After the slow steady parade of the changing seasons, the transformation of leaves from summer emerald to autumnal oranges, reds, and browns, we enter the diminutive days of the Season of Death. Winter. The air grows cold, the perfume of decay lingering on the breeze even as the howling torrents bring a hint of ozone, the same smell before a rainstorm, it is the aroma of coming snow. The world grows gray, the heavens overcast. For some even the joys of the holidays bring no comfort to their grave melancholy, doldrums incarnate.
So we stoke the fire in the hearth, curl up in our favorite overstuffed chair, shrouded in the softest covers we can find in the old, musty attic and slip into the billowing veils of our imaginations. It’s time to read one of the curious volumes of lore we’ve acquired but whose spines we have yet to crack. Yes, the time has come to slip into a shadowy world, one crawling with the manifestations of nightmares and all the dreary dark ones who go bump in the night, cackle under your bed, and summon you into the black deep of your closet. For outside the night of All Hollow’s Eve, what better time than the depths of winter is there to visit tales of the macabre? This was the realm horror anthologies were made for.
There are many tomes to choose from containing tales crafted by the architects of horror fiction, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King, but what of new unheard-of authors, weavers of nightmares we perhaps haven’t discovered yet? I tried my hand at holiday horror in the aptly titled “Once Upon A Christmas Evil” (JMS Books). For midnight explorers who like a mix of classic and contemporary, I highly recommend Firbolg Publishing’s “Enter at Your Own Risk: Dark Muses, Spoken Silences,” a detailed review of which can be found here in the murky treasury of Dark Media’s archives. For those with strictly contemporary tastes, I offer you five frightening collections of terror tales to whet your sinister appetites.
5. “The Dark Side of the Womb” (Cruentus Libri Press)
The holidays are for children, so the saying goes. But this profoundly dark anthology is strictly for grownups. One of my favorite authors T. Fox Dunham contributes to this gruesome collection. Trust me when I say: this isn’t for the faint of heart.
Favorite Story: “Unsafe” by Ryan Neil Falcone
4. “The Undead That Saved Christmas” (Rainstorm Press)
In this four volume Christmas-themed charity series from head editor Lyle Perez-Tinics you’ll find a heavy dose of everything merrily frightful, from zombie toys to cannibalistic Santas and even a nightmarish fantasy tale about a kidnapped Baby Jesus. One of the best parts of adding any of these naughty editions to your library is that proceeds from each sale benefit the Hugs Foster Family Agency (hugsffa.org). So give yourself or someone you know a scary-good chill this holiday season, you can tell yourself it’s all for a good cause.
Favorite Story: “Believe, Annie” by Eloise J. Knapp
3. “Childhood Nightmares: Under The Bed” (Sirens Call Publications)
Author Kate Monroe compiled this horrific anthology about all things that go bump in the night. Delightfully diabolical treats by Julianne Snow, Nina D’Arcangela, and Brandon Scott among others haunt the pages, shredding the fabric of reality to beckon the demons of our childhood to come terrify us once more.
Favorite Story: “Bent Metal” by Nina D’Arcangela
2. “Satan’s Toybox: Demonic Toys” (Angelic Knight Press)
Eighteen horrific stories adorn the oozing pages of this particularly sinister volume in the Satan’s Toybox series. Toys are the requisite gift found under any Christmas tree, and usually they are merely fanciful little things mundane and harmless, but in the fertile imaginations of our congregation of scribes they become instruments of pure evil.
Favorite Story: “Soul Collector” by Carol Gill
1. “Bellows of the Bone Box: A Steampunk Anthology” (Sirens Call Publications)
Two of my favorite genres merge in this unique collection of fearsome fables. The everlasting world of horror and the clockwork soul of steampunk fuse, giving us an absolutely matchless shiver-conjuring experience. Gloria Bobrowicz has gathered a dozen maniacally mechanical tales by Laura Brown, Kate Monroe, Alex Chase and more.
Favorite Story: “The Frequency of Demons” by Vivian Caethe
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