Synopsis
Hugo Award winning editor, and horror legend, Ellen Datlow presents this chilling horror anthology of 18 original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu and many more.
The winter solstice is celebrated as a time of joy around the world—yet the long nights also conjure a darker tradition of ghouls, hauntings, and visitations. This anthology of all-new stories invites you to huddle around the fire and revel in the unholy, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a
time when families and friends come
together—for better and for worse.
From the eerie Austrian Schnabelperchten to the skeletal Welsh Mari Lwyd, by way of ravenous golems, uncanny neighbors, and unwelcome visitors, Christmas and Other Horrors captures the heart and horror of the festive season.
Because the weather outside is frightful, but the fire inside is hungry…
Featuring stories from:
Nadia Bulkin
Terry Dowling
Tananarive Due
Jeffrey Ford
Christopher Golden
Stephen Graham Jones
Glen Hirshberg
Richard Kadrey
Alma Katsu
Cassandra Khaw
John Langan
Josh Malerman
Nick Mamatas
Garth Nix
Benjamin Percy
M. Rickert
Kaaron Warren
Review
Grabbed this for a seasonal read on audible’s cyber Monday sale and dove right in.
This is an enjoyable anthology that features different holiday creatures, traditions, and locales. From the Christian Christmas, to folkloric creatures and the winter solstice. I particularly enjoyed that each story was finished with a small snippet of the author describing where they came up with the story idea. Which read like little behind the scenes inclusions.
But with a lot of these large anthologies, I have to wonder if creating them just for a large chunk of them to go to invited authors is the best move. Especially when many of these were just okay. My wonder is if the authors are writing just to be included off the invite, rather than a desire to write the story…which I could be entirely wrong, and enjoyment is subjective. That’s also not to say that I disliked any of them outright, and I appreciated how well rounded it was with its diversity of traditions, but maybe I was just looking for more of a Christmas-centric horror collection, which would be on me!
Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, and Gemma Files are a few standouts, with stories that I particularly enjoyed, as well as their reasonings for writing.
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