The Best Horror of the Year Volume Nine

It sucks, the pacing is slow. I don’t know what happens most of the time. It leaves you wondering what the hell is going on and you play it back and it leaves you more confused. Overall I did not like it.

I really wanted to like this, being a huge fan of fantasy and horror. This left so much to be desired. meh.

Overall a very strong collection! There was a bit of repetition in the Lovecraftian pieces unfortunately but otherwise I really enjoyed these stories. I loved "The Days of Our Lives" for it's absolutely nonsensical yet still terrifying narrative and it's ricocheting pace somewhere between a British domestic comedy and a terrifying cult-esque tale of murder and inexplicable horror. "Grave Goods" was also really well written and an interesting exploration of archaeology, ethics, identity, and (of course) monsters. "Ragman" was also a deeply unsettling exploration of the relationship between parents and children as well as the stories piled up in physical things.

The weakest of the bunch was definitely "Numbers," in that it seemed to have...very little reason for existing. Straub's piece "The Process is a Process All Its Own" started out promising but ended up rather disappointing and I felt the last story, "On These Blackened Shores of Time" was good but perhaps not the strongest ending for the anthology.

But as a whole I definitely enjoyed this collection!