Shocklines: Fresh Voices in Terror

Some of them lurk in the shadows, others have been right in front of you for years now, but you still don't see them coming.Who are they?That's not an easy question to answer.It's easy to say they are the next wave of horror superstars, but they take many forms and some don't even categorize their work as horror. Some write stories that are rough and raw, making you squirm as they paint a portrait of terror with their words. Some write stories that are polished and deceptively quiet, making your heart ache by the final line.No matter what kind of stories they write, these authors always find a way to get under your skin, and this ground-breaking anthology of horror fiction is certain to be one of the most talked about anthologies of the year.

From Booklist

Chizmar, anthologist and publisher of Cemetery Dance, and Schwartz, founder of the horror-themed website Shocklines.com, present 19 new horror stories by authors such as Tim Lebbon (prolific author of genre novels), Ted Kosmatka (author of two excellent ­speculative-fiction novels, The Games, 2012, and Prophet of Bones, 2013), Yvonne Navarro (popular author of several books set in the “Buffyverse”), Norman Prentiss (award-­winning author of short fiction), and Rio Youers (author of the novel Westlake Soul, 2012). The stories cover a wide range of ground, from subtle character studies to ­outright shockers to twisters in the style of Tales of the Unexpected; but what unites them all is the high quality of the writing. A lot of anthologies have a few bright lights and several less successful tales, with one or two clunkers; here, there is a uniformity of excellence, and it would be hard to single out any story as being better than the others. For fans of horror short fiction, a must-read. --David Pitt

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