Book Review: Christmas and Other Horrors Edited by Ellen Datlow
Genre: Horror
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
I have a confession to make: my personal opinion on anthologies is that open submission anthologies tend to provide a better reading experience than invite anthologies with big names. Invite anthologies have their place and I definitely think they can work at times, I just think the other ones – more commonly found in indie horror – just generally contain stronger stories.
I didn’t dislike Christmas and Other Horrors, but I did think it could have been better. It’s good that the stories don’t just revolve around Christmas, and there’s some interesting stuff here featuring other winter holidays and traditions. It would have been good, considering the types of stories included, to have more non-American authors featured, instead there’s American ‘takes’ on different cultures’ folklore and winter traditions. To a point, it’s fine, but if an aim of an anthology is to include stories from beyond North America, why not include writers who aren’t from North America?
I found this particularly evident in “His Castle” by Alma Katsu. This story is about a pair of immortals who return to their ‘home village’ at Christmas to enact revenge on the ‘gentry’. The short story is set in the modern day, but it kind of paints a particular area of Wales as ‘behind the times’, with locals who are hostile towards the couple for “being from London”, and identify them as such based on their car. Despite the fact the area the story is located in isn’t as remote as made out in the story, the locals are backwards and aggressive in a way that just feels insulting. Fact is, the details feel off throughout it, but in ways you’re only going to identify if you’re familiar with the area. I can’t speak for the other countries represented throughout the anthology, but although mostly enjoyable, one or two had the same sense of something being off, a kind of unfamiliarity or stiffness in the way they tried to evoke specific areas.
There were, though, stories I did like in this anthology. “The Blessing of the Waters”, “Dry and Ready”, “Return to Bear Creek Lodge” and “All the Pretty People” are intriguing, memorable stories that each gave a varied flavour. As for the others, on the whole I found myself more frustrated than entertained by these. “The Lord of Misrule” I struggled through, and found the MC deeply unpleasant, and something about “The Ghost of Christmases Past” put me off.
I do think these anthologies might serve as good introductions for people who aren’t as familiar with horror, or who are looking to find more authors within the genre beyond big names like King. There are great authors here, but if you’re already well versed in the genre and looking for something stronger, I’d suggest checking out the more indie offerings out there for anthologies.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this ebook from Titan Books via NetGalley for review consideration.
