her—or any other—generation.” —Pete Atkins, author of Hellraiser: Bloodline
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.
Simon Bestwick, Annie Neugebauer, Josh Malerman, Dale Bailey, Steve Duffy, Margo Lanagan, Bracken MacLeod, Tim Nickels, Stewart O’Nan, Priya Sharma, John Patrick Higgins, Livia Llewellyn, Laird Barron, Theresa DeLucci, Sharon Gosling, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Cluley, Carole Johnstone, Hailey Piper, Charles Birkin, Stephen Graham Jones
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.
“Fears is modern horror fiction at its finest.”
—Vogue Horror
“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
“Datlow’s latest themed anthology gathers 21 stories, all reprints that have previously appeared across the publishing landscape since 2000 (except for one, the penultimate story by the late Charles Birkin, which was originally published in 1964). Together, these tales illustrate the evolution of the psychological horror subgenre, moving these stories out of the hands of narrators with severe mental illness and into spaces where the fear can seep in from anywhere and anyone—a dinner party, your own family, random encounters, vacation. Things are clearly not as they seem, and the monsters are more human than anyone wants to admit. The anthology has plenty of big names to draw readers in, from Josh Malerman to Joyce Carol Oates to Stephen Graham Jones (whose previously out-of-print story, ‘Teeth,’ which closes the volume, is a worthy draw here in and of itself). But Datlow has racked up the awards because she is able to identify excellent stories from authors that readers may be less familiar with; here, she includes the intense, atmospheric unease of an overburdened caregiver in Priya Sharma’s ‘My Mother’s Ghost,’ the reality of a young girl’s father terrifyingly unveiled by Hailey Piper in ‘Unkindly Girls,’ and the existentially unsettling ‘Cavity’ by Theresa DeLucci, which lists the 32 times the main character has met a murderer, including her own. This collection is not for the faint of heart, but there are legions of fans of both psychological suspense and horror, meaning there is a built-in audience that will be eager to get their hands on this book. It also pairs well with the Bram Stoker Award–nominated Dark Matter Presents Human Monsters (2022), edited by Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Sawyers, in which Malerman’s story first appeared.”
—Booklist
“Ellen Datlow has a supernatural talent for assembling fantastic stories into must-read anthologies, and Fears is another extraordinary example of that talent. There are no ghosts here, no monsters. Just some of the most terrifying people you’re likely to meet. Fears is filled with deeply unsettling stories of psychological horror that will continue to haunt you long after the book is closed.”
—Josh Rountree, author of The Legend of Charlie Fish
“Ellen Datlow has expertly gathered stories that surprise by enticing us down one path and then morph, unexpectedly, into a deeper level of anxiety and dread. Here we discover the most creative creatures of terror are human beings, who wear masks of normality to hide monstrous desires and actions. Each author skillfully finds different ways to lead us one step deeper into their flavor of mental, emotional, psychological horror.”
—Linda D. Addison, author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend
“Ellen Datlow, literature’s mistress of darkness, has an unflinching eye for the glorious and the grotesque and an unerring ear for the voices that define and illuminate our genre. With Fears, the latest addition to her already remarkable bibliography, she proves yet again that she is one of the premier anthologists of her—or any other—generation.”
—Pete Atkins, author of Hellraiser: Bloodline
“There are a lot of great editors that play in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror sandbox. But are any of them as consistently brilliant at crafting genre anthologies, as consistently brilliant at attracting the very best authors and building drool-worthy tables of contents, as Ellen Datlow? No. She’s the very best, as Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror amply demonstrates.”
—Dave Writes and Draws
Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years. She has edited more than one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including editing twenty years of the classic Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror anthologies; the ongoing Best Horror of the Year series; Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, The Doll Collection, The Devil and the Deep, Lovecraft’s Monsters, Edited By, Nightmares, and Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror. She was the fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and the editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION.
Datlow has won multiple World Fantasy, Locus, Hugo, Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and Shirley Jackson Awards, as well as the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Best Foreign Editor. She received the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for outstanding contribution to the genre, was honored with the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
Datlow lives in New York City. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com and co-hosts the monthly Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at KGB Bar. She’s also owned by two cats.
More information can be found at www.datlow.com, on Facebook, and on X as @EllenDatlow.
“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
Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror
Ellen Datlow, ed.
“With Fears, the latest addition to her already remarkable bibliography, [Datlow] proves yet again that she is one of the premier anthologists of her—or any other—generation.”
