Least Worst of 2021

[dem bones]

Might as well attempt one of those 'Least Worst of ...' things like we usually do toward end of Dec. Usual thing. What novels, anthologies, single author collections, publications, blogs, films, TV, events, music & Co. helped you through the past twelve months. Personal highs & lows, etc., all grist to the mill.

[dem bones]

To make a start; books & mags

Facsimile reprints of Weird Tales 1923/ 1925 issues via MythBank and the Betancourt's superb Wildside Press.
Facsimile reprints of Strange Tales and Ghost stories (Also Wildside press)

Anthologies new & old

Hugh & Richard Lamb - And Midnight Never Come
Paul Finch - Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands
Darrell Buxton - 4th, 5th, 666th and 7th BHF Books of Horror
Andrew Gordon & Dave Saunderson - Spooky Isles Book of Horror
James Doig - Australian Gothic
Peter Haining - The Penny Dreadful
Peter Haining - Ghost Movies II
Richard Dalby - Virago Book of Ghost Stories II
Giles Gordon - Prevailing Spirits

Single author collections
Ro Pardoe - The Angry Dead
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Tales From The Dark Lands
Paul Finch - Ill Met By Darkness
Mary Williams - Chill Company
Sam Dawson - Pariah & Other Stories
David A. Riley - A Grim God's Revenge

Novels
Laurence Moody - What Became of Jack and Jill?
Ken Johnson - Blue Sunshine
William Goldstein - Dr. Phibes
Justin Evans - The White Devil: A Ghost Story * Not yet finished

Non-fiction/ "Non-fiction"
Steve Roud - London Lore
Stephen Smith - Underground London
Richard J. Hand & Michael Wilson - London's Grand Guignol
Victor E. Neuberg - Popular Literature
Elliott O'Donnell - Scottish Ghost Stories
Nigel Pearsall - The Table-Rappers
Peter Haining - A Dictionary of Ghosts
Marc Alexander - Haunted Castles

Dishonourable mention
Richard Felix - The People's Ghost Stories

Publications
Bare Bones #6
Ghosts & Scholars 40 & 41
Worlds of Strangeness 4
Battling Britons
Paperbacks at War
Sleazy Reader 9
Take A Break: Fate & Fortune (Feb 2021)

Did more reading this year than any other since we started, but somehow just couldn't get my head around novels. Maybe a third was 'non-fiction,' much of that NW London history and Ghost lit.

Anyone care to share their own favourites?

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 31, 2021 17:23:41 GMT dem bones said:

Might as well attempt one of those 'Least Worst of ...' things like we usually do toward end of Dec. Usual thing. What novels, anthologies, single author collections, publications, blogs, films, TV, events, music & Co. helped you through the past twelve months. Personal highs & lows, etc., all grist to the mill.

My take:

HORROR COLLECTION (NEW): Comes a Pale Rider (Caitlin Kiernan); Ghost Days: An Anna O'Brien Collection (Asher Elbein)
Two fine entries in the Southern/Appalachian horror subgenre.

HORROR COLLECTION (REPRINT): Randalls Round (Eleanor Scott)
A welcome revival by the folks behind the British Library Tales of the Weird series.

HORROR ANTHOLOGY (ORIGINAL): Terror Tales of Cornwall (Paul Finch, editor)
My second foray into the Terror Tales series.

HORROR ANTHOLOGY (REPRINT): Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird (Daisy Butcher & Janette Leaf, editors)
Features several lost gems, plus the infamous "The Wicked Flea" (which isn't that bad).

HORROR NOVEL: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (Grady Hendrix)
Between this, We Sold Our Souls, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Hendrix has become one of my favorite contemporary horror novelists.

HORROR NOVELLA: Agents of Dreamland (Caitlin Kiernan)
One of the Men in Black discovers that the Fungi from Yuggoth are using a Heaven’s Gate-style cult as a front for an invasion.

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY NOVEL: Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
I thought this tale of lesbian necromancers in space lived up to the hype. Original, funny, and thrilling.

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY NOVELLA: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (P. Djèlí Clark)
An enjoyable steampunk mystery-adventure set in an alternate reality Cairo.

