I can’t help but imagine this story as a podcast episode–sound as a character, nay, an antagonist, in “The Puppet Motel” would be incredibly terrifying told through in an auditory medium.Īpple | | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound Files manipulates readers adeptly, forcing us to fill in the blanks with the things we find most horrific. Though the ending is ambiguous and lacks closure in the traditional sense, it’s the perfect way to wrap up this warning-as-story. The use of sound as a horror device in this story is spectacular, and the protagonist’s attempt to explain the unexplainable is divine. When Loren needs a place to crash, she’s forced into staying at the condo, which ends up having a conversation with her phone, driving her to flee. A young woman, Loren, is charged with acting as a maid for condos rented out by her boyfriend’s friend, but one emits a strange sound and seems to prompt even stranger behavior from its occupants. This creepy tale of a sinister AirBnB is supernaturally scientific. My favorite entry in this year’s volume is “The Puppet Motel” by Gemma Files. Every single story is exquisitely written, and it’s clear why Datlow chose the stories she did, even if you aren’t a fan of a particular subgenre. There are tales in this collection for lovers of the supernatural, the gory, the quiet and chilling, as well as stories with a dark bent to them that will haunt you long after you’ve turned the page.

Lansdale, and Paul Tremblay, as well as up-and-coming writers like Sarah Read (side note: if you haven’t read The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, you should pick that up right after reading this anthology). This year’s anthology features well-established writers such as Gemma Files, Joe R. Ellen Datlow has been called the “venerable queen of horror anthologies” by the paper of record itself, and the 22 stories within the twelfth volume of her annual Best Horror of the Year anthology cement her status as royalty in the genre.

Ellen datlow best horror of the year