| Title | : | The New Black |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1940430046 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781940430041 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 344 |
| Publication | : | First published April 21, 2014 |
| Awards | : | This is Horror Award Anthology (2014) |
The New Black Reviews
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What is the best way to read an anthology of short stories? Sometimes I can gobble up three or four stories in one sitting and enjoy the varieties of this and that, put it on the shelf and go back days or weeks later to select again. The New Black, however, is not that kind of anthology. I lived with this book close at hand (on my Kindle) for weeks and read one story a day (a couple of days I read two), which I looked forward to each day. Because the stories are so rich with themes of loneliness, addictions, despair, desperation, curiosity, and the inner life of the characters … and because the stories are charged with narratives that put every detail and emotion under a magnifying glass, I really needed space and time to absorb each story as its own prize. My favorites by far are The Familiar by Michaela Morrissette (slow down and savor this one), Dredge by Matt Bell (couldn’t sleep after getting to know Punter), and Dollhouse (wicked little ghost story) by Craig Wallwork. The selection of authors here are all stellar and their stories are dark in ways that made me stop reading for a minute to shake my head—-like in His Footsteps Are Made Of Soot by Nik Korpon, which is about home-surgery and absolutely shuddering to read. Some stories I will have to read again though, as second-time reads can give you that extra kick in. The New Black is more than fiction, these stories are experiences.
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The new black is a collection of 20 short stories by some great authors of the horror genre that take the genre to the edge. These authors were all new to me and I hadn't previously read any of their work. The new black has a forward by Laird Barron, he gives a well thought-out explanation of the old black and the new black and where the edges of the genre are. This collection starts with Stephen Graham Jones writing a deep and powerful story of a boy and his father and their fight for survival. Next is a story by Paul Tremblay told from a perspective we all have long forgotten, that of a small child. I can not say much about this story without giving the story away. What I can say is it really made me think how different life is seen from a child's eyes. The next few stories continue with the main character or theme revolving around a child which just as in the movie Pet Cemetery really gives me the creeps. I really enjoyed the story Dial Tone by Benjamin Percy which is found somewhere buried in the middle and did a great job telling the story about a telemarketer who we can all imagine (weirdo, crackpot, etc.) Roy Kesey brings us the story titled Instituto, a great look at how we may never seem to be satisfied even after all appears to be perfect. The very short story Dollhouse, maybe the shortest in this collection may very well be the best. It felt like I had just watched a marathon of the twilight zoneb by that I mean I was creeped out to no end and needed something else to replace the creepy crawlies. Nik Korpon's tale has a satisfying twist in 'His Footsteps are Made of Soot', i expected a left turn and got a right turn instead. I love when a writer can get me to look in one direction while he takes the story in another. As the collection of stories winds to an end we find an intriguing tale my Matt Bell called Dredge. This story left me with the same unease I felt after watching a movie like Psycho. The main character is traumatized in childhood and can't escape his demons. The collection is nicely wraped up with the story Windeye by Brian Evenson leaving you wondering what is real and what is make believe. I recommend this book to those looking for a different angle to the usual horror story.
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What is the best way to read an anthology of short stories? Sometimes I can gobble up three or four stories in one sitting and enjoy the varieties of this and that, put it on the shelf and go back days or weeks later to select again. The New Black, however, is not that kind of anthology. I lived with this book close at hand (on my Kindle) for weeks and read one story a day (a couple of days I read two), which I looked forward to each day. Because the stories are so rich with themes of loneliness, addictions, despair, desperation, curiosity, and the inner life of the characters ... and because the stories are charged with narratives that put every detail and emotion under a magnifying glass, I really needed space and time to absorb each story as its own prize. My favorites by far are The Familiar by Michaela Morrissette (slow down and savor this one), Dredge by Matt Bell (couldn't sleep after getting to know Punter), and Dollhouse (wicked little ghost story) by Craig Wallwork. The selection of authors here are all stellar and their stories are dark in ways that made me stop reading for a minute to shake my head--like in His Footsteps Are Made Of Soot by Nik Korpon, which is about home-surgery and absolutely shuddering to read. Some stories I will have to read again though, as second-time reads can give you that extra kick in. The New Black is more than fiction, these stories are experiences.
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This is one of the most consistently interesting and rewarding collections of dark fiction/horror/whatever that I've come across. My only complaint is quite a few of what I considered the stronger stories have recently appeared in collections elsewhere. Didn't mind rereading the Evenson, Minor, Stephen Graham Jones, etc though. (I'm generally very negative about multi-author anthologies; this is a notable exception.)
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I picked up this collection because it has stories by two of my favorite authors. The stories were consistently good, and there were only two that I didn’t enjoy as much as the rest.
