SO. GOOD.Seriously, it starts off slightly weird then it escalates until it truly is hardcore; not necessarily because of the gore, but mostly because of the characters and the situations and emotions described. There is not a single bad story here; you will enjoy some more than others, obviously, but you won't dislike any story. You just cannot, they're way too good and the writing is unexpectedly good. This was an amazing surprise and I enjoyed every page of this anthology. I'll be checking on...

4.5*I listened to the audio of this book and thought that Joe Hempel was a fantastic narrator. I did find a few editing mistakes and not all the stories were for me, for that I knocked off half a star. On the whole this was a very good collection.The stories in order were:"Worth the having" by Michael Paul Gonzalez - A somewhat stomach churning look at what happens when you get everything you wish for and the price you have to pay. This one had me cringing at the details in some parts, a great s...

If you pick up a collection boldly entitled „Year‘s Best Hardcore Horror“ I guess it is a reasonable expectation, that the stories contained within go one step further than the usual stuff found in other anthologies of the genre.I am not necessarily talking about further in terms of over the top violence and gore ala Edward Lee and his likes but also in terms of psychological boundaries being pushed or conventions broken. Unfortunately two thirds of the stories in this anthology do nothing to se...

My original Year's Best Hardcore Horror Volume 1 audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.I thought this collection of 19 horror stories would be suitable listening for Halloween week and it did indeed end up to be very captivating and entertaining. I don’t actually listen to/read a lot of horror and don’t very often pick short stories, so this was quite a change for me. Perhaps because of that, I was only familiar with one of the authors, The Behrg. But since finishin...

Gross, Disgusting, Sick --- but Cool !This review is from: Year's Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 1 (Audible Audio Edition)As anthologies go for hardcore horror, this is one of the better ones. Because of the intense subject matter, it's best if digested in small, bite-size (body) parts! Are all the stories killers? No, but the ratio of "OMG!" reactions to "meh" or "yawn" is very high. If you don't like taboo-breaking defilement of bodies (not dead, near-dead, or dead) and graphic, in-your-face des...

I received a copy of this anthology from an author friend of mine and I am super glad he thought of me. Thanks to “you know who you are!” And yes, he did have a story in here, and yes, it was awesome, and no, I’m not telling you who it was. Ha! It really doesn’t matter anyway, because all of the stories in here were at a minimum pretty good to quite excellent. (Of course, your mileage may vary.) Whenever I start an anthology I am always hit with a sense of anticipation and fear. Anticipation tha...

4.5 stars!Normally, I'm more of an atmospheric horror gal than a gore lover, however, I do believe there's room for both in the horror genre of today. I picked up this volume when it first came out, but it was the offer of the free audio, (in exchange for my honest review), that made it possible for me to read it now rather than some time in 2017. This was my first book narrated by Joe Hempel and I think he did a fine job, especially considering the often shocking subject matter. There were a fe...

While I was expecting and hoping for more "hardcore" entries, this was a solid and overall satisfying anthology. When I review horror short stories, I look at originality, character development, story, atmosphere, how scary it was, and whether the word count merited the impact. In general, a five page story that can achieve the same effect as a thirty page story is a superior tale. The true highlights in this volume were "Worth The Having" by Michael Paul Gonzalez, "Reborn" by The Behrg, "Eleano...

I am not a fast reader, and for once I am glad, because I enjoyed the hell out of this book. I was able to savor it and take in each story at my own pace. I am no stranger to hardcore horror. I've read extreme narratives alongside the more subtle novels that allow your mind to do the dirty work. I enjoy both styles, especially if the extreme novels are well written and imaginative.This collection of 19 short horror stories fit the bill for me. I was not once disappointed. I recognized many of th...

4.5 stars!I was amazed at the quality and versatility of the stories in the YEAR'S BEST HARDCORE HORROR Volume 1. Editors Randy Chandler, and Cheryl Mullenax compiled 19 tales with varying degrees of gore, mutilation, torture, violence, and sexual torment--bringing them together into one book for the fans of extreme, hardcore horror.After I had read and rated each story, I was surprised to note that I had given a 5-star rating to seven of them, and a 4.5-star to an additional four! As in any col...

