What is "weird" fiction? The short and easy answer is H.P. Lovecraft and works inspired by him. But that isn't nearly large enough. The longer answer is, any story where a key element of the narrative is that something is off. Something is strange. And this offness and strangeness is unsettling and possibly hints at our entire reality being a lie.Why read something so upsetting? Because it appeals to the skeptic in all of us. Deep down, a lot of us feel like we're not getting the whole picture.

I'm not sure I've ever read a satisfying anthology. Maybe I'd make an exception for Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions; I can't think of another one. Anthologies, in my experience, mix too many duds in with the winners.This book is no exception. I'd say about a third of the stories left me scratching my head--and it wasn't so much of the "what did that story mean" scratching, although there was plenty of that, but more of the "what the heck was the editor thinking, selecting this piece of crap?...

These stories were good not great and it's probably more about my expectations than anything else. With Barron running the show I anticipated mind bending and spectacular but none of these tales really reached those heights for me. There were moments here and there;The Nineteenth Step by Simon Stranzas had a bit of a House of Leaves vibeIn her tired state, she thought she saw the steps move ever so slightly, as though they had settled into place only as she'd turned the corner.Furnace by Livia L...

Overall, I found this first volume of "weird" stories thoroughly enjoyable. Laird Barron has managed to pull together a nice variety of modern day tales of madness and woe (as someone who's reviewing Lovecraft or Poe might pen). I was pleased to see some of my very favorite storytellers in here. Also, the list of other notable stories at the end is an excellent touch. Be forewarned, this volume is best read under a full moon or by candlelight. :)

Abridged from https://doomsdayer.wordpress.com/2015... So we all love weird fiction now, right? The Weird got a lot of attention, True Detective(and, by extension, Chambers and Ligotti) was everywhere, the Southern Reach trilogy (which are weird, genre-specific books, marketing be damned) is huge, and now we have the first-ever annual year’s best series devoted to the field. I think that an argument could probably be made tracing this explosion back to the success of Lost… but actually making th...

These stories display a variety of weird fiction styles, but they're all "approachable" and surprisingly consistent in terms of quality. Most are at least above average, more than a few are exceptional and leave a lasting impression. I would say for any weird fiction anthology this is all you can ask.For me this collection was a good way to discover new authors, and read others I've been curious about for some time. I was expecting to find some selections with a similar style or mood of Laird Ba...

Livia Llewellyn has the best story here.

Fantastic start to the series! The first of five (unfortunately that's all, but I'm glad of what we received), this volume was edited by Laird Barron and the series editor, Michael Kelly. They put together a truly great collection, with some incredibly varied stories. My favorites were:John Langan - Bor UrusSimon Strantzas - The Nineteenth StepRichard Gavin - A Cavern of RedbrickDamien Angelica Walters - Shall I Whisper to You of Moonlight, of Sorrow, of Pieces of Us?Livia Llewellyn - Furnace Mi...

There were very few stories I enjoyed in this. my favorites year of the rat - chen qiufanbor urus - john langanmoonstruck - karin tidbeck no breather in the world but thee - jeff vandermeer

A solid collection of short stories, mostly in a strange, spooky and haunting mode but also including forays into science fiction, steampunk, and humor. The unifying element is good storytelling, and even if some of the tales aren't precisely Weird Fiction with capitals W and F, they are all very well-told. The list of standouts, for me, is quite long: "Swim Wants to Know If It's as Bad as Swim Thinks" by Paul Tremblay, in which a fragmented consciousness encounters something monstrous; "Year of...

I'm a big fan of Laird's writing so I was intrigued to see what he chose for this volume. Well, its certainly an esoteric collection and hard to rate. I gave it five stars despite not wanting to finish couple of stories. Highlights for me were the works by Paul Tremblay, Chen Quifan, Livia Llewellyn, John Langan, Maria Headley, Anna Taborska, Jeffrey Thomas, Karin Tidbeck and John R Fultz. All of whom I will definitely be reading further.

Last year saw two major publishing events in the field of Weird Fiction. The first, and the one that garnered the most mainstream column inches, was the publication of Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy -Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance, which saw The Weird being thrust into the mainstream as it never has before. The second major event was the publishing of Michael Kelly and Laird Barron’s ‘The Year’s Best Weird Fiction’. This is the first, to my knowledge, explicitly Weird Fiction

not as good as vandermeer's collection of the new weird, but still quite enjoyably weird.

Ever since the advent of Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's massive anthology The Weird, it's a good time to be a fan of Weird Fiction and the new Year's Best Weird Fiction collection is just another indication of that happy fact. Kudos to Series Editor Michael Kelly for getting this project off the ground! What could be better than a yearly round-up of all the best Weird Fiction on display and the idea of having different editors for each proposed yearly Volume is also an interesting concept. Laird Barr...

The first read of this year wasn`t quite what I was expecting.I liked :Swim wants to know if it`s as bad as Swim thinks – Paul Tremblay. Some kind of gigantic creatures from the Sea are upon us.The Year of the rat – Chen Qiufan and translated by Ken Liu – This was one of the most beautiful and strange story of this Anthology. In an Asian country there is a problem with genetic modified rats.To fight them the Government has build the Rodent –Control Force…and I will stop here .Very well written.T...

Llewellyn, Headley, Blumlein, Qiufan, Vandermeer, Samatar

I have spoken for many years about parthenogenesis in literature, and late-labelling and nemonymity, but I see now I should have been talking about perigenesis. From epigene to perigene. This man — in synergy with his wife, she with him, then variously out of such synergy, till a new particle into his Large Hard-On Collider comes into play at the novella’s end — represents the apotheosis of the Jeffrey Thomas syndrome in the help (or love and care) coming unexpectedly from what he sees in the mi...

What a literary smorgasbord of the bizarre this book is! Within these pages you will find science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, magical realism and some stories that defy genre. There is not one weak story in this collection.

An outstanding premier collection that seems to not get as high a rating as it deserves. The Emily Dickinson I thought was the weakest of the lot, followed by the Wilum H. Pugmire story and I would have still give them both a strong three stars. Maybe some people were looking for some just wild out there stuff, but Barron favors the weird but comprehensible, sorta, over bizarre experiemental writing that at times leaves me cold. It always seems like writers in love with themselves. Not here thou...

***The Nineteenth Step by Simon Strantzas: The ending was too vague, the horror was too ridiculous to be legitimately horrifying (an extra step in the staircase? Really?), and I just didn't get the ending. Not to mention the poor editing that made reading difficult:He grabbed her wrist too tightly and dragged her around that corner she had no desire breech.Anything but stay as the were, her watching helplessly as he climbed the stairs to the unknown.****SWIM Wants to Know if It's as Bad as SWIM