This is the first of Ellen Datlow's 'Best Horror' series I've read and I was very impressed with the quality and consistency throughout. While there were a few glimpses of familiar tropes (zombies, a wendigo), the stories proved that, with thoughtful characters and settings, these could still feel fresh. And yes, I'm looking forward to exploring the other books in the series - fingers crossed they're all this good.

4.5 stars. Every story in here is excellent as you might expect given the title, but some didn’t land with me, as you also might expect from any anthology. Still, one can’t deny the quality of the writing throughout. Standouts for me were: “Where’s the Harm?” by Rebecca Lloyd, “The Stories We Tell About Ghosts,” by A.C. Wise, “West of Matamoros, North of Hell,” by Brian Hodge, “Harvest Song, Gathering Song,” by A.C. Wise, “The Starry Crown,” by Marc E. Fitch, and “Lost in the Dark,” by John Lang...

I was pretty hesitant about a “Best of 2017” horror anthology and only picked up The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Ten because it was put collected & edited by Ellen Datlow. And I’m glad I did! A few of the stories in this collection didn’t quite do it for me, but every single story was very written & had significant purpose and heft. There’s an extremely broad range of horror sub-genres in this collection: zombie outbreak, supernatural, gothic, survival, cosmic, small-town, and much more. Rev...

Another incredible collection of stories assembled by the legendary Ellen Datlow. You'd be hard pressed to find a better bang for your buck than this collection.

Datlow’s annual Year’s Best series is consistently good, if possible getting better every year. I suppose that simply reflects the continuously increasing quality of short horror fiction being written today. This latest volume is outstanding.

Datlow's selections for the best horror stories from 2017. Has a great introduction and overview of the field for the year, and as always she mostly favors atmosphere and tone over gore and shock (thank god).Better You Believe • Carole JohnstoneYou ever have one of those days where you and your husband run a mountain-climbing business and things go horribly wrong on the descent from Annapurna? Johnstone's ruminations on psychology and the couple's relationship and the uncanny nature of the inhos...

Includes the following stories (along with my rating for each and some song lyrics that may or may not be insightful or amusing): Better You Believe by Carole Johnstone - 4/5 - coming down the mountainLiquid Air by Inna Effress - 2/5 - be still my heart cuz it's freaking outHoliday Romance by Mark Morris - 2/5 - let me take you far awayFurtherest by Kaaron Warren - 2/5 - why you act crazy? Where's the Harm? by Rebecca Lloyd - 2/5 - wind me up and leave me blueWhatever Comes After Calcutta by Dav...

As I say, a telling coda, my thoughts on this book further crystallised with what I said about the previous story. As ever, another mighty book channelled by its own correlator, here as editor…with substantive written material by her about the Horror genre in 2017 in addition to the separate fictions that she chose to represent it. Hyper-Imaginative mind-altering Literature, as well as Horror genre, I say. They are always each other, when good. Lost in the dark, is finding yourself.The detailed

Some really good stuff here. I particularly liked "Dark Warm Heart" by Rich Larson, "There and Back Again" by Carmen Maria Machado, and "Fail-Safe" by Philip Fracassi.

This is the newest volume of Ellen Datlow's long-running anthology of great horror stories from the previous year. This year is particularly good. While most anthologies offer up at least one story I don't like, I enjoyed all of the ones in this volume. There were only stories I enjoyed and stories I loved.A few of my favorites:"A Human Stain" by Kelly Robson"Shepherd's Business" by Stephen Gallagher"The Stories We Tell About Ghosts" by A.C. Wise"Fail-Safe" by Philip Fracassi"The Starry Crown" b...

It's been a whole decade since that zombie waved his rotten junk at us from the cover of "The Best Horror of the Year" Volume One. Editor Ellen Datlow has so many titles to her credit that an extra 10 here and there might not be a big deal to her, but I'm impressed. So before I commence to gettin' critical, I'd like to express my appreciation of Datlow for her annual efforts and congratulate all the authors who made the cut (even if I panned your story).Volume 10 boasts, count em!, "almost 20,00...

Review to come

Anthologies in general take me longer to finish than a regular novel since the ebd of each story is such a good stopping point. Novels you wanna read for hours. Anthologies you wanna read a little at a time or suffer the whiplash effect of so many different styles and authors. Anyways, let's go through this uneven collection one at a time.Better you Believe by Carole Johnstone- a hike up mount Everest goes wrong as it is wont to do for so many who attempt it. Not a strong opener. The action is h...

SO much better than last years. The first two stories I didn't like and the long one in the middle, the one set in Mexico, I didn't like either, but the rest were okay. Nothing I'd consider scary but I was able to read them through. Some had the annoying open ending BS I hate (cop out) and there was only one zombie story (thank gawd.) There were some quite creative ones like the honey one. Overall, decent stories. I read them all without putting the book down for another in between the stories s...

Better you believe, the climbing on a mountain conjures ghostsLiquid Air, a woman thinks about her life married to a sick manHoliday romance, a man goes back to the same place he used to vacation in his childhood Furtherest, the dunes behind gather secrets and reach out to do harm Where's the harm? Two brothers go to renovate their childhood home when they encounter a group ow women who have been in the same town all along. A Human Stain, a young woman becomes the governess of a boy in an ancien...

Many of the stories are very formulaic, leaning too heavily on common tropes. Normally I think Ellen Datlow is better at weeding out these types of junior high campfire tales, but overall this collection was a miss.

Ellen Datlow is a widely respected editor in the fields of horror/dark fantasy.....I just finished reading the 10th volume in the series.The first section of the book - Summation - is always interesting, and provides details of books/magazines/etc that I missed and might want to read. The 10th volume contains fiction originally punished in various platforms in 2017.As with all anthologies - there are stories the reader prefers over others...stories that contain a genuine frisson of fear...a deli...

bleh. this one was pretty much a dud for me. long rambling below. i still like the concept of the series and will probably read more to discover new authors, but a lot of recurring tropes that didn't sit right with me in this one. the biggest one, and the one i feel some readers will want a heads up about, is the inclusion of the w**digo in two stories - Dark Warm Heart by Rich Larson, and Harvest Song, Gathering Song by A.C. Wise. From conversations I've seen and had, a lot of indigenous people...

Can't give this more than a 3. Poor editing choices in this one. Certainly there are some good ones here but I would say more bad than good. It is rare that I am glad that is book is over, or when I think reading it is a chore but, in this volume, both were felt by me.If you love horror stories and collect them I would recommend getting it for the goods it contains "What's the harm" is one of them.I listened to the audio version of this and no reader really stood out as excellent, but I would sa...

This collection has lots of good stories and several great ones. Although, as with most collections, what will appeal to any given reader is a bit of a throw of the dice. The stories on offer here are a solid and broad representation of what was happening in horror in 2017 and I’d read a fair amount of them before. I may have wished that a few more of my favorites made the cut, but my only real complaint is that the proofreading seemed uneven with some stories being riddled with typos and others...