Anthology Review: New Fears 2 edited by Mark Morris

New Fears 2: More New Horror Stories by Masters of the Macabre edited by Mark Morris
Series: New Fears #2
Genre: Horror | Short Stories
Length: 383 pages
Published on 18th September 2018 by Titan Books
Purchase: Amazon
Mark Morris: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Early copy received from publishers in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:
An electrifying anthology of new horror stories by award-winning masters of the genre.

The horror genre’s greatest living practitioners drag our darkest fears kicking and screaming into the light in this second collection of brand-new tales of terror. Numinous, surreal and gut wrenching, New Fears II is a vibrant collection showcasing the very best fiction modern horror has to offer.

I saw the first New Fears anthonlogy get released last year and my friend Amy was kind enough to give me her copy once she was done, but like with most of my books I never got around to reading it.

So when the publishers reached out offering the second installment for review I was like hell yeah with the intention to read both back to back.

Mark Morris sets out on creating horror anthologies with no theme to allow for a range and full exploration of the horror genre without restrictions to just zombies or just vampires.

I believe this worked really well because some of the themes explored really blew me away.

Whilst I loved New Fears 2 I haven’t yet picked up the other one as I felt like I needed to read something new in between as once you hit a bad story its hard to keep reading the next one.

Now in New Fears 2 I will say there was only 1 or 2 I wasn’t a fan of which is awesome in such a diverse and unthemed anthology.

I’ll speak about my two favourite stories to keep some mystery surrounding the whole book.

Fish Hooks by Kit Power
This one was super unsettling! It really gave me the creeps. I squealed about it to my friend who is also reading this book and she definitely agreed with my thoughts.

Fish Hooks follows a woman who one day notices that everyone has fish hooks all over their skin, just dug in and pulling up. There is blood everywhere from the constant bleeding of everyone. Everything is stained.

Its mostly her struggling to accept this might be how things are or that she might be going insane but I really like how the story goes about this. Especially as there are some real life complications if you can’t face leaving your room – at least not when there are other people out there, on the television, in your magazines.

Rut Seasons by Brian Hodge
On the other side of things Rut Seasons is a much realer and more personal horror story as it focus’ on dealing with family members who are suffering because of old age and different diseases.

As we’re currently going through some family illness’ it not only hit very close to home, but it portrayed how far people could go to help and then be haunted with their decisions.

Lastly, special shout out to Bulb by Gemma Files for its interesting format and because how creepy this is as it could very well be real and The Airport Gorilla by Stephen Volk for best point of view in the collection.

Definitely pick this up if you’re a fan of horror if you want to read hororr but not ready to commit to a long book in case its too scary.

4 stars / 5 stars

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