By Mario 
Night and Day edited by Ellen Datlow
A Horror Book Review by Mario Guslandi
Ellen Datlow is by far the most famous horror editor in the world, well respected and very prolific. In addition to her classic “ Best Horror of the Year” series she keeps assembling original anthologies featuring new stories apt to scare and entertain readers fond of good horror fiction.
The present book is divided in two parts ( night and day) addressing potential scares taking place in the dark or in the light. The task has been entrusted to a group of expert authors in the field, in order to produce a volume of horrific tales bound to entertain and to disquiet any horror lover.
I will take advantage of my privilege as a reviewer by focusing only on those stories that I found especially compelling and particularly disturbing.
Here are the ones from the Night section.
“ Trash Night” by Clay McLoad Chapman is a nightmarish piece where a garbage collector gets himself overwhelmed ( in more than one way).
“ At Night , My Dad” by Dan Chaon is an unsettling tale featuring a young man with heroin addiction being cared by his own father.
Benjamin Percy provides “ Fear of the Dark” an excellent, deeply disturbing story suspended between life and death.
In the Day section I was especially impressed by the following tales.
“ One Day” by Jeffrey Ford, a tense, breathtaking story where normality gives way to a frightening new reality.
“ Hold Us in the Light” by the always dependable AC Wise, a puzzling piece revolving around a strange idol retrieved inside an abandoned mine.
To me the best story in the book is the really outstanding “ Dismaying Creatures” by Robert Shearman, a very dark fable where a newly wedded couple spend their honeymoon in a luxurious residence full of disreputable, weird creatures.
Enjoy!
Night & Day: Dreadful Dark: Tales of Nighttime Horror/Merciless Sun: Tales of Daylight Horror (Saga Doubles) by Ellen Datlow
A horror anthology edited by the genre’s greatest, Ellen Datlow, with one side featuring stories about what haunts the night while the other side showcases the terrors that can exist in the light of day in this new addition to the Saga Doubles series.
This anthology contains stories from some of the most evocative and bestselling writers of horror and speculative fiction.
Night—Dreadful Dark: Tales of Nighttime Horror
Table of Contents
Trash Night by Clay McLeod Chapman
We Take Off Our Skin in the Dark by Eric LaRocca
The Door of Sleep by Stephen Graham Jones
At Night, My Dad by Dan Chaon
The Night House by Gemma Files
The Night-Mirrors by Pat Cadigan
Fear of the Dark by Benjamin Percy
The Picknicker by Josh Malerman
Secret Night by Nathan Ballingrud
Day—Merciless Sun: Tales of Daylight
Table of Contents
The Bright Day by Priya Sharma
Faire by Rachel Harrison
Trick of the Light by Brian Evenson
One Day by Jeffrey Ford
The Wanting by A.T. Greenblatt
Hold Us in the Light by A.C. Wise
Dismaying Creatures by Robert Shearman
Bitter Skin by Kaaron Warren
Cold Iron by Sophie White
Horror Book Reviews on Ginger Nuts of Horror
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Jim Mcleod