I don't write spoilers, but this book is well worth the read but not for weak stomachs. :)

4.5 starsA horror collection from some of the leading horror authors in the genre? Yes, please. I have to say that you had me at "Adam Howe," and when I saw some of my other favorite authors in the lineup, I thought that Christmas came early this year. That said, it's an anthology. I didn't love every story in here, but the stories I loved, I loved hard. My absolute favorites were (in this order): "Reborn" by The Behrg, "Cleanup on Aisle 3" by Adam Howe, "Awakening" by Jeff Strand, "Eleanor" by

I get it. Pregnant women and babies are very vulnerable. I just wished horror authors would stop relying on them for shock value so much. In 19 stories, we have four dead babies (though one is a demon baby and rightly dead I guess) and two dead (formerly) pregnant women. And one tortured kid.Other than that I really enjoyed reading most of the stories, if enjoyed is the right word because most of them were obviously rather disgusting. The anthology had a good selection of gut churning horror, so...

Anthologies are really hard to make great. With different authors, all with different styles and ability, it is nearly impossible to make the entire thing a solid, great work. This book is no exception to that rule. This book also suffers from its gimmick, because many of the writers in this collection sacrifice plot for shock factor. What's worse, there were few stories here that were actually shocking (to be fair, though, I have a VERY high tolerance to gore and "shock value" in fiction). Perh...

Taking the title of Comet Press’s anthology Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 1 at face value rather than a product of the editors’ preferences is a disquieting proposition, but we’ll go with it. There’s a great deal to be learned about the horror genre as it stands today from this collection, some of it good, some of it dismaying.The three stories written by women all involve female protagonists making male characters helpless and doing unspeakable things to them. Lilith Morgan’s What You Wish...

This one's a decent enough anthology, but not one that rocked my socks off. There's some good stories in here, but the volume, taken as a whole, left me a bit cold. The ones that I enjoyed, I really f'ing enjoyed, though! Jeff Strand delivers a great and darkly humorous serial killer story, but it's The Behrg's "Reborn" that stood out the most for me. Violent and wonderfully gruesome, this story tells you why churches no longer accept babies left at their doorstops. Other stand-outs include Adam...

Okay, there a few stories in this that made me think WTF. So I knew what I was getting into with a title that includes Hardcore and Horror. There are definitely some “out there” stories in this, but the mix is good. It’s not all dead babies and pints of fecal matter. So I’ve dived in and picked the highlights.“Worth The Having” by Michael Paul Gonzalez is a fantastic opener to this collection. It’s old school, be careful what you wish for, spooky horror, with a little bit of blood to lubricate t...

STORIES: 3 starsPERFORMANCE: 5 stars OVERALL: 4 stars *WHY I GAVE THE STORIES IN THIS ANTHOLOGY 3 STARS*The majority of the stories in this anthology were exceptionally well written. Most contained eloquence and graphic detail that led to a sense of believability despite how unrealistic the paranormal entity and it's bizarre behaviors were. For totally fantastical tales of things that can and will never happen in real life to be written so well that they were somewhat believable says a lot about...

A solid collection of stories. i enjoyed every one but they're where a couple that I loved enough to add the authors to my tbr. I wouldn't really call most of these hardcore horror though, a few where comedic (Jeff strands being the best one) a few where certainly hardcore as far as shock value but they just weren't what I would consider horror, just violence that isn't written in a scary or ominous way at all and mostly told from the point of the killer, or some brutal tourture/rapes There is t...

Every single thing about this book is embarrassing.The amateurish stories, the attempts at being "edge" that come across trite and awkward, and especially the fact that stories that lack any depth other than sexual violence against women make them "cutting edge." This is one of the most poorly put together volumes I have ever read, and compared to all the other more "conventional" 'best of' collections for horror, the stories in this feel like cliched retreads of tired horror themes from a crowd...