GRAPHIC NOVEL: Poison Flowers and Pandemonium (Richard Sala)
Collects his final four works. RIP to the author of classics such as Peculia and Mad Night.

FILM: Malignant
Wildly entertaining with its ludicrous premise, absurd dialogue, vibrant colors, and synth-heavy soundtrack.

TELEVISION SERIES: Midnight Mass; Locke & Key
The former seems to have polarized folks, but I enjoyed its low-key, reflective approach. The latter is a fun horror-fantasy-mystery in the vein of Stranger Things.

As for personal highs, I published my first novel, The Spirit Hollows. Thanks to my inspirations, particularly Manly Wade Wellman and the screenwriters of Ghostbusters.

[Johnlprobert]

OK let's have a go at this (opens ancient notebook bought in a dusty and dodgy-looking shop. Every time I write in it I feel somehow...weaker. Ahem). Here is My Favourite Stuff Of Possible Vault Interest I Read in 2021. New books first:

Anthologies:

Bitter Distillations - Mark Beech - Egaeus Press
Valencourt Book of Horror Stories Vol 4 - Jenkins & Cagle
Valencourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol 1 - Jenkins & Cagle
The Tallow Wife & Others - Angela Slatter - Tartarus

Collections:

Ill Met By Darkness - Paul Finch - Sarob
Best of Greg Egan - Gollancz
Gaslight Ghosts & Ghouls - R Chetwynd-Hayes
Finding Yourself in the Dark - Steve Duffy - Sarob

Novels:

Ezra Slef the Next Nobel Laureate in Literature - Andrew Komarnyckyl - Tartarus
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

"Old Books":

Deathworld Omnibus - Harry Harrison
Cold Moon Over Babylon - Michael McDowell
Collected Stories - Paul Bowles
Stones of Muncaster Cathedral - Robert Westall
Society of Time - John Brunner
When Darkness Loves Us - Elizabeth Engstrom
The Terror - Edgar Wallace
The Hair Carpet Weavers - Andreas Esbach

[ripper]

The ongoing series The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories, all under the editorship of Alistair Gunn. I have enjoyed those I have read and still have a number on my Kindle yet to read.

Two old collections:

The Night Comes On by Steve Duffy, probably my favourite collection of Jamesian pastiches.

The Complete Binscombe Tales by John Whitbourn. I finally got around to reading the whole collection, and very good it was, too.

[johnnymains]

BEST FICTION: Not mentioning anything I lent a story or introduction to, so:  Dead Relatives - Lucie McKnight Hardy, Under a Raven's Wing - Stephen Volk, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino

BEST NON-FICTION: Anton Walbrook - James Downs, The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence - Isabell Millar, Literary Gent - David Higham, Mel Brooks - All ABout Me

BEST FILMS: Spencer, Titane, Pig, The Green Knight, The Suicide Squad, In the Earth, No Man of God, Censor, Summer of Soul

BEST TV: Hawkeye, Squid Game, It's a Sin, Mare of Easttown, Invincible

Much missed: My mentor and friend Bryn Fortey and my dog Biscuit who died a few days after my birthday. We spent the last 15 years together and he's left a huge hole in my life.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Most of what I read last year will be of no interest to the site. I did read a lot of the so-called classic short stories in the ghost story field though, but for the most part, except for Poe, not in collections.

I read a book of William Beckford's letters describing his life at his huge gothic folly Fonthill Abbey: Life at Fonthill 1807-1822: Letters of William Beckford

by Boyd Alexander (Editor)

Also Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey by John Rutter which illustrates the building and its contents, as Beckford was a great collector.

You can see  the book here: babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t9c562803&view=1up&seq=5&skin=2021

The building was never finished and the tower eventually collapsed a final time after Beckford had sold it. Beckford went on to build a much smaller, neo-classical, tower in Bath, where he had retired to.

I am sorry for the loss of Biscuit, Johnny Mains, it is always sad when a pet dies. The semi-feral cat, Bad Lord Byron, I used to feed for years disappeared months ago, and I do still look out for him on my walks. He was a very naughty cat.

I'm going to read far more ghost/horror literature this year.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

In terms of music, I discovered a lot of groups/singers I'd never heard before thanks to this site. So keep those recommendations coming!