—Pete Atkins, author of Hellraiser: Bloodline
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.
Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror
by Ellen Datlow, ed.
ISBN: 978-1-61696-422-1 (print); 978-1-61696-423-8 (digital)
Published: September 10, 2024
Available Format(s): Trade paperback and digital
Simon Bestwick, Annie Neugebauer, Josh Malerman, Dale Bailey, Steve Duffy, Margo Lanagan, Bracken MacLeod, Tim Nickels, Stewart O’Nan, Priya Sharma, John Patrick Higgins, Livia Llewellyn, Laird Barron, Theresa DeLucci, Sharon Gosling, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Cluley, Carole Johnstone, Hailey Piper, Charles Birkin, Stephen Graham Jones
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.
“Fears is modern horror fiction at its finest.”
—Vogue Horror
“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
“Datlow’s latest themed anthology gathers 21 stories, all reprints that have previously appeared across the publishing landscape since 2000 (except for one, the penultimate story by the late Charles Birkin, which was originally published in 1964). Together, these tales illustrate the evolution of the psychological horror subgenre, moving these stories out of the hands of narrators with severe mental illness and into spaces where the fear can seep in from anywhere and anyone—a dinner party, your own family, random encounters, vacation. Things are clearly not as they seem, and the monsters are more human than anyone wants to admit. The anthology has plenty of big names to draw readers in, from Josh Malerman to Joyce Carol Oates to Stephen Graham Jones (whose previously out-of-print story, ‘Teeth,’ which closes the volume, is a worthy draw here in and of itself). But Datlow has racked up the awards because she is able to identify excellent stories from authors that readers may be less familiar with; here, she includes the intense, atmospheric unease of an overburdened caregiver in Priya Sharma’s ‘My Mother’s Ghost,’ the reality of a young girl’s father terrifyingly unveiled by Hailey Piper in ‘Unkindly Girls,’ and the existentially unsettling ‘Cavity’ by Theresa DeLucci, which lists the 32 times the main character has met a murderer, including her own. This collection is not for the faint of heart, but there are legions of fans of both psychological suspense and horror, meaning there is a built-in audience that will be eager to get their hands on this book. It also pairs well with the Bram Stoker Award–nominated Dark Matter Presents Human Monsters (2022), edited by Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Sawyers, in which Malerman’s story first appeared.”
—Booklist
“Ellen Datlow has a supernatural talent for assembling fantastic stories into must-read anthologies, and Fears is another extraordinary example of that talent. There are no ghosts here, no monsters. Just some of the most terrifying people you’re likely to meet. Fears is filled with deeply unsettling stories of psychological horror that will continue to haunt you long after the book is closed.”
—Josh Rountree, author of The Legend of Charlie Fish
“Ellen Datlow has expertly gathered stories that surprise by enticing us down one path and then morph, unexpectedly, into a deeper level of anxiety and dread. Here we discover the most creative creatures of terror are human beings, who wear masks of normality to hide monstrous desires and actions. Each author skillfully finds different ways to lead us one step deeper into their flavor of mental, emotional, psychological horror.”
—Linda D. Addison, author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend
“Ellen Datlow, literature’s mistress of darkness, has an unflinching eye for the glorious and the grotesque and an unerring ear for the voices that define and illuminate our genre. With Fears, the latest addition to her already remarkable bibliography, she proves yet again that she is one of the premier anthologists of her—or any other—generation.”
—Pete Atkins, author of Hellraiser: Bloodline
“There are a lot of great editors that play in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror sandbox. But are any of them as consistently brilliant at crafting genre anthologies, as consistently brilliant at attracting the very best authors and building drool-worthy tables of contents, as Ellen Datlow? No. She’s the very best, as Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror amply demonstrates.”
—Dave Writes and Draws
Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years. She has edited more than one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including editing twenty years of the classic Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror anthologies; the ongoing Best Horror of the Year series; Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, The Doll Collection, The Devil and the Deep, Lovecraft’s Monsters, Edited By, Nightmares, and Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror. She was the fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and the editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION.
Datlow has won multiple World Fantasy, Locus, Hugo, Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and Shirley Jackson Awards, as well as the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Best Foreign Editor. She received the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for outstanding contribution to the genre, was honored with the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
Datlow lives in New York City. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com and co-hosts the monthly Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at KGB Bar. She’s also owned by two cats.
More information can be found at www.datlow.com, on Facebook, and on X as @EllenDatlow.
“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
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