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I suppose Neo-Noir fiction can best be defined as "dark fiction". This anthology edited by Richard Thomas collects stories from amazing authors blurring genre lines.
I think most of these stories take that delicious horror tension and use it in a new way.
Rebecca Jones-Howe's story, BLUE HAWAII is the perfect example of this. The unreliable protagonist has someone else's infant in her care and this creates this overwhelming sense of dread throughout the entire story. Every turned page feels like YOU the reader are responsible for remembering the baby but the character is attending to her own selfish needs.
FATHER, SON, HOLY RABBIT by Stephen Graham Jones is one of those stories where the reader feels the truth of what's happening nipping at the edges of your mind but the author keeps it hidden until just the right moment. It's a soul crusher.
There are some compelling tales about killers...DIAL TONE by Benjamin Percy & THE ETIQUETTE OF HOMICIDE by Tara Laskowski.
This is an older anthology that I decided to pick up on a whim so I had already read Paul Tremblay's story, IT'S AGAINST THE LAW TO FEED THE DUCKS (this one is in GROWING THINGS) which I loved and also Craig Davidson's RUST & BONE (also found in Davidson's short story collection with the same title)-a haunting, gripping story that is rough on the feels.
There were some stories I didn't read all the way--I just skipped to the next but there were only a few. Overall, this anthology is one for the collectors. The cover is great and the interior design is beautiful; little illustrations accompanying each story. I'm glad I own this one. -
Raise high the hems of your dress skirts, ladies. You're about to step in it.
I must confess: I've been waiting for this anthology to be published for a long time. Any opportunity to get Craig Clevenger, Nik Korpon, Brian Evenson, Stephen Graham Jones (to name a few) inside one book... whoa. My chief concern was anything getting this much anticipation has got to be a letdown.
Nope.
From the opening pages, readers find out just what they are in for. "Father Son Holy Rabbit" by Stephen Graham Jones is just as messed up as you'd expect his work to be. Throughout reading the book, I wondered if editor Richard Thomas could have picked a better piece to set the tone. I highly doubt it. I am a well-documented fan of the subject matter and sat in fervent envy of the tight tension on display here.
Next up: Paul Tremblay's masterful "It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks." Man, I love apocalyptic fiction, but after The Road, it's hard to get amped up to read it anymore. But Tremblay captures the impending dread and doom just as well as ole Cormac and my only issue with this story is that it wasn't a hundred pages longer.
From there Lindsay Hunter hits us with "The Baby," which turns out to be the perfect palate cleanser before hurtling headlong into the abyss.
I couldn't put this one down. The stories were well-selected and represent the best of the best in the burgeoning neo-noir genre. Both editor Thomas and Laird Barron set up the definition of neo-noir in the foreword and introduction, so all that's left is to sit back, relax, and prepare to have your socks blown off.
While this is completely satisfying on its own, I truly hope there is a New Black II. -
Ok, so, we're calling it. This is going to be one of the best anthologies published in 2014.
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Richard Thomas has compiled and edited a remarkable collection of stories in his anthology The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology. I’d long despaired of finding literary writing and good ideas in contemporary ‘horror’ after Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes written in 1962. Instead, I’ve felt that from then until now the reading public have for the most part been swamped in cliché characters and ill-thought out storylines. If there have been a few good writers of dark stories over this time, I’ve missed them, [but that is not to say that there haven’t been writers who are well known in the Horror genre of course.] However, having read The New Black, my interest and faith in writing of the dark kind is restored as each story in the anthology is unique and the quality of the writing is excellent.
While all the stories that make up The New Black are unique, there are also a few breath-taking ones. Loneliness is easy to find amongst these stories, and so it should be as it is something humans fear almost as much as death itself. Addiction crops up strongly as well, but I think you could view those two conditions, addiction and loneliness, as being more or less the same thing anyway.
Father, Son, Holy Rabbit by Stephen Graham Jones is one of the two stories I noticed had a slightly Carver-esque quality to it in its simple bold statements and its tenderness. The story idea is fantastic, and when you realise what’s happened, you’re compelled to go back and re-read a bit, this time asking yourself, ‘does the boy know?’ The other story that struck me as Caver-esque was Fuzzyland by Richard Lange. I liked the sinister splinter-sentences that begin to creep in such as, ‘Nobody ever noticed that I would leave the room so cramped with anger that it hurt to breathe.’ The writer takes you on a real journey full of wonderful detail about ordinary American life, and I loved this: ‘A flock of birds scatters across the smoky sky like a handful of gravel.’
