The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror Vol 1 is Heading Your Way – Exclusive Giveaway from Ginger Nuts of Horror
Horror anthologies have a bloodline that stretches back more than a century. From the Victorian ghost stories collected by Montague Rhodes James to the paperback terror of the Pan Books of Horror in the 1960s, from Stephen Jones’s long‑running Mammoth Book of Best New Horror to the modern renaissance driven by indie presses, the short story has always been the genre’s beating heart.
A single volume can hold a dozen nightmares, each with its own rules, its own wounds, its own way of getting under your skin. That is why Ginger Nuts of Horror is genuinely, almost embarrassingly excited about The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror Vol 1. This is a debut anthology from Black Crow Books, a fresh player in the field, and they have come out swinging. Thirteen original stories. No reprints. No filler. Just new terrors from a lineup of authors that reads like a hall of fame invitation. We have read the file. We are still shaking a little. Let us tell you why.
Horror anthologies have a rich history. Black Crow Books just added a new chapter.
A man bites into a ham sandwich he made himself. Something does not belong there. He peels back the bread and finds one long, dark hair. Not his. His ex‑girlfriend’s. She has left the country, but her hair stays – in the drain, wrapped around his toe like a tourniquet, and eventually growing inside his chest until nothing of him remains except a dead thing shaped like a man. Lisa Tuttle’s “It Gets Everywhere” opens the anthology with a slow, domestic slide into bodily ruin. It is only the first shock.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Ghost Hunt” takes a completely different direction. A doctor activates a machine that makes ghosts visible – specifically the ghosts of mammoths extinct for a hundred millennia. Wealthy hunters pay to shoot them with special cartridges. But the ghosts of the prehistoric humans who hunted those mammoths also appear. And they remember. The story asks what happens when the hunted becomes the hunter, and when the past refuses to stay dead.
Olivie Blake’s “Tell Me I’m Scrumptious” follows a graphic novelist who has carried a teenage crush on a C‑list actor from a failed franchise. Twenty years later, she meets him at a convention. They start sleeping together. He calls himself the emperor. She calls him my lord. The fantasy consumes her until reality – and a manifesto – catch up. Blake turns fandom into a horror of devotion, and devotion into a trap.
Then there is Tim Lebbon’s “Bow Knee Lake.” A man lives alone beside a polluted, lifeless lake. He walks with a limp. He collects bones from the water – human bones – and uses them to replace his own failing joints. A water tester arrives to take samples. The man calls him Eighteen. The lake does not give up its dead quickly. But it gives them up eventually.
Those four stories appear alongside nine others in this debut anthology from Black Crow Books, published in Great Britain in 2025. The full list of contributors reads like a who’s who of contemporary horror and dark fiction: Lisa Tuttle, Ally Wilkes, Lily Kade, Adrian Tchaikovsky, TL Huchu, V Castro, Olivie Blake, Ramsey Campbell, Rian Hughes, Lindy Ryan, Susi Holliday, Tim Lebbon, and Clay McLeod Chapman. That is thirteen original stories. No reprints. No filler.
Ramsey Campbell contributes “The Compensation,” about a stranded traveller who joins a local tour that feels less like sightseeing and more like a ritual. Rian Hughes offers “The Other Brother,” a metafictional chiller about a childhood horror novel that seems to rewrite itself every time you read it. Clay McLeod Chapman’s “Backsliding” follows a family trying to trust a mother who has just returned from an exorcism.
Susi Holliday’s “Mr Perfect” turns cosmetic surgery into a nightmare of control. Ally Wilkes sends a reality TV survivalist into the Canadian wilderness, where something in the trees learns to mimic his voice. V Castro visits a village where a butcher’s rhyme might summon the dead. TL Huchu blends immigration, guilt, and ancestral spirits in “The Midnight Burn.” Lindy Ryan’s “Stay in Touch” finds four elderly women telling ghost stories – and planning one last goodbye. Lily Kade’s “Muses” reveals what really fuels literary genius.
And here is the news that should excite you most. Ginger Nuts of Horror is running an exclusive giveaway of the hardback edition. One winner receives a copy of The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror Vol 1. Do not sleep on this. Thirteen voices. One debut anthology. Zero safety nets. For a chance to win a copy of this fabulous horror anthology simple like and share the following social media posts. Giveaway restricted to UK only
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13 original tales to terrify in a brand new anthology showcasing the very best and bizarre in horror fiction
Featuring horror legends and worldwide bestsellers Olivie Blake, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Tim Lebbon, V Castro, Ally Wilkes, Rian Hughes, Lindy Ryan, Susi Holliday, Lily Kade, TL Huchu, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Clay McLeod Chapman
Original cover design and endpapers by Rian Hughes, plus sprayed edges
Be careful what you wish for.
Whether searching for love, fame, money or revenge, remember that everything comes with a price. From stepping into an unknown in nature to ignoring the warnings of locals, to finding your perfect match or facing the hidden horrors of your past, beware.
The thirteen stories in this brand- new anthology explore the dark side of human nature and take us into the hidden, terrifying recesses of a world we never see.
Until it’s too late…
Following record breaking sales in horror fiction and the rise of new imprints focusing on the genre, the appetite for all things weird and wonderful is bigger than ever. Both a new venture and passion project, The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror combines stories from the biggest and best authors writing today, brought to you by industry experts, uber nerds and fans.
Genre bookseller Matt Holland (The Broken Binding) and genre comms specialist Jamie- Lee Nardone (Black Crow PR) joined forces in 2024 to launch Black Crow Books; an agile and bespoke publisher and bookseller with a mission to publish the best new names in horror while also bringing out special editions of classics both old and new as well as subscription boxes. The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror Volume 1 is their inaugural anthology. Cover design, logo and typography by Rian Hughes. www.blackcrowbooks.co.uk
