GINGER NUTS OF HORROR'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR: JIM MCLEOD'S PICKS PART 1

This year has been a particularly challenging one for me, not just in terms of reading, but on a more personal level, work, family life, the ever-darkening political landscape of the UK, and an almost constant companion in the form of chronic pain, have all eaten into my reading and reviewing time.  There was a very dark period from August to September where it felt as though I hadn't read or reviewed a single thing.  The energy or will to commit to reading had gone, thankfully it passed, but it means that my tally for reading is way lower than a normal year.  However, what I did read this year has been in the main utterly spectacular.  For every naysayer who thinks the horror genre is dead, the genre sticks two fingers and a middle finger up at them and produces a slew of great books.  

Apart from my book of the year which will be revealed in part three of this roundup, the books presented here aren't ranked in any particular order.  Picking a favourite book isn't as easy as picking a favourite flavour of chocolate ( it's coffee by the way), like music, your taste and feelings shifts ever so slightly every day. My book of the year though is without a doubt a book that resonated completely with me, and whenever any asks me to recommend a book it's always the first book to spring to mind.  
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To kick things off here is the pick of my favourite single-author collections and anthologies.  

SING YOUR SADNESS DEEP BY LAURA MAURO 

I have been a huge fan of Laura Mauro's writing since I first read her story When Charlie Sleeps in Black Static Magazine.  It's no surprise that her collection found a home with Undertow Publications, as they have a reputation of publishing some of the finest literary and thought provoking horror out there.  This collection is a masterclass in how horror has the power to provoke the deepest and most profound of emotions.  I challenge anyone to read this book, and not be touched by the fractured beauty of Mauro's emotive prose.  But look below the surface and you will find a verdant vein of anger and determination in these stories, there is a real sense of resilience and defiance to Muaro's underlying themes.    Sing Your Sadness ​Deep never failed to impress me, with every story showing a dynamic range of stories, while still maintaining the  identity of the author's defining style of writing. 

THIS HOUSE OF WOUNDS BY GEORGINA BRUCE 

In many ways you can view Georgina's This House of Wounds as a sister to Laura's book above.  They are both published by Undertow Books, and both share the common ground of literary horror. This House of Wounds, is a powerhouse of a short story collection.  Bruce has a special gift for distorting and bending the traditional narrative structure.  The stories presented here, at first glance can be quite daunting, but once you become familiarized to the fact that this isn't a run of the mill collection, you join forces with Bruce's primal scream of rage at the world and its injustices.  

MY DEAD AND BLACKENED HEART BY ANDREW FREUDENBERG 

Without a doubt, My Dead and Blackened Heart is a phenomenal collection of short stories. The breadth and depth of the stories present here are proof positive that Freudenberg is a gifted writer, in many short story collections the author's voice, and stylistic leanings often become somewhat samey. The stories while, read in isolation might be great, but when read together, they have a habit of running into each other. This isn't the case here. Freudenberg understands the nature and needs of every one of these stories, and he shifts his narrative stylings to match the requirements with the eye of a master craftsman. The opening story is a perfect example of this, it's a lean story, almost clinical in its execution, but it fits the needs of the story. The same goes for the terrible trio of stories, the shift in style, and even in the rhythm of the narrative is a joy to behold.

Out of Water by Sarah Read

If there is a take-home message of 2019 short story collections, is this is the year where female authors knocked it out of the park.  Sarah Read was a new author to me, and I picked up this collection on the recommendations of a number of fellow reviewers who had been singing her praise for a long time.  And boy am I glad that I did, These stories are often bleak, and very disturbing, that often utilize familiar tropes, especially the monster with a human face in an exceptionally gifted way to tackle many real-world problems and social injustices.  The stories presented here will leave you battered and bruised with their heartfelt honesty and their ability to leave the reader completely chilled to the core  ​

The Woods (PentAnth) Paperback by Phil Sloman, Cate Gardner, James Everington, Mark West, Penny Jones

This relatively short anthology of short stories brings together some of the UK's finest horror authors, in a diverse and wholly satisfying quick read, from Sloman's moving tale of neglected child who goes on a teddy bears picnic, to Mark West's more fast-paced and action-filled tale, or James Everington's tightly controlled narrative reveals, or Cate Gardener proving once again just how amazing a writer she is, and confirming that her recently announced collection will be going straight to the top of my TBR pile, and finally Penny Jones potent tale of mental illness.  While all of these stories share a common premise, the range of stories and the manner in which they tackle them is a perfect example of the sheer range of top quality horror stories that have come out this year  ​

And The House Lights Dim by Tim Major

You might have noticed that a lot of the books featured in this roundup have had mention of playing around with normal narratives, either in terms of the way the story has been constructed or in the use of non-standard protagonists.  Tim Major's weird slipstream collection opens with one of the strangest opening gambits I have ever read in a collection.  O Cul-de-Sac! takes the overriding theme of the book which his homes, family and houses, and runs with it, in a way that could probably only be matched by Forrest Gump.  Any story that takes the point of view of an overprotective home, has to be read to be believed.  In a sort of reverse haunted house story Major has created an odd but completely captivating story.  Elsewhere we have a range and mix of stories from the excellent novella Carus & Mitch, a post-apocalyptic tale of two sisters told with a deftly crafted unreliable narrator, to the humorous tale of a man obsessed with tracking not just his steps, but hs finab=cial and business success along with his sexual conquests, it's a wry look at the society we are in danger of turning into.  
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When you factor in the excellent story notes ( I wish all authors included these) and a soundtrack list to read the collection to, this is a unique highly interesting collection. 

New Music for Old Rituals by Tracy Fahey

Folk horror has become the go-to subgenre in horror, now that the zombie novel has slowly shuffled out of the spotlight.  And much like the swath of zombie stories that clogged up every collection and anthology, far too many of them were written by authors who either were clearly jumping on the bandwagon or had the barest minimum understanding of the nature of the subgenre.  

Luckily we have storytellers like Tracy Fahey, whose knowledge, understanding and respect for these tales is paramount.  

All of us who have a passion for reading probably grew up reading fairy tales, not the Disneyfied safe ones, where everything turns out perfect, and the prince finds his princess, I'm talking about the true fairy tales from the old country, where the fey folk, were mischievous at best, and downright evil at their worst. The Celtic fairy tale was not one of comfort, it was a tale to frighten.  
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New Music for Old Rituals is a marvellous collection of modern fairy and folk tales, dripping with a malevolent menace, that reminds the reader, that while we may have moved on from the fireside tale, the old ones, are never that far away, and veil that separates our world is painfully fragile.  Fahey uses these stories to look at many of the problems that are faced by us, such as depression and loneliness, This is a tremendous collection that slips between the cracks in the armour that we think the modern world gives us, to pluck at the primordial vein of frailty that still exists in all of us.