Each story is strong and unique in its own right; there is That Baby by Lindsay Hunter whose language use and sentence structure fits so precisely with her wonderfully horrible story, and I loved this image of the baby’s eyes ‘…grey milk ringed with spider’s legs…’. And there’s The Etiquette Of Homicide, a sparse, acidic and frightening story by Tara Laskowski. I loved the sensual writing in Michaela Morrissette’s The Familiars. Her story is one of possession, and it’s a hypnotising read. Another very dark tale is Dial Tone by Benjamin Percy. This story echoes a kind of despair, although it’s written so cleverly that I am unable to explain its darkness properly until towards the end when the story begins to beautifully congeal.
There are stories in this anthology that have terrific endings, The Truth And All Its Ugly by Kyle Minor is one of those, this is an all too ‘human’ story with a wicked ending.
The way the writers have handled the sinister is very different, in some it creeps up slowly as in It’s Against The Law To Feed The Ducks, by Paul Tremblay. A delightful little refrain, perfectly matched to the terrifying inference beneath, punctuates this wistful story that reveals little about itself for quite a while, and what it deals with is so big that it is never told as an outright fact. In other stories the sinister is immediate as in Craig Clevenger’s Act Of Contrition, where the horror is suggested rather than stated. Not only is the setting creepy, but right from the beginning, the attention to detail that only matters to the main character suggests something is very wrong indeed. The writing style is really powerful, the build-up is relentless, and the refrain, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong,’ heightens the tension wonderfully.
I always think there is plenty of horror is to be found in everyday life, and Dredge by Matt Bell is a riveting and very atmospheric story that fits this idea well – ‘When Punter pictures the place where other people keep their feelings, all he sees is his own trapped scream…’ Not only is this a very powerful story, but it’s compulsive reading because you can’t help wanting to know what exactly Punter is going to do. Again, all that happens in Roxane Gay’s simply told and strong story How, is perfectly possible in real life. Some of the darkness here is the nature of the male characters; their fantasies and expectations. The story is encapsulated in, ‘Hanna looks at all the broken people sitting in her living room on her broken furniture…’ And, Blue Hawaii by Rebecca Jones-Howe, an unflinching story about addiction with ants as a repeated theme and clever echoes of longing and loneliness, is again all too possible in real life. Likewise, Sunshine For Adrienne, by Antonia Crane is a powerful and realistic story about addiction with some extraordinary descriptions. Thinking still of ‘real life,’ Rust And Bone by Craig Davidson is a stunner of a story. The writing is awesome and intelligent and the story narrows down to reveal the main character and his life skilfully, and then on top of that, the story itself is excellent. Another one which is not only skilfully written but is a terrific idea for a story is Christopher Hitchens by Vanessa Veselka. One of her characters says, ‘…all beliefs, are like a series of tunnels. What we are after here is an open road.’ It’s a sophisticated and funny story with a strange subtlety, and there are some terrific little phrases such as, ‘Lyle thinks small talk puts people at ease.’ [I love that]. A slightly similar story to this, in that both feature organisations that can change people, is Instituto by Roy Kesey. In this strange and haunting story, Stanley and his surroundings are made perfect and he should be glad, but then he thinks about the three most important people in his life.
The anthology is not without humour and in particular Joe Meno’s odd and enjoyable Children Are The Only Ones Who Blush, is, if creepy, also darkly comic. It brings to mind the novel Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs and it features an ex-psychiatrist with a second career as a dentist, [how could you ever trust him?]
Then there are a couple of stories that were a great pleasure to read and would’ve fitted easily into the more traditional horror genre. The first of these is Dollhouse by Craig Wallwork, whose deadly creepy story is the only one in the anthology that has an old-fashioned ghostly theme. The other was Windeye by Brian Evenson. There is a wonderful spooky premise to this story; a windeye is a special aperture that resembles a window, and it’s how the wind looks into a house. [I love that idea]. This is an extraordinary neat little story that brought Arthur Porges’ Puddle to mind because of its simplicity and magic.
To end, however, I’ve kept His Footsteps Are Made Of Soot by Nik Korpon. The grizzly subject of ‘home-surgery’ is mentioned early on in this story and it is right from the get-go a very creepy story indeed: ‘…pupils floating like drowned flies in a pool of yellowed milk…’ did it for me. For the sheer creepiness embedded in the everyday if you have eyes to see it, this story is stunning! -
http://www.mybookishways.com/2014/04/...
What stands out immediately about this outstanding collection of dark fiction, is the contributor list. Suspense fans will see many familiar faces, but so will fans of dark fantasy. I don’t know how you read short story anthologies, but I happened to read this one in order, and I can tell you, it worked.
Stephen Graham Jones is well known for his work in horror, and puts his talent to fine use in “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit”. If you’re a parent, this story of how far a father goes to protect his son may actually make you burst into tears, like I did, but boy is it good… So, yes, Richard Thomas may have a little bit of a sadistic streak starting out with that one, but it certainly puts you in the correct mindset as to what’s to come.
