When Things Get Dark

Starred review from August 23, 2021
Winner of Multiple Hugo Awards, Datlow (Final Cuts) brings together 18 outstanding, atmospheric horror shorts from some of the biggest names in the genre—including Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, and Joyce Carol Oates—in tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson. A trio of women explore a house with a bizarre secret in Elizabeth Hand’s “For Sale by Owner.” Cassandra Khaw’s “Quiet Dead Things” traces the fall of the sleepy township of Cedarville following a rash of inexplicable deaths. In Karen Heuler’s “Money of the Dead,” a grief-stricken woman buys back the spirit of her son from the afterlife. Benjamin Percy’s “Hag” tells of one woman’s reckoning with a cult on an isolated island. Each of Datlow’s chilling selections successfully honors the spirit of Jackson’s writing, suffused with both the darkest of human emotions and the terror of the supernatural. Any fan of Jackson’s oeuvre will delight in this anthology.

August 20, 2021
Shirley Jackson has always been there, haunting high-school textbooks with her tales of lethal lotteries. But it's hard to dispute that there's been a genuine resurgence of interest in her work in recent years. We've seen Ruth Franklin's acclaimed biography, Netflix's Haunting of Hill House series, and films based on Jackson's work and life, so the timing seems perfect for this compendium, inspired by her work. As with all anthologies, readers will find some stories more effective than others; there's also some variation in terms of how Jackson-esque each entry feels. Cassandra Khaw's ""Quiet Dead Things,"" with its exploration of rural paranoia, probably channels Jackson's flavor of dread most effectively, but there are plenty of other gems here. Good luck sleeping after reading Benjamin Percy's witchy trip tale ""Hag"" or Karen Heuler's monkey's-paw-ish ""Money of the Dead."" That's not to mention acclaimed writers like Joyce Carol Oates and Kelly Link, who also contribute memorable stories. Readers with a taste for the macabre should find plenty to enjoy in this inspired collection.

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September 24, 2021

Legendary horror editor Datlow's new anthology is replete with stories inspired by Shirley Jackson, from the likes of Paul Tremblay, Joyce Carol Oates, and Laird Barron. It includes more than a dozen tales of the macabre, each one showcasing the author's own unique interpretation of Jackson's themes, with more modern sensibilities. Notable entries include Seanan McGuire's chilling "In the Deep Woods; The Light Is Different There," about children who become aware that bad things happen in life and women who enter into marriages they think will be for the better only to learn that nothing could be further from the truth. "Hag," by Benjamin Percy, focuses on a family with a rental property in Cape Cod and a reporter named Ellie who has come to town from Boston to investigate a murder, one of several that occurs on the coast of Maine. It's soon revealed that Ellie has a more personal connection to the murder than she initially let on. Oates's "Take Me, I Am Free" starts off with a mother complaining to someone on the phone that her daughter is perverse and hides her true nature but that no one else sees it. "Skinder's Veil," by Kelly Link, explores territory that will be familiar to academics struggling to finish dissertations and doing their best to cope with unpleasant roommates; then it turns into a "fairy tale gone horribly wrong" scenario when the protagonist agrees to go housesitting in Vermont. VERDICT This solid anthology contains quiet horror takes on the themes and motifs that often appear in Jackson's work.

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