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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4  By  cover art

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4

By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor,Stephen King,Peter Straub
Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell,Rebecca Mitchell,Michael Healy,Stephen R. Thorne,Charlie Thurston
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Publisher's summary

The first three volumes of The Best Horror of the Year have been widely praised for their quality, variety, and comprehensiveness.

With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.

The complete list of narrators includes Lindy Nettleton, Charles Carroll, Shaun Grindell, Angela Brazil, and Fred Sullivan.

©2012 Ellen Datlow (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

What listeners say about The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • 4 Stars
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Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Only a few decent stories in this bunch.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

A mixed bag here. I gave every story a chance, but if I wasn't engaged withing the first five minutes, I skipped to the next one. Several engaged me:

The Little Green God of Agony Stephen King (listened all the way through)

Blackwood’s Baby Laird Barron (abandoned after twenty minutes)

Black Feathers Alison J. Littlewood (abandoned after twenty minutes)

In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos John Langan (abandoned after twenty minutes)

Little Pig Anna Taborska (listend all the way through and enjoyed)

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine Peter Straub (abandoned after about half an hour)

In the end, I only finished two stories: King's The Little Green God of Agony, which wasn't one of his best, and Anna Taborska's Little Pig, which was the only story in the whole bunch that I actually enjoyed entirely.

I almost made it through Peter Straub's Ballad of Ballardm, which was very engaging and narrated extremely well, but after awhile it meandered and I realized I didn't care about either character or their situation, so I bailed.

Would you ever listen to anything by the authors again?

I'd give every one of these authors another listen. Some of this was just bad storytelling, but some of it was stiff narration too. For the worst of the stories it's hard to lay the blame completely on the author or narrator's shoulders.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Some narrators were fantastic. Others sounded stiff. As if they were trying so hard to pronounce everything so perfectly that their narration had no natural cadence.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

I would have scoured the volumes of Cemetery Dance and Nightmare Magazine, and Dark Discoveries from this particular year and come up with a much better list of Best of Horror.

Any additional comments?

It was pleasant to discover the one decent story (Little Pig), but not worth the effort of slogging through all the others. I'll be returning this one.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring

What did you like best about The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4? What did you like least?

The performances are excellent, but the stories themselves are the most boring, least frightening "horror" stories I've heard in years.

What could the authors have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Better editing, I suppose - these stories are not "horror" as I use that word, they are, as best, moody & atmospheric.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Wasn't for me

This just wasn't what I expected I felt like the stories always seemed flat at the end and I was just left sitting their thinking " Wait..what?" once I had gathered my thoughts I felt unsatisfied with how things ended like I still had questions but not in the eerie kinda fun way..The narrating was good for some stories and boring on others. There were some stories that I really really enjoyed and others I was to bored listening to recall. I finished the whole book so obliviously it wasn't terrible but it just wasn't for me...

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Just fell a little flat for me

What disappointed you about The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

Some of the stories were riveting, but some were just plain old weird for me. I was surprisingly not satisfied with the book overall. It is an acquired taste. I love Stephen King and was looking to get hooked on a few more horror novelists...alas I will stick with who I am familiar with. His story was decent.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

ALL the narrators were phenomenal.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

The only ones I would keep would be "Little Pig", "Green God of Agony", and the one about the incestuous family.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible!

Any additional comments?

The title of the book gets you interested in listening to it. But after your done, it seems like more of a sad comment on the genre for that year. Almost every story in this book was instantly forgettable (including the Stephen King story), and while they can all qualify as part of the "Horror" genre, none of them gave much of a thrill beyond a momentary instance that might have been well described. But those instances get lost in over long stories that go nowhere. I can only think of 3 stories that held together well as a narrative and only 1 of those 3 that was even worth the time to listen, barely. The scariest thing about this publication as that it will steal away valuable time you can never get back.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

Would you try another book from the authors and/or the narrators?

Authors yes, narrators no.

Would you recommend The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4 to your friends? Why or why not?

Absolutely not. The stories were lackluster, some just far too long with little to no payoff, no real emotional involvement possible and some of the narrators were perfectly awful. No inflection, monotone...just ugh.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?

Uncertain. Someone who was willing to invest something of themselves into some of the readings instead of people who sounded like they had better things to do.

What character would you cut from The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

Unsure.

Any additional comments?

Deeply disappointing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Lackluster

There were a few good stories, but like everyone else has been saying, when most of them end you are just lost/disappointed.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The Best Horror of the Year??

What disappointed you about The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4?

A couple were okay (King & Straub) but the rest were not very interesting much less scary. I agree with one of the other reviewers that the stories fell flat.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Horror?

I usually don't leave negative reviews, but this was not only not horror, it was uninteresting.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Unbelievably BORING!

The only reason I kept listening is because I was hoping the next story would be good…NOPE!

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