Christmas And Other Horrors

Frightful Seasoning

Christmas And
Other Horrors
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Titan Books
ISBN: 9781803363264

Warning: Very slight seasonal spoilers.

It was mid-January earlier this year when I received from a couple of friends, this anthology of tales entitled Christmas And Other Horrors - A Winter Solstice Anthology, to celebrate the occasion of my birthday. Showing a canny understanding of my nature, it was given to me with the caveat of “I know you won’t read this until December...” and, of course, they were absolutely right that I wouldn’t but I was very pleased with the book because that would be one less tome to try and source for my December reading (in order to get it up onto the blog). So this is the first of this year’s three Christmas books which will be reviewed, albeit somewhat shortly I suspect, over the next week or so.

Now, it has to be said that while I always look for either horror themed or murder mystery themed books to complement my December reading, I have grown weary of the yuletide horror collections over the years as, they mostly seem to disappoint. So I was pleasantly surprised that this book, which collects all new stories from the end of last year, is actually pretty good. Of the 18 stories bound within its covers, there are very few duds in here. And there are at least two which are actually outstanding. Many of them start well and sustain an entertaining read but, a fair few also kind of taper off towards the end, it has to be said. So while I had a good time with the book as a whole (a very good time, it should be said) there are a few stories where, it felt to me, the writer was holding back on something which could have been a more satisfying ending.

The anthology starts off strongly with The Importance Of A Tidy Home by Christopher Golden. This involves the observations of a man fallen on bad times and homeless in the streets of Salzburg. Here he becomes first hand acquainted with the local myth of the Schnabelperchten, who silently enter the houses of people at night to ensure the house is tidy to welcome in the coming New Year. If not, the creatures will gorily eviscerate the sleeping dwellers with their shears and other sharp implements.

Now this tradition of the Schnabelperchten was previously unknown to me but it has to be said that many of the tales in this tome are utilising various myths and traditions bound to the time of the Winter Solstice and, as such, the majority of this volume (if not all) would mostly fall into the realm of folk horror, which is a sub-genre of horror which has become ‘on trend’ again just lately, of course. Each story is presented with a graphic hanging above the title of a silhouette of a different (and sometimes demonic or bestial) Christmas tree ornament, which is a nice touch.

The book continues with tales of the narrators or protagonists either failing victim (sometimes fatally) to the ‘horror’ of the subject matter or, on occasion, actually turning out to be the horror themselves (such as the Welsh story concerned with Mari Lwyd - the grey mare - in  His Castle by Alma Katsu).

One very interesting piece by Stephen Graham Jones called Our Recent Unpleasantness is very surreal with its tale of a woman who can take her own head off at will (no, it’s not an Indonesian story, surprisingly) and it weaves an atmosphere all its own, although I found the ending somewhat inconclusive or, if not inconclusive then perhaps less interesting than the journey it takes ot get there.

I think my two favourites in the tome also happen to be two of the longest tales in this collection, which are as follow...

Gravé Of Small Birds by Kaaron Warren tells of a notorious, semi-celebrity cook who behaved almost psychotically when she lost on a British cooking programme. She is invited to provide meals for the twelve days of the solstice on the strange island of Brennan. The atmosphere is very similar to that found in the TV show The Third Day (reviewed by me here) and the writer manages to get the sympathies of her audience regarding the central character, even though her responses to certain events (such as murdering someone out of annoyance) are, at the very least, quite questionable.

My other favourite is the last story in the tome, After Words by John Langan, which centres on a tale told by the male in a couple during and after three bouts of sexual intercourse one night. A tale of a long gone former girlfriend and his initial erotic encounters with her. Now, I have to say, I was only about a quarter of the way in when I realised both exactly how this one would end and how the writer would have to shift the narrative (which I also saw for what it was when certain episodes of sudden amnesia are brought up). Nevertheless, it was well done and, like the previous tale I mentioned, manages to put flesh and bones to the handful of characters in the story.

And I’ll leave it just there, I think. If you are in the mood for some seasonal reading with a spooky, folk horror edge then Christmas And Other Horrors is definitely one of the better of the collections I have read in this vein. Certainly I’m very pleased with this unexpected present and would recommend it to friends and readers alike. Good stuff.