Review

Finished The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror (8th collection) edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. Wow. Maybe because these two have done it eight times they know how to put a collection together. Whatever the reason, every collection I’ve read of theirs has been creepily good.

This collection is dark. But very different from the last anthology I reviewed. If you recall, I became weary of bad things happening to those who don’t deserve it. Interestingly enough, that also happens in this anthology. I’ve been thinking a lot about why this book was different. Unaware or clueless people did get into trouble. Bad trouble. They didn’t particularly deserve unpleasantness: they wanted it.

That’s not quite right. Let me try again. The best horror, in my opinion, is not about vampires, werewolves, or alien creatures…it’s about the monster that lurks within all of us. These stories explore the ying and the yang of violence; that there always must be a victim for every perpetrator. As a character in the best (or worst) story in this collection, The White Temple by Douglas Clegg, said to his victim and partner, “we complete each other.”

There is something terrifying in that statement. The reader is forced to contemplate all sorts of disturbing thoughts, such as are we destined to play out a victim or abuser? Can we fight our destinies? Should we? And if our lives are not set in stone at birth, how does it feel knowing we have chosen to suffer or inflict pain?

Or is it that we have both within us…the capacity to hurt, and also the capacity to endure great suffering? Is this what makes us human…knowing we have both characteristics but striving nonetheless to discover the middle way?

For writers all of these contemplations can be especially troubling, as I believe all stories must have conflict. Authors must think about these things. We sometimes wallow in it. And that means we face the dark side of our souls, and the possibility that we could be monsters or participating victims in the right circumstance.

The author of The White Temple so gets that. It is completely unafraid; all traces of civilization are peeled away, exposing the raw, red underbelly of the human psyche. I thought it was the best example in the anthology. If you read it, though, know I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day. It continues to haunt me. It is that disturbing. And that well written.

In the end, The White Temple and many others in this collection invited, sometimes forced, me to consider: which side of the coin am I? If faced with the situations in this book, what would I do to others or allow done to me???

Whew. I need a nice fluffy romance now. Or maybe I'll start getting out my Yule decorations. My husband says it's too early. But I need some tinsel, elves, and bright lights. And a big mug of hot chocolate. With peppermint schnapps.

Yeah.