I already established that Stephen Graham Jones’s story is a humdinger, and so is Lindsay Hunter’s “That Baby.” This one is told in a very matter of fact tone that somehow makes the horror of it that much more resonant.
The knock-out (in more ways than one) “Rust and Bone” by Craig Davidson, about an aging boxer and the tragedy that drives him, is fabulous, and makes me ashamed that I haven’t yet picked up everything that Davidson has written. I plan to remedy that, though. If you dig Frank Bill’s work (which I very much do), you’ll love this one. This is flawless stuff.
Paul Tremblay horrifies with a more insidious touch in his story about a family quietly and desperately trying to keep it together while the world falls apart around them in “It’s Against the Law to Feed the Ducks”.
Roxane Gay spins a strangely hopeful story with “How”, about a woman who longs to escape the confines of her current life and quietly sets about doing just that. You’ll want to keep an eye out for her upcoming book An Untamed State in May.
Craig Clevenger’s “Act of Contrition” is a queasy, slightly surreal little chiller and“The Etiquette of Homicide” by Tara Laskowski is a nifty little handbook on the how-to of murder.
“Fuzzyland” by Richard Lange is one of my favorites and explores the bonds of family and the aftermath of tragedy with a noir touch. I wasn’t surprised that I liked this one so much, since Angel Baby was one of my favorite suspense reads of 2013.
“His Footsteps are Made of Soot” by Nik Korpon, is about a young man that desperately wants to forget a dark part of his past and goes about doing so in a very creepy way, and Joe Meno’s “Children Are the Only Ones Who Blush” is a slightly strange little story about individuality and its pitfalls, and is another oddly hopeful tale.
Matt Bell, author of In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods (which got raves) serves up another of my favorites, “Dredge”, about a very damaged man’s attempt to find a young girl’s killer, is both grotesque and very, very sad. It will stay with you for quite a while after you finish. Bell is astonishingly good at imagery, and it shows in very disturbing ways. This is one of those that, while reading, you’ve got to let yourself look beyond the horror to the achingly sad story beneath.
“Dollhouse” by Craig Wallwork and “Windeye” by Brian Evenson are throwbacks to old fashioned horror and they’re both spectacular, and spectacularly creepy, but in different ways. We all know that dolls are creepy, and Wallwork mines that theme for all it’s worth.
“The Familiars” by Micaela Morrissette, is another story, about a young boy and his “imaginary” friend, that sits pretty firmly in horror territory while infusing a rather delicate beauty, and sense of the fantastic, throughout. It’s also one that, if you’re a parent, will touch you and make you pause a bit.
“Dialtone” by Benjamin Percy (RED MOON) shows that he can crack the whip with a short story with the same finesse that he handles full length horror and explors the drudgery of faceless cubicle hell, and well, murder.
Antonia Crane’s “Sunshine for Adrienne” is another stunner that explores the making of an addict, and the loss of innocence. It horrifies and lances at the heart in equal measure. “Blue Hawaii” by Rebecca Jones-Howe is another story of addiction, but with a more quick and dirty delivery.
Vanessa Veselka’s “Christopher Hitchens” is a strange and subtle story about the nature of faith and a mother’s love, and another one of my favorites.
Kyle Minor’s “The Truth in all its Ugly” broke my heart in two brittle little pieces and is a sad and startlingly lovely ode to a parent’s love, with an SF twist. This one sneaks up on you, so watch out.
“Instituto” by Roy Kessey is about a man pursuing a certain kind of perfection, but doesn’t quite get what he hopes for. This one is where heartache, desperation, and institutional dread intersect, and it’s extremely effective.
Well, there you have it. There is something in The New Black for just about everyone, and if you’ve ever been curious about any of these authors, it’s a great way to sample what they have to offer, which is considerable. Don’t be surprised if, after reading this, you find yourself scrambling to stock up on everything by these authors that you can possibly get your hands on. Rarely have I read a collection that I’ve enjoyed every one of the stories, but I did with this one, and it’s a must read for fans of dark fiction of any stripe. -
I've had an advance copy on my Kindle for a while now, and it's....amazing. So good. Chock full of writers I admire, some of whom I'm lucky enough to know. The stories all fall under the loose category of "neo noir," or, "new black." They're dark. They're heady. They're they kind of stories that will reach inside, yank out your heart like Mola-Ram, and then they'll stomp all over it.
They're that good.