[Swampirella]

Jan 1, 2022 12:45:05 GMT johnnymains said:

BEST FICTION: Not mentioning anything I lent a story or introduction to, so:  Dead Relatives - Lucie McKnight Hardy, Under a Raven's Wing - Stephen Volk, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino

BEST NON-FICTION: Anton Walbrook - James Downs, The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence - Isabell Millar, Literary Gent - David Higham, Mel Brooks - All ABout Me

BEST FILMS: Spencer, Titane, Pig, The Green Knight, The Suicide Squad, In the Earth, No Man of God, Censor, Summer of Soul

BEST TV: Hawkeye, Squid Game, It's a Sin, Mare of Easttown, Invincible

Much missed: My mentor and friend Bryn Fortey and my dog Biscuit who died a few days after my birthday. We spent the last 15 years together and he's left a huge hole in my life.

Sorry for the loss of your friend and Biscuit.

[samdawson]

Thanks, as always, DB, for the mention.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I have to say I'm astonished that me joining this site and managing an amazing 1,533 (something like that) posts in a few short months isn't cause for celebration and on every Least Worst of 2021 list. I can only assume that people are too embarrassed to admit how glad they have been to read my interesting posts and all the thrilling threads I contributed last year. Fear not all you lusty blooded men, for there is MORE to come in 2022! 2021 was just the warm-up, as I've now got passed my early shyness and am ready to "rock 'n' roll" as they say. dem bones has 15,571 posts, but I should reach that by October, then it is onward and upward!

[Shrink Proof]

OK, here goes. Takes deep breath, holds hat, jumps...


ANTHOLOGIES:-

"Echoes" edited by Ellen Datlow. The size of a breeze block (800 pages!) but a fine collection of (mostly) modern ghost stories.
"The Darkest Midnight in December" edited by Storm Constantine. Worthwhile selection of modern tales, a sort of 21st century take on the "ghost story for Xmas/Solstice/winter" theme. Gets my vote.
"The Horror Zine's Book of Ghost Stories". Again, well worth investigating. Contains a very unsettling little number by Joe R Lansdale...

SINGLE AUTHOR COLLECTION:-

"Strange Epiphanies" by Peter Bell. Has been out a few years in unobtainable hardback for prices that would make an estate agent blush. Now available in paperback at a price that doesn't require a second mortgage (see estate agent, above). A master class in the uncanny.

FILMS:-

"The Green Knight". Despite the dialogue being almost inaudible in a couple of scenes, I enjoyed the atmosphere. Simultaneously medieval and trippy/dreamlike at times with fine cinematography. Reminded me of walking in the vastness of the North - filmed in Ireland. And it wasn't "Tenet", which is a good thing for any film to be.

MAGAZINES (Online & In Print):-

Obviously they're going to be variable by their very nature, featuring as they do a range of writers, styles and approaches. My top three for the year have been:-

Horla
The Ghastling
Frost Zone

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS & DECLARATION OF INTEREST:-

Both "Horla" and "Frost Zone" have published a few of my tales over 2021. That said, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the other stuff within their (free) digital pages. Unlike Cauldronbrewer, I can't cite particular inspirations, simply because I don't really know where the tales come from, although a surfeit of cheese before bed may be a factor.



Here's wishing the inmates of this facility a creepy, misty, what-was-that-I-just-saw-over-there New Year. Let's hope that 2022 deals us all some decent cards.

[andydecker]

I didn't buy much new this year, mostly old stuff and mostly Kindle editions which increasingly happen to vanish over night so you better buy it when you see it. Most of the books I have bought I still didn't read. So this will be more a on the shelf list than read and enjoyed (or not) one.

