Irreverent merriment. Diabolical debauchery. Gory good times. Editor Shane McKenzie has gutted the holiday spirit and left it to bleed out on the pages of this gruesome, extreme horror tribute to special occasions. Includes stories by the following masters of the macabre: Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Bentley Little, Nate Southard, Lee Thomas, Wrath James White and More! Table of Contents: "Consensual" by Jack Ketchum "securedate.com" by Boyd E. Harris "Face" by Patrick Shand "Ghunt" by Lee Thomas "Joyeux Paques" by Emma Ennis "The Greatest Sin" by Kevin Wallis "The Greenhouse Garden of Suicides" by Kirk Jones "IHeartRecycling" by Lesley Conner "Taco Meat" by Jon McNee "Remember What I Said About Living Out in the Country?" by A.J. Brown "Every Day a Holiday" by Steve Lowe "Seeing Red" by Chris Lewis Carter "Southern Fried Cruelty" by Matt Kurtz "By Bizarre Hands" by Joe R. Lansdale "Family Man" by John Bruni "We Run Races With Goblin Troopers" by Lee Thompson "Pascal's Wager" by Wrath James White "A Special Surprise at Thanksgiving Dinner" by Elle Richfield "Waiting for Santa" by Bentley Little "Hung With Care" by Ty Schwamberger "Sunshine Beamed" by Marie Green "Dia de los Inocentes" by Elias Siqueiros "Three, Two, One" by Nate Southard

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” This statement was true when H. P. Lovecraft first wrote it at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains true at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The only thing that has changed is what is unknown. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this “light” creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year, edited by Ellen Datlow, chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness, as articulated by today’s most challenging and exciting writers. The best horror writers of today do the same thing that horror writers of a hundred years ago did. They tell good stories — stories that scare us. And when these writers tell really good stories that really scare us, Ellen Datlow notices. She’s been noticing for more than a quarter century. For twenty-one years, she coedited The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and for the last six years, she’s edited this series. In addition to this monumental cataloging of the best, she has edited hundreds of other horror anthologies and won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards. More than any other editor or critic, Ellen Datlow has charted the shadowy abyss of horror fiction. Join her on this journey into the dark parts of the human heart. either for the first time. or once again

Stranded on a desert island, a young man yearns for objects from his past. A local from a small coastal town in England is found dead as the tide goes out. A Norwegian whaling ship is stranded in the Arctic, its crew threatened by mysterious forces. In the nineteenth century, a ship drifts in becalmed waters in the Indian Ocean, those on it haunted by their evil deeds. A surfer turned diver discovers there are things worse than drowning under the sea. Something from the sea is creating monsters on land. In The Devil and the Deep, award-winning editor Ellen Datlow shares an all-original anthology of horror that covers the depths of the deep blue sea, with brand new stories from New York Times bestsellers and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Christopher Golden, Stephen Graham Jones, and more