Noir heavyweights like Stephen Graham Jones and Craig Clevenger grace the pages of The New Black. So do newcomers like Rebecca Jones-Howe, whose writing is so damn fresh and enticing and heartbreaking you'll regret reading her....for ten minutes, before you come back for more. If you want to hear more about each of the authors included in the anthology, read Richard Thomas's intro: he's grown to know all his writers. He admires and respects them, and he's not afraid to tell you why.
That's the kind of editor Thomas is.
I'm still reading my way through this anthology. I have to take my time with it. I have to take breaks, to come up for air. I have to come back into the light from time to time.
Thomas does a fabulous job arranging the stories so each has its moment to shine, framed by other tales so different and yet so intrinsically alike it's hard to imagine one without the other. It's the kind of anthology that begs to be enjoyed, to be read with a glass of dark red wine and a bit of quiet jazz in the background. Or maybe, for some stories, you'll want to switch to 80s punk, or the theme music to Halloween.
It's that kind of anthology. You don't want to read it all in one sitting. You want these stories to stick with you for as long as possible. You want to hope, for as long as possible, that everything will come out okay in the end.
But I'll give you a hint: the anthology isn't called The New Black for no reason. Most of the time, things won't turn out okay in the end.
Perhaps the Forward by award-winning writer Laird Barron says it best: "Rules are out the window, the physics of morality, ethics, and fair play smashed to powder and in the wind. Reality is on a permanent vacation. The universe is more about guidelines in sand, passwords that are randomly overwritten, splinter cells and half-enunciated shibboleths."
That's the kind of book this is. -
disclaimer – i received an e-galley of this book from editor
richard thomas in exchange for an honest review.
i’m a complete anthology addict and the new black has only contributed to my addiction. this collection of twenty stories is described as “neo-noir” and, while i honestly don’t know what that genre classification means, i can tell you that these are fantastic stories. the best thing about this particular collection is its introduction of authors i had never read before but definitely plan to read again. there’s a lot going on in these twenty selections and each one has a distinct edge and a very clear voice. my two favourites, dollhouse by craig wallwork and windeye by brian evenson, left me staring into space and wondering not only what i had just read but thinking that i had to read it again.
i can only image what goes into taking a piece of yourself and putting it on paper in the hope that someone will read it and enjoy it. or what goes into being an editor and making sure that the stories you select complement each other, standing together as a whole as well as living separately as they deserve to. i guarantee you that this book takes both processes one step further and creates something that you’ll read and enjoy and want to read again, even if it’s just to make sure that they didn’t change while you weren’t looking at them.
four out of five stars -
This is an anthology of what the editor defines as “neo-noir.” I made the mistake when I started of both thinking that it was going to be the Raymond Chandler-type noir and, after reading the introduction, of thinking the stories were horror. I was wrong on both assumptions. This collection doesn’t have a single detective standing outside in the rain thinking about a broad that was more trouble than she is worth. What it does have, however, is a collection of stories that are all dark, and are all written by people possessed of talent. Roxane Gay’s story alone is worth the price of the book, as is Craig Wallwork’s. I’ve read a lot of anthologies this year (in fact, I think I read more anthologies than novels) and this, ladies and gentlemen, is the standout. Short story anthologies are like boxes of chocolate; you never like every piece, and people have different favorites. But The New Black, that’s the kind of chocolate box your mom would only buy at Christmas. A cut above the rest. -Johann Thorsson
From Best Books of 2014:
http://bookriot.com/2014/12/02/riot-r... -
Received an email telling me I won a copy of this book to review back on 14 Mar 2014 but still nothing. I really would like to read this, if it ever finds its way into my library, home or public.
Well it took several weeks to receive my copy but it finally arrived, and as soon as I finished book I was reading at the time, I dove in. I have to say that this book surprised me with some hits and some misses. Most of these authors were not afraid to push boundaries and take that extra step as close to the edge as possible to darken the story, twist the knife, and make you realize that your life may not be so bad after all.
Stories that stood out for me:
Stephen Graham Jones' *Father, Son, Holy Rabbit* ~ Father and son caught out in a blizzard and the rabbit that saves them. I had my hopes up on just how this story should end and was not disappointed at all. And no, I'm not a *happily ever after* kind of gal.
Lindsay Hunter's *The Baby* ~ A incestuous family tale.
Kyle Minor's *The Truth and All its Ugly* ~ Family violence begets more violence with an unexpected surprise.
Benjamin Percy's *Dial Tone* ~ Telemarketers are people with feelings, too.
Roxane Gay's *How* ~ reminded me of those old *How Br'er Rabbit...* exploit stories,except this time we learn about how Hanna turns her life around.
Craig Davidson's *Rust and Bone* ~ brilliant mixture of a boxer at the end of his career reminisces his life and what he's learned.
Craig Wallwork's *Dollhouse* ~ Dollhouses always make me think of playing a god-like creature over others' lives.