Anthologies new & old

Raffaele Pezzella – The Black Stone Stories for Lovecraftian Summonings
L. Maynard - Beyond the Curtain: Uncanny Tales of the Theatre
Darrell Buxton - 5th BHF Books of Horror
Pan Book of Horror 15 & 16

Single author collections

Frederick Cowles – The Horror of Abbot's Grange
Robert Aickman – The Wine Dark Sea
Charles Black – Black Ceremonies (still unread)
David A. Riley - A Grim God's Revenge (still unread)
Tanith Lee – The Empress of Dreams (still unread)
Ramsey Campbell – Far away & Never (mostly unread)
Robert E. Howard – Weird Tales Wildside Collection Vol.6-10 (To have it complete before it also vanishes)

Novels (all Ebook)

John Russo – Night of the Living Dead
Bernard Cornwell – The Last Kingdom Series Ebook- Omnibus 1-8 (because it was ridiculous cheap)
David Fisher – The Pack
Michael Connelly – Bosch 4 – 8 (Because they were ridiculous cheap)
Christopher J. Sansom – Shardlake 7 (unread, 4-6 are sitting unread on the shelf)
Graham McNeill – Gods of Mars

Non-fiction/ "Non-fiction"

Sex And Horror: The Art Of Fernando Carcupino (As I have the earlier ones)

John Keay – The Honourable Company

The Great War Week by Week on Youtube/Timeghost History

WWII in Realtime & War Against Humanity on Youtube/Timeghost History

Glory & Defeat - The story of the Franco-Prussian War week by week on Youtube/Realtime History/Patreon

The Great War on Youtube/Realtime History/Patreon

Rhineland 45 on Youtube/Realtime History/ Patreon

Dishonourable mention of (translated) Warhammer Audio Books

Dan Abnett – Ravenor 1+2, Gaunt's Ghosts 4-7 (1-3 I got 2019+2020 already, same is with Eisenhorn 1-3,5)

Comics

2000 AD (which is getting duller every year and its subscription service is better than most of its content as Covid and Brexit swallowed quite a few issues on the way which were sent again so a big thank you to subscription service)
Digital Comixology – too much reprints of classic Marvel and DC when they were offered in the continuous, mostly weekly changing sales.

Publications

Bare Bones #6

Paperbacks at War

Sleazy Reader 9

TV & Movies

I don't think I watched one movie produced in 2021 and most of the new genre stuff on Netflix I either skipped or gave up after a few episodes.

On DVD I bought:

The Wicker Man (1973) - new edition

Baba Yaga (1973) - new edition

Taste of Fear (1961) - new edition

Les Week-ends maléfiques du Comte Zaroff (1976) - new restored edition

Le Ceouteau sus la gorge (1986) - new restored edition

[helrunar]

Thanks, Andreas! I'll have to look up Les weekends malefiques du Comte Zaroff from '76--never heard of it, but I love the title. Presumably a kinky 70s version of The Most Dangerous Game. I'm always baffled that classic horror aficionados don't cite Leslie Banks' performance as the Count in the 1932 film of that story--one of the great bravura horror performances of the 1930s, for me.

Prosit Neujahr!

Steve

[andydecker]

Jan 1, 2022 19:00:49 GMT helrunar said:

Thanks, Andreas! I'll have to look up Les weekends malefiques du Comte Zaroff from '76--never heard of it, but I love the title. Presumably a kinky 70s version of The Most Dangerous Game. I'm always baffled that classic horror aficionados don't cite Leslie Banks' performance as the Count in the 1932 film of that story--one of the great bravura horror performances of the 1930s, for me.

Prosit Neujahr!

Steve

The English edition is called Seven Woman for Satan. It was published by Mondo Macabro a few years ago. I don't know if it is still avaiable. This new French edition has a few extras more, mainly some deleted scenes. It has English subtitles for once.

There is only a tenous connection to The Most Dangerous Game, the protagonist is supposed to be a descendant of Zaroff. It is rather typically 70s Eurohorror fare. The story is rather simple and overcomplicated at the same time. Zaroff, a wealthy industrialist and owner of a castle in France (played by director and writer Michael Lemoine) is haunted by the ghost of the lover of his ancestor. Being already on the edge, his evil butler (Euromovie icon Howard Vernon) wants to "corrupt" him further, and when Zaroff isn't haunted by often clumsily made hallucinations he kills some naked woman. Today most of this looks very fake, but back than it got banned in France.

But the movie looks surprisingly good and is shot on a beautiful location, it has some beautiful woman like Joelle Coeur who plays the ghost and some great over the top scenes. You just have to ignore the atrocious dialogue ;-) Surprisingly the movie is much more coherent than say, a Jess Franco movie of the time or anything by Polselli, which is a class of its own.