From Christopher Fowler’s The Man in the Rain, to Jason Muller’s Lullaby of the Grotesque, the stories collected here suggest a simple, terrifying fact – that darkness gives life to the fears that haunt us all.
From a widespread fear of darkness to the dread of death and restless spirits; through the shadowed cellars and closets of our homes to the dark and twisting corridors of our minds, Fear of the Dark: an Anthology of Dark Fiction reveals the fears we find familiar, and revels in the fears we never knew we even had.
Contributors include Paul Kane, Christopher Fowler, Lisa Mannetti, Mary A. Turzillo, Carol Weekes, Norm Rubenstein, Angel Leigh McCoy, Aaron Polson, Martin Rose, Mark Leslie, Charlie Loudowl, Adrian Chamberlin, Ann M. Pillsworth, Sandra M. Odell, Brian D. Mazur, Jason Muller, Brian Wright, Dave Ingalls, Mike Fudali, A.D. Spencer, and Eric Dimbleby.
2 comments:
Hi,
Any favorites to recommend in this collection (no serial killers pls). None of the names are familiar to me. Nice bit on Perkins Gilman BTW.
Hi Keith - While I am partial to each of the stories we included in this anthology for very unique reasons, from a reader perspective I would have to list Jason Muller's "Lullaby of the Grotesque", Paul Kane's "Keeper of the Light", Charlie Loudowl's "(To Live and Die) by Dusk's Dark Light", Angel Leigh McCoy's "Crack O' Doom" and "The Closet" by Carol Weekes and Norm Rubenstein among my favorites. Each delves into different fears in unique ways, but at their very core these stories use the horror genre to reveal very real and very human fears. They aren't simply 'supernatural' or 'horror' stories - they shed light on things that really do frighten us as a society - from fear of abandonment to fear of the father-figure. In my mind these stories captured exactly what we asked for when we opened 'Fear of the Dark' to submissions.
And thanks for your kind words on my Gilman essay. Growing up I knew "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a Gothic horror story, and while I still believe it is one, the story is also, and more importantly, a powerful feminist piece.
Thanks for the great comments Keith!
JR
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