Matt Bell's *Dredge* ~ Find drowned girl, put her in your deep freeze, find her murderer.
Not a bad mix at all. I'm glad I had the chance to read this book and I will definitely be looking out for some of the authors and what other little nuggets they have out there for me to read. I will definitely pass this book on for others to read.
Thank you for sending me your book to read, Mr. Thomas. -
Many anthologies are like cheap buffets filled with all kinds of stuff that doesn’t fit well together and doesn’t seem to fit well inside your stomach either, leaving you a gurgling, dissatisfied mess. This collection is not like that. Collected together here are twenty stories that fit together like puzzle pieces. They belong together. And, it is a gourmet menu with everything on it meriting the highly-regarded five- star rating. Let’s put it more succinctly: Everything in this collection is so damn good, it’ll blow your socks off.
I am not sure anyone has managed to properly define neo noir. Maybe its ancient roots can be found in Poe and Chandler and Jim Thompson. However, it seems to also trace its genesis from Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison and the world of speculative fiction. But what’s important is that this pieces all fit together because they are of uniformly high literary quality, there is a sense of poetry and majesty in all of them, and there is something strangely offbeat about them.
This collection includes stories about babies so different that no one wants to be near them, not even their parents. It has stories about picnics on the beach and never-ending vacations. There are stories about methadone addiction and emotional distance. There are also stories about imaginary playmates and telemarketers and about twin sisters struggling through the pain of living and a boxer in a tale that takes you through the agony of each punch. There is a strangeness, an abnormality, an uncomfortableness, about every one of these stories and perhaps that is what makes them so damn good. -
I received this book as a part of the goodreads first reads program.
Wow, this collection of stories was amazing. Right off the bat the collection kicks off with a chilling story that gave me goosebumps and I still think about and shudder every once and a while. From there, things just kept getting better. Every story creates its own creepy world that sucks you in and twists and turns until you're left stunned.
My particular favorites were the selection from Roxane Gay and the story "Dollhouse." Roxane Gay is amazingly talented and after reading her story in The New Black, I want to read everything she's ever written. "Dollhouse" scared me so badly that I couldn't leave my couch for awhile and was jumping at every little sound in my house, so I'd call that pretty successful!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be exposed to this genre of neo-noir and who's interested in discovering new authors. I have a ton of new material to explore now that I've read this book! -
Whether you're coming to this book from the horror side or the literary fiction side, this is a great place to end up. There's some amazing writers and writing in this volume. Tremblay's "It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks" is a personal favorite, but there wasn't a one I didn't get into. Call it what you want or don't bother calling it anything at all and just read. It's good.
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Given that I don't usually go for horror or noir, you can say I went a little out of my comfort zone with this anthology. While some were not interesting and some were too scary for me, I liked the book and will probably check out more from certain authors (Stephen Graham Jones, Benjamin Percy, Roxane Gay and Vanessa Veselka).
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Awesome! Richard Thomas knows how to put together an anthology.
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At least two of these stories have scarred me for life. The writing is tremendous and the noir is very much so.
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Yes
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Review copy provided by editor in exchange for an honest review
The New Black is an anthology of 20 neo-noir stories edited by author Richard Thomas, who is the editor for Dark House Press and a columnist for Litreactor. I will be totally honest and admit that prior to reading Laird Barron's stellar foreword "Eye of The Raven", I had no idea what the neo-noir genre was all about. I had a general idea, but I didn't have any prior experience with this genre of literature. After reading Barron's forward and Richard Thomas' introduction, I was eager to explore the darkness contained within the pages of The New Black.
The anthology kicks off with a bang with Stephen Graham Jones' haunting "Father, Son, Holy Rabbit". The story focuses on a young boy and his father as they struggle for survival in the wild during a harsh winter. The boy keeps telling him about a rabbit named Slaney, a seemingly immortal rabbit that has been feeding the boy and his father throughout their stay in the woods. It is a bleak story with an ending that will stick with you long after you finish reading.
"It's Against The Law To Feed The Ducks" by Paul Tremblay is a portrait of a family as they spend a summer vacation together when an apocalyptic event breaks out. Everyone in the town surrounding Lake Winnipesauke seems to have disappeared without explanation. However, that is what made this story so enjoyable. Tremblay's story is less about discovering the truth behind the apocalypse, but rather the strain the events puts on the family in what used to be an idyllic setting. As the events begin to unfold and the family shifts into survival mode, you begin to see a subtle change in the parents' personalities. However, despite the bleak situation they find themselves in, they still manage to cling to their humanity and provide for their children and protect them from the harsh realities of their new world.
The stories in The New Black span many genres, but some of the stories do share a lot of DNA with traditional horror. There is Micaela Morrissette's "The Familiars", a story about a little boy and his imaginary friend. However, this imaginary friend is not like the ones you may remember from your childhood. He lives under the boy's bed and he seems to grow from the shadows that lurk there. The boy and his friend create shadow puppets and play make-believe in the boy's treehouse, which makes their relationship seem like a harmless childhood friendship. However, the imaginary friend seems to harbor an edge of darkness and possibly even evil.
"Dollhouse" by Craig Wallwork is a creepy tale of a girl named Darcy, who feels little fear due to her father telling her everything can be explained. Which is why none of the noises that reverberate through the family's cottage bother her, particularly the loud bang that led her to discover the replica of her home in the attic. Despite the additions to the dollhouse every time she sneaks up to the attic to look at it and the shadow she sees moving in the attic, Darcy still clings to the idea that there is a rational explanation for everything. However, it quickly becomes clear that not everything can be explained and something sinister is lurking in Darcy's attic.
Brian Evenson's "Windeye" closes out The New Black and is one of my favorite stories of the collection. It focuses on a brother and sister and the closeness they shared as kids which began fading away when the brother discovers a mysterious window on the outside of their home. His sister was more detail oriented and never really notices that there is something off about the house as a whole until he leads her towards the discovery. There is one more window visible on the outside of their home than there is from the inside. This seemingly mundane discovery leads to an earth shattering revelation that impacts the pair forever. This story sort of reminded me of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, particularly the sections that focused on The Navidson Record. There is something deeply unsettling about the discovery of a mysterious addition to your home that you can't explain. A home is supposed to be a place that is safe and familiar and Evenson's decision to warp that sense of security makes for a creepy read.
There is a lot of diversity to be found in The New Black, which mixes in neo-noir elements with many other genres. While I obviously enjoyed the stories that had a horror bent, a few of my favorite stories would fall into other genres. Craig Davidson's "Rust and Bone" is a powerful story about a boxer who brawls in underground boxing matches with no rules while recounting his life story and the role boxing has played in it. The story jumps around from his current match against a hulking man named Nicodemus and his past as an up-and-coming boxer whose dreams shatter in an instant. Roy Kesey's "Instituto" follows a man who enters a program developed for him by a mysterious group of people known only as "perfeccionadores", who slowly begin to improve his physical appearance and possessions. However, even with all the improvements in his life, the man quickly learns that some things are more important than having flawless skin and a perfect house.
The New Black is an excellent collection and features stories from authors I am familiar with - Stephen Graham Jones, Craig Clevenger and Craig Davidson to name a few - as well as a slew of new voices I eagerly look forward to reading in the future. Some of the stories may not appeal to everyone, but the talent and diversity displayed in this collection make it a worthy addition to any dark fiction fan's bookshelf. -
I got a pre-release copy via the giveaway here on Goodread and I'm glad I did.
First off, the design and production values are fantastic. The red, black and yellow cover layout is quite handsome, but still eerie and borderline confrontational. I can't put my finger on it, but that font is just tops.
Inside the book is no different. Each story is bookended by a title page with appropriately minimalist illustration at the front and a grey page with brief author bio at the back. Authors' names are prominently displayed with a nice little ink splatter effect (blood? ash?) that gives it an organic touch. It was clearly proofread and formatted thoroughly (I only caught one typo). Overall, the book itself really looks and feels high-quality.
That's appropriate, because the writing *is* high-quality. All of these stories are uniformly excellent and lend themselves well to close reading, particularly by aspiring writers of similar stories. Do you see the shapes in the negative space in "Act of Contrition" or “The Etiquette of Homicide”? What about the never-spoken game the characters are playing in "It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks"? What about the game that the author is playing with the reader in “Dredge”? Look at how structure reinforces the narrative in “Dial Tone.” See how “Rust and Bone” and “Fuzzyland” needed to be long, while “Blue Hawaii” and “Windeye” needed to be short.
While the stories are great – really, not a bad one in the bunch – I'm not sure that I come away with a stronger understanding of what “neo-noir” is or where it's going. That's always hard with a sampler – it isn't until you can examine lots of data points that you can begin to draw connections, but that requires a doorstopper like The Dark Descent or The Weird. But “neo-noir” is a slippery term, however, and as an introduction, I'm still struggling with it definitionally. To take Laird Barron's foreword at face-value, it's "dark fiction" – but that's a definition without distinction.
On the plus side, there are no rigid genre classifications and these stories embrace that freedom. Their approaches range from almost documentary realism to gritty hyperrealism to future dystopias to fable-like timelessness to supernatural horror. At their most ambitious, stories like “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit” or “Christopher Hitchens” blur the lines, setting up situations and revelations that are like a (sometimes literal) punch to the gut.
On the down side, it's hard to find a unifying aspect of what makes something “neo-noir.” The tone of the stories are as disparate as their genres, ranging from utter hopelessness to “silver linings” to actually sort of cheery at the end. On a strictly binary scale, I would actually put most of these into the “hopeful” category. I'm by no means calling for a new wave of miserabilism (that happened in horror and it got old fast), but because “neo-noir” isn't a particular genre, there aren't specific conventions either to adhere to or to subvert, so – as a reader – I was left looking for the common thread(s) of “neo-noir” that I didn't necessarily find in all of the pieces. One or two stories had me scratching my head as to what makes them “neo-noir.” Good fiction, yes, but “noir”?
On that note, maybe it's a product of reading the anthology straight through, but the selection of stories may create a general impression of thematic similarity in many the works that I don't know is intentionally representative of “neo-noir” as a whole. Of the 20 stories, at least 9 of them as have family relationships as their core focus. In particular, 5 of the first 6 stories are specifically about parents and children, and a few of the later ones are, too. It might have been helpful to see a few more stories that broke further from the already-represented themes and genres to provide a broader spectrum of the “neo-noir.”
Really, though, there isn't a bad story in the lot. With such a wide variety of strong selections, choosing favorites really comes down to just personal taste (mine are probably “That Baby,” “Christopher Hitchens” and “Fuzzyland”). All of them, however, are worth reading and you'll be glad you did. Highly recommended. -
Excellent collection of modern dark fiction. Every story is well written, most are heartbreaking, and each gives a glimpse into the darkness we all hold within us. A mix of authors that I know and have read before and some I have not. But I will be seeking them all out in the near future.
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An excellent anthology of dark fiction from some of the masters in the field with a nice mix of lesser known but equally talented authors. Don't let the word "noir" in the subtitle fool you into thinking these stories all are new takes on the concepts of film noir, rather these stories are all unique takes on dark subject matter. Some of them are outright horror, some are science fiction, some are crime stories while others are merely elegiac tales of loss and desperation. All of them are beautifully written. My favorites were Stephen Graham Jones'Father, Son, Holy Rabbit - a tale of survival and a father's love; Dollhouse by Craig Wallwork - hands down the creepiest story in the collection; Windeye by Brian Evenson a story about a house with more windows on the outside than on the inside; Roy Kesey's wonderfully Kafkaesque Instituto; Matt Bell's Dredge; Rebecca Gay's How; and Dial Tone by Benjamin Percy. In the end it was hard to find a bad story in the lot. Highly recommended.
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A very good collection. I think if you're interested in finding some new voices in dark fiction, this is a great primer. Basically every writer in here is on my wish-list of people of whose talents I'd like to consume.
That being said, I think if you are familiar with these writers, it's a slight letdown that most of these stories have been printed elsewhere. And I think the book's purpose—to define the new age of dark, speculative fiction—becomes negated by the sheer range of styles here. Stories run from straight-up horror to drama ("Dollhouse" and "Fuzzyland", respectively [both excellent stories, btw]). It seems that any sort of "darkness" is the qualifier here—certainly one that I'll buy, but slightly jarring.
Small gripes, though.
Lindsay Hunter's "That Baby" gave me legit chills. Matt Bell's "Dredge" unsettled me the most. I had never read Macaela Morrissette before, but her "The Familiars" was incredible and almost seems like a precursor to "Babadook." -
Disclaimer: I met with the author and this signed book was given to me for free.
I am truly not into horror or thriller genres so take that into consideration when looking at my rating, but I tried to take a step back from that for this book. I read it amazingly slowly so that I wouldn't get overloaded on the details and get nightmares from certain stories - strong imagination + well-written horror is never a good thing! I was pleased with the stories that were in the collection. Some could really haunt you and stay with you even years later, so kudos. The best stories are the ones that stick with you and plenty stuck with me.
Some of the stories weren't so horror based and I did enjoy those stories a lot more! Overall, 3.75 rating because while not my genre of choice, the stories were actually well-picked and had impact. -
The New Black is a collection of short stories under the genre of New Noir. It's dark fiction. It could be called Horror. I don't exactly know because I do not typically read this genre. However, I met Richard Thomas at a conference and found him bright and engaging. So I bought his book.
I am so glad I did. I love short stories. It's a great way to visit many different places and people in one book. And I found these stories wonderful. Regardless of genre, these are great stories. They had some of the best writing I've ever read. The stories had an economy of words and yet presented great images. Word choice was at times something I had to stop and admire.
The stories were dark, but not gruesome. Magical at times and yet realistic. You do not have to be a reader of horror to enjoy these stories.
